Mobil then quotes S. Fred Singer. For years, Singer was a professor at the University of Virginia where he was funded by energy companies to pump out glossy pamphlets pooh-poohing climate change. Perhaps the sky isn't falling, after all. This kind of corporate disinformation has its intended effect. Our '96 budget does not operate on the assumption that global warming is a proven phenomenon.
Science is a popularity contest among competing ideas.
But even when scientists reach consensus, their truth may have no effect on public policy. Not only is science a popularity contest of ideas, but some scientists hold onto ideas long after the available data have shown them to be untenable. Thanks to Les Leopold at the Labor Institute in NYC for these data. Thanks to Michael Zimmerman, Office of the Dean, College of Arts and Letters, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wis. 54901, for the whole Rohrabacher quotation.