2009-03-25 The Civil Heretic

2009-03-25 Nicholas Dawidoff New York Times \Freeman Dyson\global warming/skepticism/arguments\scientific consensus http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html The Civil Heretic The Civil Heretic  Dyson had proposed that whatever inflammations the climate was experiencing might be a good thing because carbon dioxide helps plants of all kinds grow. Then he added the caveat that if CO2 levels soared too high, they could be soothed by the mass cultivation of specially bred “carbon-eating trees,” whereupon the University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner looked through the thick grove of honorary degrees Dyson has been awarded — there are 21 from universities like Georgetown, Princeton and Oxford — and suggested that "perhaps trees can also be designed so that they can give directions to lost hikers." Dyson’s son, George, a technology historian, says his father’s views have cooled friendships, while many others have concluded that time has cost Dyson something else. There is the suspicion that, at age 85, a great scientist of the 20th century is no longer just far out, he is far gone – out of his beautiful mind. ... Dyson is well aware that "most consider me wrong about global warming." That educated Americans tend to agree with the conclusion about global warming reached earlier this month at the International Scientific Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen ("inaction is inexcusable") only increases Dyson's resistance. Dyson may be an Obama-loving, Bush-loathing liberal who has spent his life opposing American wars and fighting for the protection of natural resources, but he brooks no ideology and has a withering aversion to scientific consensus. &ldquo;Dyson had proposed that whatever inflammations the climate was experiencing might be a good thing because carbon dioxide helps plants of all kinds grow.&rdquo;   
 * Commentary:
 * 2009-03-25 NYT magazine profiles climate crackpot, Freeman Dyson, and lets him slander James Hansen — while Revkin gives Dyson’s nuttiness a free pass: firm refutation of many of Dyson's points, with links to further debunking
 * 2009-03-26 New York Times Magazine on Freeman Dyson, Climate Change "Skeptic"
 * 2009-04-02 David Brin says:"See an interesting profile of Freeman Dyson, who has suggested not that Global Warming isn't happening... (only dingbats and those whores at Cato believe that)... but that there may be a lot of net good to arise out of the warming trend. He makes some interesting points, and I agree that chicken little scurrying may have gone too far. On the other hand, rapid transitions... ANY rapid transitions, inevitably spur disruption, habitat extinctions, desertification and local desperation. Some locales that turn desperate will also have nuclear weapons. Read and be provoked."