Just seen this posted on Facebook - why is it that such "think tanks" don't appear to have a clue about ecology and resource depletion? This guy clearly doesn't have a clue about all of the side-effects of the techno-fixes that he promotes - or is being totally disingenuous....
http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/energy-en ... s-himself/
Why don't think tanks "get it"?
Moderator: Peak Moderation
Why don't think tanks "get it"?
Olduvai Theory (Updated) (Reviewed)
Easter Island - a warning from history : http://dieoff.org/page145.htm
Easter Island - a warning from history : http://dieoff.org/page145.htm
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UndercoverElephant
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I haven't read the link, but I can answer your question. "Think tanks" are set up by people with lots of money/power and a political agenda. Their name is a bit misleading. They sound like schools of philosophy, or organisations created to think of solutions to the world's problems, but they are actually dedicated to finding ways of implementing the political agenda of their masters. Not surprising then that they "have trouble grasping" science that make life difficult for that political agenda. From their point of view, science is there to be interpreted in the most convenient way they think they can get away with.
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kenneal - lagger
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The article is written by Madsen Pirie who, according to Wikipedia, has
" graduated with an MA in History from the University of Edinburgh (1970), with a PhD in Philosophy from the University of St Andrews (1974), and with an MPhil in Land Economy from Pembroke College, Cambridge (1997)."
He is an historian and economist and, as such, has no inkling of science or the scientific method and so, as UE says above, thinks that science can be interpreted in a way favourable to your own thinking. This is the major problem of our time that we are governed by people with a background of education in PPE: Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
This is both in the Parliament and the Civil Service so means that we are always, no matter what shade of politician is in power, going to suffer from ijits who think that science is flexible and can be interpreted just like their own field of study. I was about to say "discipline" and then changed my mind to "field of learning" but decided that neither of these terms was warranted by the above fields of study. Economics, especially, is a pseudo science that doesn't conform to the laws of thermodynamics or to any measures of scientific rigour in its formulation of principals. Most economists should be thrown out of the halls of government until they can come up with theories that accurately measure and predict how our economies work. There are a few who get it, but not many.
" graduated with an MA in History from the University of Edinburgh (1970), with a PhD in Philosophy from the University of St Andrews (1974), and with an MPhil in Land Economy from Pembroke College, Cambridge (1997)."
He is an historian and economist and, as such, has no inkling of science or the scientific method and so, as UE says above, thinks that science can be interpreted in a way favourable to your own thinking. This is the major problem of our time that we are governed by people with a background of education in PPE: Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
This is both in the Parliament and the Civil Service so means that we are always, no matter what shade of politician is in power, going to suffer from ijits who think that science is flexible and can be interpreted just like their own field of study. I was about to say "discipline" and then changed my mind to "field of learning" but decided that neither of these terms was warranted by the above fields of study. Economics, especially, is a pseudo science that doesn't conform to the laws of thermodynamics or to any measures of scientific rigour in its formulation of principals. Most economists should be thrown out of the halls of government until they can come up with theories that accurately measure and predict how our economies work. There are a few who get it, but not many.
Action is the antidote to despair - Joan Baez