Well, isn't that interesting. Via David Appell, I see that Freeman Dyson, in the late 1970's, accepted that increasing CO2 was (based on "prevailing opinion") more likely to be dangerous than beneficial. What's more, he apparently thought that a carbon tax to undertake mass tree plantings to hold off any bad climate effects while clean energy came on line might be appropriate.
A couple of points:
a. his article certainly helps show that the "is the earth cooling towards a new ice age?" issue in the early 70's was a brief, minority, view. Just like actual climate scientists have been trying to tell dimwit climate denialists for years.
b. Dyson is now a "lukewarmenist": he's also aged 90. He would have been 54 when he wrote his cautionary 1977 paper.
I'm sorry, but when any person, brilliant or not, has one opinion on science in their 50's which is reversed in their late 80's, observers are generally wise to treat the "young" man opinions as sounder than the "old" man's opinion. That's just life.
It is a particularly worth following this rule when their belief trajectory is running against the increasing consensus amongst scientists active in the field.
1 comment:
Freeman Dyson will be devastated that his long and distinguished professional career has been dissed by an uneducated dunce defending a religious anti-science crusade in an anonymous blog in the backwaters of Australian suburbia. You are a laughing stock.
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