Heat and Light

The discussion thread under my (lifted) post 'Brrr' below followed a sadly predictable pattern, with the sceptics staying generally cool and polite while the warmists, appropriately, waxed wrathfully warm. The heat generated by any questioning of the 'consensus' on this matter is not (as Spurious Pesudonym, I think, points out) that of beleaguered prophets in the wilderness - the warmists have all the agencies of power on their side and everybody's listening. Their righteous rage is similar in this respect to the militant atheists, who can hardly count themselves an embattled minority struggling in the iron grip of the church militant. And it is similar too in being, at bottom, a matter of faith - quasi-religious, pseudo-religious, sub-religious, meta-religious, whatever, but undoubtedly faith. It used to be that religion and politics were banned from conversation in the mess and at civilised dinner parties, for fear of generating unpleasantness. Perhaps global warming should be added to the list. It certainly tends to spoil the atmosphere of pleasant, amusing conversation that ought to characterise the blogscape - or at least a blog like this. A shame. And by the way there's a world of difference between Anonymous (which is what is says) and Nige (who, though pseudonymous, is a known entity).