Being An Expert - On Everything

ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS is absolutely certain that human activity does not cause climate change, because, he says, the climate changes with or without our assistance, which proves that our assistance is unnecessary, and therefore is not being given. Also, he says, he is a geologist. Actually, he flips houses, but as an undergraduate he took a course in geology to fulfill a general science requirement, and what more can one have for climate change credentials? He spent five semester hours examining rocks from the ground, an activity intimately connected to the atmosphere. He has nothing against solar energy, but believes that the fossil fuel industry is without blame, and should be encouraged. Bring back coal. The fact that chemists, physicists, climate scientists, and every high school science teacher understands that putting thirty billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year cannot but help influence the amount of heat in the air and therefore the climate is immaterial. What do they know? They are, after all, merely ivory tower eggheads, divorced from reality.The pattern is this; people who deny climate change never have a resume which includes science education, but are absolutely certain that climate change is a liberal hoax. They are not merely skeptical of the overwhelming proof, they consider themselves qualified to dismiss it entirely. In modern America, everybody is an expert, on everything. We know more than our lawyers about the law, and more than our doctors about human health. If anyone in any country in the world wants expert advice on any conceivable topic, ask an American, any American.