From The Annals Of Sane Conservatism II
"I'm not a meteorologist. All I know is 90 percent of the scientists say climate change is occurring. If 90 percent of the oncological community said something was causing cancer we'd listen to them," - Jon Huntsman, in Time.
Fair enough. I'm prepared to listen to them too. BUT oncology's an interesting example. Why? because the damned doctors keep changing their mind all the time. Take salt, for example. When I was a kid, we were told to take salt tablets if we got really sweaty, so as to restore our electrolytes. When I got older, I was told to bypass salt or I'd end up having to get a heart bypass. And now there's a brand new study that says:
...liberal use of the salt shaker might actually be more of a cure than a curse when it comes to human health, according to new research.
The study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), followed health trends in 3,681 individuals over a median of almost 8 years, and found that a higher sodium intake was actually associated with a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and that the amount of salt consumed had no correlation with hypertension.
So we listen. But we are justifiably skeptical. Paradigm shifts happen in science all the time. Before we trash the economy, we better be damned sure those 90% of meterologists are really right. (And not just saying what they need to say to, for example, get their next grant.)
