More research makes the controversy worse, says Breakthrough Senior Fellow Dan Sarewitz in
Slate.The conventional wisdom among greens and liberals for the last 20 years has been that more climate science research would lead to political consensus but as Breakthrough Senior Fellow Dan Sarewitz points out, that hasn't happened. Now he argues in Slate that more climate science has made climate politics even more polarized:
"When people hold strongly conflicting values, interests, and beliefs, there is not much that science can do to compel action. Indeed, more research and more facts often make a conflict worse by providing support to competing sides in the debate, and by distracting decision-makers and the public from the underlying, political disagreement. In such cases each side will claim to have the scientific high ground."
