[saymaListserv] Does This Sound Familiar? (Relevant to the Testimony on Truth and the Proposed Testimony on Care of the Ear

[Steve Livingston]

Thanks for the links, Janet. I had already read the material that 
appeared in Scientific American, as well as the rebuttal at the 
greenspirit website. As I said in my earlier message, I am interested in 
hearing all sides of the debate, and the links you offered do provide a 
good overview. Lomborg does offer some wisdom to us in his book - a 
point I also previously offered to his credit - but it does not serve the 
purposes of truth to refer to him as "a former Greenpeace activist" if he 
in fact was not one, nor to support him with unspoken endorsements of 
"other Greenpeace activists" if there are no such endorsements.

I was also aware of his position as Director of the Copenhagen 
Consensus, an organization that he founded. Perhaps I have read an 
accurate biography of Lomborg after all!

I think it is a waste of effort to try to defend Lomborg's conclusion's as if 
they are facts. As the editors of Scientific American pointed out in a 
recent issue, those scientists who criticized his work called into question 
not the validity of his conclusions, but of his methodology. Worthy of 
effort IMHO is the examination of the points he raises, as well as those 
of actual environmental scientists, in terms of their position in our value 
system: is truth being served? am I mindful of these connections? how 
does this speak to my place of unity with Divine purpose? what can I do, 
or not do, about this?

Our intellectual conjectures about the future of the environment will 
always be dogged by our inability to fully comprehend the Big Picture; 
our failure to count a single butterfly wing may be enough to throw our 
entire analysis off track. We cannot know. It is worthwhile for us to be 
aware of policy, and statistics, and to question both. As Lomborg himself 
said in a recent interview about the book he authored, no one is 
expected to accept everything he says at face value, the intention is to 
spark a lively exchange of ideas and opinions. But as Rachael pointed 
out in her posting, it is incumbent upon us, if we seek spiritual guidance 
for our lives, to look inward as well as outward; one of the fews things 
we can own with certainty is our own witness.

Steve