Blogstrop,

It’s unfortunate. This has the potential to push real environmental research back a long way. The credibility of the entire Environmental Scientific community is potentially at risk. It may not happen, but it could.

The entire Scientific community should be concerned. Americans have generally had a pretty good opinion of scientists, notwithstanding the occasional clashes between the Theological and Scientific communities.

We may make fun of them as a group from time to time, but many also have enormous respect for what they continue to achieve. Their integrity is generally accepted by most. If this goes much deeper the integrity of the scientific community itself, whatever their field of inquiry, may be tarnished to some degree.

It’s fun to watch the MSM avert their eyes and hope it goes away. They’ve become followers of the real newspeople, and once enough pressure builds they’ll have to cover it. They’ll take another hit on their integrity, and I don’t know how many more of those they can stand.

Integrity – an interesting word. We have many “leaders” in all walks of life who think it’s old fashioned and irrelevant. I think it’s about to make a big comeback.