The Science Bubble Explodes

The 21st Century has, in less than a decade, seen the explosion of three “bubbles.” In 2001 we saw the tech bubble explode, leaving in its wake the collapse of numerous fortunes and a renewed appreciation for value rather than promises of ever more extravagant high-tech dreams. Tech stocks were valued at hundreds if not thousand times their earnings, and even more if they had no earnings at all. And then it all came tumbling down and took with them venerable names like Bell Labs (Lucent).

Swearing that the stock market was rigged, people decided to put their money in houses. “Real estate never goes down” was the new mantra, and as evidence we saw houses “flipped” – on TV - for huge profits and real estate assessments climb 20, 30 or 40% per year, proving how to get rich by simply buying your own home. And then the real estate bubble burst and crushed people whose mortgages were larger, much larger than their homes' values. And the people who owned these mortgages? They could not get rid of their worthless loans and venerable names like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers went out of business, whole governments throughout the world injected capital (read credibility) into the remaining lenders to prevent a total global financial collapse.

And now, out of the blue, we see something that the innocent bystanders never expected to see: a collapse of the “science bubble.” It’s early yet in this collapse. As in previous bubbles, the professionals, the press and the government tell us that it's just a blip. Here are some echoes of the past:

“Buy Enron when it’s down 50%” was the advice; you’ll never see it this cheap again!

Here’s your chance to buy your dream house at low, low interest rates … no money down, no principal payment for 10 years! No credit, no job, no problem!

And now we’re told that the global warming science is still settled even though the “scientists” pushing global warming conspired to keep opponents from publishing, created computer models that were pure sludge, refused to share their data so that it could be checked, and claimed that they lost large parts of their original data. And the experts, press and politicians are telling us that it’s just a blip, a glitch, not to worry, they know what they're doings and that they are going ahead with their plans to re-make the world.

The unforeseen outcome of this scandal goes way beyond the issue off global warming. Just as the collapse of the tech bubble did not just affect one or two companies or even just tech stocks, and the collapse of the housing bubble did not just affect homeowners. Scientists in all fields will be eyed with suspicion. The next time I read a news article that includes the phrase “scientists say,” my BS detectors will go off. Because scientists say a lot of things and it’s now apparent that a lot of it is a lie.

Rush Limbaugh has a great take on this:

You know, it's a bubble here. Look at it this way. The global warming bubble, we just heard it burst. The question is: How will that explosion affect the Universe of Lies? This past decade, we have lived and suffered through a dot-com bubble, stock bubbles, the housing bubble. We all know the problem with bubbles: They eventually burst. Bubbles refer to things that are grossly overvalued. When bubbles burst, values leave the Universe of Lies and reenter the Universe of Reality. The dot-com bubble brought reality to the stock market. The housing bubble brought reality to the housing market. And so will the global warming bubble eventually bring reality to science. Man-made global warming may be in the process of reentering the Universe of Reality, finding its true value. It's a debunked theory of junk science promulgated by junk political scientists. Big Science can no longer be trusted as things stand today. Science, the media, government, and academia: The Four Corners of Deceit in the Universe of Lies.

Bubbles are self-perpetuating climbs in value that defy free market principles. They defy checks and balances. They're lies -- counterfeit truth, if you will. Bubbles occur when hope triumphs over reason, when speculation jumps ahead of fact. It all becomes obvious in hindsight after values have fallen back to earth and reality. A bubble occurs when speculators note rapid increases in value and buy in anticipation of further increases, rather than buying because something is undervalued. Bubbles are false values. It's why everybody worries about them. It's why everybody worries, "When's this bubble going to burst?" Because everybody knows when you've got a bubble, you've got a fraud. You've got false values -- and when those bubbles burst, we all fall back into the Universe of Reality, and it can be a very hard fall.

Our president, as uncomfortable as I am saying this, is a crook speculator perpetuating the global warming bubble -- and this will eventually be seen as a bubble. Bubbles are best seen in hindsight, because whatever euphoria that once existed surrounding the issue or the industry vanishes, and things come back into focus. This week we have seen and heard the global warming bubble burst. The effects of this exploding bubble may impact the entire field of science, a field that once only existed in the Universe of Reality. In fact, its purpose was to honestly, objectively, relentlessly define the Universe of Reality and disparage those things that exist in the Universe of Lies, and now science has been corrupted.

It is one of the Four Corners of Deceit in the Universe of Lies. It is the antithesis of what we all thought science was. The bursting of the global warming bubble has created a mess, and it cannot be swept under the rug -- no matter how hard the State-Controlled Media tries. The industry known as "science" has just seen their Fannie Mae and Freddie Macs exposed, and just like with the housing bubble, the United States government is in the middle of this fraud. Our government has fueled the speculation around the housing and global warming bubbles. They have tried to profit from it. They will never admit responsibility. Neither bubble will ever be investigated by this government.

Other worry about whether this may well bring all of science into disrepute as a result. The answer is yes, to some extent. And that is a good thing.