Re: Was the ClimateGate Hacker Justified? Join the Debate!

[chris () blask org]

--- On Thu, 11/26/09, Gadi Evron <ge () linuxbox org> wrote:

> I agree, which is why we don't debate climate change, but
> the hacker's actions.

My take:

The hacker is wrong - ethically, morally and legally.

The exposure of the information can be either good or bad, separately and distinctly from the ethics of the hacker.  
Which one it is is more complicated than I can determine at the moment - looking back a decade or two would give the 
vantage to determine.  It will remain unclear whether the release of information contributes to the public good or has 
a sum negative impact until it can be determined whether the public discourse is improved or not, and whether the 
aggregate public "decision" on the topic is empirically proven to be wise or not.

--------------------

An example of my thinking:

There is an extremist who has knowledge of a ticking bomb.  I (with my Jack Bower glasses on) choose to torture the 
information out of him, succeed, and the bomb is defused.

The ethics?

o  I am ethically, morally and legally in the wrong.  I expect to go to jail.

o  The disclosure of the information that I unethically gained?  That is an ethical act, saving human lives.

----------------------

Since we cannot extricate this conversation from global warming, I'll add my two cents for better or worse (probably 
worse) on that, too.  

o  All would be better served to start the conversation with the question: "Do you believe it is *possible* for mankind 
to have any impact of any kind on the global climate under any conditions?"  Anyone answering "no, God (Gaea, Kermit 
the Frog,...) won't let us" doesn't need to be involved in the conversation further.

o  Increasing ratios of components known to retain heat in atmospheric systems in a single-change scenario would have 
seemingly obvious results.

o  The global climate is anything but a single-change scenario: it is actually a "constant multiple-factor change 
scenario", in which it is conceivable that we are currently otherwise in a cooling phase and we have just happened - by 
sheer dumb luck - to find ourselves pumping warming agents out at the right time.

o  Counting on dumb luck to work in our favor over the long term is a Bad Idea.

-chris


      
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