Doug:
"I do have some faith in science. So if the BBC report has scientific 
evidence that dirty bombs are a dud, then I want to hear it. Most 
serious scientists believe global warming - or climate change - is 
for real. What's inconsistent about that?"

I am not a scientist, and I don't claim to know if global warming is 
happening or not.  From what I've read about debates between 
specialists on global warming, the consensus is uncertain, and even 
those who think it is happening acknowledge that the evidence remains 
inconclusive.  Among scientists as a whole, I suspect that there is 
more of a consensus that it is happening, but this reflects popular 
conceptions rather than expert knowledge.

The reason why I am inclined to be sceptical of claims about global 
warming, and why I am inclined to be receptive to this BBC report, is 
that popular fears in both cases are politically driven, and in both 
cases the conclusions drawn are backward.  Global warming is 
happening, so stop travelling.  And dirty bombs are scary, so let's 
evacuate NYC and remove any civil liberties that are left to stop 
the terrorists who might carry them.

I think it's inconsistent to go with the flow on global warming - and 
to endorse the politics of austerity that is popularly bound up with 
it - while maintaining a sensibly sceptical attitude to dirty bomb fears.

James Greenstein