The so-called “climate-gate” issue is exposing some real cultural divides, even in academic circles. Over on Volokh we find Ilya Somin writing a post that, if the topic were on evolution, I would classify as yet another victim of the TEACH THE CONTROVERSY culture-war tactic.

The ultimate challenge for our society is to figure out what we want to become and how to get there. That applies not only to dealing with AGW but pretty much any problem.

The ideological camps still identifiable from the time of the Enlightenment are probably an artifice that we can no longer afford. There seems to be a real disconnect between the old ways of looking at society (e.g., “left” vs. “right”) and what the physical universe will allow us.

It does seem as if we need a new ideological revolution that will help us address a world in which our technologies have allowed us to be a single global economy with planetary wide effects.