Science vs Religion

We've been hearing quite a bit about the tensions between science and religion recently, especially in the area of evolution vs Creationism in education. This post isn't about all that, although I have a lot I could say.

However, there is another tension rising that we haven't heard so much about and this is between Environmentalists and scientists. (I capitalise "Environmentalist" to call out the loose political movement as opposed to people who are merely for keeping things picked up and using resources wisely.) This tension is specifically about Global Warming, and is mentioned in this article in the Chicago Sun Times where we hear that "this summer will bring a barrage of misinformation about the Earth's ice structures provided by non-scientists who make casual observations and then claim they know what caused the situations they are observing."

Why do I call this a tension then between Science and Religion. The reason is that environmentalism is much like a religion as author Michael Crichton mentioned in this speech. Here is a debate between scientists who use rigorous methods to support theories or come up with new ones and political fanatics that ignore any evidence that doesn't further their cause, just like the religious fanatics who ignore all scientific evidence unless it supports their cause of Creationism.

So now we have tunnelvision religious zealots attacking science from two directions. Greeeat. What's next, are they going to lobby against quantum physics because the world must be certain?