An Explanation of Change

At the conclusion of a post, “Greenland cold snap linked to Viking disappearance”, wherein a researcher explains that a “previously unknown 12th century temperature plunge” would explain the demise of the Viking settlement of Greenland, the good editors of Yahoo News provide this thoughtful analysis:

Scientists fear that the 21st century warming is caused by climate change[.]

Change brings change!  No!

Similarly, we may conclude that the worrisome, declining standards of our education system are caused by the declining standards of our education system, and the dearth of sound journalism is caused by a strange paucity of effective and trustworthy journalism.

I await further announcements from experts:

An Archæologist:  Studies suggest that the decline of the empire of the Hittites occurred because of the disintegration of the Hittites’s empire...
A Palæontologist:  Our data demonstrate that the overall annihilation of the dinosaurs was caused by a mass extinction of dinosaurs...
My GP:  Ah, Deadman, the general degradation of your body is probably caused by osteosarchæmatosplanchnochondroneuromuelous, or to employ a more intelligible term, osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary deterioration...

Alas, I fear that modern scientific incompetence is caused by modern scientific incompetence, and human folly, irrationality and stupidity are caused by human folly, irrationality and stupidity.

UPDATE (18 July):  See “A Clean Energy Future”.