A crank for all seasons

Milo Buchholtz is a local crank who writes letters to the editor on a semi regular basis about his pet pseudoscientific theory, that all of our bad weather is due to rocketry. Don't ask exactly how. That is never made clear. He occasionally says something about breaking the sound barrier producing shock rings that lead somehow to bad weather all over the earth. I have used some of his letters in my classes. I present his theory and ask students what kind of evidence you would need to make this science. Most recognize that he has to be more specific about exactly what kind of rocket leads to what kind of weather and when and where, as well as a better mechanism. Citing random bad weather somewhere on earth several months after a rocket launch does not constitute evidence.

Buchholtz has written again. I rather enjoy his letters. They are the product of a true crank. I definitely don't want to endorse what he says, but this seems to be harmless. Many pseudosciences can produce harm, directly or indirectly. If the advocates want to get it taught in schools, or promote unhealthy remedies, or make people invest money, or if it leads to poor science, then we should stop it. As far as I can tell, Milo has been railing against the rockets for 20 years, and he has been completely ignored by everyone, and that is why he is harmless. I find the persistence of some cranks fascinating. They proclaim their gospel for 20 years, are ignored by absolutely everyone, and yet they never once question themselves. They don't wonder why no one takes them seriously or think just possibly they might be wrong. I wonder at the single minded devotion in spite of all reason, partly because I cannot relate to it myself. As long as no one takes him seriously it is fun to watch. Unfortunately, there are plenty of examples of equally silly ideas that are taken seriously, so we have to be vigilant. I have Buchholtz 's letter below, and I will follow with a few comments:

You people have to take the blinders off, pull your heads out of the sand, and for gosh sakes, please stop thumping the Bible. Almighty God is not causing all your diseases and health problems, and he certainly isn’t causing all this unseasonable and disastrous weather. The above mentioned is caused by man’s inhumanity to man.

We have spent billions on bandages to fix weather-related damages and are about to spend billions more because the weather is going from bad to worse.

We the people have the power but we have to elect people who are concerned about the Earth and future generations.

As a certified organic farmer our products are in more and more demand. With our weather so disgusting when most organic farmers quit their land goes to the chemical farmer. Chemical food in our bodies is like putting diesel in a gas motor.

I have been writing letters since 1993 about rocketry destroying the earth. About a month ago on the national news it was reported that 2010 has been the worse year for natural disasters than anytime in recorded history. Our media is constantly reporting about nature showing her ugly side. But I tell you that “Nature” is a lady and should be treated as such. Breaking the sound barrier to blast into space is destroying the weather patterns and ultimately will destroy all natural organic food.

If we had one drop of common sense in any city, county, state or federal government, they would want to prove rocketing disturbs the Earth’s weather. But it appears our elected are only in office serving themselves.

President Barack Obama stopped anymore money for the moon, NASA waltzes onto Capitol Hill and our flip-flop president states that our space program is very much alive and we are going to land on an asteroid and then Mars.

So people just keep your heads buried in the sand and I assure you that there will be less good organic food and more weather disasters.

One thing that strikes me when I read this is how it never occurs to him to provide evidence for his favored cause. If we grant him that this has been the worst year for weather, shouldn't he try to make the case that it has also been the biggest year for rocketry? In fact, the space shuttle was only launched once in 2010. Launches have been on the decline. We know that correlation does not mean causation, but he does not even bother to show that there is a correlation. He doesn't look at the number of rocket launches, and he makes no effort to show a specific time between rocket launches and bad weather.

Of course, we can't grant him that this has been the worst year for weather, regardless of his one reference. There have been heavy rains, but other years have bad droughts, or more hurricanes. There is not single measure for good or bad weather. I know from previous letters that Milo does not say that rockets lead to bad weather some particular distance from a rocket launch. It can be any place on earth. There is always some place that had some bad weather that year.

Like a true crank, Buchholz ties all of his passions together. Apparently he is an organic farmer, and so he must tie this in with his pet theory. I can see no reason why bad weather would pick on organic farmers more than "chemical farmers", but he declares that rockets are going to destroy organic farming specifically. He goes on to use meaningless analogies about diesel in a gas engine.

Buchholz also never once considers other possible explanations for bad weather. We have many well known phenomena that affect weather, such as El Nino and La Nina. There is also a well supported explanation for increased violent weather--global warming. Like a true crank, Buchholz makes no attempt to compare theories and see which one is better supported. In previous letters, he has dismissed global warming because the earth didn't warm when Sodom and Gomarah were burned in the Bible (seriously).

Buchholz considers himself the prophet in the wilderness telling us all to repent of our rocketry. Everyone else sees him as the crank walking around with a The End is Near! sign. There is never any sign that he has considered the evidence. The most telling line in the letter is when he declares that if we had any common sense, we would try to prove that rocketry causes bad weather. Notice that he does not say we should try to figure out what is causing bad weather. Rather he declares the conclusion we should be trying to achieve. As with most pseudoscience, he has the answer first, then seeks out confirming evidence afterward, and fails to consider alternative explanations.