Tag Archives: Lies and Denial

Science Debate 08 12 14 16?

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I am sure that by now you know about ScienceDebate Dot Org. It was set up for the 2008 US presidential election by a bunch of people including my friend Shawn Otto. The idea is to simultaneously push for an actual debate focussed on science and science policy as part of the presidential election process, and to make people realize that such a thing, which is not happening, is important.

We’ve had a couple of elections now that were almost overshadowed by major storms, the most recent, Sandy, being as much of a direct effect of Global Warming (a scientific issue) as any large storm ever was, since it was both strengthened by Atlantic warm waters (caused by Global Warming) and directed to New Jersey and New York by blocking features in the atmosphere that seem to have emerged from the lack of Arctic Ice (caused by Global Warming). Ya. Global warming killed over 100 Northeasterners and did a gazillion dollars in damage in one day. It is relevant. Let me say that again. It. Is. Relevant. And solving this sort of problem is a matter of science and science policy, and it is not being discussed enough.

Science Debate OK has put out a report to stakeholders, in the form of a simple web page with many useful links. It is here. Go have a look.

The time to join up with effort a propos the next presidential election is now, not later. Also, I would hope we can do things between now and then, perhaps pertaining to midterm Congressional elections.

What do you think?

And, in case you have not seen it here is a page of Science Denialism related resources.

Science Denialism: Some resources

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The term “War on Science” comes from multiple sources, one being Chris Mooney’s book “The Republican War on Science” (see below) and another, the made up “War on Christmas,” a term attributed to Bill O’Really. Throw in a little “Culture War” rhetoric and I think we have a good basis for the origin of the term. The term “War on X” has been in used for decades if not longer, when some large perhaps organized group of people or institutions takes up the task of shutting down some thing or another. It does not mean an actual war with generals and troops and bullets, but the metaphor “war” is still quite apt because there are generals and troops and bullets, just metaphorical ones.

Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to provide a list of current or recent books and other resources pertaining to the war on science. Where I’ve reviewed a book here, I provide a link to that review. There are also some helpful web sites and podcasts listed below. The listing of resources is divided up by “front” or “battle ground” where appropriate, keeping with the “War on Science” metaphor.

The War on Science, General

Continue reading Science Denialism: Some resources →

The War on Science: Interview

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This is an interview at Atheists Talk (TV), an update on the war on science, and a rare opportunity to see me wearing a suit.

The first few seconds are sound free; do not adjust your television set.

I mentioned the NCSE, here’s their web site.

Here’s a couple of books related to the topic:

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  • Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future by Chris Mooney and Sheril
  • Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America by Shawn Otto

    • Something on crying babies and vaccination is here, and something on milk allergy is here.

    Minnesota Atheists YouTube channel is here.

    Disclaimer: The comment that we have a new kind of storm is not a conclusion, but a hypothesis, though it does not sound that way from the way I said it. But now you know.

    ADDED: A fuller list of resources is HERE.

    Strangest AGW Denialist Story So Far This Year?

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    In 2008, John O’Sullivan wrote a novel called “Vanilla Girl,” which is actually a big giant blog post on blogger.com, about “A teacher’s struggle to control his erotic obsession with a schoolgirl.”

    Blogger "About" Page of John O'Sullivan, "Vanilla Girl" author and climate change denialist. O'Sullivan was acquitted of sex related charges with exculpatory testimony supplied by his 17 year old step-daughter.

    A few years earlier, it appears, the same John O’Sullivan, who was a teacher, was cleared of charges that he had sent 36 “sex txts” to a 16 year old girl within a three week period, some soliciting sex for money, using an Internet account under the name “Sexy Hunk.” Continue reading Strangest AGW Denialist Story So Far This Year? →

    The Demise of Climate Denialist and Fake Nobel Laureate/British Royal Christopher Monkton

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    Potholer54 has written a letter to Monkton that you will want to read, and he’s also made a video that you will want to see. First the letter (from here):

    Continue reading The Demise of Climate Denialist and Fake Nobel Laureate/British Royal Christopher Monkton →

    Academic Freedom and Aids Denialism

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    There is an interesting development in the area of Aids Denialism (and by extention climate change denialism and the rest of it) in Italy:

    The University of Florence has launched an inquiry into the teaching activities of an academic who assisted on a course that denies the causal link between HIV and AIDS, and supervised students with dissertations on the same topic.

    The Italian university’s internal ‘special commission’ will examine the “teaching behaviour and responsibility” of molecular biologist Marco Ruggiero, a university spokesman told Nature.

    Details and more here.

    Climate Science Denial at Carleton University: A Detailed Take-Down

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    A report detailing an audit of a course called “Climate Change: An Earth Sciences Perspective” (ERTH 2402), taught at Carleton University, has been compiled by a team of concerned individuals and was released a few minutes ago. From the report:
    Continue reading Climate Science Denial at Carleton University: A Detailed Take-Down →

    HeartlandGate: Anti-Science Institute's Insider Reveals Secrets

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    This seems to be fairly big news. The Heartland Institute is a conservative and libertarian “think” tank that cut its teeth on denying the dangers of cigarette smoking back in the 1990s. These days the Heartland Institute seems to be focused on Anthropogenic Climate Change Denialism and Science Denialism in general.

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    A piece of one of the revealed documents suggesting that the Heartland Institute wants to “dissuade teachers from teaching science.”

    Well, just a few hours ago, members of the climate change science, journalism, and blogging community received an interesting Valentine’s Day gift from someone who must be a Heartland Institute insider: The institute’s budget, fundraising plan, climate related strategy, and numerous other things. The story broke here on Desmog Blog.

    Here’s the details:
    Continue reading HeartlandGate: Anti-Science Institute's Insider Reveals Secrets →

    "Lord Lawson should name funder of climate sceptic think tank, judge told"

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    An anti-science climate denialist “think” tank (the word “think” clearly does not actually applyl here) is said to have received a big chunk of money from some anonymous source, and an effort has been made to find out who that source is. This is all happening in Britain where all the legal systems are strange and alien to me. Here’s a teaser and a link to the details.

    THERE IS “enormous public interest” in naming the climate sceptic Global Warming Policy Foundation’s seed donor and “a pressing need to scrutinise” any links he has with the oil and coal industry, an information tribunal judge heard today (Friday, January 27, 2012).

    Brendan Montague, the co-founder and director of the Request Initiative, asked the tribunal to reveal the name of the wealthy public figure who gave £50,000 to launch Lord Lawson’s think tank, an increasingly influential charity which attacks climate science and has called for changes to climate policies.

    Mr Montague’s initial Freedom of Information request was refused by the Charity Commission in 2010 and that decision was upheld by the Information Commissioner on the grounds that it would be “unfair” to release personal data without permission from the funder.

    However, Mr Montague took the case to the Information Tribunal arguing there is a “legitimate public interest”…

    Read the rest here.

    In a related matter, do consider visiting the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund page on Facebook. As you may know, I’m being threatened with a law suit for, like, a zillion pounds by a climate science denialist in Britain. I may need help! But if not me, than someone. Climate denialists will stop at nothing to force their bankrupt agenda.

    Which works better, Acupuncture or Changa?

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    Acupuncture is the ancient East Asian practice of poking people with needles in specific places and in specific ways in order to produce any one of a very wide range of results that could generally be classified as medicinal or health related. I don’t know much about it, but Wikipedia tells us:
    Continue reading Which works better, Acupuncture or Changa? →

    Complementary and Alternative Medicine: What is it, and should we fund it?

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    Skeptics love to hate CAM. And often, with good reason. Alternative medicines or medical treatments, as is often pointed out, become “mainstream” when the available science suggests that they work, so it is almost axiomatic that “alternative” means “unproven” and it is probably almost always true that the kinds of things that end up as “alternatives” come from sources with poor track records. For instance, one of the most common forms of alternative medicine used over the last several decades is Extra X where X is some substance we know the body uses, and that we know a deficiency of is bad. The idea is that if something is good at a certain level, loading it on by a factor of anywhere from two or three to several hundred over the usually consumed amount must be REALLY good. If a substance is used in the body for something we like … an immune system function, tissue repair, muscle energetics, etc. … then consuming vast quantities of it MUST be good. And, in some cases, this turns out to be true. There are times when consuming huge quantities of potassium is medically indicated, for instance. But this does not mean that a daily intake of seven or eight hundred bananas is a good idea. It turns out that loading huge quantities of vitamins and minerals has very little or no positive effect and it can be rather harmful in some cases. (Though there may be some exceptions.)

    Continue reading Complementary and Alternative Medicine: What is it, and should we fund it? →

    So, when did the Wall Street Journal become a disreputable rag?

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    Bret Stephens does not mind looking like an idiot. Today, he published a column in the Wall Street Journal that is full of snark and devoid of thought, ill considered, misleading, moronic and in the end, embarrassing. It is a classic case of irresponsible journalism. Someone sent me the link and I swear, I checked twice while reading the piece to see if I had landing on TheOnion.com. I can’t believe the Wall Street Journal published this.

    I think it would have been impossible for a paper like the WSJ to publish a piece like this had main stream media not gotten rid of most of their science editors and writers. Even if the WSJ would put this sloppy thinking, moronic opinion and bad science in a column, other newspapers, or should I say, the science staff at those newspapers, would have their way with it.

    Stephens drek is not worth quoting here; I’ll just tell you that it is the worst piece of Climate Change Denialism that I’ve seen in a long time other than the crap that kooks send to my email inbox on a daily basis. The astonishing thing is that Stephens is the Wall Street Journal’s deputy editorial page editor for Asian and European editions. Really. How embarrassing.

    It is here. I recommend Dramamine first, becuase it will make you sick. Do people who work for the Wall Street Journal still get press credentials?

    Why do Republicans hate America and the Earth?

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    This is a bit long but you will benefit from watching all of it. It gets extra hot at 31:30.

    I love the look on that woman’s face at 31:38 and again at 31:47. LOL.

    This particular member of congress, Don Young from Alaska, needs to get unelected. Frank J. Vondersaar seems to be the guy running against him, and this seems to be his web site. You can donate money to help Frank’s campaign here.

    I was originally made aware of this testimony from a blog post at Get Energy Smart blog, HERE. Please go check that out.

    Urban Heat Islands as Explanation for Hockey Stick Global Warming Curve

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    ResearchBlogging.orgUrban areas can be warmer than surrounding non-urban areas because there is a lot of combustion, pavement and other structure can collect solar heat and retain it for a while, and other factors. It is not uncommon to look at a weather map where conditions for precipitation are marginal, and everywhere but the urban zone, or only the urban zone and nothing else, is showing a weather phenomenon. Because people and airports (where weather is very important) are located in or very near urban areas, it stands to reason that a lot of the data used to estimate global temperatures would be affected by any urban effects, and if urban areas are a) warmer than surrounding areas and b) increasingly warm over time then “global warming” may well be an artifact of the urban heat island effect. That wouldn’t necessarily make it a hoax, but it would make it wrong. We would then have to revise our understanding of certain aspects of physics because we expect global warming to occur in CO2 levels go up, but physics has been revised before. Kepler was wrong, Newton was wrong, maybe the climate change scientists are wrong too.

    This post was chosen as an Editor's Selection for ResearchBlogging.orgSome time ago a study was funded by a number of organizations and individuals, including some who are famously skeptical of global warming (such as the Charles G. Koch foundation) in order to see if urban heat island effects could explain the famous “Hockey Stick” curve. The study was supposed to be non-biased, and it may well be, but if there are any biases they would likely be in favor off anti-Global Warming thinking, or perhaps “pro-denialist” or “anti-warmist” … pick your term.

    Well, just moments ago, the study was released and the findings are quite interesting. I have to admit, I was not expecting these findings at all, and they have caused me to change my mind about certain things. Which is fine, because that is how science works, but still, I was rather shocked.
    Continue reading Urban Heat Islands as Explanation for Hockey Stick Global Warming Curve →

    How To Do Good Climate Science Instead Of Bad Climate Science

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    ResearchBlogging.orgIn order to do good climate science, you have to understand and control for the sources of variation in the system. In any system that involvs metric change over time, there are four sources of variation:
    Continue reading How To Do Good Climate Science Instead Of Bad Climate Science →