What to do with the pseudoskeptics?
Category: climate
I am beginning to wonder if perhaps all this banging of heads against walls is a waste of effort.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:03 AM • 66 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Island of Doubt
An irregular exploration of the struggle between the power of rational discourse and the scientific method on one hand, and the forces of superstition and dogma on the other. Mostly regarding climate change, though.
Profile
James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.
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Recent Posts
- Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- The link between the climate denial and anti-vaccine crowds
- Climate control in Canada: And now the good news
- Another nail in the Superfreakonomics coffin
- Is 350 the right target for atmospheric CO2?
- Explaining plummeting belief in anthropogenic climate change
- Science is not a religion
- Limbaugh listeners need to do some soul-searching
- Superfreakonomics: How did they get climate change so wrong?
- Isn't that special?
Recent Comments
- ChrisZ on Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- Brian D on Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- crf on Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- timbo on The radical "trillionth ton" meme
- pough on Climate control in Canada: And now the good news
- paulm on The link between the climate denial and anti-vaccine crowds
- ericg on Climate control in Canada: And now the good news
- paulm on The link between the climate denial and anti-vaccine crowds
- Ryan on Another nail in the Superfreakonomics coffin
- George MacDonald on Climate control in Canada: And now the good news
Archives
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Other Doubtful Blogs
- Panda's Thumb
- Real Climate
- George Monbiot
- Chet Raymo
- Ben Goldacre
- James Annan
- John Fleck
- Kristine Harley
- DeSmogBlog
- Climate Progress
- Jennifer Oullette
Inspiration
The Demon-Haunted World:
Science as a Candle
in the Dark,
by Carl Sagan
(A
review)
The Doubter's Companion:
by John Ralston Saul (Excerpts)
Skeptic Magazine: www.skeptic.com
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal: www.csicop.org
A poem by Yehuda Amichai:
The
Place
Where We Are Right
The Meaning of the
Island of Doubt
Author's site: cyamid.net
--- H. L. Mencken
By doubting we come to inquiry; and through inquiry we perceive truth.
--- Peter Abelard
Undisguised clarity is easily mistaken for arrogance.
-- Richard Dawkins
As for evolution, it happened. Deal with it.
-- Michael Shermer.
"There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things
which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand.
Resolve, then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving, and
tiny blasts of tinny trumpets, we have met the enemy, and not only may
he be ours, he may be us."
--Walt Kelly
December 29, 2008
December 23, 2008
Killer global warming ad
Category: climate
If the "Reality" anti-coal advertising campaign represents the best American environmentalists can come up with, Matt Nisbet is right. Communicating the facts about global warming to the masses is simply beyond our ability. Fortunately, there are others who understand how...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 1:41 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Papal call for an "ecology of man"
Category: religiosity
I've been waiting for almost four years for an opportunity to connect homophobia and global warming, and finally I have it, thanks to the pope. Benny XVI the other day managed to compare the effort to save the planetary ecosystem...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:29 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 22, 2008
The smears begin
Category: climate
It didn't take long for the Competitive Enterprise Institute to begin dissembling about John Holdren, President-elect Barack Obama's new science adviser. On his blog, the CEI's Chris Horner dismisses Holdren's soon-to-be ex-employer, the Woods Hole Research Center, as "an environmental...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 4:04 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 19, 2008
It just keeps getting better
Category: climate
First Stephen Chu for energy secretary, then John Holdren for science adviser. Now Jane Lubchenco for NOAA chief. Wow. One of the country's top marine biologists and a hard-core climateer. It's hard to imagine a better science team. From the...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:26 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 18, 2008
Next White House science adviser on Letterman
Category: climate
This is a man who will be repeatedly reminding the president that climate change is not something that can be placed on the proverbial back burner.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:03 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
He's not the messiah!
Category: climate
Maybe I'm making too much out of one paragraph in a short post on one blog, but I'd rather try to deal with it now before this particular meme travels much further. The offending line appears today in a post...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:54 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 16, 2008
Tax or cap-and-trade? A welcome debate
Category: climate
The fact that the debate now concerns which financial instruments we should use represents major progress.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 1:53 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 12, 2008
Another vote for 350 ppm
Category: climate
There are those who think that such a target is so far beyond doable that we shouldn't try.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 2:30 PM • 32 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 11, 2008
Free Tibet (from global warming)
Category: climate
Someone tell the Dalai Llama he's got bigger problems than the Chinese to worry about.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 2:40 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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