Freeman Dyson: Climate change skeptic du jour
Category: climate
"The humanist ethic accepts an increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a small price to pay..."
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:55 AM • 12 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
- konya chat on McCain on climate and energy
- Alec on Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- konya chat on Fact-checking? We don't need no stinkin' fact-checking!
- Oran Kelley on Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- JK on Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- Survival Acres on The link between the climate denial and anti-vaccine crowds
- Lucas on Bjorn Lomborg launches campaign against logic
- 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
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
March 30, 2009
March 29, 2009
Battlestar's divine ending
Category: science culture
So Battlestar Galactica is over. Again. It is unlikely that many a fan of science fiction, or intelligent story-telling of any genre, over the age of 11 mourned the end of the original series. But the resurrected version that drew...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 4:14 PM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 26, 2009
More weirdness from the Washington Post's op-ed section
Category: technology
Maybe it's not surprising that "5 Myths on Nuclear Power" by hitherto unheard of Todd Tucker is hobbled by a lack of respect for reality.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 11:48 AM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 20, 2009
The most trusted source in America (on global warming)
Category: climate
Among the more interesting questions asked in the the just-released Yale poll on "Climate change in the American mind"is the one that shows us how much the country trusts various sources of information on the subject. Keeping reading to find...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:55 AM • 4 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
March 19, 2009
Are we 'safe' with 2 degrees of warming?
Category: climate
That is, as the Dane said, the question. The short answer is "nobody knows," of course. The ice core records suggest that we're adding CO2 to the atmosphere faster than the planet has ever seen before. That doesn't necessarily mean...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 11:04 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 17, 2009
Canada's Minister of Science is a creationist?
Category: evolution
"Canada's science minister, the man at the centre of the controversy over federal funding cuts to researchers, won't say if he believes in evolution."
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 2:53 PM • 11 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
Another Greenlandic Saga: Are we getting a break on global warming?
Category: climate
Something about the story didn't seem exactly right to me, though
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 12:36 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 16, 2009
The case of the disappearing New Scientist essay on creationist code words
Category: evolution
A couple of weeks ago, New Scientist published an insightful but hardly controversial little essay on the challenges a science book editor faces when she has to deal with creationist literature. Amanda Geftner's piece, "How to spot a hidden religious...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 11:45 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
March 13, 2009
Climatology: The more things change...
Category: climate
Remember, in 1983, "Every Breath You Take" by The Police was a new song.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:28 PM • 6 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
March 12, 2009
Best science headline of the week
Category: humor
"Neuroscientists fear brain drain" (Globe and Mail, March 12, 2009) It's about research funding drying up in Canada, while Obama pours more into U.S. labs....
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:08 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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