tlambert | December 26, 2006Kevin Vranes wonders if scientists have oversold climate change:
We wonder if we've oversold the science. We're wondering what happened to our community, that individuals caveat even the most minor questionings of barely-proven climate change evidence, lest they be tagged as "skeptics." We're wondering if we've let our alarm at the problem trickle to the public sphere, missing all the caveats in translation that we have internalized. And we're wondering if we've let some of our scientists take the science too far, promise too much knowledge, and promote more certainty in ourselves than is…
tlambert | December 22, 2006Radio Open Source has a program on the Lancet study with comments from Les Roberts, Colin Kahl (arguing that the number is too high), Juan Cole and Iraqi bloggers.
tlambert | December 22, 2006Iain "CO2 is life" Murray complains about politicization of science. No, I'm not kidding.
More seriously, Andrew Dessler gives a definition I agree with:
In the end, claims repeatedly verified by the scientific community (e.g., the earth is warming, DNA is a double-helix, CFCs destroy ozone) come to be accepted as true.
Thus, someone is honestly using science if he or she articulates a position that is supported by the whole of the peer-reviewed literature (e.g., the earth is warming). Misrepresenting the peer-reviewed literature is my definition of politicizing science. That includes cherry…
tlambert | December 22, 2006I knew if I kept blogging long enough, I'd eventually win one of those awards.
tlambert | December 20, 2006Michael Fumento thinks there is nothing to worry about. Revere disagrees:
It isn't that what Fumento says is so outrageous one would have to be stupid or ignorant to believe it. It's that it would be folly (and stupid) to act as if you believed it. Fumento couldn't care less about public health nor does he care that what he writes makes it still more difficult to get government to make a puny investment in keeping us safe from disease at the same time he encourages it to sink more down the rat hole of the War in Iraq.
Fumento, of course, shows up in comments to insult not just Revere, but…
tlambert | December 17, 2006Seed has published a group portrait of all the ScienceBloggers. I'm hiding at the back somewhere.
tlambert | December 17, 2006Brent Herbert debunks some myths about bedbugs and DDT:
Since I discovered that I have bed bugs I have been touring around the internet doing research right from day one and what I have discovered is that the media is doing a terrible job of covering the bed bug story, and as a result many of the bed bug blogs I have read are full of misinformation which echoes this bad reporting in the media. One of the most common themes in the media stories you will read if you do a search for news articles on bed bugs is that we have bed bugs because DDT was banned, thus forcing us to use 'weak chemicals…
tlambert | December 15, 2006
Tim Blair writes: Heat Down
Less heat is evidence of a continuing hotness trend:
2006 is set to be the sixth warmest year on record, continuing the trend of global warming and extreme weather conditions worldwide, the UN's weather agency said.
As Andrew Bolt observes: "Only the sixth ?"
tlambert | December 14, 2006Shorter Steve McIntyre: Al Gore is fat.
(Shorter concept invented by D squared, perfected by Busy, busy, busy.)
Update: McIntyre has edited his post. Here's what he originally wrote:
Gore has gotten a little stout over the years and a little jowly, as though he was subconsciously morphing into a shape more suitable to lead a penguin army.
tlambert | December 14, 2006Cynthia Burack, guest bloggging at Thus Spake Zuska reports on a Christian Right conference:
You may not be surprised to learn that, in the Right world, global warming does not exist. Nay-sayers have been making this claim since scientists first began sounding the alarm about climate change, and no amount of scientific evidence produced in the interim has had any effect on this conclusion. Some may be a little surprised, however, to learn just what it is that the Christian Right says its global warming adversaries are up to and why Americans should reject their claims. A member of Congress,…
tlambert | December 13, 2006Eli Rabett on the Oregon Petition
where we find John Humphreys in the graveyard resurrecting this unkillable climate denialist zombie. Tim Lambert, thermometer in hand tries to bludgeon the poor beast into eternal peace (and quiet). For those of you fortunate enough not to know what the hell Eli is babbling about, go, leave, get hence from this post, lest the spirit of love and kindness curdle in our season of good will and you try to stiff your loved ones (Ms. Rabett has informed Eli that any such attempt would be a health contraindication).
There's more on the whole sordid tale.
tlambert | December 12, 2006Stephen Soldz has a nice summary of the congressional briefing on the Lancet study:
Les Roberts again made the point that their data implies that the majority of deaths in Iraq are from violence, whereas alternative accounts from Iraq Body Count, the Brookings Institution, or the Iraq Ministry of Health imply that only a small percentage, perhaps 10%, of deaths in Iraq are from violence. He again, as he has done since the study came out in early October, has called upon the press to visit graveyards and ask if the majority of deaths is from nonviolent or violent causes. Roberts again called,…
tlambert | December 11, 2006The Sunday Telegraph has published an inaccurate story about the forthcoming IPCC fourth assessment report:
In a final draft of its fourth assessment report, to be published in February, the panel reports that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has accelerated in the past five years. It also predicts that temperatures will rise by up to 4.5 C during the next 100 years, bringing more frequent heat waves and storms.
The Telegraph report is obviously wrong. The IPCC report just summarizes the scientific literature. There has not been any paper published that would justify reducing…
tlambert | December 10, 2006We last encountered anti-Kyoto activist John Humphreys in this post when I tried to get him to correct a post that incorrectly claimed that satellites showed a cooling temperature trend and he responded by repeatedly accusing me of lying. Now he's back with three more zombie arguments:
Peiser proved Oreskes wrong. (Actually, it was Peiser who was wrong).
Bray's survey shows that there is significant dissent for the consensus amongst climate scientists. (But the URL and password were posted to a global warming skeptic mailing list so it included some unknown number of skeptics as well as…
tlambert | December 9, 2006Via Stephen Soldz
WASHINGTON - December 8 - In a bipartisan Congressional briefing hosted by Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) and Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) the authors of the Lancet Study, which found that as many as 650,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed during the war, will present their full findings to Congress.
The briefing will take place Monday, December 11th from 10:00am - 12:00pm in 2247 Rayburn House Office Building.
tlambert | December 8, 2006Gavin Schmidt reviews Inhofe's last Senate hearing on climate change, which starred Bob "global warming ended in 1998" Carter.
Kevin Grandia also says good bye.
And while I'm posting links: Nexus 6 catches NSW politician Jon Jenkins peddling Peiser's discredited criticism of Oreskes and Eli Rabett goes the extra mile on Khilyuk and Chilingar, not just showing how wrong they are, but also explaining where all the outgassed CO2 went.
tlambert | December 7, 2006The 49th Skeptic's Circle has been hosted by channeling a dead skeptic... Go, read.
tlambert | December 7, 2006Revere has the latest on the scientific evidence that proves their innocence.
Janet Stemwedel has addresses where you can send letters.
tlambert | December 6, 2006The latest paper being touted by the global warming skeptic crew is by a couple of petroleum engineers named Khilyuk and Chilingar and concludes
The current global warming is most likely a combined effect of increased solar and tectonic activities and cannot be attributed to the increased anthropogenic impact on the atmosphere. Humans may be responsible for less than 0.01°C (of approximately 0.56°C (1°F) total average atmospheric heating during the last century)
But what is the basis for this conclusion? Well, they work out total man-made CO2 emissions and ...
Recalculating this amount…