Tuesday, November 06, 2007

How much scientific abuse can a polar bear?

A favourite deceit of AGW sceptics is to present Bjorn Lomberg as a "scientist." He isn't. His PhD is in Political Science — a humanity.

There are different methodologies between those used in "hard" and social sciences. Social sciences don't really use the scientific method. This is clearly demonstrated through out a recent Salon.com interview with Bjorn, and was especially telling in the discussion of Bjorn's use of polar bears.

Here is a response to the writer quoting one expert's opinion (a front-line researcher in polar bears).

"OK. But I've talked to a different expert that's up in Greenland, who works for the Danish government, and he has looked over my chapter, and said that it's OK."

If only all experts were equal.

Bjorn's referencing of another expert is supposed to counter the point, but he never makes a commitment on which has the better data and the better hypothesis — a fundamental step in hard science.

clipped from www.desmogblog.com

Bjorn Lomborg's new book attacked by a polar bear

31 Aug 07

It seems there may be a bit of last minute damage control over at the Bjorn Lomborg camp.

A heavy piece of the marketing campaign for Lomborg's new book Cool It was the author's claim that polar bear populations are increasing. Lomborg uses this as evidence of his argument the consequences of global warming are more hype than reality.

And the marketing of Lomborg's contentious claim seemed to be working. That is until Salon.com's Kevin Beger took Lomborg to task over the claim. Beger levels the polar bear claim leaving Lomborg's only defense to say: "OK. But I've talked to a different expert that's up in Greenland, who works for the Danish government, and he has looked over my chapter, and said that it's OK."

Now, Lomborg's book review on Amazon no longer carries any mention of polar bears, but the google entry for Amazon still has the original polar bear claim here for all of us to see. It is too late for a correction.
blog it

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am confused by your claim that references to polar bears have been eliminated from Lomborg's book review on Amazon.com. The lead review on his book site on Amazon is by the novelist Michael Creigton (sp?), and polar bears are prominent in this review.

Here's a quote from this review, which I reference at 3:17 PM Eastern Standard Time. Were you referring to some other review, and if so, which one?

"Lomborg is only interested in real problems, and he has no patience with media fear-mongering; he begins by dispatching the myth of the endangered polar bears, showing that this Disneyesque cartoon has no relevance to the real world where polar bear populations are in fact increasing. Lomborg considers the issue in detail, citing sources from Al Gore to the World Wildlife Fund, then demonstrating that polar bear populations have actually increased five fold since the 1960s."

Thanks
Richard Bell
Putting the Heat on Lomborg

Anonymous said...

Richard, I think you should take it up with Kevin Grandia, it's a clip from desmogblog.

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