Being skeptical about Global Warming skeptics’ arguments has proven, to date, to be a healthy and sensible way to deal with their truthiness claims and arguments. The Heartland Institute‘s distribution of a list of scientist supposedly doubting Global Warming yet again verifies the value of being skeptical about Global Warming skeptics.
DeSmogBlog decided to take a look at Heartland‘s list: emailing the scientists to ask them about the situation. From 500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares:
- The Heartland “article purports to list scientists whose work contradicts the overwhelming scientific agreement that human-induced climate change is endangering the world as we know it.”
- “DeSmogBlog … emailed 122 of the scientists … calling their attention to the list.”
- “in less than 24 hours – three dozen of those scientists had responded in outrage, denying that their research supports Avery’s conclusions and demanding that their names be removed.”
Hmmm, maybe Heartland should change the title from 500 scientists to 464 scientists maybe have documented doubts of man-made global warming scares until, of course, they are asked whether they agree with this article’s assertion.
DeSmogBlog has some pretty impressive quotes. For example,
I am horrified to find my name on such a list. I have spent the last 20 years arguing the opposite.
Dr. David Sugden. Professor of Geography, University of Edinburgh
This ones seems pretty unclear, doesn’t it. Easy why Heartland could be confused and reverse the understanding of 20 years of a professor’s work.
I have NO doubts ..the recent changes in global climate ARE man-induced. I insist that you immediately remove my name from this list since I did not give you permission to put it there.
Dr. Gregory Cutter, Professor, Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Old Dominion University
Hmmm … Will Heartland remove Cutter from their list?
I don’t believe any of my work can be used to support any of the statements listed in the article.
Dr. Robert Whittaker, Professor of Biogeography, University of Oxford
Evidently Heartland disagrees with Robert Whittaker about how one should understand and interpret Professor Whittaker’s life work.
Skeptical about skeptics. A pretty good rule of thumb.
8 comments
Skip to comment form
of both sides of a debate that too often is dominated by deniers on one side, and exaggerators on the other.
When the Ostriches and the Chicken Littles lay into one another both sides have a knack for misquoting, misinterpreting, and cherry picking the science they cite.
Each side fuels the other, and the science gets lost.
I guess that makes me a cynic.