Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Friar Bellows · 01-16-2003, 12:07 AM

Debunker of global warming found guilty of scientific dishonesty

(article from The Guardian, Jan 9, 2003)

Here's an excerpt:

Quote:

Bjorn Lomborg - the director of Denmark's Environmental Assessment Institute and a leading would-be debunker of mainstream scientific opinion on issues like global warming and overuse of natural resources - has been found guilty by a Danish government committee of "scientific dishonesty". Professor Lomborg, whose work has been championed in the international press, was subject to a year-long investigation by the Danish committee on scientific dishonesty.

The committee, made up of eminent scientists, concluded: "Based on customary scientific standards and in light of his systematic one-sidedness in the choice of data and line of argument, [he] has clearly acted at variance with good scientific practice."

On his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, published in 2001, it said: "Subject to the proviso that the book is to be evaluated as science, there has been such perversion of the scientific message in the form of systematically biased representation that the objective criteria for upholding scientific dishonesty have been met."

Here's a link to the actual ruling:

Decision regarding complaints against Bjorn Lomborg

That ruling refers to a Scientific American article (published in early 2002) which goes into some detail on the problems with Lomborg's claims and his approach to science. You can read that article online, including a rebuttal by Lomborg and a rebuttal of that rebuttal. Check it out:

Misleading Math about the Earth

A quote from this article:

Quote:

The story of The Skeptical Environmentalist is one of a political scientist who wades into the vastly complex, unsettled literature of environmental science, scrutinizes a fraction of what is to be found there, and emerges confident that the simple summary he has developed is a fair and accurate representation of the science�notwithstanding the warnings of experts in the disciplines he skims that he is mistaken.

Note: Many articles refer to Lomborg as a statistician. It's true that he taught statistics at the University of Aarhus, in Denmark, but his doctorate was in political science. This guy certainly knows how to dabble. He probably would have been at home in the Renaissance.

theyeti · 01-16-2003, 10:24 AM

HA!

Having read some of Lomborg and checked up on his sources in regards to climate change, it's pretty obvious that the guy's a fraud. It's good to see him finally get nailed.

But I doubt that this will have any effect on his fans among the Rush Limbaugh listening right-wing ideologues. They will simply interpret this as proof of the Grand Liberal Conspiracy that's out to get him.

theyeti

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01-16-2003, 10:24 AM	#2
theyeti Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Denver, CO, USA Posts: 9,747	HA! Having read some of Lomborg and checked up on his sources in regards to climate change, it's pretty obvious that the guy's a fraud. It's good to see him finally get nailed. But I doubt that this will have any effect on his fans among the Rush Limbaugh listening right-wing ideologues. They will simply interpret this as proof of the Grand Liberal Conspiracy that's out to get him. theyeti

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