A feverish fate for scientific truth?

The Washington Times ^ | 27 April 2004 | By Patrick J. Michaels

[.cnI redruM]

Some things are sacred to scientists: Facts, data, quantitative analysis, and Nature magazine, long recognized as the world's most prestigious science periodical.

Lately, many have begun to wonder if Jayson Blair has a new job as their science editor. On Page 616 of the April 8 issue, Nature published an article using a technique that it said, on Page 593 of the same issue, was "oversold," was inappropriately influencing policymakers and was"misunderstood by those in search of immediate results." The technique is called "regional climate modeling," which attempts to simulate the effects of global warming over areas the size of, say, the United States.

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>Some things are sacred to scientists: Facts, data, quantitative analysis, and Nature magazine, long recognized as the world's most prestigious science periodical.

These have been replaced by money, politics, bs and an ardent desire to have their names published all over everything.

[Steve_Seattle]

The Bush administration has been accused of politicizing science, but that is what the global warming theorists have been doing for years.

[frankenMonkey]

I gave up my subscription to Scientific American about 4 years ago. It got taken over by a group that had a very apparent (and typically left-wing) bias.

Gone was the hard science reporting, in came statistical studies of 'poverty' etc. When science loses its percieved objectivity, it becomes no better than folklore.

[Always Right]

When even the 'legitimate' climate models are examine, the models are ridden with worst case assumptions designed to produce the worst possible outcome. The regional models are even worst, since they assume the worst possible scenario for each location. The assumptions in these models are so unrealistic that the odds of any of them being close to reality is zero. If you have hundred of assumptions in a model, which these do, and you take the worst case assumption for each variable, it isn't long before the odds of your model being accurate are astronomical.

[Cicero]

The science departments in our universities are gradually being taken over by the leftists. They were the last to go, but they do definitely seem to be going.

Part of it, I imagine, is that most of the deans and administrators who fund hiring are now leftists. Part of it is that the foundations and the government bureaucracies that fund science grants are mostly controlled by leftists. Bush has done little or nothing to weed these people out of his administration. I'll grant that doing so would be hard, but he has done virtually nothing to clean house. I continue to think that this has been his worst failing. I still strongly support him, but I wish he would wise up to the need to flush out the clintonoids before they do any more long-term damage.

[null and void]

When they can reliably predict tomorrow's weather, I'll consider believing a 1000 year forecast...

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
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[E.G.C.]

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