Skeptical Environmentalist Saga Continues

belmolis writes "In the latest episode of the The Skeptical Environmentalist affair, The New York Times reports (December 23, p. F2) that the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has issued a critique (five-page English summary [warning: MSWord document]) of the Danish Committee on Scientific Dishonesty's condemnation of Bjorn Lomborg's book The Skeptical Environmentalist, which argued that many of the concerns of environmentalists, particularly global warming, were based on poor science. The Committee had called for Dr. Lomborg's dismissal from the Danish government agency that examines environmental regulations." (Read on below.)

"The Ministry critique holds that the Committee's procedure was unfair. It does not address the scientific issues. Lomborg's book caused outrage among many environmentalists and scientists, while right-wing organizations such as the Cato Institute have defended Lomborg. Scientific American devoted eleven pages of its January 2002 issue to a critique of Lomborg. Lomborg was only allowed to publish a one-page rebuttal, to which Scientific American replied here. When Lomborg defended himself by posting the Scientific American critique on his web site and that of Greenspirit with his commentary [PDF file] interspersed, Scientific American threatened to sue and both sites took it down. It is, however, still available at the iGreens web site."

(Slashdot ran a review of Lomborg's book early last year.)

Comments

Re:Cato Institute is libertarian, NOT "right wing"

[myowntrueself]

Whenever I've heard someone from the Cato institute rolled out for some commentary or interview on the BBC, they've come across as nothing less than fascists.

Re:That reminds me

[Avihson]

It is not stupid when the greens have blind faith in Junk science.

When the Scientific community has prostituted itself both to the politics of the greens and to the money of the corporations, it is time to show some healthy scepticism in their pronouncements. Look at the FUD over Y2K.

There were some issues to the rollover on 1/1/2000, but not the disasters predicted by the junk scientists on our own ranks.

Faith in science is good, but only when tempered by verification. Faith in the supernatural is human nature, something that is never going to fade.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

[mabu]

Who's behind the Cato Institute? Well it seems a major benefactor is the John Hazen White family. What business are they in? Heating and cooling systems and a host of other ventures that are dependent upon oil and gas and all those nifty industrial applications that the global warming scientific community are concerned about. I did a little bit of checking and found little tidbits here and there - there's probably a lot mroe to it, but the key to finding out the agenda of this organization is to follow who's funding it.

Re:That reminds me

[LordK3nn3th]

There is evidence for evolution and the big bang. There is no evidence for god's existence. So why believe in god? Oh, that's right, everyone else does... :/

Re:Calling CATO a right wing organization...

[mabu]

This organization most certainly has quite a lot of right-wing puppeteers. The Cato institute is funded by some very powerful people that have ties to oil & gas, heating and cooling businesses.

John Hazen White and Happy White, Benefactors of the Cato Institute, have made a long-term pledge of $1 million to support the Cato Institute's fiscal policy work. The Whites' generous pledge strengthens the ongoing research of Cato's director of fiscal policy studies Stephen Moore and fiscal policy analyst Dean Stansel. Projects to date have included policy studies of the capital gains tax, corporate welfare, and the work vs. welfare tradeoff.

Yea, capital gains, corporate welfare and issues relating to work vs. welfare. You're right. Those are all left-wing agendas. I'm sure the Cato institute is pumping out propganda left and right proving how counterproductive lowering the capital gains tax is. It is you sir, who seems to be ignorant.

Furthermore, a short history of Taco, Inc. one of the multimillion dollar corporations the White family started, has its roots deep in industrial applications involving heating & cooling systems, industrial energy and oil and gas fields.

Yea, that sounds like a moderate organization. No right wing agendas to Cato.

Re:i do not believe in it

[rossz]

Eventually they will kill someone. They've been very lucky so far that no one has died in one of their fires or bombings. They are terrorist scum, despite what they state for public consumption.