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Bad Science Journalism Gets Schooled

Posted by kdawson on from the how-science-works dept.

TaeKwonDood writes "Biology post-doc Dr. Michael White takes a look at the '2007 Best American Science and Nature Writing' and doesn't like what he finds in an article called Bad Science Journalism and the Myth of the Oppressed Underdog. Turns out it's not just political writers who pick a position they want to advocate and then write stories to confirm it. Science journalism gets a scolding and it's been a long time coming."

2 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Can you cite these? by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 5, Informative

    As a journalist myself, I, too, am most interested in seeing those thousands of studies, especially those dated more than 30 years in the past. I have done a lot of research (into extant literature) on climate change and never ran across any references to global warming that predated the 1990s. Well, turning to the bookshelf sitting immediately to the left of my desk, how about An Introduction to Atmospheric Radiation, Kuo-Nan Liou, Academic Press 1980. It's a relatively standard text about optical absorption and scattering processes in atmospheres. The greenhouse effect is brought up in chapter 4 (Infrared Radiation Transfer in the Atmosphere) and discussed further in chapter 8 (Radiation Climatology).

    Greenhouse-effect studies before the 1990s lacked the detailed numerical models that we have developed since the 1990s, since these depend on massive amounts of computer power, but the effect has been known for a long time, and it was definitely discussed before the 1990s.

    This isn't an exhaustive search of the literature-- this is the first book that I happen to have handy. If the very first atmospheric science book I put my hands on that predates the 1990s has the reference, yet you say you never ran across any references to greenhouse-effect induced global warming that predated the 1990s, this seems to be an indication that you are unfamiliar with the literature.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  2. Re:Can you cite these? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    TFG, I'm kinda suspecting you're trolling, but just in case...

    Climate Impact of Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide. J. Hansen, et. al., 1981.
    Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Scientific Assessment. Charney, J.G., et al., 1979.
    A Terminal Mesozoic "Greenhouse": Lessons from the Past, Dewey M. McLean, 1978.
    Greenhouse effects due to man-made perturbations of trace gases. Wang, W. C., et al., 1976.
    The effects of doubling the CO2 concentration on the climate of a general circulation model, Manabe, S., and R.T. Wetherald, 1975.
    Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?, Wallace S. Broecker, 1975.
    The concentration and isotopic abundances of carbon dioxide in rural and marine air, Keeling, C.D., 1961
    Carbon dioxide exchange between atmosphere and ocean and the question of an increase of atmospheric CO2 during the past decades. Revelle, R., and H.E. Suess, 1957.

    Or, going back a little further:

    Callendar, G.S., 1938: The artificial production of carbon dioxide and its influence on temperature. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc., 64, 223-237.

    Arrhenius, S., 1896: On the influence of carbonic acid in the air upon the temperature on the ground, Philos. Mag., 41, 237-276.

    The current IPCC report has a review of historical climate research, and is available at http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg1/ar4-wg1-chapter1.pdf.