Slashdot Mirror
Debunking a Climate-Change Skeptic
DJRumpy writes "The Danish political scientist Bjørn Lomborg won fame and fans by arguing that many of the alarms sounded by environmental activists and scientists — that species are going extinct at a dangerous rate, that forests are disappearing, that climate change could be catastrophic — are bogus. A big reason Lomborg was taken seriously is that both of his books, The Skeptical Environmentalist (in 2001) and Cool It (in 2007), have extensive references, giving a seemingly authoritative source for every one of his controversial assertions. So in a display of altruistic masochism that we should all be grateful for (just as we're grateful that some people are willing to be dairy farmers), author Howard Friel has checked every single citation in Cool It. The result is The Lomborg Deception, which is being published by Yale University Press next month. It reveals that Lomborg's work is 'a mirage,' writes biologist Thomas Lovejoy in the foreword. '[I]t is a house of cards. Friel has used real scholarship to reveal the flimsy nature' of Lomborg's work."
Or maybe someone should call them "yeasties". In another thread, some slashdotter pointed out that yeast bacteria are perfectly content to ferment and ferment and ferment until alcohol kills off their whole colony. I wonder if, in their short life, some of the more "successful" bacteria scorn the ones who suggest that a different approach would be wiser.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeast
Bacteria? You are trying to correct someone on science and you cannot even keep bacteria straight from fungi?
What's worse, this fungi is responsible for alcohol.. and you still can't keep it straight?
Yes, we should trust your view of science; failed highschool biology!
What if an ignorant yeast called you a bacteria, wouldn't you be offended? Fungi have feelings too!
Damn right! There is a huge lack of respect for the amount of money and effort the petroleum industry has put into setting the story straight. Listen people, there is no story here, go back to burning everything you can lay your hands on, and we'll tell you if there is a problem.
But the environment is so big and nanobots so small... We could make big nanobots! Huge ones, like a house! Then they'd be powered by combustion engines and roll on caterpillars, armed with gatling guns and flamethrowers to remove obstacles and protesters. And.. wait. uhh
"Why does America house so many nutjobs?"
Because it produces so many and issues so few passports.
I hate printers.
So The Lomborg Deception isn't about some spy novelist's later works being heavily ghostwritten?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Touche. My bad, absolutely. But whatever; I was clearly trolling. I didn't feel a huge need to be totally accurate. For all the responses I got about yeast being a fungus, I guess Tinactin probably sells pretty well among the /. set.
The CB App. What's your 20?
Conspiracy!
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
One of the new postdocs in my lab is from the Czech Republic. He says that everything's more advanced in America, including the idiots.
...yet got modded insightful. Kudos, sir!
If you replace 'suffer' with 'LIVE IN HOUSEBOATS' then global warming becomes AWESOME! :D
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
yes
Your tin foil hat is slipping. Better add more tin foil.
Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
Global warming is caused by the Sun. We as a species (human beings) need to thwart this insane solar activity and bring balance to the out of control capitalist system. Ice cubes could be thrown at the Sun to cool it down. The only way to beat free markets is to legislate it into oblivion under the auspices of global warming.
Back in line comrade!