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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."

10 of 807 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Cue the teabaggers. by a+whoabot · · Score: 3, Funny

    What if an ignorant yeast called you a bacteria, wouldn't you be offended? Fungi have feelings too!

  2. Re:Absence of Evidence by mevets · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

  3. Chamberlain versus Damon by unitron · · Score: 3, Funny

    So The Lomborg Deception isn't about some spy novelist's later works being heavily ghostwritten?

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  4. Re:Cue the teabaggers. by bennomatic · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.

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  5. Re:Lomborg has a response by iluvcapra · · Score: 2, Funny

    Conspiracy!

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    Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
  6. Re:Absence of Evidence by khayman80 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why does America house so many nutjobs?

    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.

  7. Re:faster than intended? by SpottedKuh · · Score: 2, Funny

    I posted this response to the wrong story!!

    ...yet got modded insightful. Kudos, sir!

  8. Re:Cue the teabaggers. by fractoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you replace 'suffer' with 'LIVE IN HOUSEBOATS' then global warming becomes AWESOME! :D

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    Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
  9. Re:The unconvinced by linhares · · Score: 2, Funny

    yes

  10. Re:Absence of Evidence by DiamondGeezer · · Score: 2, Funny

    Your tin foil hat is slipping. Better add more tin foil.

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    Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question