With a critical international meeting coming up in Paris soon, it’s time to catch up on climate denial. The following are three articles posted on The Dake Page in recent weeks. Follow the links to the full articles.
It’s Time Presidential Candidates Had a Science Debate
It’s time for a science debate in which all the candidates for president – Republican and Democratic – engage in an honest discussion of science-based issues. Such is the premise behind ScienceDebate, a non-partisan, non-profit effort to require candidates to address science. [Continue Reading]
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot – Scientific Ethics and More
This is the story of Henrietta Lacks, her HeLa cells, and her family’s struggle to learn about their long dead mother. It’s also a detective story, a story of medical conduct, a story of Jim Crow, a story of modern and historical psychology, a story of ethics, and a story of religious faith. It is even a love story. It is all of these things, and Rebecca Skloot has successfully merged them into one of the most fascinating books I’ve read in many years. [Continue Reading]
The Irony of Climate Deniers Attacking Published Journal Articles
A new peer-reviewed paper was published recently in the scientific journal Theoretical and Applied Climatology. Its title is “Learning from Mistakes in Climate Research” and the objective is to survey recent “denier” papers, that is, the rare papers that reject the unequivocal scientific consensus that human activity is warming our climate system. The authors – seven climate scientists and science communicators from Norway, the Netherlands, the United States, the UK, and Australia – highlighted the errors in fact and logic common to the selected denier papers.
Not surprisingly, the denier lobbyists and their network of front groups and bloggers attacked the study. [Continue Reading]
The above is a partial cross-post of full articles on The Dake Page. Please click on the links above to read further. Thanks.
David J. Kent has been a scientist for over thirty years, is an avid science traveler, and an independent Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (now in its 5th printing) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His book on Thomas Edison is due in Barnes and Noble stores in spring 2016.
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I would absolutely tune-in to a science debate. If nothing else, I think it could be truly revealing to see how candidates react when confronted with a need for both rational and logical thought processes. That said, when one examines a who’s-who of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, it doesn’t seem like a grasp of science has much to do with the appointments (NASA sure is in trouble!). But I guess that pales in comparison to Environment and Pubic Works. Ah well… might be entertaining, anyway.
I would love to see a science debate too, but it won’t happen. The campaigns strictly limit the formats of any debates and would never agree to a real one. Instead they arrange it to maximize talking points with little chance for rebuttal.
It’s a good reflection of how the two parties think about science in who they pick to lead the congressional science committees. Having anti-science extremists like Inhofe and Cruz chairing such committees says all you need to know about the Republican party. It also shows up in who they pick for witnesses at hearings too – Republicans bring in non-scientists, lobbyists, and even a science fiction writer as “experts” on climate change, for example, while the Democrats bring in actual climate scientists with decades of experience and hundreds of research publications. In all the Senate and House hearings I’ve attended I’m still amazed at how downright dense (and dishonest) some Senators/Representatives are when it comes to science. Some of the things they’e said in official hearings are so ludicrous as to make you cry.
On the other post of the three, if you haven’t read it I highly recommend the Henrietta Lacks book. Skloot does a great job communicating both the medical aspects (without being overwhelming) and the personal story. It’s the kind of book I would hope to write some day.