Denialism Blog‘s Mark Hoofnagle asks a great question about global climate change: “How do you tell who the legitimate skeptics…are versus who are the denialists?” Skeptics are good and necessary in all sciences, and should not be criticized for taking on that role. Denialists, on the other hand, are actively harmful.
Category Archives: Science
Global abortion restrictions.
The Economist provides this fascinating map of the world’s abortion laws.
It’s a hot, hot 2007.
NOAA: Global temperatures for January-April have been the warmest on record. They’ve even plotted the deviations on a map.
Comet wiped out early man?
New theory: A comet exploded over the northern hemisphere in 11,000 BCE, setting half of the planet on fire, wiping out the large mammals that populated much of the affected area, set back human civilization by centuries, and melted ice fields, which disrupted the Atlantic currents and subjected Europe and Asia to a millennium-long cold …
Climate change: A guide for the perplexed.
New Scientist debunks the 26 most common myths and misconceptions about global climate change, ranging from “It’s all a conspiracy” to “Polar bear numbers are increasing,” “The ‘hockey stick’ graph has been proven wrong” to “Global Warming is caused by the sun.” These myths are utterly wrong, and easily shown to be so.
Climate change accelerated.
Science Magazine: Climate change is occurring faster than forecast. Sea levels, for instance, are rising at 3.3mm annually, not the 2mm forecast by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This is particularly ironic in light of American conservatives complaining that the IPCC exaggerated the likely outcome when, in fact, it seems they were too optimistic.
Martian climate change.
Global climate change has warmed up Mars by 0.5°C in the past three decades though, interestingly, for completely different reasons that Earth has warmed by the same amount in the same period. Fierce winds on the red planet’s surface have filled the atmosphere with dust, creating a greenhouse effect.
Honeybees being killed by a fungus?
L.A. Times: The reason that honeybees are disappearing may well be a new fungus, but that’s just a hypothesis, like the idea that it could be radio waves.
None of this explains why the sky is blue.
Why are plants green? Because Earth was purple.