Just a Gwai Lo - fun within prescribed limits

Anti-green author dishonest, says scientific panel

The committee sums up the complaints: "Lomborg is accused of fabricating data, selectively and surreptitiously discarding unwanted results, of the deliberately misleading use of statistical methods, consciously distorted interpretation of the conclusions, plagiarisation of others' results or publications, and deliberate misrepresentation of others' results."

It is not quite so harsh in its own conclusions, accusing Prof Lomborg of not comprehending the science rather than deliberately intending to mislead or being grossly negligent. Nevertheless, it found, he was guilty of scientific dishonesty.

I find the about page of the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty to be...somewhat unsatisfying (you'll see why).

But nevermind that. I've actually read The Skeptical Environmentalist, and it comes across as at least a valid attempt at non-partisan debunking of 'environmentalism', in that he doesn't come across as the right-wing zealots who ridicule environmentalists without really attacking the substance. That said, I think he failed. He comes across as a used-car salesman: he over-sells what is really something that can be defended in more moderate terms. But Lomborg's book is not entirely useless: he is a statistics professor, and is not interested in appeals to emotion using over-inflated rhetoric, and seems able to spot statistics that either come out of thin air or are inflated from reputable sources (both types of statistic, naturally, he rejects). The book is disappointing because Lomborg does not have specialized training in the biological or chemical sciences, and although he does seem to have a grasp in his area of expertise, it's, well, not enough.

If there's any contribution that the book makes, it's that environmental doomsayers (and doomsayers in general) often have a very poor grasp of actual statistics to back up their claims, and makes the useful assumption that long-term trends are preferred over picking two points on the graph.

Link via Tina. It's probably about time I steal my links from someone else find my own damn links.