TOP 100 SCIENCE SITES
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| Leaked emails mark dangerous shift in climate denial strategy | Mark Lynas Instead of targeting high-profile science communicators, climate deniers are now encouraging mistrust of those who collect and interpret global warming dataThe theft and web publication by climate change deniers of private emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit is an extremely worrying development in the tortured politics of global warming.Although high-profile individuals have been targeted and unfairly vilified before 窶 Pennsylvania University's Michael Mann comes to mind, with his "hockey stick" palaeoclimate graph 窶 most of the ire of the denial movement has so far been reserved for big-hitters like Al Gore. Gore can take it. Politics is his job.But the "exposure" of private correspondence from a much larger group of scientists 窶 and the out-of-context quotation of certain sentences as "revealing" some hidden subterfuge 窶 suggests a dangerous shift in strategy. Instead of targeting the science communicators (myself included), the deniers are now declaring war on the scientists themselves. Like the creationists they unconsciously mimic, they make no distinction between the political and the scientific sphere 窶 it is open season in both.And the strategy is simple. Given that scientists are one of society's most trusted groups (unlike journalists or politicians), the climate denial movement has begun a battle to undermine public trust in climate scientists themselves. No more will the legions of anonymous researchers who collect and interpret data from meteorological stations, satellites and ice cores be considered above the fray 窶 they now run the risk of personal attacks, exposure of their private lives and vilification.It is important to understand the significance of this. Scientists are not politicians. They are not used to communicating publicly. They trust in their objectivity, the objectivity of their peers, and the rigour of only citing work published in learned journals. They will have private views, but are very used to keeping these out of their work 窶 indeed the entire scientific method is based on conducting research which can be replicated by peers in order to check its accuracy and objectivity.Like the 9/11 conspiracy theories before it, the global warming conspiracy is palpably absurd. The idea that scientists have teamed up with governments and the United Nations to foist some kind of social control project on an unwary public is laughable 窶 it would need conspiratorial activities involving thousands of people, for a start..None of this would matter if the public weren't fooled. But they are. Polls show climate "scepticism" is rising, perhaps even to a majority position, on both sides of the Atlantic. Presumably public trust in climate change scientists is falling commensurately. This will in turn undermine consensus in mitigating climate change 窶 which is of course the very intention of the deniers in the first place.Some of the scientists whose private emails have been exposed write for the blog RealClimate, where they argue that the revealed correspondence shows "no evidence of any worldwide conspiracy ... no admission that global warming is a hoax, no evidence of the falsifying of data" and so on. But as George Marshall, a writer on climate change who specialises in the psychology of denial on the issue, puts it: "This is hardly the point. This is an orchestrated smear campaign and does not require balance or context."If the lesson for scientists is that the era when they can practice their trade entirely separately from the rest of society is well and truly over, the lesson for environmentalists is equally harsh. Having spent years (once again, myself included) reminding the public of the horrifying potential consequences of climate change, and demanding major lifestyle change on the part of ordinary people, it seems that our message is not just falling on deaf ears 窶 but may even be counterproductive.We have to start accentuating the positive, rather than constantly invoking apocalypse. Getting off fossil fuels is a necessity, but that does not mean that people's lives must be made harder or more austere. Forget all the "war economy" analogies, locally grown jam and appeals to save old clothes. Our message needs to be a forward-looking one of hope, prosperity and technological progress.We also have to stop trying to make people feel guilty. No, flying isn't analogous to child abuse. Polar bears won't drop from the sky. Constantly accusing normal people of immoral behaviour is perhaps a way to get noticed, but not a clever way to win converts. And the normal people in question, upset at being accused of killing babies every time they step onto Ryanair, will be very susceptible to the first conspiracy theorist who whispers in their ear: "Don't worry, it's not true."Climate change scepticismClimate changeClimate changeMark Lynasguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Early bird was a total lightweight Palaeontologists delighted to discover 213m-year-old remains of feathered meat-eater that retain intact air sacs in their bonesThe remains of a two-legged meat-eating predator that roamed the Earth at the dawn of dinosaurs have been uncovered in an ancient bone bed by fossil hunters.The feathered beast, named Tawa hallae, was the size of a large dog and sported a long neck and tail, a slender snout, and sharp, curved teeth to catch and kill its prey.Palaeontologists unearthed several skeletons belonging to Tawa hallae during an excavation at the Hayden quarry in northern New Mexico. The remains are more than 213m years old, placing the creature at the foot of tree of dinosaur evolution.The species is one of the earliest known therapods, the group of dinosaurs that includes birds, velociraptors and Tyrannosaurus rex.The most complete skeleton belongs to a juvenile that stood around 70cm tall at the hips and measured two metres from snout to tail.The dinosaurs emerged in the late triassic period, around 230m years ago and became the dominant land-dwelling vertebrates for the next 160m years. "It's very rare to have known this much about a single dinosaur during the early time of dinosaur evolution," said Sterling Nesbitt, a palaeontologist at the University of Texas in Austin.The dinosaur lived at a time when the world's land mass was a single vast supercontinent called Pangea. This later broke up into the separate continents we see today.The animals' remains are in such good condition palaeontologists suspect they were buried very soon after dying. Examination of the fossils revealed air-filled sacs in the bones, a feature that links the dinosaurs with the evolution of birds much later."When we saw them, our jaws dropped. A lot of these theropods have really hollow bones, so when they get preserved, they get really crunched. But these were in almost perfect condition," Nesbitt said.Analysis of the fossils from New Mexico suggest Tawa hallae may have originated in what is now South America and crossed Pangea to the region that is now North America, according to a report in the journal, Science."This new dinosaur Tawa hallae changes our understanding of the relationships of early dinosaurs and provides fantastic insight into the evolution of the skeleton of the first carnivorous dinosaurs," said Randall Irmis, a co-author on the study from the Utah Museum of Natural History.DinosaursArchaeologyUnited StatesIan Sampleguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Dam barra grow twice as fast: study A study has found barramundi in Queensland's freshwater dams grow twice as fast as wild barramundi. abc.net.au |
Egypt: New find shows slaves didn't build pyramids CAIRO (AP) -- Egypt displayed on Monday newly discovered tombs more than 4,000 years old and said they belonged to people who worked on the Great Pyramids of Giza, presenting the discovery as more evidence that slaves did not build the ancient monuments.... hosted.ap.org |
Arctic terns take break en route south for winter WASHINGTON (AP) -- Arctic terns heading south for the winter like to take a break for a few days off the coast of Newfoundland.... hosted.ap.org |