If any of us still needs a reminder of the sheer size of the online world, surely we get it on a regular basis by “discovering” Really Cool Sites that “everyone” else has known about for a while. Today that happened to me, in the form of Skeptical Science: Examining the science of global warming skepticism. From the site’s About page:
Skeptical Science was created by John Cook, an ex-physicist (majoring in solar physics at the University of Queensland). My interest in global warming began when I got into some discussions with a skeptical family member who handed me a speech by Senator Inhofe. It took little research to show his arguments were misleading and lacking in science.
Since then, I’ve scoured peer reviewed scientific literature in an attempt to penetrate the political agendas and cherry picking. I’ve noticed two patterns in global warming skepticism. Firstly, many reasons for disbelieving in anthropogenic global warming (AGW) seem to be political rather than scientific. Eg – it’s all a liberal plot to spread socialism and destroy capitalism (or sometimes just plain dislike for Al Gore). As one person put it, “the cheerleaders for doing something about global warming seem to be largely the cheerleaders for many causes of which I disapprove”.
Beneath the politics is a more elemental instinct – an aversion to alarmism. We’ve been burnt before. The media predicted an ice age in the 70′s which never eventuated. Y2K was going to destroy society – it was barely a hiccup. And I won’t deny there are alarmists in the global warming camp. Urgent cries that the ice sheets are on the verge of sliding into the sea. Or emotional pleas to save those cute little polar bears. Sadly, alarmists seem to be the loudest voices in the global warming debate. But that doesn’t change the science underneath.
So I ignore the distracting politics and ad hominem arguments. Instead, I concentrate on the science. And I noticed when the discussion did get to science, the same flawed skeptic argument continue to propogate through the blogosphere, Chinese whispers style. This website is an attempt to examine all the scientific arguments that reject AGW.
From what I’ve seen of John’s site so far, he’s true to his word and ignores the politics that envelopes climate change and instead sticks to the science. Very impressive.
One entry that I found particularly good: How to cherry pick your way to Antarctic land ice gain, which addresses the endless claims we’ve all seen recently that Antarctica is actually gaining ice.
And yes, he does offer an RSS feed, for all you news feed junkies.
