Today a federal judge threw out portions of the federal government’s plan to protect several fish species, including some salmon and steelhead in California, under the Endangered Species Act for the second time. The Fresno Bee reports: U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger invalidated parts of the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service’s so-called biological opinion, calling […]
Archive | Politicizing Science
Bachmann Embraces Irresponsible Anti-Vaccine Views
By Jonathan H. Adler on September 13, 2011 12:35 pm in Junk Science and Quackspertise, Politicizing Science
Going on the offensive against Texas Governor Rick Perry for issuing an executive mandate that young girls receive a vaccine against HPV, Rep. Michele Bachman embraced the fringe (and thoroughly discredited) claim that vaccination can cause mental retardation. Details here and here. It is understandable that a parent whose child experiences difficulties will be distraught […]
Unnatural Corn Class Action
Grist reports on a class-action suit that is being filed against ConAgra for allegedly deceptive marketing of its various vegetable oils. The core of the complaint seems to be that some ConAgra products, such as Wesson corn oil, are labeled as “100% natural” even though they contain oil from genetically modified corn. If something comes […]
An Inconvenient Truth: Christie Is Right on Climate
Until last week, many conservatives considered New Jersey Governor Chris Christie a hero. Some were even clamoring for him to enter the presidential race. Now, however, some of the same conservatives are branding him a heretic, even as he embraces policy decisions they support. What’s going on? Last week, Christie vetoed legislation that would have […]
Unchain Agricultural Biotechnology
Population growth and climate change demand increases in agricultural productivity — increases that can only be achieved through the use of modern biotechnology. Yet excessive and scientifically unjustified regulatory restrictions hamper the development of more productive crop strains, particularly where they are needed most. So argues Penn State biology professor Nina Federoff in today’s NYT, […]
Global Warming Could Trigger Alien Attack
The Guardian reports on a scenario analysis conducted by several scientists considering possible scenarios resulting from contact with alien life forms. The analysis covers many basic scenarios, such as basic communication or the possibility of disease transmission from physical contact, but also suggests global warming could give aliens an excuse to attack. The authors warn […]
Utter Climate Ignorance
I have my share of disagreements with Jonathan Zasloff, particularly on matters of environmental law and policy (see, e.g., here), but his attack on Fox News’ alleged climate “expert” Joe Bastardi hits the mark. There are reasonable bases upon which to question some aspects of global warming, including some of the more dire computer model […]
Exaggerating Species Extinction
By Jonathan H. Adler on May 19, 2011 10:45 am in Endangered Species, Environment, Politicizing Science
A new paper in Nature has sparked a firestorm of debate over species extinction rates. The paper, by two ecologists, shows how the use of the species-area curve produces inflated projections of species extinction rates. As an accompanying article in Nature explains: The most common method of predicting extinction rates relies on the species–area curve, […]
Endangered Species Science
By Jonathan H. Adler on May 4, 2011 11:58 pm in Endangered Species, Environment, Politicizing Science
Yesterday I appeared on NPR’s Dianne Rehm Show to discuss the Endangered Species Act. The show was prompted by Congressional passage of a budget rider removing gray wolves in the northern Rockies from the endangered species list. This was the first time Congress ordered a species delisted, and prompted complaints that Congress was intruding […]
The UN’s 50 Million Missing Refugees
In 2005, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) predicted that there would be 50 million refugees in 2010 due to climate change. An enterprising reporter wondered what happened to UNEP’s prediction, and found that those areas UNEP claimed were most at risk have actually gained population. How did UNEP respond? According to Anthony Watts, UNEP […]
State Geologist Told to Shut the Frack Up
Ronald Bailey reports that the New York State Department of Education is muzzling the state’s “top geologist,” Langhorne “Taury” Smith, because he dared to question environmentalist attacks on the use of hydraulic fracturing (aka “fracking”) to extract natural gas from shale deposits. This prompted a green backlash which, in turn, cause the state education department […]
Independent Assessment Finds Warming Too
The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project was launched to conduct a re-evaluation of the surface temperature record in order to resolve persistent debate over the reliability of prior analyses and provide an open record that could form the basis for future scientific research. The effort is led by several respected scientists, including UC Berkeley physicist […]
Evolution Still Undertaught
By Jonathan H. Adler on February 8, 2011 8:46 am in Junk Science and Quackspertise, Politicizing Science
The NYT summarizes a new report in Science that finds a majority of high school biology teachers skimp on their teaching of evolution to avoid controversy and a sizable percentage explicitly teach creationism. One of the study’s authors believes the answer is more and better science education for teachers. “Students are being cheated out of […]
If You Don’t Understand Science, It’s Best to Shut Up
By Jonathan H. Adler on January 30, 2011 11:17 am in Junk Science and Quackspertise, Politicizing Science
This recent TV performance by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) is quite embarrassing. The worst part is, I doubt he’s embarrassed by it.
Salon Sanitizes the Record
By Jonathan H. Adler on January 17, 2011 4:32 pm in Junk Science and Quackspertise, Politicizing Science
Salon has withdrawn a 2005 article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (aka “America’s Most Irresponsible Public Figure®“) alleging a link between vaccines and autism. The article, co-published with Rolling Stone, had an “explosive premise,” according to Salon‘s editors. Too bad it was scientifically bogus and completely irresponsible. Salon was forced to publish several corrections to the article, […]