Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Yahoo Answers, a platform for attacking SkepticalScience.com ?

I'll admit I have seldom used Yahoo Answers but yesterday I stumbled on something upsetting and since they have decreed the "Answer (has been) Resolved" they won't let me reply to Billy's question.

But since Billy so perfectly reflects the increasingly shrill paranoid tone of folks who feel we should ignore what the science of climatology is teaching us, I’ll unburden myself here.  First Billy’s comment:

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Is skeptical science a propaganda site? 
I have been linked their many times by the community and it seems one sided, it does nothing but debunk all credible independent scientists work+ it completely toots the horn of the IPCC song sheet. John Cook is the creator and he is an advisor to rothschild australia who controls australias carbon market. Its hard for me to except considering my research has uncovered a huge rothschild connection and he is an advisor for their board which handles the cap+trade and carbon tax market in australia. You think im lying, go look up and see who is handling the carbon market in australia.       [signed Billy]
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Billy’s Rothschild charge is a red herring since by his own admission (in his first response) he don’t know what or if there is any connection.  ‘John belonged to a think tank that did some research, back when, that Rothschild used, etc., etc.‘ Yet in typical denialist fashion Billy morphs that vague few ‘degrees removed’ connection into “John is an advisor to Rothschild.” 

Then Billy cries “Credible Independent Research” gets ignored or debunked.  Well to begin with Billy's “Credible Independent Research” is sort of an oxymoron.  If the CIR can not stand up to the community of skilled scientists, it’s because they are laced with flaws.  CIRers are also constantly “disproving” Einstein’s theories, but they get ignored for a reason!

Independent Research done in the vacuum of Think Tanks dedicated to refuting the scientific understanding is like a fiction novel, where any fact can be adjusted to fit the plot of the story.  But, it’s fiction just the same and never stands up to real life.

SkepticalScience.com reports on the actual science.  It is a teaching tool.  It supports all of it’s assertions with links to the real scientific sources.  It has fascinating on-point discussions following all their posts, where CIRers constantly present their side of the story.  It can’t be helped that they are constantly shown to be filled with errors and flaws.  That’s how science works, that’s also how Mr. Cook’s SkS website works. 

SkS also goes to lengths to examine and discuss the works of the few legitimate climate scientists who continue to contest the general understanding. The fact that those few contrarian studies constantly flunk the acid test should tell you something.

Instead folks like Billy rather think it’s all part of a grand conspiracy, instead embracing the workings of a few agenda focused “think tanks” funded by a few very rich, extremist, dedicated to their own interests Über Alles.

In closing, Billy before attacking John Cook look around and come to grips with the scandalous behavior in your own backyard.

1 comment:

citizenschallenge said...

Speaking of the scandalous behavior of the organized denialist crowd.
How about that DenialGate?
Funny how it’s not being blasted all over the headlines.
But it isn’t going unnoticed, check it out:


http://www.skepticalscience.com/denialgate-highlights-heartlands-selective-nipcc-science.html

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2008/11/not-the-ipcc-nipcc-report/

http://www.skepticalscience.com/denialgate-heartland.html