James Delingpole and Horizon's 'Science Under Attack'
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Sunday, February 6, 2011
Under: Science
James Delingpole is a Cilmate Sceptic who writes blogs for the Telegraph. He is politically and philosophically, and unashamedly, very right-wing. Unfortunately, this presupposition of the veracity of his political stance over and above his willingness to deal with real science, means that he has come to conclude (before properly assessing anything that remotely looks like evidence) that climate change is happening, certainly under the causal influences of man and man's activities.
Sir Paul Nurse, the new head of the Royal Society, does a really good job in making Delingpole look like a rank amateur (not hard, he is), a drivelling fool, and a cognitively dissonant ignoramus. These are harsh words, yes. But watching the blogger get tongue-tied, flapping in panic, as he is confronted with a simple analogy pointing out his untenable position, was one of the most pleasurable moments in weeks. He finally admits that he is not a scientist, but an 'interpreter of interpretations'. Should the Daily Telegraph allow someone to have an influential position vis a vis communicating science?
For anyone who has not seen it, the Horzon programme is a must see. There is an ever more worrying culture of doubt and mistrust in science, the scientific method and scientific data and conclusions.
I dare those same mistrusters to turn down the medicine given by their doctors for cancer, if they have the misfortune to get it; to abstain from using any household products (they are derived from good old-fashioned science); to doubt almost everything in their lives.
Science is here, and is vital. Don't turn your nose up at it because it concludes that humans might not be as good for the planet as we would like to be.
Sir Paul Nurse, the new head of the Royal Society, does a really good job in making Delingpole look like a rank amateur (not hard, he is), a drivelling fool, and a cognitively dissonant ignoramus. These are harsh words, yes. But watching the blogger get tongue-tied, flapping in panic, as he is confronted with a simple analogy pointing out his untenable position, was one of the most pleasurable moments in weeks. He finally admits that he is not a scientist, but an 'interpreter of interpretations'. Should the Daily Telegraph allow someone to have an influential position vis a vis communicating science?
For anyone who has not seen it, the Horzon programme is a must see. There is an ever more worrying culture of doubt and mistrust in science, the scientific method and scientific data and conclusions.
I dare those same mistrusters to turn down the medicine given by their doctors for cancer, if they have the misfortune to get it; to abstain from using any household products (they are derived from good old-fashioned science); to doubt almost everything in their lives.
Science is here, and is vital. Don't turn your nose up at it because it concludes that humans might not be as good for the planet as we would like to be.
In : Science