It’s been confirmed: nuclear power makes you stupid.
* Chernobyl’s Subclinical Legacy: Prenatal Exposure to Radioactive Fallout and School Outcomes in Sweden. “Students born in regions of Sweden with higher fallout performed worse in secondary school, in mathematics in particular. …our findings suggest that cognitive ability is compromised at radiation doses currently considered harmless.” http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/124/4/1729.short
Peter, thanks for posting this. I have been reading Paul and Anna Ehrlich’s 1996 book, “Betrayal of Science and Reason” and am preparing a number of posts on it; including ‘Who needs the EPA anyway’, which I will have to link to this!
Well. A shy start dealing with ‘hydraulic fracturing’ (fracking). GASLAND should give you a bit of a clue what it means. It’s the tar sand of the gas extraction.
GOP science goes something like this.
“Al Gore is fat and flys around in a big aeroplane, so global warming isn’t real.”
I believe that global warming could be the issue that defeats the GOP in 2012. The science free party.
California GOP congressman Rohrbacher suggests trees cause global warming
Speaker of the House Boehner says CO2 emissions are nothing to worry about because humans breathe CO2 in and out. Brilliant.
Michelle Bachman says there have been no scientific studies showing CO2 is harmful.
I guess she missed the ~10,000 (up to about 2006) published research papers behind the IPCC’s 2007 4th Assessment Report
GOP Rep Fred Upton says there can be no global warming because God won’t allow it to happen.
And of course Sen Inhofe says its all a big hoax.
Sure Senator, the entire world scientific community is just trying to get more grant money.
Barton and Inhofe get more oil money than any other legislators, in the House and Senate, respectively.
Minnestota GOP state senator, Michael Jungbauer, claims to have studied all 13 fields of science related to climate change. Just so you know, no climate scientist would make such a claim.
He’s the leading climate change denier in the Minnestota state senate. It turns out that he has not even a bachelor degree in any field of science.
Christopher Monckton has no scientific background, his only higher education being in journalism. Yet, he is Chief Policy Adviser at the Science and Public Policy Institute a global warming skeptics group.
This is who Republicans brought to a U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing as an expert witness, in 2008.
Energy and Commerce Committee Minority Ranking Member Joe Barton (R-TX) referred to Monckton, in his opening remarks, – as being “generally regarded as one of the most knowledgeable, if not the most knowledgeable, experts on the skeptic side”.
Global warming is not a matter of popular opinion, its a matter of science. Monckton is an activist, not a scientist. And what he claims is science isn’t. He is known to make completely absurd claims, like that industrialization helps the environment and that global warming will be beneficial.
And then, in May 2010, U.S House Republicans chose Monckton as their only expert witness for a hearing at the Select Committee On Energy Independence and Global Warming.
One of Inhofe’s star witnesses at Senate committee hearings, that he chaired, was science fiction writer Michael Crichton.
Apparently, Inhofe can’t distinguish between science and science fiction.
Inhofe and Barton get more oil money than anyone else in congress.
That is indeed a scary list of gross stupidity and ignorance. If I had to choose the worst one, it would be Boehner’s suggestion that “CO2 emissions are nothing to worry about because humans breathe CO2 in [and oxygen out?]…” because it manages to conflate the problems of climate change and overpopulation (and could even be used to argue that we need yet more people rather than less).
“I believe that global warming could be the issue that defeats the GOP in 2012…” I’ll drink to that!
[…] for next year’s US Presidential campaign seem to be engaged in a race to the bottom – to see who can promise to jettison the most environmental legislation. In this context, Paul and Anne Ehrlich’s 1996 book, The Betrayal of Science and Reason: How […]
November 30, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Off-topic.
It’s been confirmed: nuclear power makes you stupid.
* Chernobyl’s Subclinical Legacy: Prenatal Exposure to Radioactive Fallout and School Outcomes in Sweden. “Students born in regions of Sweden with higher fallout performed worse in secondary school, in mathematics in particular. …our findings suggest that cognitive ability is compromised at radiation doses currently considered harmless.” http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/124/4/1729.short
November 30, 2011 at 3:34 pm
Peter, thanks for posting this. I have been reading Paul and Anna Ehrlich’s 1996 book, “Betrayal of Science and Reason” and am preparing a number of posts on it; including ‘Who needs the EPA anyway’, which I will have to link to this!
November 30, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Thanks for posting, I watched it, but then could not refer others too it.
December 1, 2011 at 1:59 pm
what happens when you refer others?
December 1, 2011 at 4:07 am
Well. A shy start dealing with ‘hydraulic fracturing’ (fracking). GASLAND should give you a bit of a clue what it means. It’s the tar sand of the gas extraction.
Also => Fracking Hell: The Untold Story
December 1, 2011 at 4:08 am
BTW, France has banned fracking this year.
December 1, 2011 at 6:55 am
GOP science goes something like this.
“Al Gore is fat and flys around in a big aeroplane, so global warming isn’t real.”
I believe that global warming could be the issue that defeats the GOP in 2012. The science free party.
California GOP congressman Rohrbacher suggests trees cause global warming
Speaker of the House Boehner says CO2 emissions are nothing to worry about because humans breathe CO2 in and out. Brilliant.
Michelle Bachman says there have been no scientific studies showing CO2 is harmful.
I guess she missed the ~10,000 (up to about 2006) published research papers behind the IPCC’s 2007 4th Assessment Report
GOP Rep Fred Upton says there can be no global warming because God won’t allow it to happen.
And of course Sen Inhofe says its all a big hoax.
Sure Senator, the entire world scientific community is just trying to get more grant money.
Barton and Inhofe get more oil money than any other legislators, in the House and Senate, respectively.
Minnestota GOP state senator, Michael Jungbauer, claims to have studied all 13 fields of science related to climate change. Just so you know, no climate scientist would make such a claim.
He’s the leading climate change denier in the Minnestota state senate. It turns out that he has not even a bachelor degree in any field of science.
Christopher Monckton has no scientific background, his only higher education being in journalism. Yet, he is Chief Policy Adviser at the Science and Public Policy Institute a global warming skeptics group.
This is who Republicans brought to a U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing as an expert witness, in 2008.
Energy and Commerce Committee Minority Ranking Member Joe Barton (R-TX) referred to Monckton, in his opening remarks, – as being “generally regarded as one of the most knowledgeable, if not the most knowledgeable, experts on the skeptic side”.
Global warming is not a matter of popular opinion, its a matter of science. Monckton is an activist, not a scientist. And what he claims is science isn’t. He is known to make completely absurd claims, like that industrialization helps the environment and that global warming will be beneficial.
And then, in May 2010, U.S House Republicans chose Monckton as their only expert witness for a hearing at the Select Committee On Energy Independence and Global Warming.
One of Inhofe’s star witnesses at Senate committee hearings, that he chaired, was science fiction writer Michael Crichton.
Apparently, Inhofe can’t distinguish between science and science fiction.
Inhofe and Barton get more oil money than anyone else in congress.
December 1, 2011 at 9:20 am
That is indeed a scary list of gross stupidity and ignorance. If I had to choose the worst one, it would be Boehner’s suggestion that “CO2 emissions are nothing to worry about because humans breathe CO2 in [and oxygen out?]…” because it manages to conflate the problems of climate change and overpopulation (and could even be used to argue that we need yet more people rather than less).
“I believe that global warming could be the issue that defeats the GOP in 2012…” I’ll drink to that!
December 1, 2011 at 5:46 pm
December 2, 2011 at 12:13 am
[…] for next year’s US Presidential campaign seem to be engaged in a race to the bottom – to see who can promise to jettison the most environmental legislation. In this context, Paul and Anne Ehrlich’s 1996 book, The Betrayal of Science and Reason: How […]