scyllacat: (Default)
scyllacat ([personal profile] scyllacat) wrote2010-08-16 12:44 pm

Now, This is what I call News

Two former Global Warming skeptics have reversed their position.  Since they're both meteorologists, I am going to spend some time reading up on them later, and what convinced them, and why they previously felt that way.

I only started to get interested in whether this was real science (as in actually happening, not theoretically how it would work) when I heard a story on NPR about how David Koch had funded dozens of slanted studies to deny global warming--a sufficient number of different studies, panels, committees, and organizations that any reasonable person might conclude that uninterested, unconnected groups were coming to unbiased conclusions.

But I expect that if I have any conservative friends left, they will be happy to tell me about the lefty conspiracy to send us back to the Stone Age.

No, really, guys.  I'm going to go talk to the scientists. 

[identity profile] martinhesselius.livejournal.com 2010-08-16 05:58 pm (UTC)(link)

No, really, guys. I'm going to go talk to the scientists.

I like this.

Peer review -- is it fallible?
Certainly, just like anything else human.
But I do think it's a far better thing than blind guesswork. ^_^

[identity profile] nausved.livejournal.com 2010-08-16 11:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Google Scholar is a good source for abstracts—not whole articles so much, but they still give you the gist of the research's outcome. That's an excellent place to start if you want to get a general idea where the scientific community stands without a news media filter. Prepare to familiarize yourself with some jargon, however.