"Indisputable Facts" By Jeff Nesbit

[applegrove]

Indisputable Facts

By Jeff Nesbit at US News

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/at-the-edge/2013/10/11/indisputable-facts

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After the predictable uproar in the blogosphere, Thornton took a second bite of the apple. "As for letters on climate change, we do get plenty from those who deny global warming," he wrote in a follow up piece Oct. 8 to explain his decision. "And to say they 'deny' it might be an understatement: Many say climate change is a hoax, a scheme by liberals to curtail personal freedom.

"Before going into some detail about why these letters don't make it into our pages, I'll concede that, aside from my easily passing the Advanced Placement biology exam in high school, my science credentials are lacking. I'm no expert when it comes to our planet's complex climate processes or any scientific field. Consequently, when deciding which letters should run among hundreds on such weighty matters as climate change, I must rely on the experts – in other words, those scientists with advanced degrees who undertake tedious research and rigorous peer review.

"And those scientists have provided ample evidence that human activity is indeed linked to climate change. Just last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change –a body made up of the world's top climate scientists –said it was 95 percent certain that we fossil-fuel-burning humans are driving global warming. The debate right now isn't whether this evidence exists (clearly, it does) but what this evidence means for us.

"Simply put, I do my best to keep errors of fact off the letters page; when one does run, a correction is published," Thornton concluded. "Saying 'there's no sign humans have caused climate change' is not stating an opinion, it's asserting a factual inaccuracy."

Meanwhile, the editors of Popular Science magazine have taken an even bigger step. They've chosen to stop publishing comments to their science-based articles altogether because, they wrote, there is clear social science evidence that efforts to jam public comment sections with lies, distortions and falsehoods affects readers' ability to separate fact from fiction about the content of articles.



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