First Yellow Journalism, Now Yellow Science

From The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition: Commonsense About Climate Change comes an article by James Kerian called "Yellow Science". The first two paragraphs explain the term:

In the late 19th century, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer developed what would come to be known as yellow journalism. By disregarding what had been standard journalistic methods, particularly in regards to the verifying of sources, these two publishers were able both to push their country toward war with Spain and dramatically increase the circulation of their respective newspapers.

Man has always had a healthy desire for knowledge, and it is the feeding of this hunger that ennobles journalism. Hearst and Pulitzer were acutely aware that man has a less healthy but no less voracious desire to believe that he has knowledge, particularly knowledge of something sensational. It is the feeding of this hunger that irreparably disgraced journalism, and a century later now threatens to do the same to science.

The article itself has a lot to say about the unscientific methods used to promote global warming and create a climate of fear among people so that those pushing global warming can push through their agendas, which will damage economies and production of all kinds around the world. The final paragraph is blunt, but true:

The long-term results of yellow journalism have probably been more devastating than the war it started. Journalists have lost the respectability of their profession, and the public has lost real journalism. We are in very real danger, as scientists and as a nation, of losing the respectability of a professional community that has done so much to make this country great in the past hundred years. If yellow science overcomes real science it will not only be on account of the greed, ambition, and cowardice of our scientists but also the sloth and cowardice of a public that is unwilling to stand up and demand professionalism. This is why, as the editors of the New York Press said in 1897, I "called them yellow because they are yellow."

I recommend reading the entire article. It will give you something to consider carefully. For an excellent additional source of information, try "Editorial: The Great Global Warming Hoax?" by James A. Peden. It's informative as well as fun to read, although the science may make your head spin a bit!

The Encyclopedia of Life Has a Lot More Content Now

The Encyclopedia of Life has had a website up for a year or more with minimal content (6 demonstration pages), but now they have 25 complete pages, about 30,000 partial pages, and a million or so minimal pages. If you had given up on them ever getting more up, now is the time to go explore! You can register for free and the encyclopedia is meant to always be free, to provide information about all life on earth to everyone everywhere. Lots of interesting stuff there now and to come in the future. It's scheduled for completion in 2017.

If you register, you can sign up to get their quarterly newsletter in your email. They are having a contest to name the newsletter. Also, later this year, they plan to make it possible for anyone to contribute photos and content to be reviewed for inclusion. This is a great site for anyone interested in science and nature and for anyone taking classes along those lines. Kids will enjoy learning more about common plants and animals they see around their homes or getting information for school.

I know I sound like an advertisement, but I have no connection to the encyclopedia except as an interested reader. I just think that it'll be a fascinating place to learn.

Fun and Interesting Websites

I love to learn about anything and everything. Learning about the things in nature is especially fascinating and so I am sharing some links with you about insects, birds, and various other things that are fun to learn about.

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Insects

geology.com

Tom Campbell's Amateur Astronomy

Archaeology Info (This site is pro-evolution, but has lots of information about archaeology.)

Noble Plant Image Gallery

Birding, Birdwatching, and Wild Birds at About.com

"Fish" at Wikipedia

Northeast Fisheries Science Center (a fun page of FAQs about fish and other aquatic life)

USDA Plants Database

Botany.com The Encyclopedia of Plants, Gardening, and Botanical Dictionary

An Illustrated Herbal (I'm not recommending any medicinal use--this is just an interesting site to read)

Well, that's enough links to keep you busy for a long time! It's just so interesting to learn to identify fish, plants, birds, and insects. There are lots of fascinating, little known facts about them. The Botany.com site seemed to have lots of gardening information, too, which should be helpful for those with a place to grow things.

Global Warming Again

You may or may not be tired of hearing about global warming, but this is an important issue because many politicians and other leaders are trying to use the hysteria they have created to grab power and money.

At Jewish World Review Dr. Walter Williams writes a column called "Global Warming Hysteria". As usual, Dr. Williams cuts to the chase and also tells you where you can find some good information:

There's an excellent booklet available from the National Center for Policy Analysis (ncpa.org) titled "A Global Warming Primer." Some of its highlights are:

"Over long periods of time, there is no close relationship between CO2 levels and temperature."

"Humans contribute approximately 3.4 percent of annual CO2 levels" compared to 96.6 percent by nature.

"There was an explosion of life forms 550 million years ago (Cambrian Period) when CO2 levels were 18 times higher than today. During the Jurassic Period, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, CO2 levels were as much as nine times higher than today."

What about public school teachers frightening little children with tales of cute polar bears dying because of global warming? The primer says, "Polar bear numbers increased dramatically from around 5,000 in 1950 to as many as 25,000 today, higher than any time in the 20th century." The primer gives detailed sources for all of its findings, and it supplies us with information we can use to stop politicians and their environmental extremists from doing a rope-a-dope on us.

Here's a link to the National Center for Policy Analysis. And here is a link to "A Global Warming Primer". Enjoy.

Environmental Hysteria

I've found an interesting article at FrontPage Magazine called "Hysteria's History: Environmental Alarmism in Context" by Amy Kaleita, Ph.D., with Gregory R. Forbes. It's a 30-page pdf file, but well worth your time to read. In it, Dr. Kaleita reviews the various alarmist predictions about the environment and how they have proven to be inaccurate. She also writes about some of the bad policies that have been enacted due to alarmism and the damage those policies have done.

Here is a sample quote from page 11:

Alarmists consistently ignore or deny the ability of humans to learn, grow, and advance socially and technologically. Swiss biochemist Ehrenfried Pfeiffer clearly states this alarmist view: “Production, rationalization and technicalization have reached a ‘saturation.’ They can not be increased.”21

Yet time and time again we see agricultural production records being broken. Human ingenuity and scientific advances help us better manage our acres and plant higher-yielding varieties that are drought, pest, and disease resistant. Every continent has seen an increase in yield in the last 40 years—with, of course, localized differences. Crop yield worldwide has increased for every commodity type, including fruit by 31 percent, rice by 63 percent, vegetables by 37 percent, and wheat by 148 percent.22

This is an interesting article with some good information. We definitely need to consider more than just the writings of the mainstream media when figuring out what policies to enact and what to avoid.

Oil is also a topic covered in this article. Here is a sample quote from page 12:

In 1971, proven oil reserves were at 521 billion gallons; in 2006, they were at 1,290 billion gallons.37 The Cambridge Energy Research Association (CERA) has predicted that petroleum supplies will actually grow faster than demand until 2010.38 Oil production and reserve levels have not yet dropped and are not likely to drop; supply constraints, where they exist, are issues of investment, geopolitics, and infrastructure.

Concern about energy supplies is widespread and certainly needs to be considered. It just needs to be considered with facts and not with alarmist predictions.

All in all, this is a good article for those concerned about the various aspects of the environment.

Space

I've been battling the flu or something this past week, and I just don't feel up to a full-fledged post. However, here is a link to Space.com where you can enjoy news, science, technology, and pictures about the skies above our heads. Enjoy.

Mid-Summer Thoughts

It is mid-July already. Where does the time go?

It isn't raining today in Oklahoma City. A few days ago, we surpassed our normal yearly average rainfall. Needless to say, there are flooding problems here and there around the state. I feel sorry about that--it can be really hard on people, whether their home is flooded or the road to their home is washed out. Some of the campgrounds around lakes had to be closed because they are flooded. It's a mess in places, but we did need to recover from drought. Nothing is ever easy, is it?

I have been reading an assortment of books--mostly about nature and about writing--lately. I expect to get my book for the next insurance class next week and will have less time for other reading for awhile once it arrives. I hadn't taken a class/test for quite awhile, so this last class was a bit of a warm-up for me--thankfully, it covered a lot of material that I was already somewhat familiar with.

I still feel like my self-education is somewhat scattered. I need to set some priorities, but everything is so interesting to me!

Natural History

Natural history is a fascinating topic in and of itself. When you can read essays and articles from many years ago, it increases in fascination--what has remained true and what has been found to be in error?

Online you can go to Natural History Magazine and read not only current articles here, but also articles from the early 20th century here. There are a couple of articles, for example, by Theodore Roosevelt. For some reason, I can't link to individual articles, but the link to articles from the early 20th century will bring up a page listing a number of them.

Some additional reading from the past is found at Bartleby. Here is a link to the "Scientific Papers" page, with articles by Michael Faraday and Lord Kelvin, among others. The "Voyages and Travels" page has writings from Herodotus to Sir Walter Raleigh. The nonfiction page offers writings from Charles Darwin, Theodore Roosevelt, and others on various topics, some on science and nature.

You can also seek out literary journals such as Isotope, put out by Utah State University, for literary science and nature writing. A click on the "Samples" button will take you to the archives where a few pieces are available for reading online. There are blogs, too, such as Science Musings by Chet Raymo.

Reading about science and nature is a pleasing way to spend a little time and to further your appreciation of the world around us. Check your local library for books, as well as doing searches online to find sources of reading material, current and past. Also, see my posts here at Writing Blog and here at By Study and Also by Faith, my other blogs, for more on this topic. Enjoy your exploring!