The Truth About All Those Science Scare Stories

[Matty1973]

From a new book "Global Warming And Other --------: The Truth About All Those Science Scare Stories, by Prof Stanley Feldman and Prof Vincent Marks"

The 'truth' is:

Global Warming - not caused by man

CO2 levels - currently quite low

Polar Bears - doing well

Gulf Stream - no danger of it moving

Maldives - not sinking (in fact seas levels are dropping!)

Hamburgers - good for you

Organic Food - no better for you

Salt - no need to cut back

Mercury Fillings - no problem


The only ones I would agree with are the Organic Food and Mercury Fillings myths, but this is not really based on any definite knowledge. Does anyone have any views on the rest? Should these professors be taken seriously?

Source including a few more truths: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/5599916/Polar-Bears-are-not-dying-out-say-scientists-in-book-on-popular-scare-stories.html

[godless dave]

The organic food one is correct as far as it goes, but it's sort of a straw man. The appeal of organic food to most proponents is, primarily, that it is better for the environment and, secondarily, better for the farm economy.

[Cavemonster]

If there are actual peer reviewed studies in reputable journals that back up their claims, then yes, they would be worth looking at.

Without such studies, I'd file it away under typical anti-environmentalist bull----.

[Robster, FCD]

Organic food, mercury and salt (for most people) are correct. Burgers are ok in moderation and I'm far more worried about a nasty strain of E. coli than mad cow... The rest of it is complete baloney.

Mmmmmm baloney.....

[arthwollipot]

A proper hamburger is full of salad and fresh vegetables. So long as it is part of a balanced diet, there's no real problem.

[Safe-Keeper]

Meat, bread, vegetables... sounds like a good meal to me. This, though:

Global Warming - not caused by man

CO2 levels - currently quite low

Polar Bears - doing well

Gulf Stream - no danger of it movingUgh.

[shadron]

I believe that there are sufficient threads covering the aspects of global warming. What surprises me is that they don't vindicate Veliskovsky or try disconnecting AIDS from HIV. I thought those were sort-of de rigueur.

BTW, the book is in pre-publication. The authors look to have, at first glance, pretty good UK credentials, except that they're both in the medical industry, nowhere near climatology. The word left out of the title above is Bollocks.

Excerpts (with howlers and added comments in brackets italicized by myself) from the story:


The Sun is behind Global Warming
Rather than man-made CO2 being responsible for global warming, they argue that there is evidence it is caused in part by the increase in the intensity of the Sun's heat. [It's been done, shown to be wrong.]
CO2 levels
Although the level of CO2 is higher than the "pre-industrial" level – today it is about 0.038 per cent of the atmosphere, compared to 0.02 per cent [a doubling isn't important?], carbon dioxide levels have often been as much as 10 times higher than they are today.[They haven't been higher than today, at all, in the last 800,000 years, at a minimum. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7193/fig_tab/nature06949_F2.html ]
Polar bears and penguins are not dying out
Most populations of polar bear are doing well. Despite the melting in the Arctic ice cap, numbers have more than doubled since 1950. They are also good swimmers. [true enough; so are moose.] Although some Antarctic penguin colonies are decreasing in size, their numbers are also steady.
The Gulf Stream is not under threat
The Gulf Stream is as strong as ever, and getting warmer [and...?]. There is no evidence to suggest the Arctic ice melting is pushing it further south.
Global warming might be good for us: Warmer climate and an increase in CO2 could be good for farming and agriculture. Less severe winters will also allow more crops to be grown. [Perhaps they just mean in England. Riviera on the Thames, again.]Essentially, same old, same old.

[Wudang]

They also wrote "Panic Nation" which is largely about health and food scares in the press. What I did check up, in so far I understood it, seemed reasonable. And they got a lot of experts in to contribute on certain topics such as salt in diet etc.
However, reading up on this latest I get a feeling "Well, that was easy. Let's debunk some more but this in areas we know nothing about". And it's not clear that they have cast the same wide net of expertise as last time.

[Ysidro]

A proper hamburger is full of salad and fresh vegetables. So long as it is part of a balanced diet, there's no real problem.

I know what I'm doing for lunch!

[Robster, FCD]

A proper hamburger is full of salad and fresh vegetables. So long as it is part of a balanced diet, there's no real problem.

My hamburgers are not proper, then, but barbaric and thuggish things. Some onions, maybe? Crisp fresh lettice put on seconds before eating it so it doesn't wilt? But it also needs sharp cheese and dill pickles.