Weird Science

"It is hard to convey just how selective you have to be to dismiss the evidence for climate change," writes George Monbiot. He traces a claim by botanist David Bellamy, that the world's glaciers "are not shrinking but in fact are growing." The World Glacier Monitoring Service verified to Monbiot that "most of the world's glaciers are retreating." Monbiot tracks Bellamy's claim to a self-published book by a "former architect," then to a Lyndon LaRouche-associated magazine, then to online mentions by climate change skeptic Professor Fred Singer, the Cooler Heads Coalition and National Center for Public Policy Research, among others. Singer cites a 1989 Science article, which, according to Monbiot, doesn't exist. Finally, Bellamy misrepresented his faulty source, due to a typing error. The UK Times also reports on bad science - a study funded by Dow Chemical Company claiming their employees have "favourable mortality patterns" compared to the general population, despite high incidences of "an asbestos-related lung cancer."