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Sunday, August 8, 2010

Bjorn Lomborg's copious errors!!!

Bjorn Lomborg's many, many errors!
Check out the website shown below:

THIS IS THE LOMBORG-ERRORS WEB SITE
       Bjørn Lomborg is a well-known personality in the environmental debate. He is the author of several books which, due to their copious lists of notes and references, appear very technical and scientific and therefore trustworthy. Unfortunately, those reading his books or listening to his lectures are rarely aware that the facts and statements presented by Lomborg are not reliable. They are systematically manipulated to fit a certain agenda.
     The web site Lomborg-errors
  has been established to document this claim. It gathers and publishes errors found in Bjørn Lomborg´s books, especially  "The Skeptical Environmentalist" (2001) and Cool it! (2007).
     In addition, it gives information on cases and activities related to Bjørn Lomborg, attempts to describe his methods, and points out cases where the claims about Lomborg´s dishonesty seem to hold true.
     From January 2008, the page also comments on errors made by Al Gore, to allow a comparison where the two persons are judged by the same standards.
    The web site is set up by, written by and hosted by biologist Kåre Fog, Denmark.
 
 
Main contents :        The Skeptical Environmentalist  Additional content :

         Copenhagen Consensus        Error list for Al Gore´s
       "An Inconvenient Truth"

         Cool it!

         General issues        Howard Friel: "The Lomborg Deception"

         Lomborg versus Al Gore        Various special issues



Purpose : 


   The purpose of this web site is not to present a comprehensive overview of the issues treated by  Bjørn Lomborg, but only to point out errors - as the name of the web site indicates. 

   Why is it essential to point out the errors? 


   First, because in the handling of errors, Lomborg is not a normal person. A normal person would apologize or be ashamed if concrete, factual errors or misunderstandings were pointed out -- and would correct the errors at the first opportunity given. Lomborg does not do that.  For example, when  The Skeptical Environmentalist was heavily  criticized in a review  in Nature, Lomborg´s reaction was: "
If I really am so wrong, why don´t you just document that?" -- and then, when this was documented, he ignored the facts.

   Second, because you cannot evaluate Lomborg´s books just by reading them and thinking of what you read. For every piece of information in the books, you have to check if it is true and if the presentation is balanced. If the concrete information given by Lomborg is correct and balanced, then it follows that his main conclusions are also correct. But if the information is flawed, then the main conclusions are biased or wrong. Therefore, in principle, you can only evaluate the books after having checked all footnotes, read all references, and checked alternative sources. This will be a huge task for any reader, but when the errors are described and presented in one place -- this web site -- then the task becomes manageable. 

Link:  http://www.lomborg-errors.dk/

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