Ben Goldacre on climate change denialists
"[W]e don’t trust governments on science, because we know they distort it."
- Ben Goldacre
As COP15 reaches its midway point, it seems a timely moment to ask why half the UK population doesn't believe in manmade climate change. Politicians, Goldacre argues, can't expect people to take climate change seriously when politicians themselves are happy to dismiss any scientific advice "that's not to the government's taste" – as seen in the recent sacking of science advisor David Nutt. Writing in today's Guardian, Goldacre goes on to describe the spectre of "zombie arguments" – points that are continually raised no matter how many times they are proven to be spurious – and draws a parallel between these empty platitudes and those that are levied in the name of other spurious causes, such as AIDS denialism and homeopathy.
You can read the entire piece free on the Bad Science website or in the Guardian.