While he drinks your beer in your house your know-it-all brother-in-law spouts out “There’s no consensus about climate change.  And anyway everybody knows that volcanoes belch out more CO2 than humans.”  You could respond with a sharp wack to his temple with the remote control or you could whip out your iPhone and tap the app for Skeptical Science. 

Also available on-line and via Android, Skeptical Science lists 119 one-line responses to combat climate “skeptics” and “disinformers”.  Each response links to the supporting scientific references.  The counter to “…no consensus about climate change”, is “97% of climate experts agree humans are causing global warming.”   To add credibility to your rebuttal, a click on the answer links to a basic 500 word explanation.  If you need to pull out the big guns you can click on the intermediate level of response for a more detailed explanation with charts, peer-reviewed research etc. 

 Skeptical Science is the labor-of-love of Australian John Cook.  He notes that “Scientific skepticism is healthy.”  In fact skepticism is at the core of the modern scientific method.  The ideas of scientists are tested and retested.  Evidence is challenged and scrutinized in the crucible of honest scientific examination.  Critical to the process is peer-reviewed research, the purpose of which is to advance science in the direction of consensus understanding. 

All of scientists who hold a common understanding about the impact of human activity upon climate embrace the integrity of the scientific process described above.  Outside of this scientific process are those self-proclaimed experts who present non-reviewed opinions as facts.

John Cook deserves our appreciation for addressing a complicated subject in a clear and efficient manner.  His website draws an active global participation every day.

Tags: iPhone, John Cook, Skeptical Science

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 21st, 2010 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Climate change . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.