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Here's an article about Lomborg. Seems his peers in Denmark smell
something rotten (oh, come on! I had to do it.) Interesting that the
panel felt, as I do, that Lomborg's failure to cite common source which
do not necessarily agree with him is/was suspicious. However I am a bit
aghast that Lomborg was actually appointed to a position of authority on
any environmental issue.



Steven



Danish panel says controversial book not scientific

Wednesday, January 08, 2003

The Associated Press

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - A Danish panel of scientists said Tuesday that a
controversial book challenging the sacred cows of the environmental
movement was not a scientific publication.

In his 2001 best seller, "The Skeptical Environmentalist," Danish
statistician Bjoern Lomborg said concerns about melting ice caps,
deforestation, acid rain were exaggerated. He claimed that the global
environmental situation was not deteriorating. The book was translated
into a dozen languages and generated criticism from environmentalists
worldwide.

The Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty said the 350-page book
"is clearly in violation of the norms for good scientific behavior." The
agency reviewed the book after complaints from four scientists,
including Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at the Center for Environmental
Research and Conservation at Columbia University in New York. He did not
immediately return a call from The Associated Press.

Hans Henrik Brydensholt, the panel's chairman, said Lomborg did not make
"thorough searches for all available sources ... including what goes
against one's supposition. ...He used sources in favor of his own
beliefs," he said.

Lomborg acknowledged Tuesday that he may not have always quoted all
available sources, but said the panel failed to provide any examples of
the alleged unfairness, he said. "I have never tried to hide that I
wasn't an environment specialist," Lomborg said, adding his book was
meant to start a debate on the environment.

The ruling didn't include any penalty, but opponents of the
Liberal-Conservative government said it was an indicator that Lomborg
shouldn't have been named director of the national Environmental
Assessment Institute, which monitors the use by state agencies of public
funds aimed at cutting pollution.

"Bjoern Lomborg is a provocative environmental debater (and) he should
be allowed to be that," said Pernille Blach Hansen of the opposition
Social Democrats. "The problem is that he and the government have
presented him as something he is not: namely a scientist."

A former member of Greenpeace, Lomborg has argued that a solution to
pollution is more likely to be found in economic and technological
progress than in the policies advocated by many environmentalist
organizations.

Copyright 2003, Associated Press
All Rights Reserved