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Saturday 31 March 2018

2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #13

A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook page during the past week. 

Editor's Pick

Stanford law and science experts discuss court case that could set precedent for climate change litigation

A closely watched federal trial pitting two cities against major oil companies has taken surprising and unorthodox turns. Stanford researchers examine the case, which could reshape the landscape of legal claims for climate change-related damages.

Oil Refinery

A federal trial pitting two cities against major oil companies could reshape the landscape of legal claims for climate change-related damages. (Image credit: Walter Siegmund/Wikimedia Commons)

A judge in California took an unusual step in trying to untangle who is to blame for increasingly frequent droughts, floods and other climate change-related extreme weather. The case in San Francisco is weighing the question of whether climate change damages connected to the burning of oil are specifically the fault of the companies that extract and sell it.

The judge in People of the State of California v. BP P.L.C. et al. had both the plaintiffs – the cities of Oakland and San Francisco – and the defendants – several major oil companies – answer basic questions about climate change in a tutorial format. Counter to what some might have expected, an oil company lawyer largely confirmed the consensus science on the issue, but challenged the idea that oil companies should be held accountable.

Stanford Report spoke with Katharine Mach, a senior research scientist at the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Science, and Deborah Sivas, the Luke W. Cole Professor of Environmental Law, to get their perspectives on the climate tutorial, the science in question and the role of the judiciary in confronting climate change challenges. 

Stanford law and science experts discuss court case that could set precedent for climate change litigation by Rob Jordon, Stanford News, Mar 30, 2018 


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Friday 30 March 2018

A pseudo-prize for pseudo-research into pseudo-medicine

An announcement (it’s in German, I’m afraid) proudly declaring that ‘homeopathy fulfils the criteria of evidence-based medicine‘ caught my attention.

Here is the story:
In 2016, Dr. Melanie Wölk, did a ‘Master of Science’* at the ‘Donau University in Krems, Austria investigating the question whether homeopathy follows the rules of evidence-based medicine (EBM). She arrived […]

Read the rest here: A pseudo-prize for pseudo-research into pseudo-medicine

Thursday 29 March 2018

Is Reiki effective? The researchers say yes, but I am far from convinced

Reiki is a Japanese technique administered by “laying on hands” and is based on the idea that an unseen “life force energy” flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one’s “life force energy” is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is […]

Read the rest here: Is Reiki effective? The researchers say yes, but I am far from convinced

Wednesday 28 March 2018

INSPIRAL PAEDIATRIC SEMINARS … chiropractic quackery at its most obvious

Chiropractic for kids? Yes, many chiropractors advocate (and earn good money with) it, yet it has been pointed out ad nauseam that the claim of being able of treating paediatric conditions is bogus (in fact, the BCA even lost a famous court case over this issue). But evidence does rarely seem to stop a chiro […]

Read the rest here: INSPIRAL PAEDIATRIC SEMINARS … chiropractic quackery at its most obvious

Tuesday 27 March 2018

Exaggerations and untruths in the promotion of homeopathy

There seem to be plenty of myths and misunderstandings about homeopathy in India.

Homeopathy was first introduced to India by a German doctor from Siebenbuergen, Martin Honigberger (1795 – 1869). He first came to India in 1829 as a conventionally trained physician and treated amongst other personalities the Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab. In 1834, he returned to Europe, met Hahnemann, and became a convert of homeopathy. Subsequently he returned to India, in 1839, and brought homeopathy to this country. Initially, homeopathy was practised mainly by lay practitioners. Mahendra Lal Sircar is said to have been the first Indian who became a homeopathic physician, and he is often called the ‘Hering of India’... Exaggerations and untruths in the promotion of homeopathy

Monday 26 March 2018

Chiropractors are being educated to become a danger to public health

Chiropractors are fast giving up the vitalistic and obsolete concepts of their founding fathers, we are told over and over again. But are these affirmations true? There are good reasons to be sceptical. Take this recent paper, for instance.

The objective of this survey was to investigate the proportion of Australian chiropractic students who hold […]

Read the rest here: Chiropractors are being educated to become a danger to public health

Sunday 25 March 2018

2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #12

Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Graphic of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... Climate Feedback Reviews... SkS Week in Review... 97 Hours of Consensus...

Story of the Week...

Taking Greenhouse Gases from the Sky: 7 Things to Know About Carbon Removal

Degraded Landscapes Costa Rica

Restoring degraded landscapes like this one in Costa Rica is a natural way of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Photo by Luciana Gallardo Lomeli/WRI

With greenhouse gas emissions climbing and climate impacts becoming increasingly severe, the urgency to address climate change has never been greater. Many of the solutions to date have focused on mitigation—ways to slash emissions as quickly as possible, such as by adopting renewable energy, promoting energy efficiency and stopping deforestation. These efforts remain critically important, and we need to accelerate them. Yet the science shows they will not be enough on their own to have a good chance of meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

To prevent the worst impacts of climate change, the world will need to reach net-negative emissions, a point at which we’re actually removing and storing more carbon from the air than we’re putting into the atmosphere. This will involve deploying techniques that remove carbon from the atmosphere and permanently store it.

Here, we take a look at the latest science on negative emissions and carbon-removal approaches:

Taking Greenhouse Gases from the Sky: 7 Things to Know About Carbon Removal by Kelly Levin, James Mulligan & Gretchen Ellison, World Resources Instittue (WRI), Mar 19, 2018

Note: Also see the Graphic of the Week section of this Digest.


Toon of the Week...

2018 Toon 12 


Quote of the Week... 

Europe Saw a Spike in Extreme Weather Over Past 5 Years, Science Academies Say

Flooding Carlisle UK Storm Desmond 2015

Flooding like Carlisle, England, experienced during Storm Desmond in 2015, is becoming more common as the planet warms, research shows. Credit: Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images

Europeans are facing more frequent extreme weather as the planet warms. Floods and big landslides have quadrupled and extreme heat waves and crop-damaging droughts have doubled since 1980, with a sharp spike in the last five years, according to the European Academies' Science Advisory Council's latest extreme weather update.

The increase in the frequency of extreme weather events should spur European countries to boost adaptation and resiliency efforts, said EASAC Environment Program Director Michael Norton.

"Policy makers and lay people think climate change is something gradual and linear, but we need to keep explaining that the gradual change is increasing the chance for dangerous extremes, and that's what we have to prepare for," Norton said.

"The increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events makes climate-proofing all the more urgent. Unfortunately, there's a disconnect between the political time scale of taking action, and the time scale on which climate change happens," he said. "And by the time a lot of these more serious problems are widely recognized, the changes will be irreversible."

Europe Saw a Spike in Extreme Weather Over Past 5 Years, Science Academies Say by Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News, Mar 21, 2018


Graphic of the Week...

Staying Below 2 Degrees o fGlobal Warming 

Taking Greenhouse Gases from the Sky: 7 Things to Know About Carbon Removal by Kelly Levin, James Mulligan & Gretchen Ellison, World Resources Instittue (WRI), Mar 19, 2018


SkS in the News...

In his article, Answers to the Judge’s Climate Change Questions in Cities vs. Fossil Fuels Case (InsideClimate News), John H Cushman Jr wrote:  

Some people, well-known for disputing the mainstream consensus on climate science, are asking the judge to admit their views in a friend of the court brief, asserting that  "there is no agreement among climatologists as to the relative contributions of Man and Nature to the global warming" of the past several decades. Another familiar trio, asserting that the climate always changes, that it's impossible to say how much of the "modest" recent changes are due to humans, and that there's been no significant increase in damage, offered their own answers to the eight questions.

The first link embedded in the above pragraph is to: Consensus on consensus: a synthesis of consensus estimates on human-caused global warming, Cook et al, Environmental Research LettersVolume 11Number 4, April 13, 2016

In her article, How do you talk to Pruitt about climate change? (ClimateWire/E&E News), Nina Heikkinen sounded out to a number of experts including Dana Nuccitelli and John Cook for advise on how to interview the US EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt.  Both Nuccitelli and Cook are quoted extensively.

In his article, The judge in a federal climate change lawsuit wants a science tutorial (Vox Energy & Environment), Umair Irfan wrote: 

The “Little Ice Age,” a period of cooling in North America and Europe between 1300 and 1800, is actually a separate phenomenon from true ice ages, and it occurred on a regional rather than global scale. Scientists are still figuring out why it happened, but there is some evidence that it started due to volcanic eruptions and ended with a change in output from the sun.

The third link embedded in the above paragraph is to the SkS rebuttal article, What ended the Little Ice Age


Coming Soon on SkS...

  • Wind and solar can power most of the USA (John Abraham)
  • In court, Big Oil rejected climate denial (Dana)
  • How could global warming accelerate if CO2 is 'logarithmic'? (qwertle)
  • A flaw in the Paris climate agreement leads to a scientific debate (Dana)
  • New research this week (Ari)
  • 2017 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #13 (John Hartz)
  • 2017 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Waming Digest #13 (John Hartz)

Poster of the Week...

2018 Toon 12 


Climate Feedback Reviews...

Washington Post accurately covers permafrost study, albeit under a somewhat sensational headline

Climate Feedback 12

Climate Feedback asked its network of scientists to review the article, The Arctic’s carbon bomb might be even more potent than we thought by Chris Mooney, Energy & Environment, Washington Post, Mar 19, 2018

Three scientists analyzed the article and estimate its overall scientific credibility to be 'very high'.

A majority of reviewers tagged the article as: Accurate, Sound reasoning

Review Summary

This article in The Washington Post describes new research on greenhouse gas emissions from thawing permafrost—specifically the balance of carbon dioxide vs. methane released from waterlogged permafrost soils.

Scientists who reviewed the article found that it accurately described the study and provided context on its overall implications by quoting comments from two other researchers. The article’s headline, however, may mislead readers through the use of the sensational phrase “the Arctic’s carbon bomb”, which calls to mind a catastrophic, explosive release of greenhouse gas. The study could indicate that more of the carbon released from thawing permafrost will be released as methane—increasing its near-term warming influence—but it is not clear how much additional methane this would represent. 

Washington Post accurately covers permafrost study, albeit under a somewhat sensational headline by Scott Johnson, Climate Feedback, Mar 22, 2018 


SkS Week in Review... 


97 Hours of Consensus...

97 Hours: Glifford Miller 

 

Wally Broecker's bio page and quote source

High resolution JPEG (1024 pixels wide)

 



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‘Doctors turn to herbal cures when the drugs don’t work’ … THE TIMES is wallowing in nonsense

An article in yesterday’s Times makes the surprising claim that ‘doctors turn to herbal cures when the drugs don’t work. As the subject is undoubtedly relevant to this blog and as the Times is a highly respected newspaper, I think this might be important and will therefore comment (in normal print) on the full text […]

Read the rest here: ‘Doctors turn to herbal cures when the drugs don’t work’ … THE TIMES is wallowing in nonsense

Saturday 24 March 2018

2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #12

A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook page during the past week. 

Editor's Pick

Mailings to Teachers Highlight a Political Fight Over Climate Change in the Classroom

Classroom

Last spring, science teachers across the nation began receiving unsolicited packages containing classroom materials from a libertarian group that rejects the scientific consensus on climate change.

This spring, some of the same teachers are opening packages containing very different materials: A book written by a Cornell University affiliate called “The Teacher-Friendly Guide to Climate Change,” which embraces the prevailing science, explains the phenomenon in detail and includes recommendations for how to teach the subject to children.

This rare back-and-forth of direct mailings to teachers demonstrates how classrooms have emerged as a battleground in the American political war over climate change. While those who reject mainstream climate science have long advocated their view in Washington and statehouses across the country, their efforts to influence educators – and the counter-efforts from the science community – shows the extent to which the minds of children are also being targeted. 

Mailings to Teachers Highlight a Political Fight Over Climate Change in the Classroom by Katie Worth, Frontline, PBS, Mar 23, 2018


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Low back pain: alternative practitioners feel encouraged by the recent Lancet-articles – wrongly so, I hasten to add

The media have (rightly) paid much attention to the three Lancet-articles on low back pain (LBP) which were published this week. LBP is such a common condition that its prevalence alone renders it an important subject for us all. One of the three papers covers the treatment and prevention of LBP. Specifically, it lists various […]

Read the rest here: Low back pain: alternative practitioners feel encouraged by the recent Lancet-articles – wrongly so, I hasten to add

Friday 23 March 2018

A new RCT of homeopathy … and, guess what, it reports a positive result (but are we being misled or not?)

Homeopathy works!

At least this is what the authors of this new study want us to believe.

But are they right?

This RCT is entitled ‘Efficacy and tolerability of a complex homeopathic drug in children suffering from dry cough-A double-blind, placebo- controlled, clinical trial’. It recruited children suffering from acute dry cough to assess the […]

Read the rest here: A new RCT of homeopathy … and, guess what, it reports a positive result (but are we being misled or not?)

Thursday 22 March 2018

Suffering from back pain? Walk to your therapist, don’t accept (or pay for) treatment, but walk straight back home again

We all know that there is a plethora of interventions for and specialists in low back pain (chiropractors, osteopaths, massage therapists, physiotherapists etc., etc.); and, depending whether you are an optimist or a pessimist, each of these therapies is as good or as useless as the next. Today, a widely-publicised series of articles in the […]

Read the rest here: Suffering from back pain? Walk to your therapist, don’t accept (or pay for) treatment, but walk straight back home again

Wednesday 21 March 2018

Prof Frass’ criticism of the Lancet meta-analysis of homeopathy: a rebuttal of a rebuttal

by Norbert Aust  as ‘guest blogger’ and Edzard Ernst 

Professor Frass has repeatedly stated that his published criticism of the Lancet meta-analysis has never been refuted, and therefore homeopathy is a valid therapy. The last time we heard him say this was during a TV discussion (May 2018) where he stated that, if one succeeded […]

Read the rest here: Prof Frass’ criticism of the Lancet meta-analysis of homeopathy: a rebuttal of a rebuttal

Tuesday 20 March 2018

Ayurvedic medicines to die for

“In my medical practice, writes Sheila Patel, M.D. on the website of Deepak Chopra, I always take into consideration the underlying dosha of a patient, or what their main imbalance is, when choosing treatments out of the many options available. For example, if I see someone who has the symptoms of hypertension as well as a Kapha […]

Read the rest here: Ayurvedic medicines to die for

Monday 19 March 2018

I smell a rat: something extremely odd about the ‘positive’ studies of homeopathy

As I often said, I find it regrettable that sceptics often say THERE IS NOT A SINGLE STUDY THAT SHOWS HOMEOPATHY TO BE EFFECTIVE (or something to that extend). This is quite simply not true, and it gives homeopathy-fans the occasion to suggest sceptics wrong. The truth is that THE TOTALITY OF THE MOST RELIABLE EVIDENCE FAILS TO SUGGEST THAT HIGHLY DILUTED HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES ARE EFFECTIVE BEYOND PLACEBO. As a message for consumers, this is a little more complex, but I believe that it’s worth being well-informed and truthful […]

Read the rest here: I smell a rat: something extremely odd about the ‘positive’ studies of homeopathy

Sunday 18 March 2018

Another dodgy meta-analysis published in a dodgy journal (except ‘Acupuncture in Medicine’ is from the BMJ-group)

The plethora of dodgy meta-analyses in alternative medicine has been the subject of a recent post – so this one is a mere update of a regular lament.

This new meta-analysis was to evaluate evidence for the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation (LDH). (Call me pedantic, but I prefer meta-analyses […]

Read the rest here: Another dodgy meta-analysis published in a dodgy journal (except ‘Acupuncture in Medicine’ is from the BMJ-group)

Saturday 17 March 2018

2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11

A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook page during the past week. 

Editor's Pick

5 reasons the Arctic’s extremely warm winter should alarm you

You can see dramatic climate change impacts even in the dead of Arctic winter. 

Plar Bear

This polar bear is alarmed. LightRocket via Getty Images 

Cape Morris Jesup in Greenland is just about the northernmost piece of land on planet Earth. It’s located just 400 miles south of the North Pole, on Greenland’s craggy, desolate north shore. This is a place so far north that the sun doesn’t rise for most of the winter months.

In February, in the dark of winter, Cape Morris Jesup’s weather station recorded nearly 60 hours of temperatures above freezing — a new record. On February 24, the temperature reached a high of 43 degrees Fahrenheit.

Think of it like this: On February 24, you could be standing on the northernmost bit of land in the entire world, in darkness, in shorts and a T-shirt. That you wouldn’t quickly die is astounding because the cape’s temperatures are usually closer to minus 30 degrees in February.

It’s often said that on this warming planet, nowhere is changing faster than the Arctic. But this winter is providing stunning new evidence of a region in extraordinary, worrying flux. It’s also a hint of the future to come: an Arctic Ocean that’s not permanently frozen and all the disastrous consequences that come with that.

Here are five of the most alarming observations of the Arctic from the beginning of this year.

5 reasons the Arctic’s extremely warm winter should alarm you by Brian Resnick, Energy & Environment, Vox, Mar 16, 2018 


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The pathetic arguments of the British Homeopathic Association in defence of homeopathy on the NHS

The British Homeopathic Association (BHA) is a registered charity founded in 1902 which aims to promote and develop the study and practice of homeopathy and to advance education and research in the theory and practice of homeopathy. The British Homeopathic Association’s overall priority is to ensure that homeopathy is available to all…

One does not need […]

Read the rest here: The pathetic arguments of the British Homeopathic Association in defence of homeopathy on the NHS

Friday 16 March 2018

Beware of (poor-quality, redundant, nonsensical, biased) systematic reviews

What an odd title, you might think.

Systematic reviews are the most reliable evidence we presently have!

Yes, this is my often-voiced and honestly-held opinion but, like any other type of research, systematic reviews can be badly abused; and when this happens, they can seriously mislead us.

A new paper by someone who knows more about […]

Read the rest here: Beware of (poor-quality, redundant, nonsensical, biased) systematic reviews

Thursday 15 March 2018

Homeopathy for cancer: Dr Wurster and the ‘Clinica Sta Croce’ in Switzerland

A few days ago, the German TV ‘FACT’ broadcast a film (it is in German, the bit on homeopathy starts at ~min 20) about a young woman who had her breast cancer first operated but then decided to forfeit subsequent conventional treatments. Instead she chose homeopathy which she received from Dr Jens Wurster at the […]

Read the rest here: Homeopathy for cancer: Dr Wurster and the ‘Clinica Sta Croce’ in Switzerland

Wednesday 14 March 2018

Fraud and greed can cause enormous harm

We have repeatedly discussed the journal ‘Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine’ (see for instance here and here). The journal has recently done something remarkable and seemingly laudable: it retracted an article titled “Psorinum Therapy in Treating Stomach, Gall Bladder, Pancreatic, and Liver Cancers: A Prospective Clinical Study” due to concerns about the ethics, authorship, quality […]

Read the rest here: Fraud and greed can cause enormous harm

Tuesday 13 March 2018

Chiropractors seem to believe that the earth is both flat and spherical

On this blog, we had many chiropractors commenting that their profession is changing fast and the old ‘philosophy’ is a thing of the past. But are these assertions really true? This survey might provide an answer. A questionnaire was sent to chiropractic students in all chiropractic programs in Australia and New Zealand. It explored student viewpoints […]

Read the rest here: Chiropractors seem to believe that the earth is both flat and spherical

Monday 12 March 2018

Homeopathy, Cancer and Dr Dietmar Payrhuber: how TV endangers cancer patients

Dr. Dietmar Payrhuber is not famous – no, by no means. I had never heard of him until a watched this TV discussion about homeopathy (it’s in German, and well-worth watching, if you understand the language). I found the discussion totally mesmerising: Payrhuber is allowed to come out with case after case alleging he cured […]

Read the rest here: Homeopathy, Cancer and Dr Dietmar Payrhuber: how TV endangers cancer patients

Sunday 11 March 2018

The death of a diabetic child: God had guided the herbalist to use herbs rather than conventional medicine

Newsweek recently reported that a herbalist has been charged with the death of a 13-year-old diabetic boy. Allegedly, the therapist replaced the boy’s insulin with herbal remedies. Tim Morrow, 83, was charged with
  1. child abuse causing death
  2. and with practising medicine without a license. 
Morrow stated that god had guided him to use herbs rather than […]

Read the rest here: The death of a diabetic child: God had guided the herbalist to use herbs rather than conventional medicine

Saturday 10 March 2018

2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #10

A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook page during the past week. 

Editor's Pick

Climate change threatens ability of insurers to manage risk

Extreme weather is driving up uninsured losses and insurers must use investments to fund global warming resilience, says study

Severe flooding in Carlisle, England, Dec 2015

Severe flooding in Carlisle, north-west England, December 2015. Photograph: Andrew Yates/Reuters

The ability of the global insurance industry to manage society’s risks is being threatened by climate change, according to a new report.

The report finds that more frequent extreme weather events are driving up uninsured losses and making some assets uninsurable.

The analysis, by a coalition of the world’s biggest insurers, concluded that the “protection gap” – the difference between the costs of natural disasters and the amount insured – has quadrupled to $100bn (£79bn) a year since the 1980s.

Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, warns in the new report that: “Over time, the adverse effects of climate change could threaten economic resilience and financial stability [and] insurers are currently at the forefront.”

The ClimateWise coalition of 29 insurers, including Allianz, Aon, Aviva, Lloyd’s, Prudential, Swiss Re and Zurich, conclude that the industry must use more of its $30tn of investments to help fund increased resilience of society to floods, storms and heatwaves. 

Climate change threatens ability of insurers to manage risk by Damian Carrington, Climate, Guardian, Mar 7, 2018 


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