Beware of the ‘Bleach Boys’ – hydrogen peroxide and chlorine dioxide

Bleach can be a useful product – but not as a medicine taken by mouth or for injection. A 39-year-old man with a fracture of the right acetabulum underwent open reduction and internal fixation with a plate under general anaesthesia. At closure, the surgeons injected 0.75% ropivacaine into the subcutaneous tissue of the incision wound […]

Read the rest here: Beware of the ‘Bleach Boys’ – hydrogen peroxide and chlorine dioxide

Chiropractic spinal manipulation for migraine – torture the data until they confess!

Chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy (CSMT) for migraine? Why? There is no good evidence that it works! On the contrary, there is good evidence that it does NOT work! A recent and rigorous study (conducted by chiropractors!) tested the efficacy of chiropractic CSMT for migraine. It was designed as a three-armed, single-blinded, placebo -controlled RCT of 17 months duration […]

Read the rest here: Chiropractic spinal manipulation for migraine – torture the data until they confess!

American Loon #2181: Sam Rohrer

Sam Rohrer is the president of the Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network, a branch of Let Freedom Ring, Inc., and former member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (128th District, 1993–2010). Rohrer is an alumnus of Bob Jones University, South Carolina’s attempt to out-madrassa the Taliban, and...

Read the full lunacy: #2181: Sam Rohrer Encyclopedia of American Loons

American Loon #2180: Brian Rohrbough

This is really a tragic case, but we need to cover it. Brian Rohrbough is the former (2008) vice presidential candidate of America’s Independent Party, running on the ticket with Alan Keyes, and president of the splinter anti-abortion group American Right to Life.  Rohrbough’s career as a...

Read the full lunacy: #2180: Brian Rohrbough Encyclopedia of American Loons

Children are regularly (mis)treated by practitioners who do not have adequate competence to do so

Exactly 20 years ago, I published a review concluding that the generally high and possibly growing prevalence of complementary/alternative medicine use by children renders this topic an important candidate for rigorous investigation. Since then, many papers have emerged, and most of them are worrying in one way or another. Here is the latest one. This […]

Read the rest here: Children are regularly (mis)treated by practitioners who do not have adequate competence to do so

American Loon #2179: Wayne Rohde

Wayne Rohde is an antivaccine activist, and the founder of the antivaccine group the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota, occasional blogger for the antivaccine conspiracy website Age of Autism, and a rich source of trite, endlessly repeated and falsified (and repeated again) antivaccine...

Read the full lunacy: #2179: Wayne Rohde Encyclopedia of American Loons

A new, positive systematic review of homeopathy – confusion or fraud?

The aim of this new systematic review was to evaluate the controlled trials of homeopathy in bronchial asthma. Relevant trials published between Jan 1, 1981, and Dec 31, 2016, were considered. Substantive research articles, conference proceedings, and master and doctoral theses were eligible. Methodology was assessed by Jadad’s scoring, internal validity by the Coch-rane tool, […]

Read the rest here: A new, positive systematic review of homeopathy – confusion or fraud?

Chiropractors treating children – is it not time to stop these charlatans?

The purpose of this recently published survey was to obtain the demographic profile and educational background of chiropractors with paediatric patients on a multinational scale. A multinational online cross-sectional demographic survey was conducted over a 15-day period in July 2010. The survey was electronically administered via chiropractic associations in 17 countries, using SurveyMonkey for data […]

Read the rest here: Chiropractors treating children – is it not time to stop these charlatans?

American Loon #2178: Coleman Rogers

QAnon. We are not even going to begin to try to explain the details (see this) of this grand unified conspiracy theory, meme and wingnut delusion, but it did at least emerge from a series of incoherent posts on 4chan in 2017 by someone calling themselves QAnon or Q. Through conspiratorial bullshit,...

Read the full lunacy: #2178: Coleman Rogers Encyclopedia of American Loons

‘Mom’s Choice Awards’ for a homeopathic product – was it for the maximum number of false claims in one single product?

‘Mom’s Choice Awards’ have just honoured the homeopathic product ‘COLD CALM KIDS’. This remedy has the following ingredients: Allium cepa 3C HPUS Apis mellifica 15C HPUS Eupatorium perfoliatum 3C HPUS Gelsemium sempervirens 6C HPUS Kali bichromicum 6C HPUS Nux vomica 3C HPUS Phytolacca decandra 6C HPUS Pulsatilla 6C HPUS 3C = a dilution of 1:1000000 […]

Read the rest here: ‘Mom’s Choice Awards’ for a homeopathic product – was it for the maximum number of false claims in one single product?

A risk-benefit assessment of (chiropractic) neck manipulation

Spinal manipulative therapy (SMT), especially hyperextension and rotation. have often been associated with cervical artery dissection (CAD), a tear in the internal carotid or the vertebral artery resulting in an intramural haematoma and/or an aneurysmal dilatation. But is the association causal? This question is often the subject of fierce discussions between chiropractors and the real doctors. […]

Read the rest here: A risk-benefit assessment of (chiropractic) neck manipulation

2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #16

Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Graphic of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... 

Story of the Week...

Satellite confirms key NASA temperature data: The planet is warming — and fast

New evidence suggests one of the most important climate change data sets is getting the right answer.

 

The temperature hovered around 100 degrees at the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Mo., in July 2016. (Charlie Riedel/AP) 

A high-profile NASA temperature data set, which has pronounced the last five years the hottest on record and the globe a full degree Celsius warmer than in the late 1800s, has found new backing from independent satellite records — suggesting the findings are on a sound footing, scientists reported Tuesday.

If anything, the researchers found, the pace of climate change could be somewhat more severe than previously acknowledged, at least in the fastest warming part of the world — its highest latitudes.

“We may actually have been underestimating how much warmer [the Arctic’s] been getting,” said Gavin Schmidt, who directs NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which keeps the temperature data, and who was a co-author of the new study released in Environmental Research Letters. 

Satellite confirms key NASA temperature data: The planet is warming — and fast by Chris Money, Climate & Environment, Washington Post, Apr 17, 2019

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Editorial of the Week...

 [To be added.]

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El Niño/La Niña Update...

 [To be added.] 

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Toon of the Week...

 

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SkS in the News...

  [To be added.]

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Coming Soon on SkS...

• Is the grid ready for electric vehicles? (Jan Ellen Spiegel)
• A Dose Of Reality: How Climate Change Affects Our Kids, Straight From A Pediatrician (Dr. Susan Pacheco)
• Inspiring, not depressing, film fest messages (Daisy Simmons)
• Former climate 'denier' regrets 'how wrongheaded but certain I was' (Karen Kirk)
• New research this week (Ari)
• 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #17 (John Hartz)
• 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #17 (John Hartz)

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Poster of the Week...

 

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SkS Week in Review... 

• 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #16 by John Hatz
• New research, April 8-14, 2019 by Ari Jokimäki
• Getting involved with Climate Science via crowdfunding and crowdsourcing by BaerbelW
• The Future for Australian Coal by Riduna
• Should a Green New Deal include nuclear power? by Greenman 360 (Yale Climate Connections) 
• 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #15 by John Hartz

 

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American Loon #2177: Chuck Rogers

Chuck Rogers is an internet crank and the creator of the website Conservative Fact Check, more appropriately known as the Conservapedia of fact checking, a site “dedicated to providing a conservative alternative to enormously liberal-biased fact checking sites like snopes.com,...

Read the full lunacy: #2177: Chuck Rogers Encyclopedia of American Loons

Some people claim that we can save money with homeopathy – well, they are wrong!

Whenever there are discussions about homeopathy (currently, they have reached fever-pitch both in France and in Germany), one subject is bound to emerge sooner or later: its cost. Some seemingly well-informed person will exclaim that USING MORE HOMEOPATHY WILL SAVE US ALL A LOT OF MONEY. The statement is as predictable as it is wrong. […]

Read the rest here: Some people claim that we can save money with homeopathy – well, they are wrong!

Fatal liver failure after long-term intake of a popular and ‘time-tested’ herbal remedy

  Fructus Psoraleae is the seed of Psoralea corylifolia Linn. It is the main ingredient of the herbal mixtures such as Qubaibabuqi, popular in China, India and other countries. It has been used for medicinal purposes for millennia. Thus many proponents would claim that it must be risk-free. A recent case-report  suggests that it might not […]

Read the rest here: Fatal liver failure after long-term intake of a popular and ‘time-tested’ herbal remedy

American Loon #2176: Samuel Rodriguez

One of the more powerful figures on the religious right, Samuel Rodriguez is a fundie pastor and founder and president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC/CONEL), the largest Hispanic Christian Evangelical/Pentecostal organization in the world. As such, he is also a...

Read the full lunacy: #2176: Samuel Rodriguez Encyclopedia of American Loons

Chinese acupuncture researchers have finally discovered the obvious (but sadly, without realising it)

The aim of this systematic review was to determine the efficacy of conventional treatments plus acupuncture versus conventional treatments alone for asthma, using a meta-analysis of all published randomized clinical trials (RCTs). The researchers included all RCTs in which adult and adolescent patients with asthma (age ≥12 years) were divided into conventional treatments plus acupuncture […]

Read the rest here: Chinese acupuncture researchers have finally discovered the obvious (but sadly, without realising it)

Another VERY puzzling study of homeopathy

This double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study was conducted at the out-patient departments of the National Institute of Homoeopathy in India. It evaluated whether individualized homeopathy (IH) could produce significant effects beyond placebo in treatment of insomnia. Sixty patients were randomized to receive either IH or placebo. Patient-administered sleep diary (6 items; 1: latency to fall asleep, 2: […]

Read the rest here: Another VERY puzzling study of homeopathy

American Loon #2175: Charles A. Rodenberger

It’s somewhat interesting to go dumpster-diving in the Discovery Institute’s ridiculous anti-evolution petition A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism, and see what you dredge up. Charles A. Rodenberger appears to be fairly typical of the signatories – at least among those who seem to...

Read the full lunacy: #2175: Charles A. Rodenberger Encyclopedia of American Loons

Another serious complication after chiropractic neck manipulation

The most regularly reported serious complication of chiropractic neck manipulation is a stroke due to arterial dissection. Atlantoaxial dislocation (a dislocations of the first and second vertebrae which means that the spinal cord is in danger of being compressed which, in turn, would have devastating consequences) has not been previously reported, but is just as […]

Read the rest here: Another serious complication after chiropractic neck manipulation

American Loon #2174: John Rocker

John Rocker is a former MLB pitcher and columnist for the WND. His main qualification seems to have been once saying that he hated New York because if you rode the NY subway you might have to sit next to a “queer with AIDS,” and because of the foreigners: “The biggest thing I don’t like about...

Read the full lunacy: #2174: John Rocker Encyclopedia of American Loons

Are anthroposophy-enthusiasts for or against vaccinations?

The ‘International Federation of Anthroposophic Medical Associations’ have just published a ‘Statement on Vaccination‘. Here it is in its full beauty: Vaccines, together with health education, hygiene and adequate nutrition, are essential tools for preventing infectious diseases. Vaccines have saved countless lives over the last century; for example, they allowed the eradication of small pox […]

Read the rest here: Are anthroposophy-enthusiasts for or against vaccinations?

Homeopathic vaccines do not evoke antibody responses

There is much propaganda for homeopathic vaccinations or homeoprophylaxis (as homeopaths like to call it, in order to give it a veneer of respectability), and on this blog we have discussed it repeatedly. The concept is unproven and dangerous. Yet it is being promoted relentlessly. Currently, I get > 12 million websites when I google […]

Read the rest here: Homeopathic vaccines do not evoke antibody responses

2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #15

Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week...

Story of the Week... 

How a Few Small Fixes Could Stop Climate Change

"We have to act fast, and achieve the biggest possible impact with the actions we take."

Small steps could make a big impact on climate change. Source: Pexels 

When thinking about new ways to tackle climate change, University of Oxford researcher Thom Wetzer first points out how a modest rise in temperature could push the Earth to a tipping point that yields dramatic climate change. A little warming, for example, could cause Arctic permafrost to melt, unleashing enough heat-trapping methane to cook the planet.

Wetzer and his colleagues turned the idea of a tipping point on its head, theorizing that small changes in policy or the development of a new technology, for instance, could lead to big, positive changes in the way we produce and consume energy. Their proposal is outlined in a paper in the journal Science.

“Climate change brings risks that will, in one way or another, impact most people’s lives — and certainly the generations that follow,” said Wetzer, a co-author. “Whether that is through extreme weather events, changes in the economy or the reactions of politicians to these climate risks. We can either put up with these risks and watch them grow out of control, or we can act to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.”

How a Few Small Fixes Could Stop Climate Change by Marlene Cimons, Nexus Media, Apr 11, 2019

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Toon of the Week...

 

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Coming Soon on SkS...

[To be added] 

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Climate Feedback Review...

Breitbart article baselessly claims a study of past climate invalidates human-caused climate change

 

Analysis of the article, Scientists Prove Man-Made Global Warming Is a Hoax by John Nolte, Breitbart, Apr 6, 2019

Ten scientists analyzed the article and estimated its overall scientific credibility to be ‘very low’

A majority of reviewers tagged the article as: Flawed reasoning, Inaccurate, Misleading.

Review Summary

This Breitbart article comments on a story by ThinkProgress about a study related to past climate, mistakenly concluding that it invalidates the science that shows human activities are currently altering the climate of our planet.

Scientists who reviewed the article explain that it builds on a fallacious reasoning, as if the fact that climate has changed due to natural forcing in the past would make it impossible for human emissions of CO2 to change it now. In reality, the climate of the Earth can be influenced by various forcings, including changes in the Sun’s irradiance and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, which in turn can be due to natural causes (as has been the case in the past) or activities related to human actions—as is the case currently.

All the scientists indicated that the content of the article does not support the claim made by the headline.

Breitbart article baselessly claims a study of past climate invalidates human-caused climate change, Edited by Scott Johnson, Climate Feedback, Apr 11, 2019 

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Poster of the Week...

 

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SkS Week in Review... 

• 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #15 by John Hartz
• New research, April 1-7, 2019 by Ari Jokimäki
• What will Earth look like in 2100?, YouTube video by Climate Adam
• Climate change poses security risks, according to decades of intelligence reports by Dana Nuccitelli (Yale Climate Connections)
• Skeptical Science at EGU 2019 - blogging from day to day by BaebelW
• 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #14 by John Hartz

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American Loon #2173: Derrick Robinson & the FFCHS

Derrick Robinson is the president of Freedom from Covert Harassment and Surveillance (FFCHS). I suggest reading the name of that group again. Yes, the FFCHS is committed to fighting the use of (in particular) electromagnetic frequency (EMF) weapons (a weapons-grade version of this) ostensibly...

Read the full lunacy: #2173: Derrick Robinson & the FFCHS Encyclopedia of American Loons

“… more research is needed …” – what does this conclusion really mean?

In recent years, I have found myself getting irritated with researchers finishing their evaluation of a so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) with the sentence ‘MORE RESEARCH IS NEEDED’ (or similar). It is irritating because it fails to draw a line under assessments of even the most hopelessly implausible treatment. And, because it leaves things open, it […]

Read the rest here: “… more research is needed …” – what does this conclusion really mean?

American Loon #2172: Scott Alan Roberts

Ancient aliens did not visit Earth to guide human evolution and lay the foundation for modern civilizations, but Scotty Roberts is one of those who think they did. It is all explained in his book The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim: The Untold Story of Fallen Angels, Giants on the Earth,...

Read the full lunacy: #2172: Scott Alan Roberts Encyclopedia of American Loons

Chronic arsenicosis due to homeopathy

This article reported the case of a woman from West Bengal who presented with generalised weakness, weight loss, intermittent diffuse pain abdomen, anorexia, nausea, off and on diarrhoea for eight months. She also noticed darkening of her complexion for six months. Since last 4 months, she had intermittent headache of varying duration, frequency and intensity with […]

Read the rest here: Chronic arsenicosis due to homeopathy

Far too many chiropractors believe that vaccinations do not have a positive effect on public health

This paper reports a survey amongst European chiropractors during early 2017. Dissemination was through an on-line platform with links to the survey being sent to all European chiropractic associations regardless of European Chiropractors’ Union (ECU) membership and additionally through the European Academy of Chiropractic (EAC). Social media via Facebook groups was also used to disseminate […]

Read the rest here: Far too many chiropractors believe that vaccinations do not have a positive effect on public health

American Loon #2171: Keith Roberts

A.k.a. GodsWordIsLaw Keith Roberts is a raging, maniacal, religiously fanatic bigot known by the handle @GodsWordIsLaw (and, it seems, @GodsLandGodsLaw), though his Twitter account seems to be suspended at present. He was also the founder of the organization Christians for a Moral America...

Read the full lunacy: #2171: Keith Roberts Encyclopedia of American Loons

Palmer’s first chiropractic cure must have been a case of miraculous healing

Mr William Harvey Lillard was the janitor contracted to clean the Ryan Building where D. D. Palmer’s magnetic healing office was located. In 1895, he became Palmer’s very first chiropractic patient and thus entered the history books. The very foundations of chiropractic are based on this story. [Testimony of Harvey Lillard regarding the events surrounding […]

Read the rest here: Palmer’s first chiropractic cure must have been a case of miraculous healing

A chiropractic paper that, in my view, is nothing less than the promotion of child abuse

Here is a the abstract of a paper that makes even the most senior assessor of quackery shudder: Objective: The purpose of this report is to describe the manipulation under anesthesia (MUA) treatment of 6 infants with newborn torticollis with a segmental dysfunction at C1/C2. Clinical Features: Six infants aged 4 1/2 to 15 months […]

Read the rest here: A chiropractic paper that, in my view, is nothing less than the promotion of child abuse

Who cares how alternative medicine works, as long as it does?

I hear this notion regularly and I have repeatedly published about it (even on this blog). In Germany, people often express it succinctly  WER HEILT HAT RECHT! The argument is so prevalent that I feel like addressing it yet again by publishing a revised version of my Lancet Oncology paper of 2oo5. At first glance, […]

Read the rest here: Who cares how alternative medicine works, as long as it does?

American Loon #2170: David Roberts

David Roberts is an Ohio-based new age crackpot and woo merchant. His impressive repertoire of pseudoscience and nonsense can be viewed on his website The Game of Time. According to the website Roberts is also a Pleiadian starseed upon whom is bestowed the task of sharing the...

Read the full lunacy: #2170: David Roberts Encyclopedia of American Loons

2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #14

Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... John Cook in the News... SkS Spotlights... Coming Soon on SkS... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week...

Story of the Week...

How global warming is permanently reshaping the Great Barrier Reef

Bleached corals turn a ghostly white color underwater. If they can't recover quickly enough, the bleached corals die and algae coats the once-colorful surface. These images from Lizard Island, part of the Great Barrier Reef, capture the aftermath of coral mortality. Image courtesy of The Ocean Agency / XL Catlin Seaview Survey

Most thriving cities boast complex architecture — tall towers looming over narrow alleyways and plenty of nooks and crannies packed with life. Coral reefs are the cities of the undersea world, gradually constructed by the soft-bodied animals that build hard skeletons around themselves.

According to a new study in Nature, the Great Barrier Reef — the world’s largest coral system — experienced two widespread coral bleaching events in 2016 and 2017 that did more than just damage thousands of miles of corals.

The bleaching and subsequent coral death, caused by unusually warm water, also impaired the reef’s ability to replenish and repair its architecture. The study found that afterward, the number of newly born corals landing on the reefs dropped 89 percent below average historical levels.

Moreover, these recent replacement baby corals weren’t the table-shaped or big branching species that provide the most “city” architecture. Even if the reef is someday covered in coral once again, the structure itself won’t be the same, with consequences for the reef’s biodiversity.

The Great Barrier Reef has rebounded from cyclones and smaller bleaching incidents before, the researchers said. It’s made up of some 3,000 interconnected reefs, so in the past if one reef got damaged, others nearby could resupply the area with new corals. But the modern bleaching events — with their massive scale and increasing frequency — could put an end to that recovery cycle.

How global warming is permanently reshaping the Great Barrier Reef by Viky Stein, PBS News Hour, Apr 3, 2019 

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Editorial of the Week...

The natural world can help save us from climate catastrophe

Ecological restoration can be a powerful means of protecting the atmosphere – we need to rewild on a massive scale

Credit: Getty Images

I don’t expect much joy in writing about climate breakdown. On one side, there is grief and fear; on the other side, machines. I became an environmentalist because I love the living world, but I spend much of my life thinking about electricity, industrial processes and civil engineering. Technological change is essential, but to a natural historian it often feels cold and distancing. Today, however, I can write about something that thrills me: the most exciting field of research I have covered in years.

Most climate scientists agree that it is now too late to prevent 1.5C or more of global heating only by cutting our production of greenhouse gases. Even if we reduced our emissions to zero tomorrow, we would probably overshoot this crucial temperature limit. To prevent a full-spectrum catastrophe, we need not only to decarbonise our economy in the shortest possible time, but also to draw down carbon dioxide that has already been released.

The natural world can help save us from climate catastrophe, Opinion by George Monbiot, Comment is Free, Guardian, Apr 3, 2019 

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Toon of the Week...

 

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John Cook in the News...

In her article, Climate Change Deniers Rely On These Myths, But Having A Prepared Response Can Help, (Bustle, May 3, 2019) JR Thorpe writes:

Assuming that you want to deal with the person's misinformation or skepticism and not leave the room (which you are, after all, entitled to do), there are various ways in which an argument around climate change myths can be negotiated. Australian psychologists and "debunking" experts John Cook and Stephan Lewandowsky propose a fact-based conversation that doesn't engage too much with the myths of the other side.

The embedded link is to: Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: Exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence, Cook et al, Plos One, May 5, 2017

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SkS Spotlights...

Faith Science Alliance for Climate Leadership

The purpose of this coalition of scientists and faith leaders is to advocate for public policies in Massachusetts that address the ecological and moral emergency of climate change with bold, swift, and substantive action.

Our advocacy will be grounded in principles of justice and equity because climate change disproportionately harms those least responsible for it: low-income communities, communities of color, children, and future generations.

In support of our advocacy, we seek to educate the people of Massachusetts on the urgency of the climate crisis and our shared responsibility both to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the changing climate. 

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Coming Soon on SkS...

• What will Earth look like in 2100? (Climate Adam)
• Inspiring, not depressing, film fest messages (Daisy Simmons)
• Is the grid ready for electric vehicles? (Jan Ellen Spiegel)
• Three decades of climate national defense warnings (Dana)
• New research this week (Ari)
• 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #15 (John Hartz)
• 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #15 (John Hartz)

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Poster of the Week...

 

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SkS Week in Review...  

• 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #14 by John Hartz
• New research, March 25-31, 2019 by Ari Jokimäki 
• Why results from the next generation of climate models matter, Guest Post by Stephen Belcher, Olivier Boucher & Rowan Sutton (Carbon Brief) 
• Protecting oil companies instead of the climate-vulnerable is elitist by Dana Nuccitelli (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• Asteroid to hit Earth in August 2046 - Emergency IPCC UN panel formed by scaddenp
• 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #13 by John Hartz

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Random thoughts on my first SCAM-research conference in France

I have just given two lectures on so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) in France. Why should that be anything to write home about? Perhaps it isn’t; but during the last 25 years I have been lecturing all over the world and, even though I live partly in France and speak the language, I never attended a […]

Read the rest here: Random thoughts on my first SCAM-research conference in France

American Loon #2169: John Robbins

John Robbins is a New Age and alternative health author, environmentalist & animal rights activist, nutritionist (the quack kind) and fringe anti-GMO conspiracy theorist. Robbins was originally heir to the Baskin-Robbins icecream empire, but decided to make a career as a woo guru instead....

Read the full lunacy: #2169: John Robbins Encyclopedia of American Loons

Homeopathy for sleep bruxism? In your dreams!

The present trial evaluated the efficacy of homeopathic medicines of Melissa officinalis (MO), Phytolacca decandra (PD), and the combination of both in the treatment of possible sleep bruxism (SB) in children (grinding teeth during sleep). Patients (n = 52) (6.62 ± 1.79 years old) were selected based on the parents report of SB. The study comprised a crossover design […]

Read the rest here: Homeopathy for sleep bruxism? In your dreams!

Naprapathy re-visited … but it’s still not evidence-based

I am being told to educate myself and rethink the subject of NAPRAPATHY by the US naprapath Dr Charles Greer. Even though he is not very polite, he just might have a point: Edzard, enough foolish so-called scientific, educated assesments from a trained Allopathic Physician. When asked, everything that involves Alternative Medicine in your eyesight […]

Read the rest here: Naprapathy re-visited … but it’s still not evidence-based

American Loon #2168: Joel Robbins

Joel Robbins is a (licensed) chiropractor and “naturopathic physician” who operates the Health & Wellness Clinic of Tulsa, Oklahoma (currently Robbins Natural Health, it seems). Robbins has a degree from the British West Indies Medical College, a diploma mill, and a bogus...

Read the full lunacy: #2168: Joel Robbins Encyclopedia of American Loons

CERVICAL SPINE MANIPULATION: A RAPID LITERATURE REVIEW

I have previously mentioned some of the background but, somehow, I seem to have omitted to draw your attention to the actual paper. Yes, I am talking of the review of cervical manipulation prepared for the Manitoba Health Professions Advisory Council. It is an important and well-researched document; even though it is already a few months […]

Read the rest here: CERVICAL SPINE MANIPULATION: A RAPID LITERATURE REVIEW

Chiropractic: it’s the money, stupid!

Chiropractic may be nonsense, but it nevertheless earns chiros very good money. Chiropractors tend to treat their patients for unnecessarily long periods of time. This, of course, costs money, and even if the treatment in question ever was indicated (which, according to the best evidence, is more than doubtful), this phenomenon would significantly inflate healthcare expenditure. It was reported that over […]

Read the rest here: Chiropractic: it’s the money, stupid!

American Loon #2167: Rita Roark & Sara Ebarb

Rita Roark used to be a science teacher at Negreet High School in Negreet, Louisiana, a position she used as a platform to teach kids that the Bible is “100 percent true”, promote young Earth creationism and tell her students that evolution was an “impossible” and “stupid theory made up by...

Read the full lunacy: #2167: Rita Roark & Sara Ebarb Encyclopedia of American Loons

The French Academies of Medicine and Pharmacy have just ousted homeopathy (did they also join the KKK?)

Hahnemann spent his last years in Paris where he and his young French wife became what we today might call fashionable gurus. Ever since, homeopathy has been almost as popular in France as it is in Germany. The word’s largest producer of homeopathic products, Boiron, is based in France, and about 10% of the French […]

Read the rest here: The French Academies of Medicine and Pharmacy have just ousted homeopathy (did they also join the KKK?)