rampant
Wednesday, 31 July 2019
American Loon #2221: Gerald Schroeder
Read the full lunacy: #2221: Gerald Schroeder Encyclopedia of American Loons
Another blow to quackademia: TCM course at a Sydney university is to be stopped
Read the rest here: Another blow to quackademia: TCM course at a Sydney university is to be stopped
The Other Epidemics
Read more at: The Other Epidemics by Reuben
Tuesday, 30 July 2019
Acupuncture for angina pectoris! Too good to be true?
Read the rest here: Acupuncture for angina pectoris! Too good to be true?
Monday, 29 July 2019
Chiropractic for kids: a ‘complete disregard for the evidence and scientific facts’
Read the rest here: Chiropractic for kids: a ‘complete disregard for the evidence and scientific facts’
American Loon #2220: Jeffrey Schone
Read the full lunacy: #2220: Jeffrey Schone Encyclopedia of American Loons
2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #30
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week...
Story of the Week...
Global Footprint Network promotes real-world solutions that #MoveTheDate, accelerating the transition to one-planet prosperity
On July 29, humanity will have used nature’s resource budget for the entire year, according to Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability organization that has pioneered the Ecological Footprint. It is Earth Overshoot Day. Its date has moved up two months over the past 20 years to the 29th of July this year, the earliest date ever.
Earth Overshoot Day falling on July 29th means that humanity is currently using nature 1.75 times faster than our planet’s ecosystems can regenerate. This is akin to using 1.75 Earths. Overshoot is possible because we are depleting our natural capital – which compromises humanity’s future resource security. The costs of this global ecological overspending are becoming increasingly evident in the form of deforestation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, or the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The latter leads to climate change and more frequent extreme weather events.
“We have only got one Earth – this is the ultimately defining context for human existence. We can’t use 1.75 without destructive consequences,” said Mathis Wackernagel, co-inventor of Ecological Footprint accounting and founder of Global Footprint Network.
His just released book, Ecological Footprint: Managing Our Biocapacity Budget, demonstrates that overshoot can only be temporary. Humanity will eventually have to operate within the means of Earth’s ecological resources, whether that balance is restored by disaster or by design. “Companies and countries that understand and manage the reality of operating in a one-planet context are in a far better position to navigate the challenges of the 21st century,” Wackernagel writes.
Global Footprint Network promotes real-world solutions that #MoveTheDate, accelerating the transition to one-planet prosperity. Press Release, Global Footprint Network, July 23, 2019
Toon of the Week...
Hat tip to the Stop Climate Science Denial Facebook page.
Coming Soon on SkS...
- 'No doubt left' about scientific consensus on global warming, say experts (Jonathan Watts)
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #30 (Doug Bostrom)
- The 'war on coal' myth (Karin Kirk)
- What psychotherapy can do for the climate and biodiversity crises (Caroline Hickman)
- How climate change is making hurricanes more dangerous (Jeff Berardelli)
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #31 (John Hartz)
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #31 (John Hartz)
Climate Feedback Claim Review...
Data shows the Earth is currently warmer globally than at any time in the past 2,000 years
CLAIM:
"A graph of the Earth’s mean temperature over the last 2,000 years shows two previous periods when temperatures were warmer than they are now; from 1–200 A.D., an epoch called the Roman Warm Period, and more recently the Medieval Warm Period from 900–1100 A.D.[…] It is worth noting that both of these climate optima occurred centuries before the discovery of fossil fuels and the invention of the internal combustion engine."
SOURCE:
Apocalyptic Sea-Level Rise—Just a Thing of the Past?, Opinion by Gregory Rummo, Town Hall, July 23, 2019
VERDICT:
DETAILS:
Factually Inaccurate: Available climate records show that recent global temperatures are likely the highest of the last 2,000 years and there is no data supporting the claim that, globally, the Earth was warmer during the Roman or Medieval eras.
Flawed Reasoning: Natural climate change events in the past do not provide evidence that human emissions of greenhouse gas are incapable of changing the climate today.
KEY TAKE AWAY:
It's not true that the world has been warmer at other times during the last 2,000 years. But even if that were the case, it would not change the fact that human emissions of greenhouse gases are causing Earth's climate to warm.
Data shows the Earth is currently warmer globally than at any time in the past 2,000 years, Edited by Scott Johnson, Claim Reviews, Climate Feedback, July 26, 2019
Poster of the Week...
SkS Week in Review...
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #30 by John Hartz
- Analysis: How Trump’s rollback of vehicle fuel standards would increase US emissions by Zeke Hausfather (Carbon Brief)
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #29, 2019 by SkS Team
- CCC: UK has just 18 months to avoid ’embarrassment’ over climate inaction by Simon Evans (Carbon Brief)
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #29 by John Hartz
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Saturday, 27 July 2019
Facebook and Youtube join the fight against quackery
Read the rest here: Facebook and Youtube join the fight against quackery
Friday, 26 July 2019
Is the heat bothering you? Try homeopathy, acupuncture or Bach flower remedies!
Read the rest here: Is the heat bothering you? Try homeopathy, acupuncture or Bach flower remedies!
American Loon #2219: Jeff Schoep
Read the full lunacy: #2219: Jeff Schoep Encyclopedia of American Loons
Thursday, 25 July 2019
Is this the quackiest quack of them all?
Read the rest here: Is this the quackiest quack of them all?
Wednesday, 24 July 2019
Position Statement From The Spanish Association Of Paediatrics Medicines Committee Concerning The Use Of Alternative Medicine And Pseudo-Science In Children
Read the rest here: Position Statement From The Spanish Association Of Paediatrics Medicines Committee Concerning The Use Of Alternative Medicine And Pseudo-Science In Children
Tuesday, 23 July 2019
American Loon #2218: Rob Schneider
Read the full lunacy: #2218: Rob Schneider Encyclopedia of American Loons
Smarter Curcumin for dummer consumers?
Read the rest here: Smarter Curcumin for dummer consumers?
Monday, 22 July 2019
Wet cupping and dry humour
Read the rest here: Wet cupping and dry humour
2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #29
Article of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review...Poster of the Week...
Article of the Week...
June 2019: Earth's Hottest June on Record
In this picture taken on June 6, 2019, Hindu priests sit inside large vessels filled with water as they perform the 'Parjanya Japa' and offer prayers to appease the rain god for timely monsoons at the Huligamma Devi Temple in Koppal District, some 300 km from Bangalore, India. A 33-year-old man died after a fight over water in southern India, police said on June 7, as huge parts of the country gasped from drought and a brutal summer heatwave. The heat wave was blamed for 210 deaths in June, making it Earth’s deadliest weather-related disaster of the month. Image credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images.
June 2019 was the planet's warmest June since record keeping began in 1880, said NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) on Tuesday. NASA also rated June 2019 as the warmest June on record, well of ahead of the previous record set in 2015.
The global heat in June is especially impressive and significant given that only a weak (and weakening) El Niño event was in place. As human-produced greenhouse gases continue to heat up our planet, most global heat records are set during El Niño periods, because the warm waters that spread upward and eastward across the surface of the tropical Pacific during El Niño transfer heat from the ocean to the atmosphere.
Global ocean temperatures during June 2019 were tied with 2016 for warmest on record, according to NOAA, and global land temperatures were the warmest on record. Global satellite-measured temperatures in June 2019 for the lowest 8 km of the atmosphere were the warmest or second warmest in the 41-year record, according to RSS and the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH), respectively.
As of July 15, July 2019 was on track to be the warmest month in Earth’s history (in absolute terms, not in terms of temperature departure from average)--just ahead of the record set in July 2017.
June 2019: Earth's Hottest June on Record by Jeff Masters, Category 6, Weather Underground, June 18, 2019
Toon of the Week...
Coming Soon on SkS...
- CCC: UK has just 18 months to avoid ’embarrassment’ over climate inaction (Simon Evans)
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #29, 2019 (SkS Team)
- Analysis: How Trump’s rollback of vehicle fuel standards would increase US emissions (Zeke Hausfather)
- What psychotherapy can do for the climate and biodiversity crises (Caroline Hickman)
- How climate change is making hurricanes more dangerous (Jeff Berardelli)
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #30 (John Hartz)
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #30 (John Hartz)
Climate Feedback Claim Review...
Sky News Australia interview falsely claims that global cooling is coming soon
CLAIM:
"the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is misleading humanity about climate change and sea levels, and that in fact a new solar-driven cooling period is not far off"
SOURCE:
New sun-driven cooling period of Earth ‘not far off’, Alan Jones interviews Nils Axel-Mörner, Sky News Australia, June 2019
VERDICT:
DETAILS:
Inadequate Support: These claims contradict all the available data and published research on these topics. There is no support in the scientific literature for the claim that solar activity could significantly cool the climate in the decades to come.
KEY TAKE AWAY:
Scientists have established that observed climate change and sea level rise are clearly caused by human activities, primarily the emission of carbon dioxide through the burning of fossil fuels. Solar activity cannot explain recent warming, and even the occurrence of low solar activity in the near future would have an insignificant effect on human-caused warming.
Sky News Australia interview falsely claims that global cooling is coming soon, Edited by Scott Johnson, Claim Reviews, Climate Feedback, July 18, 2019
SkS Week in Review...
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #29 by John Hartz
- 97% consensus study hits one million downloads! by John Cook
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #28, 2019 by SkS Team
- 10 things a committed U.S. President and Congress could do about climate change by Craig K Chandler (Yale Climate Connections)
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #28 by John Hartz
Poster of the Week...
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Saturday, 20 July 2019
One in 20 patients is exposed to preventable harm
Read the rest here: One in 20 patients is exposed to preventable harm
Friday, 19 July 2019
A chair of anthroposophical medicine at the Univesity of Basel
Read the rest here: A chair of anthroposophical medicine at the Univesity of Basel
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Chiropractic, osteopathy: Yet another lucrative claim turns out to be bogus
Read the rest here: Chiropractic, osteopathy: Yet another lucrative claim turns out to be bogus
Wednesday, 17 July 2019
American Loon #2217: Cindy Schneider
Read the full lunacy: #2217: Cindy Schneider Encyclopedia of American Loons
Chiropractors’ lip service to public health
Read the rest here: Chiropractors’ lip service to public health
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
Homeopathy? Which one?
Read the rest here: Homeopathy? Which one?
Monday, 15 July 2019
Yet another study shows the negative effects of SCAM use for cancer patients
Read the rest here: Yet another study shows the negative effects of SCAM use for cancer patients
2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #28
Debunk of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review...
Debunk of the Week...
Non-peer-reviewed manuscript falsely claims natural cloud changes can explain global warming
CLAIM: "Man-made Climate Change Doesn't Exist In Practice... During the last hundred years the temperature is increased [sic] about 0.1°C because of carbon dioxide. The human contribution was about 0.01°C."
Some news outlets are publishing articles stating that this claim is based on a new study. In reality, there is no new published study. The claim comes from a six-page document uploaded to arXiv, a website traditionally used by scientists to make manuscripts available before publication. This means that this article has not been peer-reviewed, so there is no guarantee to its credibility.
If the blogs that covered this as a new study had contacted independent scientists for insight, instead of accepting this short document as revolutionary science, they would have found that it does not have any scientific credibility.
As the scientists who examined this claim explained, the document relies on circular reasoning to claim that cloud cover and relative humidity have caused the change in global temperature, and ignores many additional factors affecting global temperature—including aerosol pollution, volcanic eruptions, and natural ocean oscillations. The published, peer-reviewed scientific research on this topic clearly shows that human activities are responsible for climate change.
Non-peer-reviewed manuscript falsely claims natural cloud changes can explain global warming, Claims Review Edited by Scott Johnson, Climate Feedback, July 12, 2019
El Niño/La Niña Update...
July 2019 El Niño update: I think I’ll go for a walk
El Niño is hanging on by its fingernails, but forecasters predict this event will wind down within the next couple of months. It’s likely that the temperature of the tropical Pacific Ocean surface will return to near-average soon, qualifying for “ENSO-neutral” conditions. Neutral conditions are favored to remain through the fall and winter.
Not dead yet
The June Niño3.4 index, our primary ENSO measurement, was 0.6°C above the long-term average, just above the El Niño threshold of 0.5°C. There is some evidence that the atmosphere over the central Pacific is still responding to that extra heating, as a bit more clouds and rain than average were present in June.
The Southern Oscillation Index and Equatorial Southern Oscillation Index were both slightly negative in June, also indicating some continuation of the weakened Walker circulation we expect to see with El Niño. But the upper-level and near-surface winds over the equatorial Pacific, another component of the Walker circulation, were close to average during June. All in all, El Niño is still present, but just barely.
That’s no ordinary rabbit
As frequent readers of this blog will know, we closely monitor the temperature of the water under the surface of the tropical Pacific. This can tell us if there is a source of warmer-than-average water to supply the surface, continuing to fuel El Niño, or not. In early June, there was a small downwelling Kelvin wave of warmer waters moving eastward under the surface of the Pacific, but this wave has dissipated recently.
Departure from average of the surface and subsurface tropical Pacific sea temperature averaged over 5-day periods starting in early June 2019. The vertical axis is depth below the surface (meters) and the horizontal axis is longitude, from the western to eastern tropical Pacific. This cross-section is right along the equator. Climate.gov figure from CPC data.
Overall, the heat content in the top 300 meters of the equatorial Pacific is just about average now, in early July. This is one of the major factors in our forecast for a return to near-average surface temperatures and neutral ENSO conditions. Once the surface temperatures return to average, and the source of extra heat to the air above the central Pacific is gone, the atmospheric component of El Niño—that weakened Walker circulation—will also return to average.
July 2019 El Niño update: I think I’ll go for a walk by Emily Becker, NOAA's Climate.gov, July 11, 2019
Toon of the Week...
Coming Soon on SkS...
- 10 things a committed U.S. President and Congress could do about climate change (Craig Chandler)
- New Research Reloaded (Doug Bostrom)
- 97% consensus study hits one million downloads! (John Cook)
- What psychotherapy can do for the climate and biodiversity crises (Caroline Hickman)
- How climate change is making hurricanes more dangerous (Jeff Berardelli)
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #29 (John Hartz)
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Weekly Digest #29 (John Hartz)
Poster of the Week...
SkS Week in Review...
- 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #28 by John Hartz
- Disappearing sea ice is changing the whole ecosystem of the Arctic Ocean by Graham J. C. Underwood (The Conversation UK)
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #27, 2019 by SkS Team
- France’s record-breaking heatwave made ‘at least five times’ more likely by climate change by Daisy Dunne (Carbon Brief)
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Saturday, 13 July 2019
German health insurers urged to end homeopathy refunds
Read the rest here: German health insurers urged to end homeopathy refunds
Stop Using Phony Science to Justify Transphobia - Scientific American Blog Network
Read full post: Stop Using Phony Science to Justify Transphobia - Scientific American Blog Network
Sadly, many self-styled skeptics, especially in the UK, subscribe to this oversimplification destined to introduce a child to a complex subject (what Jack Cohen & Ian Stewart dub "lies-to-children")as if science stopped there. It's the same attitude that they lambast in others on other subjects in their blogs and elsewhere. It's easy to demonstrate e.g. that homeopathy is bunk or that vaccines save lives. That doesn't make you a geneticist, endocrinologist, psychologist, social scientist. Or, indeed, a very nice person.
Friday, 12 July 2019
Spinal manipulation in children amounts to abuse
Read the rest here: Spinal manipulation in children amounts to abuse
American Loon #2216: Gary Schneeberger
Read the full lunacy: #2216: Gary Schneeberger Encyclopedia of American Loons
Thursday, 11 July 2019
Homeopathy in France: a triumph of reason over profit
Read the rest here: Homeopathy in France: a triumph of reason over profit
Wednesday, 10 July 2019
A new example of ‘excellence in homeopathic research’
Read the rest here: A new example of ‘excellence in homeopathic research’
American Loon #2215. Bert Schlossberg
Read the full lunacy: #2215. Bert Schlossberg Encyclopedia of American Loons
Tuesday, 9 July 2019
The two essential principles of homeopathy research
Read the rest here: The two essential principles of homeopathy research
Monday, 8 July 2019
Another ban of homeopathy (and several other SCAMs)
Read the rest here: Another ban of homeopathy (and several other SCAMs)
American Loon #2214: Joe Schimmel
Read the full lunacy: #2214: Joe Schimmel Encyclopedia of American Loons
Saturday, 6 July 2019
Should Medicare pay for acupuncture?
Read the rest here: Should Medicare pay for acupuncture?
Friday, 5 July 2019
Guess what … I AM THE HOMEOPATHIC WORLD CHAMPION !!!
Read the rest here: Guess what … I AM THE HOMEOPATHIC WORLD CHAMPION !!!
Thursday, 4 July 2019
Boiron’s homeopathic visit to the vagina
Read the rest here: Boiron’s homeopathic visit to the vagina
Wednesday, 3 July 2019
SCAM in Switzerland: paediatriticans couldn’t care less
Read the rest here: SCAM in Switzerland: paediatriticans couldn’t care less
American Loon #2213: Richard Schiffman
Read the full lunacy: #2213: Richard Schiffman Encyclopedia of American Loons
Tuesday, 2 July 2019
American Loon #2212: Michael Scheifler
Read the full lunacy: #2212: Michael Scheifler Encyclopedia of American Loons
English critics of homeopathy might have just been libelled by a German homeopathy manufacturer
Read the rest here: English critics of homeopathy might have just been libelled by a German homeopathy manufacturer
Monday, 1 July 2019
Towards the prohibition of chiropractic spinal manipulation for children
Read the rest here: Towards the prohibition of chiropractic spinal manipulation for children