April 3, 2017
When climate change warriors can’t keep their stories straight
By Brian C. Joondeph
Mark Twain, author of the now politically incorrect Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, once said, “If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.” Good advice, especially for those who play fast and loose with facts and truth. And relevant in the internet age when articles, headlines, words and photos are preserved in perpetuity.
Lies, built upon lies, eventually become so tangled that the truth may be forever lost down the rabbit hole. Rather than starting with the truth, to avoid having to remember the labyrinthine path taken by each additional falsehood.
What happens is that 'study' A squeaks through peer review and is published. Study 'B' is conducted and refers to the conclusions drawn at the end of Study A, which may or may not have been supported by the data in study A. Studies C, D, E are conducted, which use studies A and B as references, and cite conclusions and statements from those studies. The next generation of studies cite all those studies, and a pyramid of scholarly misconception is built, with each relying on previous studies to reach the conclusions which are, in turn, cited in research later. Then someone comes along and does a 'literature review' which finds that of the studies done, 90% agree with study A, and only a paltry few disagree, if any, because they have to make it through peer review if they disagree, swimming against the tide of all the other studies.
