The future of scientific justice: the case of The Sceptical Environmentalist

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The future of scientific justice: the case of The Sceptical Environmentalist

What is this about?

In January 2003, the world learned that Denmark’s national research council convenes a body whose name is rendered ominously in English as ‘Committee of Scientific Dishonesty’ (CSD). The CSD normally deals with forms of misconduct—negligence, fraud, and plagiarism—that beset the more competitive reaches of the biomedical sciences. However, the CSD had now set its sight on Bjørn Lomborg, whose transatlantic bestseller, The Sceptical Environmentalist, purported to show that ecologists routinely overstate the world’s environmental problems to fit their political agenda [4]. If the CSD thought it would settle the matter once and for all, it was mistaken. Shortly after the committee’s judgement, the Danish government commissioned an inquiry into the CSD’s own future.

For whom is this important?

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Other information

Who

• Lomborg Bjorn

When

• 2001

Where

• Danmark

Virtues & Values

• Reliability

Research Area

• SH 03.02 - Environmental change and society