The future of scientific justice: the case of The Sceptical Environmentalist
From The Embassy of Good Science
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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.
