1. Science, Pseudoscience, and Science Denial Paul K. Strode Fairview High School, Boulder Valley School District University of Colorado School of Education

2. Science, Pseudoscience, and Science Denial Paul K. Strode Fairview High School, Boulder Valley School District University of Colorado School of Education Outline Pew Research: Public vs. Scientists What does pseudoscience look like… today? What is the Science Denial Strategy?

3. How does belief without evidence, and acceptance of bad science affect the Public’s perception of Science and Scientists? http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/public-praises-science-scientists-fault-public-media/http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/public-praises-science-scientists-fault-public-media/ accessed 6 June 2012 April - June 2009 Pew Research Survey of 2001 nonscientist adults and 2,533 scientists that are members of AAAS

4. http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/public-praises-science-scientists-fault-public-media/http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/public-praises-science-scientists-fault-public-media/ accessed 6 June 2012 Pew Research Center The Public compared to Scientists According to scientists…

5. http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/public-praises-science-scientists-fault-public-media/http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/public-praises-science-scientists-fault-public-media/ accessed 6 June 2012 More complex questions Pew Research Center The Public compared to Scientists More simple questions

6. http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/public-praises-science-scientists-fault-public-media/http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/public-praises-science-scientists-fault-public-media/ accessed 6 June 2012 Differences between the Public and Scientists Pew Research Center The Public compared to Scientists Public Scientists

7. http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/public-praises-science-scientists-fault-public-media/http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/public-praises-science-scientists-fault-public-media/ accessed 6 June 2012 Pew Research Center The Public compared to Scientists

8. http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/public-praises-science-scientists-fault-public-media/http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/public-praises-science-scientists-fault-public-media/ accessed 6 June 2012 Pew Research Center The Public compared to Scientists

9. http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/public-praises-science-scientists-fault-public-media/http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/public-praises-science-scientists-fault-public-media/ accessed 6 June 2012 There is more scientific consensus over evolution and climate change than the Public thinks. Pew Research Center The Public compared to Scientists (all scientists)

10. Science hypothesis/model and evidence driven tentative and testable with predictive power messy and self-correcting dispassionate consensus driven Science, Pseudoscience, and Science Denial

11. Is this Science? #1 in 1955

12. Magic! † Not intended to cure, treat, diagnose, or even prevent disease or other health problems. Is this Science? I am being persecuted so I must be right!

13. Is this Science?

15. A compelling new peer-reviewed report from two U.S. scientists argues that increased use of Monsanto’s glyphosate herbicide (trade name Roundup) could be the cause of the epidemic symptoms labeled as “gluten intolerance.” Is this Science?

17. r = 0.78 P < 0.001 It also explains why CO2 has been rising in the atmosphere.

18. Anthony Samsel is a retired self-employed computer science consultant. According to The Web Of Science search engine, Samsel has only published two scientific papers. Stephanie Seneff is a 65-yr-old computer scientist at MIT. Her last eight articles have been published in the journal Entropy, a free access online journal with a $1,352.00 price tag to publish, which means she and her coauthors have spent $10,816.00 to publish in the last two years. Is this Science?

19. Interdisciplinary Toxicology was started in 2008 by a Slovakian institute called the Institute of Experimental Pharmacology. More than half (93) of the 162 articles published in this journal in the last five years have never been cited and the average citations per paper is 2.2, mostly by seven papers, which have been cited a combined 113 times. Is this Science?

20. The word “associated” appears 38 times in the paper. Is this Science?

21. The sources of the data in the graphs are untraceable. Who is Nancy Swanson? Is this Science?

22. Nancy Swanson is a retired physicist who blogs about GMOs. Is this Science?

24. Meade, T. W., et al. 1990. British Medical Journal 300:1431-1437.

25. Is this Science? Meade, T. W., et al. 1990. British Medical Journal 300:1431-1437.

26. Is this Science? Meade, T. W., et al. 1990. British Medical Journal 300:1431-1437. http://www.srisd.com/Oswestry%20Low%20Back%20Pain%20Scale.pdf

27. Is this Science? Meade, T. W., et al. 1990. British Medical Journal 300:1431-1437. Reported decrease in lower back pain

28. Is this Science?

29. Pseudoscience is just really bad science

30. Pseudoscience Science Denial belief driven and therefore often certain measures the facts against the consequences of accepting the facts rejects consensus if beliefs do not fit Science hypothesis/model and evidence driven tentative and testable with predictive power messy and self-correcting dispassionate consensus driven

31. How is science denial like this possible?

32. How is science denial possible? The jury is still out! Claiming or believing that the science is still undetermined. Kill the messenger! Scientists are untrustworthy, fraudulent, and deceitful. Scientists are atheists or socialists. Reject implications  Reject science There is no God if evolution is true. Framing/Rhetoric Just a theory…

33. The jury is still out (sowing the seeds of doubt) : A major strategy by stakeholders (e.g. large companies, politicians) who see personal consequences if the science is right is to convince the public that the science is still undetermined, often well past the time of strong scientific consensus.

35. “The significant decline in primarily herbivorous members of the Lepidoptera and Coleoptera and increase in Araneae and Hymenoptera suggest a rebalancing of the arthropod community away from herbivores toward carnivores under elevated CO 2.” - Hamilton et al. 2012 “the Earth could benefit rather than be harmed”?  CO 2  Leaf Quality  Herbivore Predation Susceptibility And  Presence of Carnivores =  Herbivore Populations

36. Kill the messenger: Scientists are untrustworthy

37. Reject implications  Reject science Often phrased in terms of critical thinking or an improvement in pedagogy.

38. "We, rather, believe you should pedagogically insist on the permissive freedom for teachers to talk about other theories in addition to evolution.” - Stephen Meyer, Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute and former professor of Earth Science at Whitworth College Often phrased in terms of critical thinking or an improvement in pedagogy.

39. Framing/Rhetoric National Academy of Sciences: Theory - a comprehensive explanation of some aspect of nature that is supported by a vast body of evidence, including laws, facts, and inferences that can be used to make predictions about natural events or phenomena that have not yet been observed.

40. What does the Fall-out look like? “All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. And it's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior.” - Georgia Rep. and Medical Doctor Paul Broun, September 27, 2012 Link to the article

41. Global Surface Temperature Index 1997-2010 Cherry-picking Data

42. “National Snow and Ice Data Center records show conclusively that in April 2009, Arctic sea ice extent had indeed returned to and surpassed 1989 levels.” Joseph Bast, President, Heartland Institute (January 31, 2011, Santa Fe New Mexican) Cherry-picking Data

44. http://static.guim.co.uk/sys- images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013 /9/19/1379560772490/2013_Arctic _Escalator_450.gif

48. Distraction

49. “A quote came out of the emails, these leaked emails, that said “let's use Mike's trick to hide the decline". That's the words, "let's use Mike's trick to hide the decline”. Berkeley Physicist, Richard Muller, misquoting climate scientist, Phil Jones, in a March, 2011 lecture "I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd (sic) from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.“ Phil Jones, email Nov. 1999 Distraction

50. The email was about Phil Jones’s preparation of a cover figure for a general readership magazine put out by the World Meteorological Organization. Thermometer measurements are only available from about 1850 to the present. The rest are proxy data: tree rings, corals, ice cores, etc. Distraction

51. "I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd (sic) from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.“ Phil Jones, email Nov. 1999 Mann et al, 1999, Nature Mike’s Nature trick was to overlay thermometer data on proxy data to increase the accuracy of the reporting. Distraction

52. Keith Briffa, 1999, Science Reviews Briffa’s data revealed an anomalous difference in the measured temps and the tree ring estimation for SOME of the northern boreal forest trees. Distraction "I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd (sic) from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.“ Phil Jones, email Nov. 1999 The decline is not a temperature decline, but a decline in the quality of the data.

54. International Scientific Agreement on Human- Induced Effects on Climate American Academy of Pediatrics American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) American Chemical Society American College of Preventive Medicine American Geophysical Union American Institute of Biological Sciences American Institute of Physics American Medical Association American Meteorological Society American Physical Society American Public Health Association American Quaternary Association American Society for Microbiology Australian Coral Reef Society Australian Medical Association Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Ecological Society of America European Academy of Sciences and Arts European Federation of Geologists European Geosciences Union European Physical Society European Science Foundation Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies Geological Society of America Geological Society of Australia Geological Society of London Institute of Biology (UK) Institute of Professional Engineers New Zealand Institution of Engineers Australia InterAcademy Council International Association for Great Lakes Research International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences International Union for Quaternary Research International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics National Academies of Science of: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon Royal Society of Canada, the Caribbean, China, Institut de France, Ghana, Leopoldina of Germany, of Indonesia, Ireland, Accademia nazionale delle scienze of Italy, India, Japan, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, Royal Society of New Zealand, Russian Academy of Sciences, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, The Royal Society of the United Kingdom, the United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. National Association of Geoscience Teachers Network of African Science Academies (The science academies of Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, as well as the African Academy of Sciences) Royal Meteorological Society (UK) World Federation of Public Health Associations World Meteorological Organization

55. Distraction

56. Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny – Ernst Haeckel, 1874

57. Distraction Bernard Kettlewell’s peppered moth (Biston betularia) experiments of 1952-1972 are claimed to be erroneous, for one because the photos used in the publications are of museum specimens that have been artificially attached to tree trunks.

58. What else leads to a pandemic of science denial?

59. Science, Pseudoscience, and Science Denial Science Denial Belief driven and therefore often certain Measures the facts against the consequences of accepting the facts Rejects consensus if beliefs do not fit

60. Science is not belief, but the will to find out. Science, Pseudoscience, and Science Denial

61. You are not entitled to your opinion, you are entitled to your argument. Science, Pseudoscience, and Science Denial