Category Archives: ethics

Superior

Posted on July 29, 2020 by

Something I’ve done on this blog quite a lot is push back against the narrative that science is social. This doesn’t mean that I think individual scientists can’t be biased, or that we won’t sometimes go down the wrong path … Continue reading →

Posted in ethics, Scientists, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , | 211 Comments

Apocalypse never?

Posted on July 1, 2020 by

I guess the current entertainment in the climate world relates to Michael Shellenberger’s new book, Apocolypse Never, which is due to come out next month and is already doing well on Amazon. In a somewhat amusing twist, Michael wrote a … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Environmental change, ethics | Tagged , , , , | 197 Comments

Growth?

Posted on March 3, 2020 by

Just over a year ago, I wrote a post about limits to growth that focussed on an article written by Michael Liebreich. I found his argument particularly silly as it seemed to suggest that the economy could grow until the … Continue reading →

Posted in Environmental change, ethics, Philosophy for Bloggers, Policy | Tagged , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Potentially habitable?

Posted on September 14, 2019 by

The exciting news in astronomy is the discovery of water in the atmosphere of a relatively small planet, known as K2-18b, that happens to lie in what we often to as the habitable zone of its parent star. The result … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, ethics, Research, Scientists, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , | 61 Comments

Retract!

Posted on July 25, 2019 by

I’ve been on holiday for a week or so. While I’ve been away there’s been quite a lot of media coverage of the paper that I discussed in this post and that we discussed extensively in this pubpeer thread. It … Continue reading →

Posted in ClimateBall, ethics, Philosophy for Bloggers, Research, Scientists, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 58 Comments

A human extinction denier?

Posted on June 4, 2019 by

Mike Hulme has a new essay that some are promoting on Twitter. He suggests that he is a human extinction denier and objects to the climate emergency narrative. Although I have my own concerns about some of the extreme rhetoric, … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, ethics, Policy, Politics | Tagged , , , , | 114 Comments

Democracy

Posted on January 20, 2019 by

I’ve mostly avoided writing about Brexit, as it’s a pretty depressing situation. There are many aspects of this issue that I find frustrating, but something I find particularly irritating is when politicians claim that not leaving the EU would be … Continue reading →

Posted in ethics, Personal, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 91 Comments

An STS perspective

Posted on November 30, 2018 by

I saw something a while ago that I been thinking about and thought I would write a short post in the hopes of clarifying my understanding (which is sorely lacking). The suggestion was that all those involved with climate change … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ethics, Policy, Scientists, The philosophy of science | Tagged , , , | 127 Comments

The benefits of acting now, rather than later

Posted on November 4, 2018 by

This is a post that I’ve been thinking about for a while, but have been somewhat reluctant to actually write. This is partly because maybe I’m wrong, partly because it is clearly going to be a bit too simplistic, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon tax, Climate change, Environmental change, ethics, Policy, Science, Severe Events | Tagged , , , , | 175 Comments

Ceci n’est pas un Sokal

Posted on October 9, 2018 by

Yet another hit piece by Freedom Fighters against “ideologically-motivated scholarship, radical skepticism and cultural constructivism.” Yascha Mounk called it Sokal Squared. On closer inspection, there’s no Sokal there. Inspired by Michael Lukas I contend it’s more of a Veritas scam. The Sokal epithet refers to perhaps the … Continue reading →

Posted in advocacy, ethics, Philosophy for Bloggers, Politics, Research | Tagged , , | 85 Comments