Category Archives: ethics

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 , , , , , | 60 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 , , , , , , , , | 54 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 , , , , | 174 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