Misleading by deniers

denied by me’nthedogs
Christopher Booker’s misinformation about the Polar Bear Specialist Group:
[Via Deltoid]

Chris Mooney refutes claims that a skeptical report was suppressed by the EPA. (See also Deep Climate’s analysis of the origin of the report.

Another story about skeptics being suppressed has been concocted by Christopher Booker:

Dr Taylor had obtained funding to attend this week’s meeting of the [Polar Bear Study Group], but this was voted down by its members because of his views on global warming. The chairman, Dr Andy Derocher, a former university pupil of Dr Taylor’s, frankly explained in an email (which I was not sent by Dr Taylor) that his rejection had nothing to do with his undoubted expertise on polar bears: “it was the position you’ve taken on global warming that brought opposition”.

Dr Taylor was told that his views running “counter to human-induced climate change are extremely unhelpful”. His signing of the Manhattan Declaration — a statement by 500 scientists that the causes of climate change are not CO2 but natural, such as changes in the radiation of the sun and ocean currents — was “inconsistent with the position taken by the PBSG”.

It is hard to imagine more unreliable sourcing than a Christopher “white asbestos is harmless” Booker second-hand report of an email, but I thought I should check the story to be on the safe side, so I asked Derocher about Booker’s article:

[More]

When I first heard about this, I was skeptical. I’ve been to scientific meetings and served on panels. The rationale espoused in the Telegraph article did not smell right. Since it only represented on side of the issue, I waited for the other shoe to drop.

So, he as not invited because he no longer holds one of the 15 positions that is allowed to attend. He no longer represents Canada on any of the relevant panels. And if he is no longer involved in polar bear research and management, then there is good reason for him not be be invited.

His view on climate change may be in the minority but his lack of invitation to the meeting seems to follow the rules that he helped write. Yet the reports make it seem as though he is being snubbed, even when he was paying for it himself, purely for his climate change beliefs.

Misleading. It’s a large part of the denier’s bag of tricks. So just remember the name. Christopher Booker and realize that his goal appears not to be to reveal truth but to mislead the reader.

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