New subject: False Colors

1 Dec 2003

The Cunctator wrote:

...
  The problem is that Ed Poor has been editing 
 articles on climate science to give equal weight 
 to opinions outside of mainstream science, and 
 describing the different sides as "environmentalists, 
 liberals, Democrats and some scientists" and "other
  scientists".

 This isn't a dispute over generalities or a philosophy 
 of neutrality; it's a specific dispute over the 
 presentation of particular scientific issues. 
The question is: What is "mainstream science"? 

1. Money

Is it determined by where the bulk of the money is spent on research? If
so, then all we have to do is find out which hypotheses and/or
conclusions are winning the most research grants, and so on.

For argument's sake, let us grant that the environmentalist positions on
the (A) "CFCs cause deadly cancer" issue and the (B) "carbon dioxide
heats up the air too much" issue are getting $5 billion per year.
Further, let us suppose that the contrary positions are getting less
than 5% of that, say, $200 million.

This would mean that mainstream science supports the environmentalist
positions on the (A) and (B) issues.

2. Journal Articles

Is mainstream science defined by what the overwhelming majority of
peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals say?

Then all we have to do is review those articles, or for those not
familiar with the language of science, maybe just the article
"abstracts" (the summary at the beginning of the text).

If the overwhelming majority of these articles report that their
research supports the environmentalist positions on the (A) and (B)
issues, then our Wikipedia articles should say so. 

And if our "Wikipedia definition" of "mainstream science" is
"whatever
the overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed articles in scientific
journals say", then we can say:

* The viewpoint of [[mainstream science]] is that the [[global warming]]
theory is true.

However, the link to "mainstream science" should provide either the
money definition given above, or the journal article count one.

I for one would trust someone like William Connolley to tell me what the
journal articles say, and perhaps we could cite Sheldon Rampton as a
source for where what views the bulk of the research funds is
supporting.

Ed Poor

Mainstream of science