One of the most-cited reasons for using tools like Microsoft Hohm – along with saving money – is to help reduce carbon emissions and thus reduce the threat of global warming. Obviously saving energy and money is a worthwhile goal. But do recent weather events and news reports have you reconsidering global warming?
Scientific research is supposed to promote skeptical empiricism – “Show me the numbers!” Or, to quote W. Edwards Deming, physicist and quality improvement pioneer, “In God we trust; all others must bring data.” But have the recent allegations of fraud and abuse by leading climate scientists (popularly dubbed “ClimateGate” and “GlacierGate”) shaken your faith in science and scientists?
Over the next few blog posts I hope to address these questions in more detail. First, however, in order to be skeptical empiricists, we must ask a more basic question: How do we know what we think we know? Even scientists can be fooled (and often are). Everyone, no matter what his or her profession, needs to learn and apply basic critical thinking skills. If we don’t, we find ourselves fooled into believing groundless rumors, ordering our lives around superstitions, and swallowing “snake oil” in misguided, even dangerous, attempts to cure what ails us.
My “Microsoft Hohm Book of the Week” suggestion, following on last week’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded, may seem surprising at first glance in that it appears to have nothing to do with saving energy: unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation by Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson. The authors of this short, fun read are the same folks behind the highly-respected, politically-neutral FactCheck.org, which I also recommend. Read this book and save your energy, time, and money by learning to recognize disinformation.
If you are less motivated to save energy while digging out from under “Snowpocalypse” or if global warming warnings read like last year’s best-selling sci-fi novel, don’t worry. Ask an even bigger question! Read unSpun and ask: How do you know what you think you know. I believe all of this confusion will start to make cents, or sense again.
Blog post from - Kyle G. Crider He has a B.S. degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Alabama and a Master of Public Administration degree in Urban Planning & Policy Analysis from UAB, where he’s currently in the Interdisciplinary Engineering Ph.D. program.