[Coral-List] Universities and the climate change disinformation campaign.

[RainbowWarriorsInternational]

Taken from a climate list and useful in the debate on good science:


An event at on April 30th at Penn State University will examine:  
IsHigher Education Failing to Adequately Educate Civil Society About the
Climate Change Disinformation Campaign?
A well-educated citizen should know how science works including the
indispensable role of skepticism in moving science forward. Yet throughout
human history, ideologically motivated movements have made claims inconsistent
with well-established scientific conclusions. These, for instance, have
included claims that the Earth is the center of the universe, the holocaust did
not happen, and evolution can't explain life on Earth. Particularly when these ideologically
motivated but demonstratively false claims encourage citizens to behave in ways
that are harmful to others, a strong argument can be made that higher education
has a strong duty to educate their students and civil society about problems
with these claims.

A growing substantial sociological peer-reviewed literature has arisen that
describes an ideological movement usually referred to as the "climate
change disinformation campaign." ClimateEthics has recently completed a
four part series that summarizes this literature, explains what is meant by the
term "disinformation campaign," describes the tactics of this
campaign, subjects these tactics to ethical analyses, distinguishes these
tactics from responsible skepticism, and makes recommendations about scientific
norms that should be followed in light of the fact that skepticism in science
should be encouraged while disinformation should be condemned. (See the last
entry in this series, Irresponsible
Skepticism: Lessons Learned From the Climate Disinformation Campaign )

On April 30th at 7 pm in room 101 Thomas
Building at Penn
State's University Park, a panel will examine the
climate change denial machine while calling for greater involvement by higher
education in educating citizens about these matters. Presenters will include
Dr. (Juris) Donald Brown from Science, Technology, and Society and Program
Manager for United Nations Organizations at the United States Environmental
Protection Agency Office of International Environmental Policy, Peter Buckland,
A.B.D. in Educational Theory and Policy, Dr. Janet Swim from Psychology and
chair of the 2009 American Psychological Associations task force on the
psychology of climate change, Dr. Rick Shuhmann of Mechanical Engineering and
the Engineering Leadership program, and Dr. Michael Mann, director of Penn
State's Earth System Science Center and author of the recent book, The
Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines. 

Sponsors of this event include Penn State's Center for Sustainability, The Rock
Ethics Institute At Penn State University, The Penn State Program on Science,
Technology, and Society, Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, Elk County
C.A.R.E.S., Juniata Valley Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation,
Pennsylvanians for Clean Air and Water, PennEnvironment, Sierra Club
Pennsylvania, Sierra Club Moshannon, Sustainability Now Radio,Voices of Central
Pennsylvania, The Interfaith Coalition on the Environment, and the Pennsylvania
Environmental Resource Consortium.
Donald A. Brown
Penn State University
126 Willard, 
University Park, Pa, 16802
717-802-1009 (cell); 814-865-3371 (office)
dab57 at psu.edu

 
Milton Ponson, President
Rainbow Warriors Core Foundation
(Rainbow Warriors International)
Tel. +297 568 5908
PO Box 1154, Oranjestad 
Aruba, Dutch Caribbean 
Email: southern_caribbean at yahoo.com
http://www.rainbowwarriors.net

To unite humanity in a global society dedicated to a sustainable way of life