John Duncan Bases Policy on Junk Science
U.S. Representative John Duncan represents a congressional district in East Tennessee, where the Appalachians run, and where the coal industry exercises a great deal of political influence. So, it is not surprising when Congressman Duncan speaks in favor of continuing reliance upon coal as a source of energy, even though coal mining is dangerous and destructive to workers and the landscapes they work in, and burning coal is one of the greatest sources of pollution of our air and water.
What is surprising is the blatantly dishonest tactic that Duncan was willing to use in a speech last week before the House of Representatives. That speech, in arguing for continued dependence on dirty coal, heavily relied upon quotes from Bjorn Lomborg, whom Duncan described as “one of the world’s leading environmentalists”.
The truth is that Bjorn Lomborg is not at all a leading environmentalist. In fact, Lomborg has been taking prominent part in attacks against environmentalists for almost ten years now. During that time, he has engaged in no environmental activism. To the contrary, he has made publicity tours sponsored by pro-industry organizations seeking to blunt environmental science.
Lomborg has a degree in mathematics – game theory, but he has never been published in a peer-reviewed journal. His native country’s scientific watchdog group, the Danish Committee for Scientific Dishonesty, reported that Lomborg’s anti-environmental advocacy is “clearly contrary to the standards of good scientific practice” and filled with “perversion of the scientific message in the form of systematically biased representation”. Scientific American writes of Lomborg’s work that “his discussions would be unlikely to pass peer review because of his apparent unfamiliarity with prior literature, his selective citation of relevant work, and other faults.”
A review of Lomborg’s career quickly reveals that Bjorn Lomborg is not regarded as a credible source of information on environmental issues. By founding his own pro-industry policies on Lomborg’s faulty work, Congressman John Duncan’s credibility is also substantially damaged.
