StatCounter

Monday 24 January 2011

An example of conflation?

The BBC page for tonight's Horizon entitled 'Science Under Attack' runs thus:
'Nobel Prize winner Sir Paul Nurse examines why science appears to be under attack, and why public trust in key scientific theories has been eroded - from the theory that man-made climate change is warming our planet, to the safety of GM food, or that HIV causes AIDS.

He interviews scientists and campaigners from both sides of the climate change debate, and travels to New York to meet Tony, who has HIV but doesn't believe that that the virus is responsible for AIDS.

This is a passionate defence of the importance of scientific evidence and the power of experiment, and a look at what scientists themselves need to do to earn trust in controversial areas of science in the 21st century.'
Did you spot the conflation?
'why public trust in key scientific theories has been eroded - from the theory that man-made climate change is warming our planet, to the safety of GM food, or that HIV causes AIDS.'
Are all three of those three mentioned theories accepted as fact? I believe that there is a consensus that HIV causes AIDS, I am less sure about the other two. Is the article saying that GM food is safe or unsafe? I am not sure that this has been proved either way. However I am certain that the 'consensus' that 'man-made climate change is warming our planet' is no such thing. Please take a read of this piece to see why.

1 comment:

mexicano said...

There is no consensus on the HIV-AIDS connection, despite all the hype to the contrary. In this and in many other ways it and the global warming hype share a lot in common.