A RAFT of assessments by Denmark鈥檚 environmental evaluation institute could face investigation following last week鈥檚 damning ruling on Bj酶rn Lomborg鈥檚 book, The Skeptical Environmentalist. Lomborg is the institute鈥檚 director, and the investigation could have far-reaching implications for environmental policy across the European Union.
Denmark鈥檚 Committee on Scientific Dishonesty found Lomborg鈥檚 book, published in 2001, to be 鈥渃learly contrary to the standards of good scientific practice鈥� and accused the statistician based at the University of Aarhus of 鈥渟ystematic one-sidedness in the choice of data and line of argument鈥�.
Lomborg鈥檚 book examines what he calls the 鈥渓itany鈥� of pessimistic predictions for the Earth鈥檚 environment. 鈥淲e consistently believe that things in the environment are worse than they are,鈥� Lomborg told 快猫短视频. He says that when he examined data behind issues such as climate change, pollution, deforestation and extinction, things looked much better.
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But some scientists charge this was because Lomborg only included results that support his rosy view. Last year some of them took their complaints to the Danish research council鈥檚 committee, charged with judging issues of scientific fraud. Lomborg issued a detailed reply refuting the charges, but the committee last week upheld the complaints (see 鈥淐all off the witch-hunt鈥�).
The problem, say committee members, is that Lomborg claimed to have looked at all the facts and found the experts wrong, when he clearly hadn鈥檛. 鈥淲e cannot say if his conclusions are right,鈥� says Hans Henrik Brydensholt, who heads the committee. 鈥淏y accident, they might be.鈥� But, says Brydensholt, Lomborg failed to support them scientifically, although the committee did not conclude this was deliberate. Lomborg rejects the committee鈥檚 decision, saying it failed to document examples of his supposed wrongdoing.
In its defence, the committee cites articles in Scientific American last year, which listed many cases of selective use of environmental data in Lomborg鈥檚 book.
The Danish parliament is now calling for an investigation into eight environmental analyses conducted by Lomborg鈥檚 Institute for Environmental Evaluation. One found that the country鈥檚 recycling scheme for cans and bottles cost considerably more than incineration for marginal benefit.