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April 23, 2009

Skeptics From Around the Globe


FRANCE


Paul Reiter, professor of medical entomology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France. A member of the World Health Organization Expert Advisory Committee on Vector Biology and Control. Employee of the Center for Disease Control (Dengue Branch) for 22 years. A Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society.



"A galling aspect of the debate is that this spurious 'science' is endorsed in the public forum by influential panels of 'experts.' I refer particularly to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Every five years, this UN-based organization publishes a 'consensus of the world's top scientists' on all aspects of climate change. Quite apart from the dubious process by which these scientists are selected, such consensus is the stuff of politics, not of science. Science proceeds by observation, hypothesis and experiment. The complexity of this process, and the uncertainties involved, are a major obstacle to a meaningful understanding of scientific issues by non-scientists. In reality, a genuine concern for mankind and the environment demands the inquiry, accuracy and scepticism that are intrinsic to authentic science. A public that is unaware of this is vulnerable to abuse."

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