Does the Heartland Institute Understand the "Scientific Method"?

The Intersection
By Chris Mooney
May 23, 2011 8:41 PMNov 20, 2019 1:26 AM

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My latest DeSmogBlog post is about the Heartland Institute, which is holding a conference in D.C. entitled "Restoring the Scientific Method." What do they mean by that? Prepare yourselves:

The theme of the conference, “Restoring the Scientific Method,” acknowledges the fact that claims of scientific certainty and predictions of climate catastrophes are based on “post-normal science,” which substitutes claims of consensus for the scientific method. This choice has had terrible consequences for science and society. Abandoning the scientific method led to the “Climategate” scandal and the errors and abuses of peer review by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The scientists speaking at this conference, and the hundreds more who are expected to attend, are committed to restoring the scientific method. This means abandoning the failed hypothesis of man-made climate change, and using real science and sound economics to improve our understanding of the planet’s ever-changing climate.

Let's just say that this caused me to get rather....critical. Of absolutely everything they are saying here, which is wrong in so many ways it is hard to count. Head on over to DeSmogBlog for my critique.

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