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Book discount for readers: Aynsley Kellow, Science and Public Policy

Aynsley Kellow: Science and Puplic policy

Ansley Kellow’s book “Science and Public Policy” normally sells for  $110 (£59.95), but he’s arranged for a special discount for readers of climate science blogs: $40 (£25)! Use the email information below to order.

It deals with the politics and philosophy of science, including the hockey stick controversy, the SRES scenarios, the species-area rule, etc. Published in 2007, it deals with the preference for computer modelling over observational data and the corrupting influence of modern communications such as e-mail on peer review and other quality assurance processes. (Aynsley writes that “I can claim to have anticipated Climategate – though I underestimated its extent”).

Science and Public Policy

by Aynsley Kellow

Normally £59.95/$110.00  Special price $40/£25 + postage and packing

To order this book please email (with full credit card details and address): [email protected], or  on our website enter ‘Kellowoffer’ in the special discount code box after entering your credit card details and the discount will be taken off when the order is processed.

More info below

Summary:

‘Crusading environmentalists won’t like this book. Nor will George W. Bush. Its potential market lies between these extremes. It explores the hijacking of science by people grinding axes on behalf of noble causes. “Noble cause corruption” is a term invented by the police to justify fitting up people they “know” to be guilty, but for whom they can’t muster forensic evidence that would satisfy a jury. Kellow demonstrates convincingly, and entertainingly, that this form of corruption can be found at the centre of most environmental debates. Highly recommended reading for everyone who doesn’t already know who is guilty.’
– John Adams, University College London, UK

Contents:

  1. The Political Ecology of Pseudonovibos Spiralis and the Virtuous Corruption of Virtual Science
  2. The Political Ecology of Conservation Biology
  3. Climate Science as ‘Post-normal’ Science
  4. Defending the Litany: The Attack on The Skeptical Environmentalist
  5. Sound Science and Political Science
  6. Science and its Social and Political Context Bibliography Index

Reviews

‘Kellow argues that there are cultural factors associated with the appreciation of nature that align with political ideologies and that these factors become exaggerated by the now virtual nature of many scientific disciplines. This further facilitates the corruption of science and public policy.

‘Kellow disputes the claim that the rise of environmentalism simply reflects increasing affluence and a progressive agenda, and considers the history of environmentalism and the myth of the balance of nature in the context of a long tradition of Western thought often involving catastrophic decline from some idyllic past- usually as a result of sin.

‘The idea of the ‘balance of nature’ persists, even though it is not supported by the observational data, because, if we accept this myth, any change in ecosystems can be attributed to human activity and imparted with a deep social meaning.’

‘Science and Public Policy is an important book as a philosophical and historical analysis of environmental activism particularly over the last 30 years.’

Jennifer Marohasy, IPA Review

‘The book is certainly provocative to some; others may welcome it as a refreshing opening of views, hypotheses and insights; of a valuable contribution of social sciences not in the naïve way of providing numbers and subroutines to climate modelers, but in analyzing the cultural background and conditioning of us environmental scientists sitting in the trenches (mostly in front of our computers). The book is certainly not the last word on the issue, but it is a good contribution to a scientific reflection about our own practice.’

Dr. Hans von Storch

Director of Institute for Coastal Research of the GKSS Research Centre in Geesthacht

Professor at the Meteorological Institute of the University of Hamburg, Germany

7 out of 10 based on 3 ratings