Zombies and window dressing

Ben Goldacre makes several useful points about popular reactions to climate change including the following:

* The public know that evidence-based policy is window dressing for the government, so now, when they want us to believe them on climate science, we tend to be suspicious

*contrarians use 'zombie arguments', which survive to be raised again, for eternity, no matter how many times they are shot down.

Myles Allen notes of journalists on the CRU hack:

Even if they were reporting on Berlusconi's sex life they would be more careful...But it's only climate change.

Clive James, perhaps suffering from road rage, tells us that 'science is never settled'. Would that apply to evolutionary theory, Clive? To the germ theory of disease? To the heliocentric model of the solar system?

'Impartiality'

Here is my letter to BBC complaints:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am greatly concerned that the BBC has chosen not to broadcast an appeal by DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee) for assistance to the civilian population of Gaza. The people of Gaza have suffered on enormously. Humanitarian aid is vitally needed. Rather than remaining objective, the BBC gives every impression of making a highly politicized decision by refusing to facilitate assistance.

Caspar Henderson

In The Investigation on BBC Radio 4, Simon Cox did a good job of exploring whether the UN Human Rights Council is unfair to Israel. Certainly, he showed, its failings worldwide have been many.

Update 4 Feb: a commentary from Media Lens