Friday, October 28, 2005

They're not putting up - an interim report on bloggers denying global warming

About a month ago, I started going through the Truthlaidbear "ecosystem" ranking of the most popular blogs, picked out the ones that denied global warming or were strongly skeptical, and challenged them to bets over whether warming will happen. I've gone down the ecosystem from Higher Beings to Mortal Humans (the top 30 blogs) at this point, and thought I'd give an interim report.

Out of the top 30 blogs, 5 deny or strongly express skepticism of human-caused global warming (IMAO, Commonsensewonder, Powerline, Captain's Quarters, and Right Wing News), 3 play a cute game of posting links to skeptical news about warming while hiding their own opinion (Instapundit, Little Green Foothballs, andOutside the Beltway), and one is just stupid (Wizbang, which says natural warming will end in 100 years). These constitute the majority of the conservative blogs that deal with a broad range of issues. The conservative blogs that didn't make the list usually had very little to say on warming, or were group blogs with split positions. None of them beat alarm bells over the issue.

Atrios has a regular "Wanker of the Day" feature highlighting those who deserve the exposure. I'm nominating all of the above blogs for his feature for the following reasons:

  • Their position shows a ridiculous, baseless contempt for science and humanity's future.
  • They have failed to make bets that put their money where their mouths are.*
  • They never responded to emails and state why they refused to bet.*

Now I don't expect a response from every blog I contact offering them a chance to make some money off of a fool like me who dares contradict them, but what's interesting is that none of them responded. They generally seem to have plenty to say for themselves, but I read something into this lack of response, like they can't justify their refusal to bet.

Seeing as they're not putting up, I'll go back in a while to see if they're shutting up. If anyone else spots them spouting their garbage, feel free to send a comment or email their way suggesting they back up what they say. Meanwhile, I plan to gradually expand the list to lower-ranking blogs.


* Wizbang's position creates no room for a bet, but Wizbang still makes the nomination list for being incredibly stupid.


key: global warming, bet

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