Blinded Science... - digg this
Studies performed by beverage industries are biased towards their own beverages, according to an article in PLoS Medicine. They looked at 111 studies on milk, juice, and soft drinks that were performed between 1999 and 2003. The results? “[S]tudies funded by industry were four to eight times more likely to show bias in favor of sponsors' products than studies that did not receive industry funding.”
Now really, this strikes me a bit like a study that concludes that water is, in fact, wet. I hate to be a cynic on this, but after the tobacco companies were shown to have been lying for years on the effects of smoking I can be too surprised by this sort of malfeasance. A healthy dose of skepticism should be invoked when you look at anything involving science. Quite a few people put those men and women in white coats on a pedestal. What they forget is that these folks are no different morally than anyone else. They’re just as prone not only to mistakes but to outright bad behavior.
Take global warming for instance. I’m not expert and just because it’s felt a bit like Hawaii around here recently I’m not going to jump on the global meltdown bandwagon, but my feeling is that the climate is indeed changing. And it’s more than a feeling, it’s backed up by as much data as we have considering the short time we’ve been keeping such data. The only question seems to be whether man is affecting that climate change by our actions. Can driving that Hummer bring the ocean front property up to my doorstep?
On the one hand you have folks who are sponsored by Exxon who say that the weather is just peachy. You have our government (not just the current administration) who have done just about bupkiss saying that things like the Kyoto Protocol will give certain governments a competitive advantage. It’s the same government who left a huge loophole in CAFÉ standards when it comes to SUVs. I wonder just how much money the oil companies have sown into the political coffers on both sides of the aisle.
On the other hand you have Chicken Littles like former VP Al Gore who go around seemingly putting all of the blame on us. I confess that I’m one of those who fall into the “sky is falling” camp. You only have to look at the amount of shrinkage that has happened above the Arctic Circle. It’s rivaled only by what happens in the swimsuit of a member of the Polar Bear Club. Where’s the gain there? Well there’s no small amount of political hay to be made and while that’s the only reason I can think of I’m certain that there are more. Even that may be enough though considering how the Democratic platform tends to simply be the opposite of the Republicans.
I say that as is almost always the case in my experience there are good points on both sides. Heck even if you can’t “prove” global warming what can it hurt to require everyone to play a little friendlier environmentally? Yes it can cause things to be more expensive, but imo that’s a cost worth having. And I don’t think anyone can deny that the Earth’s weather patterns are cyclical. We had ice ages long before we had jeep Comanches. However, given the clear profit to be made from ignoring the phenomena and the murkier motivations for over-hyping it I say that I’m going to err on the side that sounds like good stewardship and doesn't smell like junk science.
