Danish Science Panel Slams Lomborg Book JAN M. OLSEN ASSOCIATED PRESS
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - A Danish panel of scientists has rebuked an author who became a hero of conservatives for challenging tenets of the environmental movement.
In his 2001 book, "The Skeptical Environmentalist," Danish statistician Bjoern Lomborg said concerns about melting ice caps, deforestation, acid rain were exaggerated. He claimed that the global environmental situation was not deteriorating.
The book was translated into a dozen languages and generated criticism from environmentalists worldwide.
The Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty said Tuesday that the 350-page book "is clearly in violation of the norms for good scientific behavior."
The agency reviewed the book after complaints from four scientists, including ecologist Stuart Pimm of the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation at Columbia University in New York. He did not immediately return a call by The Associated Press.
Hans Henrik Brydensholt, the panel's chairman, said Lomborg did not make "thorough searches for all available sources ... including what goes against one's supposition."
"He used sources in favor of his own beliefs," he said.
Lomborg acknowledged Tuesday that he may not have always quoted all available sources, but said the panel failed to provide any examples of the alleged unfairness, he said.
"I have never tried to hide that I wasn't an environment specialist," Lomborg said, adding his book was meant to start a debate on the environment.
The ruling didn't include any penalty, but opponents of the Liberal-Conservative government said it was an indicator that Lomborg shouldn't have been named director of the national Environmental Assessment Institute, which monitors the use by state agencies of public funds aimed at cutting pollution.
"Bjoern Lomborg is a provocative environmental debater (and) he should be allowed to be that," said Pernille Blach Hansen of the opposition Social Democrats. "The problem is that he and the government have presented him as something he is not: namely a scientist."
A former member of Greenpeace, Lomborg has argued that a solution to pollution is more likely to be found in economic and technological progress than in the policies advocated by many environmentalist organizations. --- Sent from UnionMail Service [http://mail.union.org.za]