Wikipedia editors spread Global Warming Propaganda

[Leo Mauler]

--- On Fri, 7/11/08, Kelsay, Brian - Kansas City, MO <brian.kelsay at kcc.usda.gov> wrote:

> Whether you believe in Global Warming or not, I 
> disagree with the form of editing/bullying that 
> is going on in this case.   If Wikipedia is to 
> survive as a reliable source of information, 
> uncluding scientific info, then they need to folow 
> their own rules.

I've always considered Wikipedia to be more of a jumping-off point than a 100% reliable source of information.  It's where you find all the Google, and library catalog, keywords for a subject you may not know a great deal about.  I know that no college instructor I've ever had in the past several years has considered a citation from Wikipedia to be as reliable as that from a published book or peer-reviewed journal.

There's a great new BBC radio show called "On The Blog" which makes fun of the institutions of the Internet while telling the ongoing life story of a nerdy wargames enthusiast, Andrew Glasgow, with his own blog (and a cast of very entertaining chracters).  Names are changed to protect the writers, but the writers really enjoy taking potshots at Wikipedia with their own version (the name of which I can't recall at the moment) which is referred to as "the Internet encyclopedia which anyone can edit".  If anyone can edit an information source, and do so quickly and easily, then opinions become more relevant than actual data.

Wikipedia really demonstrates why I'm glad we don't have a direct democracy.

> Science should be honest or truth-seeking, no 
> matter where it leads you.  

To be entirely fair, conservatives haven't had a very good record presenting good science to back up viewpoints.  Whether or not you believe in climate change, the evidence appears to be mostly in favor of climate change.  The fact that the piece presented used the words "global warming" instead of "climate change" speaks of a biased work.

Personally I think that the reason why conservatives continue to use the words "global warming" when the consensus is now "climate change", is that when we eventually see snow in July, they can say "See?  Snow!  Snow is cold!  We told you global warming is false!"