Benny Peiser
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Benny Peiser is a member of the Faculty of Science at Liverpool's John Moores University. He was born in Israel and educated in West Germany[1] and previously was an historian of ancient sport at the University of Frankfort/M.[2] He is a social anthropologist with particular research interest in human and cultural evolution. His research focuses on the effects of environmental change and catastrophic events on contemporary thought and societal evolution.[3]
Peiser is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a member of Spaceguard UK. He has written extensively on neo-catastrophism and the potential risk posed by near-Earth objects. He is the editor of CCNet, an electronic science and science policy network with more than 3,000 subscribers from around the world. It is in this capacity that a 10km-wide asteroid, Minor Planet (7107) Peiser, was named in his honour by the International Astronomical Union.[3]
Peiser is a member of the editorial board of Energy and Environment and a scientific advisor to the Lifeboat Foundation.
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[edit] Objections to Oreskes Essay
Peiser examined an essay by Naomi Oreskes published in the academic journal Science which showed the lack of dissenting opinions in a sample of 928 peer reviewed articles on global climate change.[4]
Peiser tried to repeat the study, but failed to reconstruct the article set with the specified search key words 'climate change'. Oreskes sent in a correction to Science explaining that the keywords used in the ISI database search were in fact 'global climate change' and not 'climate change' as originally stated.[4]
Peiser then performed a similar survey with the keywords 'climate change' and searched for 'all document types' (which would include non-scientific, non-peer reviewed publications) rather than limiting the search to 'articles' (i.e., peer-reviewed publications) as in Oreskes' study.
In a letter to Science Peiser claimed that only 29% of such papers agreed with the consensus viewpoint, while 3% explicitly disagreed. Science choose not to publish Peiser's letter for a variety of reasons and indicated that the information "was already widely disseminated on the Internet".[5] Peiser felt that Science had made the wrong decision and published the correspondence on his webpage.[6] This led some to question whether Science were censoring the debate on global warming.[5]
Peiser later agreed that some of the papers included in his survey were ambiguous and said that his main criticism of Oreskes' essay was "that [Oreskes] claim of a unanimous consensus on [anthropogenic global warming] (as opposed to a majority consensus) is tenuous" and that it still was valid.[7][8]
In a letter that Peiser submitted to the Australian Media Watch Peiser explained that he had retracted some of his original critique and elaborated on some of his comments: "I do not think anyone is questioning that we are in a period of global warming. Neither do I doubt that the overwhelming majority of climatologists is agreed that the current warming period is mostly due to human impact. However, this majority consensus is far from unanimous".[9][10]
Oreskes's paper did not claim that the consensus was unanimous.[4]
[edit] Viewpoint
Peiser believes environmental concerns have reached a level of "near hysteria" that is "poisonous for rational policy making".[11] His viewpoint is that climate alarmism is undermining science, and that the dangers of mild warming are being magnified, whereas the potential benefits are being ignored. [12]
[edit] Bibliography of published works
- B. Peiser (2003) Climate Change and Civilisation Collapse, in K. Okonski (ed), Adapt or Die: The science, politics and economics of climate change, London: Profile Books, 191-201
- M. Paine and B. Peiser (2004) The frequency and consequences of cosmic impacts since the demise of the dinosaurs, in: Bioastronomy 2002: Life among the Stars, eds. R. Norris & F. Stootman, (Sydney), 214-226
- B. Peiser and T. Reilly (2004) Environmental factors in the summer Olympics in historical perspective. Journal of Sports Science 22(10) 981-1002
- B. Peiser (2005) From Genocide to Ecocide: The Rape of Rapa Nui. Energy & Environment 16:3&4, pp. 513-539
- B. Peiser (2005) Cultural aspects of neo-catastrophism: Implications for archaeoastronomy. In: Current Studies in Archaeoastronomy (J Fountain and R Sinclair, eds). The Carolina Academic Press Press, Durham, North Carolina, pp. 25-37
- T. Reilly and B. Peiser (2006) Seasonal variations in health-related human physical activity, Sports Medicine 36:6, 473-485
- A. Ball, S. Kelley and B. Peiser (2006) Near Earth Objects and the Impact Hazard. (Milton Keynes: Open University)
- B Peiser, T Reilly, G Atkinson, B Drust, J Waterhouse (2006). Seasonal changes and physiological responses: Their impact on activity, health, exercise and athletic performance. (The extreme environment and sports medicine) International SportMed Journal 7(1), 16-32 [1]
- Barry W. Brook et al. (2007) Would the Australian megafauna have become extinct if humans had never colonised the continent? Quaternary Science Reviews, Volume 26, Issues 1-2, January 2007.
[edit] External links
- Faculty page at Liverpool John Moores University
- Current CCNet web page
- Blair Deserts Kyoto
- The politics of climate change
- Sub-Critical Impacts during the Holocene
[edit] References
- ^ Peiser, Benny J., Trevor Palmer, and Mark E. Bailey (editors) (1998). Natural Catastrophes During Bronze Age Civilizations, BAR International Series 728. ISBN 0 86054 916 X. p. 251.
- ^ Conference Schedule: "Reconsidering Velikovsky: The Role of Catastrophism in the Earth Sciences and the History of Mankind," University of Toronto, August 17-19, 1990.
- ^ a b Liverpool John Moores University
- ^ a b c Oreskes, N. Beyond the Ivory Tower, The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change (including corrections), 21 January 2005, (Retrieved 24 April 2008).
- ^ a b Matthews, R. Leading scientific journals 'are censoring debate on global warming', The Telegraph, 1 May 2005, (retrieved 21 April 2008).
- ^ Benny Peiser's correspondence with Science, (Retrieved 24 April 2008).
- ^ Politicization 101: Segregating Scientists According to Political Orientation 17 March 2006
- ^ Deltoid: Peiser Admits to Making a Mistake
- ^ Peiser, B. e-mail from Benny Peiser, Media Watch on Australian ABC Television, 12 October 2006, (Retrieved 24 April 2008).
- ^ Media Watch, Bolt's Minority View, Australian ABC Television, 30 October 2006, (Retrieved 24 April 2008).
- ^ http://www.staff.livjm.ac.uk/spsbpeis/LTT-interviewNo06.pdf
- ^ Welcome to my homepage
