Task 3 Thinking critically about claims How can Maysoun decide which of the claims from Task 2 are more likely to be true?


Maysoun finds a website, www.skepticalscience.com, which presents the sceptics’ claims about global warming and attempts to challenge them. It uses data from scientific papers published in academic journals in order to examine the evidence for the claims of the sceptics. Before she refers to this website in her seminar, Maysoun needs to decide if it is a reliable source of information.


http://skepticalscience.com About Skeptical Science


The goal of Skeptical Science is to explain what peer-reviewed science has to say about global warming. When you peruse the many arguments of global warming sceptics, a pattern emerges. Sceptic arguments tend to focus on narrow pieces of the puzzle while neglecting the broader picture. For example, focus on Climategate e-mails neglects the full weight of scientific evidence for man-made global warming. Concentrating on a few growing glaciers ignores the worldwide trend of accelerating glacier shrinkage. Claims of global cooling fail to realize the planet as a whole is still accumulating heat. This website presents the broader picture by explaining the peer-reviewed scientific literature.


Often, the reasons for disbelieving in man-made global warming seem to be political rather than scientific. However, what is causing global warming is a purely scientific question. Skeptical Science removes the politics from the debate by concentrating solely on the science.


About the author


Skeptical Science is maintained by John Cook. He studied physics at the University of Queensland, Australia. After graduating, he majored in solar physics in his post-grad honours year. He is not a climate scientist. Consequently, the science presented on Skeptical Science is not his own but taken directly from the peer- reviewed scientific literature. To those seeking to refute the science presented, one needs to address the peer-reviewed papers where the science comes from (links to the full papers are provided whenever possible).


There is no funding to maintain Skeptical Science - it’s run at personal expense. John Cook has no affiliations with any organizations or political groups.


Task 4 Thinking critically about sources


4.1 Find the website on the Internet or look at the text above. Use the checklist below, from Unit 4 Lesson 2, to evaluate the website. Find answers to the questions in the checklist.


Purpose: Why has the information been published? Viewpoint: Does it show many different views? Author:


Is the author an expert in her/his subject? Quality: Has the information been checked by other experts? 4.2 Is this website reliable? Should Maysoun refer to it in her seminar discussion?


Maysoun decides to examine some of the sceptics’ claims using data from the website. The first graph on page 182 shows trends in the heat radiated from the sun (red line) and the average global temperature (blue line). The second graph shows trends in temperature at five locations in and around London. The brown line and the two blue lines show the trends at urban sites, while the two green lines show rural sites.


ACCESS EAP: Foundations • Unit 9


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