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Recent Posts
- On civil disobedience, uncivil obedience and understanding the limits of legitimate protest
- Fractures in the Bridge – Another disappointing CAPE report, this time on hydraulic fracking
- What Chemistry lab safety (and mom's rules) teach us about how to protect ourselves from the flu or viruses like the Coronavirus.
- On the IISD's misleading calculations of Canadian fossil fuel subsidies
- Alberta's Renewable Energy Conundrum in Charts and Numbers – Why Capacity Factors Matter
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- On civil disobedience, uncivil obedience and understanding the limits of legitimate protest
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- Why a Pragmatic Environmentalist supports BC LNG - doing the climate math
- New research puts a stake into the heart of the "Bridge to Nowhere" argument against BC LNG
- On the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' bad science about BC LNG emissions
- A primer on the BC refined fuel market, lower mainland gasoline prices and how they can be affected by a change in mix in the Trans Mountain Pipeline
- On the IISD's misleading calculations of Canadian fossil fuel subsidies
- Fractures in the Bridge - Another disappointing CAPE report, this time on hydraulic fracking
- Alberta's Renewable Energy Conundrum in Charts and Numbers - Why Capacity Factors Matter
- So Whatever Happened to the Environmental Moderates and Pragmatists?
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Category Archives: Chemistry and Toxicology
I debunk yet another misleading CAPE article about fracking and BC LNG
As someone who specializes in evidence-based environmental decision-making, I am regularly disappointed by the dismal level of discourse in the environmental field. Organizations and individuals you would expect to provide useful insight end up doing exactly the opposite. No group … Continue reading
Posted in Canadian Politics, Chemistry and Toxicology, LNG, Uncategorized
8 Comments
How understanding Type I and Type II errors and p-values helps in assessing the conclusions of the Ramazzini Institute 13-week pilot study on Glyphosate
As regular followers of this blog know, my graduate research involved developing systems to allow data collected by researchers to be evaluated for reliability and made available for subsequent re-use by other researchers. I carried out my research in an … Continue reading
A layman’s guide to the behaviour of diluted bitumen in a marine spill
Having listened to the arguments for and against the Energy East and the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) projects one of the things that really struck me was the low quality of the scientific knowledge used in the debates. In particular, … Continue reading
On Carbon Dioxide Toxicity
The other evening I became engaged in a fascinating discussion (for me) with a climate skeptic on the topic of carbon dioxide, specifically whether it was “toxic” or not. After that discussion I committed to do a write-up on the … Continue reading
Posted in Chemistry and Toxicology, Risk, Uncategorized
17 Comments
On chemical scare-mongering and science communication, it’s BPA’s turn this time
I have written numerous blog posts describing the miscommunication of human health risks posed by chemistry and chemicals; covering topics from gypsy-moth spray to synthetic soccer fields. Frankly the fact that I have an entire section of this blog dedicated … Continue reading
Posted in Chemistry and Toxicology, Risk, Uncategorized
4 Comments
A cautionary tale about disconnecting theory from data in data analyses
In the modern era a new breed of scientist has emerged on the scene: data analysis specialists. Similarly there is a new breed of journalist called “data journalists” with my favourite being Chad Skelton, formerly of the Vancouver Sun. These … Continue reading
Posted in Chemistry and Toxicology, Uncategorized
6 Comments
On poor science communication in the media: a case study on the flu vaccine
This morning I was directed to a blog post by Bill Tieleman in The Tyee. The post dealt with the flu vaccine and was titled Time to End Expensive, Ineffective Forced Flu Shots. This is the latest of his, now … Continue reading
Posted in Canadian Politics, Chemistry and Toxicology, Risk, Uncategorized
5 Comments
