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Science, Nonscience, and Nonsense: Approaching Environmental Literacy Hardcover – September 1, 1995

by Michael Zimmerman (Author)

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A pesticide banned in the United States is sold instead to farmers overseas; their products are then exported to American supermarkets. How do you know your fruits and vegetables are safe from contamination?

. A mining company buys government land in Colorado at $5 an acre for possible mineral exploration, then sells it to a developer at $50,000 an acre for condominiums. Such procedures are both legal and increasingly widespread. Can a better-informed public stop them?

. Attempting to calm public fears about the safety of chemically treated fruits, a government official eats a treated apple at a televised press conference. How does the risk he takes compare--statistically--with yours and your children's?

As the role of science and technology in everyday life grows both more pervasive and more complex, it has become ever more difficult for a scientifically "illiterate" public to make informed judgments. In Science, Nonscience, and Nonsense, Michael Zimmerman takes on a wide range of falsifiers, disinformation specialists, and charlatans to provide readers with the scientific background necessary to evaluate environmental and other current issues that increasingly may be a matter of life and death.

Zimmerman begins by showing just what science is--and how the criteria of skepticism and falsifiability distinguish it from pseudo-science and mysticism. He offers intelligent, entertaining, and sometimes scathing analyses of bad science--from lottery "systems" and creationism to graphologists and homeopaths, from food and product safety scams to outright scientific fraud. In each case he shows exactly what to watch for--how the most outrageously false claims often contain a grain of truth, and how valid scientific findings may be distorted or selectively quoted to serve the ends of government, business, or special interest groups.

The author of a syndicated newspaper column on scientific and environmental issues, Michael Zimmerman has been hailed by supporters in environmental groups and sharply criticized by his opponents. Science, Nonscience, and Nonsense is sure to provoke both controversy and debate.

"Increasingly large portions of the American public are scientifically illiterate. By this I mean not that many people are unaware of specific scientific 'facts,' although there can be no doubt that they are. Rather, in pointing to scientific illiteracy I mean something far more rudimentary: an inability to differentiate science from pseudoscience. Science, based on skepticism and dependent on both falsifiability and experimentation, is dramatically different from pseudoscience, based on faith and dependent on gullibility. While pseudoscience can surely be entertaining, whether it be matching astrological signs with a date or playing paranormal parlor games, the situation becomes very different when the inability to distinguish between the two means that important decisions are made on the basis of superstitious drivel.--Michael Zimmerman, in Science, Nonscience, and Nonsense

Print length

232 pages
Language

English
Publisher

The Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date

September 1, 1995
Dimensions

6.5 x 0.75 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0801850908
ISBN-13

978-0801850905
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Jamie Alexander

Mommy, are we there yet?

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2004

We may be approaching environmental literacy, but no, we are not there yet. I was disappointed in this book, which I choose to read because of the intriguing title. I was hoping for an analysis of the broad field of environmentalism with an attempt to distinguish threads of science, nonscience and nonsense within it. That is not what the book is.

Clearly written and heartfelt, though not impassioned, the book is yet another wakeup-call to society to do something about environmental devastation. The author's solution is public science education (he is a science teacher) and his outlook is optimistic. Zimmerman's appeal is personal and personable, not dry and academic, but it lacks punch. To those who read in the environmental literature, there is nothing new here, however it would make a very good introduction for the uninitiate, which, I suppose, is it's purpose.

The first four chapters of the book are a brief look at the differences between general science and pseudo-science, in the vain of Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World." Sagan's book is much more compelling and comprehensive. Zimmerman tries to relate those first four chapters to the environmental theme, but doesn't fully succeed. The logic is there, but the execution is weak. All in all, a fine introduction to current environmental issues (consider the chapters on general science a bonus), and a good addition to a comprehensive collection, but not a unique or groundbreaking effort.

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Science, Nonscience, and Nonsense: Approaching Environmental Literacy Hardcover – September 1, 1995

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