George Monbiot has a piece, published by The Guardian, showing exactly how a scientist — David Bellamy — came to the get a letter published in New Scientist that claims that 555 of the 625 glaciers being monitored are in fact growing in size. That figure is crap. Bellamy is president of the Conservation Foundation, the Wildlife Trusts, Plantlife International and the British Naturalists’ Association, so his statement has been picked up all over the place. Unfortunately, it’s total crap.

Monbiot traces it back to a web site touting a book published by the paranoid demagogue Lyndon Larouche. The “555” apparently was Bellamy’s mistyping of the site’s figure that “55%” of glaciers are increasing, which is itself unsourced and false.

Fascinating article by Monbiot. Depressing conclusion about the reliability of big-time science journals. Heartening conclusion about the truth getting out anyway. (Thanks to Gary Nexcerpt Stock for the pointer.) [Technorati tags: science GlobalWarming]

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