Thursday, June 25, 2009

Oxfam sacrifices honesty in pursuit of money and publicity


 
But of course everything has to be climate change all the time these days, and I guess that outfits like Oxfam have been feeling a little bit neglected and left out of late.
 
So, you do what you have to do when competing for attention and money in a market already over supplied with endless groups fighting against or for something or other.
 
You jump on the biggest boondoggley bandwagon the world has ever seen!
 
However, the devil is always in the detail as they say or, more appropriately here, the lack of detail.
 
Go on, read the article, I dare you.
 
As you are reading it though, keep in mind this very simple question - what is the evidence produced to support Oxfam's claim that the situation in West Timor is a result of climate change?
 
This is it - it is an assertion by Aloysius Suratin, Oxfam's West Timor program manager, based upon - wait for it - all of 13 years of rainfall data!
 
No, seriously! I know you don't believe me. I know you are asking yourself: "why would News Limited even think of publishing this rubbish?"
 
Just 13 years of data, when everyone knows that you need decades of records before you can even begin to identify trends from short term variability.
 
Jumping on the climate change bandwagon, even when they clearly haven't got a clue about the science, has been a very successful marketing strategy by Oxfam.
 
It's a pity they have sacrificed honesty in the pursuit of money though.
 

Posted via email from Garth's posterous

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