http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Philip_Stott
Philip Stott
From SourceWatch
Philip Stott is a professor emeritus of biogeography at the University of London, and he was Editor-in Chief of the international 'Journal of Biogeography' (Blackwell Publications, Oxford) (he retired in 2004 after 18 years).
Since his retirement from academia, he has become a commentator and media pundit on the subject of environmentalism. He publishes a blogsite - EnviroSpin Watch - to monitor UK media coverage of environmental issues and science. "The aim is to assess whether a subject is being fairly covered by press, radio, and television. … It will also bring to public notice good science that is being ignored because it may be politically inconvenient," the site states.[1]
He also has a new web site (April, 2005) based on Bruno Latour's 'A Parliament of Things'. [2].
NOTE: Professor Stott himself has commented on this SourceWatch article.
Stott's dominant theme is that environmentalism is a "hegemonic myth" promulgated in the media by reporters who are subconsiously controlled by the dominant language ("words of magic"). For example, he says, "forests are never 'developed' or simply 'used'; they can only be 'exploited'". [3]
Stott uses his "linguistic analysis" approach to promote an "environmental" agenda similar to that promoted by Bjorn Lomborg. He stresses the possible benefits of genetic engineering; questions attempts to curtail greenhouse gas emissions; and argues that the 'tropical rain forest', as signified in popular parlance, is a socially-constructed myth. He has also criticised recycling as "ideological rubbish". [4]
EnviroSpin Watch supersedes his earlier AntiEcohype website (see above for new website), which is subtitled "a cure for ecochondria". "This is not a straight 'science' site", the introductory page of his 'AntiEcohype' website states, "but rather one aiming to deconstruct environmentalist constructions of knowledge". Stott's 'AntiEcohype' operated from a web address that leaves no room for doubt on his view on genetic engineering -
http://www.probiotech.fsnet.co.uk/. (While superseded the 'AntiEcohype' remains on the web, although it is not updated. This is now closed.).
Stott also has his work published in the British and US mainstream media (The Times, The Guardian and BBC in the UK and The Wall Street Journal in the US) as well as conservative websites such as Tech Central Station and Spiked Online. In a posting to SourceWatch, Stott stated he no longer writes for Tech Central Station as he regards it as "too Republican for his output". He is a Labour supporter in the UK. (Pers comm to SW)
In a New Statesman article Stott was bluntly labelled as "Britain's leading climate-change denier and has built a career on criticising environmentalists. Professor emeritus of biogeography at the University of London, he has no climate-science qualifications". [5]
In a letter to the editor in response, Stott disputed that he was a "climate-change denier". "I am nothing of the sort. I believe passionately in climate change. Climate change is the norm, not the exception; if climate were not changing, that would be really newsworthy," he wrote advocating adaptation.
The article also mentioned that
he was on the advisory board of the Scientific Alliance. (In October 2005 Stott stated that he had not "been a member for some time now" in order "to maintain complete independence.") The Scientific Alliance is either (using Stott's own "words of magic") "an organisation that promotes concern about the environment through rational science; while accepting climate change as a reality, the Alliance is critical of current methods proposed to manage climate change and energy production" or (using the New Statesmans "words of magic"), "an anti-environmentalist campaign group that denies climate change; opposes organic agriculture and promotes genetically modified foods and nuclear power"
On the subject of the policy agenda of the Scientific Alliance, Stott wrote to the New Statesman, "I am pragmatic about nuclear energy and I just love organic yoghurt. And I am passionately anti-tobacco." In a subsequent posting to SourceWatch, Stott wrote his criticism is directed at environmentalism "but as little as possible 'environmentalists'" except "in gentle and kindly jest".
While Stott disputes the consensus of the worlds leading climate scientists, he notably avoided responding to the challenge that he had no climate science qualifications.[6] In response, Stott commented to SourceWatch that "he does not challenge the consensus that climate is changing (and partly under human influence); what he challenges is our understanding of the complexity of this change, the historic significance of the change, and the way humans might respond best to change, all of which has been at the heart of his professional work as a biogeographer for the last 30 years. He is thus entirely confident of his credentials to comment on climate change sensu lato."
Like Bjorn Lomborg - whose work he supports - Stott describes himself as a left of centre environmental sceptic. "I am a mildly left-wing global warming sceptic," he wrote in an article in New Statesman. [7]
In his comments to the SourceWatch, Stott points out that he is "passionately anti-tobacco, and I have stated this recently on British television (The Politics Show, BBC 1). The science on this, in my opinion, has been clear for a long time ... I believe the export of cigarettes to the developing world to be an evil process." He also stated, "I have always voted Labour (except when I foolishly voted Liberal on a couple of occasions)."
Stott's primary area of research, according to the website of the University of London, is "the construction of environmental knowledge over the last 30 years, especially in relation to the following metanarratives: biodiversity, biotechnology, climate change (global warming), organic agriculture, and tropical rain forests (see edited book: Political ecology: science, myth and power). He is especially concerned to unravel the power relations within and between these narratives."
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