I’d like to declare here and now that I’m sceptical about the “reality” of the round earth. There are many dissenting voices, sceptics of the current “consensus”, and significant evidence to show that the earth is not round. Not to mention that it’s bleedingly obvious – just look out the window: No curvature there, eh?

But despite this, dissenting voices in the debate are silenced. Proponents of the round earth hypothesis pursue their beliefs with a zeal unmatched even by the world’s most fundamentalist religions. While it’s true that many scientists believe that the earth is round, there are also significant dissenting voices, but were one to mention this in general conversation, or on talk back radio, one would immediately be shouted down, cut off, ostracised. In short, censored.

This is not how science should operate. Science is not decided by majority opinion, but by healthy debate. And while one side is being censored, there can be no real debate.

I’m not saying definitively that the earth flat or round – I’m still undecided, just that the debate needs to be opened up, so the true process of science can run its course, with maximum access to evidence and competing theories from both sides. Until all the information is on the table, I’ll be most skeptical of the majority-imposed “consensus”.

Sound familiar? The above arguments are frequently used by the denial-o-sphere (denial-o-plane?). While obviously climate change science is not so developed, or certain (or simple) as planetary physics, that does not mean that the above arguments have any weight in a climate context. (more…)