Thursday, March 22, 2007

Global Warming-- Can You Trust Wikipedia?

Well, I guess we live and learn. The revolutionary online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which allows anyone and everyone to enter and edit information, has proven inaccuracies and is being banned as a reference source by many major universities. This is unfortunate because when seeking information on a subject such as global warming, it provides a wealth of information.



It seems there are more than a few unethical people publishing inaccurate and biased information on Wikipedia. People who have an agenda, an ax-to-grind, people who purposely want to mislead us, mold us, and shape our opinion. It sounds a lot like Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany's Propaganda Minister at work, doesn't it? He was master of "the so-called Big Lie technique of mass propaganda."



This unfortunate revelation about Wikipedia is rather ironic and timely, because it makes me think about the mass of distorted and frightening information being spread by the people claiming we have a looming crisis of global warming and catastrophic climate change caused by mankind's burning of fossil fuels. Could it be that Propaganda Minister and Prophet Al Gore is spreading a big lie about global warming?


By insisting that students not rely on Wikipedia, by making them think for themselves and cross reference their information, universities are taking a step in the right direction. I hope I will be swamped by people vigorously defending Wikipedia, because it truly is a wonderful source of information. The lesson is don't trust everything you read.



To see the article about universities banning Wikipedia, go here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17740041/

2 comments:

Giacomo said...

How about all the peer-reviewed scientific research made on the subject? I'd rather read those

Peter said...

Peer-reviewed articles are fine, but beware, they can also be biased for many reasons. I say always keep your eyes and ears open, and always be skeptical. Question everything.