Blind trust in science? Scientists are only human

Recent revelations concerning mistakes in the IPPC climate report have given rise to a storm of publicity and much anxiety. The Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, Jacqueline Cramer, says she is worried, believing that she should be able to have blind trust in the science. Is this realistic?

What is going on? In the concluding summary of the aforementioned report, it says that no less than 55 percent of the Netherlands lies below sea level. That is not correct. 26 percent of the country lies below sea level and 29 percent is vulnerable to river floods.
These two percentages have wrongly been combined and included in the same category.

What is the explanation for this blunder? Is it the mistake of the communication expert who wrote the summary? Is it a deliberate representation of issues to demonstrate the seriousness of the climate change situation? I cannot say.

Of course, scientists can make mistakes too. They can sometimes develop tunnel vision, thereby losing the necessary overview of the subject matter. Scientists are creatures of flesh and blood, too, with their own ideas on what is good and bad in our society. And they can become socially involved in our living environment.

Be that as it may, the fundamental premise of science is not to trust blindly in postulations. Be forever critical – don’t believe it until you see it! That is always our advice to our students.
We should, however, expect science to be conducted and treated with integrity. And the operation of certain codes of scientific practice is essential, such as peer review, the proving of research methods and reporting of sources.

Science is, and always was, the work of human beings! This means that mistakes can be made. But in science, fortunately, there are also powerful corrective mechanisms that can quickly put them right.