permaculture

[Harmon Seaver <hseaver@gmail.com>]

Steve Diver wrote:

  (snip)

> It's more hype from Blume to suggest that 
> a scientist who has published over 400 journals 
> accomplished this work *because* it was funded 
> by "industry". 
>

   He hasn't "published over 400 journals"  8-)  I hope that was a typo.
And he certainly hasn't even published papers in "over 400 journals".
Possibly he has published 400 articles somewhere, but a good share of
them, and especially the ones regarding ethanol production, were
published in a oil and coal industry rag.


" Natural Resources Research    

SpringerLink for Contents of NRR

1.Natural Resources Research publishes quantitative geoscientific
studies reporting on the search for and development of natural
resources, including their associated environmental, economical, and
risk-related aspects. Reports regarding petroleum or energy-mineral
resources are of interest, as are investigations on the exploitation of
any metallic or non-metallic resource. Example studies include the use
of geoscientific data or analyses to


• assess measurement or sampling methods
• compare exploitation strategies
• evaluate policies regarding site development, use, and remediation
• identify important factors for economic and/or technical success
• test statistical or deterministic models

for the exploration, assessment, and/or development of resources. Case
studies are particularly welcome. "

http://207.176.140.93/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113&Itemid=132

   This isn't even a real "peer-reviewed" scholarly journal. I don't
know how much experience you have in academia, but having been in a
tenure-track faculty position myself I can guarantee you that publishing
in something like this would not qualify for tenure -- unless, of
course, you were a mining or oil geologist.

    But at any rate, the bottom line for Pimental is this: He took
money, not just grant money but a regular salary, from Mobile Oil to do
this report. He admits it, Mobile Oil admits it, and he was not only the
subject of a Jack Anderson investigation (we do all know who Jack
Anderson was, right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Anderson ) but
then also the subject of a US Senate investigation, headed by the
illustrious Sen. George McGovern.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_McGovern

    Yup, David Pimental is a real admirable guy! And believe me, if
anything David Blume wrote about Pimental was incorrect, he and his
publisher would have been sued by both Pimental and Mobile Oil.




> I'll grant Blume credit for his detailed 
> analysis of Pimentel's numbers on energy 
> and ethanol.  
> 

   And Blume is only one of Pimental's many critics, including many in
academia.

-- 
Harmon Seaver