Science, well sort of....Smart Meters linked to alien abduction

Did I get your attention?  Clearly a cheap tabloid trick on my part, well sort of.    OK, so the SmartMeter thing – the claim that SmartMeters have negative health effects – has been around for a while now, and you’ve likely already  formed your own opinion on the validity of that claim. I can direct you to voluminous evidence that they do not (have negative health effects), but frankly, most people will likely be unable to completely understand it. I sure can’t as much of it is highly technical and, well, “sciency” (but send me an e-mail if you‘d like to see the original reports.)  However, because this evidence is based on “science”, it will never be able to provide what some folks are looking for, which is absolute proof that SmartMeters are harmless.  Sorry, science cannot “prove” that something cannot happen…it just doesn’t work that way.  What it can, and does say is that we can’t figure out how SmartMeters could cause any health effects, and that there is no evidence that they do, or ever have, but science cannot “prove” they never will.  This aspect of science, by the way, is poorly understood generally…. but that’s a topic for another day.

No, the reason for this post and its tabloid-esque headline is to examine the role of the media in all this science stuff.  Ah yes, the media, everyone’s favorite whipping boy.  “If only they could get it right!” we say, “They are clearly biased” or “Mouthpiece of the  left/right wing (your pick) establishment”  etc, etc.  But it’s too easy to blame them really, because frankly, they are just us. As individuals we are all bombarded with a deluge of information that is often conflicting and difficult to understand, and yet we are naturally wired to make a quick decision about it, right or wrong.  But the media DOES have an obligation to “get it right” and this is where it gets really tricky.  The following is from a December 16 piece in the SF Chronicle about SmartMeters.

… “People convinced that wireless signals can cause debilitating headaches, insomnia, ringing in the ears and other symptoms have repeatedly asked state regulators to halt the SmartMeter program.

The notion that wireless technology can have such effects remains in deep dispute among researchers….” (Read more: here.)

My problem is with the statement that there is a “deep dispute” among researchers because that’s simply not true – at least not among the scientific community as opposed to the blogosphere, which for complex reasons seeks to perpetuate the myth of wireless technology health effects.  Over the years we have heard about the “deep dispute” over climate change, vaccines and even various paranormal phenomena, such as the existence of alien abduction.  The challenge for the media is to know when to stop saying there are scientific disputes on these types of issues, when in fact there are not. While it is always possible to trot out some individual who “disputes” any scientific finding, and specific details will always be subject to some dispute, characterizing these as significant does a disservice to us all. As a result, climate change deniers have slowed the pace of needed reforms while vaccine scare mongers have increased the rates of unneeded illnesses in our children.

There is no simple solution to all this.  These are all complex and emergent issues.  But one small tactic would be for us to reconsider what it means when we read that there is a “dispute”. If we can agree that some nominal dispute does not mean something is not true, and that we need to look a bit farther before we decide what to believe, it may be a good starting point.

Also, these things can take time to get clarified.  I would argue the Chronicle would not say today there is a “dispute” about alien abduction although some folks still truly believe it exists, and in fact state that they have experienced it.  However, there is no evidence for such, no real dispute about it and in today’s world no legitimate media outlet would give credence to claims to the contrary (tabloids not withstanding!)  Also, thankfully, you read less and less about ‘disputes’ involving climate change (or am I just reading stuff I can agree with…hmmmm)

Finally, we can’t really lay the blame on the media completely – we have some accountability too.  The media merely plays to our interest in stories that have some perceived conflict or dispute.  That’s what we want to read about … maybe that’s why my goofy headline grabbed your attention.

Anyway, there you have it…a proven link between SmartMeters and alien abduction…no dispute about it!  So…what do you believe?