The Rise Of Skeptical Science

Ventures Into Scepticism

Real Sceptic has its origins as a companion site for the videos produced by Collin Maessen. The site has progressed beyond this original purpose and now predominantly includes articles that are independent of the content released on YouTube. However this original content is still an important part of the site.

This page serves as an archive for videos produced and released on YouTube. You can find full transcripts, source listing and used media files for the videos. We are currently in the process of transcribing all the audio.

Please note that the first nine videos are of a substantial lower quality than videos that were produced after these. As these first nine videos were as much, and in some case more, about learning to edit videos and learning how to tell a story in sound and images.

Video description

Everyone at Skeptical Science spends a lot of their time reading the scientific literature and listening to experts. Without that we wouldn't be able to write all the material that's published on Skeptical Science. It's a lot of work, especially when you do this with a critical eye. Our goal, after all, is to ensure that what we write reflects the scientific literature on the subject as accurately as possible.

The materials created by Skeptical Science are used by teachers, politicians, and of course by users on the internet to rebut climate myths. Thanks to this a lot of people have seen materials produced by us, even though they might not know that they have.

The website Skeptical Science wasn't created overnight, nor was the team behind it assembled instantly. It started small with John Cook starting the website and publishing the first rebuttals to climate myths. As I wasn't familiar with the story of how Skeptical Science evolved to the website it is today I had the idea to interview John about this. Despite John constantly saying "I'm just not that interesting" I eventually managed to get him in front of the camera to tell the story behind Skeptical Science.

Sources

  1. Information levels
  2. Communicating climate science in plain English
  3. Making Sense of Climate Science Denial

Media resources

Interviews filmed in collaboration with University of Queensland and Skeptical Science. Full interviews available April 2015 in ‘Making Sense of Climate Science Denial‘.

Camera B interview footage provided by Peter Sinclair of Climate Denial Crock of the Week and Yale Climate Connections.

  1. 'BLUE MARBLE: LAND SURFACE, SHALLOW WATER, AND SHADED TOPOGRAPHY' by NASA
  2. Sheldon Calls Out Climate Change Deniers

Ventures Into Scepticism