Search engines bury material critical of climate change
John Stossel’s commentary of September 4 argues that there is web censorship of conservative articles. One example is that the first 10 pages of a search on climate skepticism were critical of climate change skepticism. This is not surprising. A scientific truth cannot be denied. As a test, I searched on “pi”. I found that Babylonians had determined “pi” to be 3.123, an error of less than 1%, four millennia ago. Only on the third page did I find Indiana legislature’s attempt to make “pi” 3.2, an error of 2%.
Mr. Stossel also comments on doubts that humans are the major cause of global warming. The scientific consensus is that global warming is due to increased carbon dioxide. On a lark, several months ago, I compared Las Vegas temperatures to Mauna Loa carbon dioxide measurements and, as expected, found a near perfect correlation. Until Mr. Stossel can give factual support that carbon dioxide isn’t the major cause of global warming or that consuming fossil fuels isn’t the source of increasing carbon dioxide, do not expect to see counter arguments on early pages of a valid search engine.
I suggest those wishing only to see right-wing links avoid sources employing complicated search algorithms. Better, if their truths come only from FOX, Rush Limbaugh, Breitbart and Alex Jones.