The LANCET Echo Chamber

GROUP THINK for EGGHEADS is my description of publications like The Lancet and many other “scientific journals” that promote propaganda inspired by politics.

Baloney.

The Lancet recently published “Cities at the heart of the climate action and public health agenda”, https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00305-5. I copied the following to give the reader a taste of the whole article.

Over 120 countries have endorsed the COP28 United Arab Emirates Declaration on Climate and Health. This historic declaration stated that the climate crisis is also a health crisis, and that we need to put health at the heart of climate action. The climate crisis already leads to substantial premature mortality, disease, and health-care costs. Climate action is about reducing premature mortality, preventing disease, and reducing these costs, but with many additional health co-benefits.

Climate action, such as decarbonisation that reduces air pollution emissions and better and healthier use of public space (including roads, parking areas, and parks), is therefore essential to maximise the benefits of compact cities. The fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty promoted at COP28 seeks to reduce emission sources. An estimated 5 million premature deaths each year are attributable to burning of fossil fuels.

References

The author declared “I declare no competing interests” then proceeded to list eleven citations mainly from other “research journals”. His groupthink echo chamber is more than evident and indicates his unwillingness to consider alternative views, publication sources and scientific authors.

The author is Mark J Nieuwenhuijsen, “a world-class expert” with credible credentials in his area of expertise. I wonder if he has ever spent any time trying to confirm the claimed relationship between atmospheric CO2 concentrations and global temperature? My guess is No.

Most PhDs stay in their own lane.

As journal-published authors, most academics like Mark tend to accept most journal-published literature without question when considering other scientific domains outside of the scope of their expertise. He probably also accepts all publications from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and the 17 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) of the UN ( United Nations) as “gospel”. His echo chamber of “scientific fact” has very tall walls that are unscalable for a man of his elite reputation and academic stature.

The phenomenon called Mass Formation Psychosis about which Dr. Matthias Desmet writes in Psychology of Totalitarianism is likely the mechanism behind most echo chambers, especially in government-funded or government-sponsored fields of academics and associated institutions, charities and NGOs. Group Think is just the term popularized to identify a category of Mass Formation Psychosis that has infiltrated our culture in the modern Internet era.