Search

The relationship between comprehensiveness of information and its reliability is reviewed on the example of its use in the discipline of environmental protection, more precisely, in the case of global climate change. This scientific topic is multidisciplinary in character, bordering on technology, economy and sociology. Computerized information search programs yield comprehensive and numerous data. The problem is in the selection criteria applied to assess the reliability of overwhelming numbers of information units. In the discussed example, the reliability of information is difficult to verify, because global climate change is not accessible to experimental verification, a crux of the scientific method. The paper discusses the topic of ideological bias in the selection of information that corroborates the preconceived opinions of a paper's author. Far-reaching economic decisions are made in this manner, reflecting the majority beliefs of scientists, a position that belongs to the realm of religion, rather than to science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]