More Junk Science: “Study” on Low PA Birth Weight from Fracking
Another bought-and-paid-for junk science report has been released and is now grabbing headlines from lazy (or biased) mainstream news organizations. A study by researchers from the University of Chicago and Princeton University, funded by the uber-liberal (and anti-drilling) MacArthur Foundation. The MacArthur Foundation funds some of the worst of the worst Big Green groups, including Earthworks, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club, among others. The "study" looked at health records from Pennsylvania and purports to find that in those locations with fracked shale wells, babies are born with lower birth weights than in areas without fracking. And there's the headline everyone is grabbing. Here's how it works: Big donors like the MacArthur Foundation go shopping for scientists at highly respected, reputable universities they can buy off with a research grant. They then tell the researchers what the outcome of the study will be. The researchers then conduct their research and magically come to the predetermined conclusion and get it published in a "peer reviewed" (and obscure) scientific journal. It has just happened again, with a study titled "Hydraulic fracturing and infant health: New evidence from Pennsylvania" (full copy below). How do we know this is actually junk science? Even the left-leaning Science magazine says this about the study: "...there is no smoking gun that proves how fracking impairs infant health." When the left says that about a study, it's junk...
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