They get Younger all the time
No not policemen – edits to Wikipedia.
There is a Wikipedia article on “Hydraulic fracking in the United Kingdom” which, until quite recently has served as a vehicle for our old friend, Ken Wilkinson, to push his views on fracking, and give himself something to quote from when his arguments are called into question. There’s a related article that Ken edits occasionally, called “Shale gas in the United Kingdom” that has more or less managed to avoid the bias seen in Ken’s personal fracking info page; that is, until now.
We were interested to see that a revision had been added relating to the seismic activity at Preese Hall
when it triggered two seismic events of magnitudes (ML) 1.5 and 2.3, neither of which were reported to be felt at the surface until the British Geological Survey announced their geophyscial (sic) detection.{{cite journal|last1=Younger|first1=Paul|title=How can we be sure fracking will not pollute aquifers? Lessons from a major longwall coal mining analogue (Selby, Yorkshire, UK).|journal=Earth and Environmental Science Transactions|date=2016|volume=106|pages=89–113|url=http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/115618/}}
This change, which cites Professor Paul Younger as supporting evidence, claims that nobody said they felt the earthquake until it was reported later by the BGS. It was re-edited out with references to evidence which clearly contradicts the statement.
it seemed odd that a respected academic should be cited as evidence for a statement which flies in the face of the recorded facts, so we followed the trail and found that Prof Younger did indeed make a statement along these lines
However, it is clear that the evidence does not support this statement which seeks to undermine the credibility of those who felt the seismicity. The Sun of April 1st 2011 reported events in a way which clearly give the lie to Prof Younger’s claims
The BGS reported that they used 23 separate reports to help gauge the magnitude of the tremors
Now, we already pay close attention to Professor Younger because of his role in trying to discredit Prof David Smythe.
So, with that in mind, this raises 2 questions.
Firstly why would Professor Younger appear to ignore the reported facts and concoct a story that discredits the accounts of those who felt the seismic activity – this doesn’t seem like rigorous academic discipline to us.
Secondly why was a reference to this inaccurate confabulation added (apparently from an Edinburgh University IP address) to this Wikipedia article.
Curious isn’t it?
If Professor Younger can enlighten us he can always use the “contact us” button in the left hand side bar, and we’ll happily publish any response he provides.
