The New Concepts in Global Tectonics (NCGT) Journal is a pseudoscience publication imitating an academic journal since 1996. Their motto is “accept nothing on authority,” referring of course to the authority of peer reviewed scientific consensus. They publish work largely from “independent researchers,” in other words individuals with no institutional affiliation and potentially no relevant expertise. I might call it “outsider science,” not to suggest that what these people are doing is science proper.

What they believe

NCGT promotes the electric universe theory, a pseudoscientific and semi-conspiratorial view of physics and cosmology. The electric universe posits that electromagnetism, and not gravity, is responsible for the large-scale structure of the universe. Moreover, these folks tend to ascribe just about everything to electromagnetism, including thinking that earthquakes may be caused by the sun. For example, these are some article titles from their most recent issue:

• Space Weather Related to Potentially Destructive Seismic Activity that has been Recorded Globally Between 2012 And 2023
• Solar Activity and Electromagnetic Signals that preceded the M7.5 Earthquake of January 1, 2024, in Japan
• Why does Plate Tectonics Continue to Mislead the Geosciences?
• Earthquakes and AI: The Proposal of a New Research Model
• Earthquakes, Solar Activity, and Bright Meteors

Not surprisingly, there are many articles about solar activity, electromagnetic radiation, or space weather possibly causing earthquakes, but they are all retrospective. While identifying correlation in past events is an important part of hypothesis formation, it does not constitute a test of that hypothesis. What these researchers don’t do is make forward-looking predictions that come true (or at all, as far as I can tell). This is because they are not able to predict earthquakes.

There actually is some evidence that electromagnetic radiation may be able to give an early warning that an earthquake is about to happen. However, this radiation is thought to come from the earth, not space, and it in no way suggests that the theory of plate tectonics is false. See for example “Electromagnetic Pre-earthquake Precursors: Mechanisms, Data and Models-A Review” by Petraki et al., J Earth Sci Clim Change 2015, 6:1.

The editorial board

Louis Hissink, editor in chief, has just two papers listed in ResearchGate. One is a conference paper from a meeting of the European Geosciences Union. According to Wikipedia, there were over 15,000 presentations at the conference, suggesting that peer review was minimal. This paper is about forecasting earthquakes based on solar activity. Hissink’s other paper is in a journal called Energy & Environment, “known for easygoing peer-review and publishing climate change denial papers” (Wikipedia). This second paper is about the electric universe theory. Hissink’s papers have not been cited much according to Google Scholar, mostly just a couple citations in NCGT. Hissink is apparently a retired diamond geologist with a master’s degree, according to his bio on a site he has written for called Henry Thornton. Most of his articles there appear to be focused on economics and politics, including commentary describing Brexit as a victory against the globalists. Interestingly, the following passage from that article suggests he is not religious.

The religious are no different to the socialists. Having mesmerised themselves into a feeling of certainty by repetitious chanting of the various prayer and holy books and gulled by the promise of utopia either in the here and now or in the after-life, the sheeples then do what there are guided to do by the ruling elites.

Conspiratorial types are sometimes drawn to religion, but other times see it as part of the conspiracy by the elites to control the masses (as in Hissink’s case).

NCGT’s CEO, Bruce Leybourne, has quite a few more publications listed on ResearchGate at 26. They are much of the same kind of stuff as Hissink’s, although Leybourne seems to be especially interested in the golden ratio. He also has several papers expressing climate change denial. According to his bio he too has a master’s degree and it appears that he is or was a professional geologist at some point. His LinkedIn profile lists him as a geophysicist at IASCC, an electric universe “institute” whose website is no longer online. Leybourne is the CEO and chief scientist at Geostream Consulting, a company that claims to offer mapping, modeling, forecasting, algorithm, software, and visulization (sic) services. They advertise they services with the blurb, “How is your business affected by space weather???” How indeed?

Giovanni Gregori, another board member, has a whopping 93 publications on ResearchGate. A cursory look suggests similar caliber papers and journals, although on some of his papers I could find no journal listed at all. Searching his name on Google Scholar turns up far more results from a respected ophthalmologist by the same name. Gregori has coauthored papers with other board members.

Per Michaelson of the Mongolian University of Science and Technology may be the only PhD scientist on the board. His published work appears not to be in the realm of electric universe theory, however.

I was not able to find as much information on the other two board members, Masahiro Shiba and Leo Maslov.

“Expert opinions”

NCGT has a testimonials section on their site. The conspiratorial thinking is evident.

“PLEASE keep up your excellent work in your NCGT – pushing against the barriers of ignorance and worse, outright prejudice.”

Another so-called expert opinion is from NCGT CEO Bruce Leybourne himself.

What’s the point?

I find it amazing that NCGT has survived almost three decades into the present day. People are as dedicated to the electric universe as they are to the faked moon landing, flat earth, ancient aliens, astrology, or anything else. As with much of pseudoscience, the electric universe and related theories appear to be relatively harmless on the surface. However, there are a few reasons why they are dangerous. First, proponents of these theories are frequently climate change deniers, or rather think that the climate is changing for reasons totally unrelated to human activity or greenhouse gases. Second, some proponents claim an unstoppable, cataclysmic, 2012-like environmental catastrophe is incoming. This, like the Christian rapture, encourages people to disregard long-term environmental considerations like conservation. Finally, as with any other pseudoscience, and as NCGT makes plain in their motto, these theories undermine trust in science in general. This leads to greater rejection of vaccines, climate change, evolution, and myriad other “controversial” areas of science.