Some useful thoughts on science education and climate from Judith Curry.
Category Archives: Media Criticism
Climatologists Don’t Know Clouds
…at all.
As I wrote a couple days ago:
I deny that we understand the complex and chaotic interactions of the atmosphere, oceans and solar and other inputs sufficiently to model them with any confidence into the future, and I deny that it is unreasonable and unscientific to think that those who [believe they] do suffer from hubris.
There may be some time in the future that we understand climate as well as they think they do, but I don’t think it will be soon, and I wouldn’t bet that it will ever happen.
What Newt Has To Do Tonight
In response to John King’s first question, stride off the stage, pull out his living beating heart, and hold it up triumphantly. #DebateAdvice
The Green Movement Jumps The Shark
Between Rajenda Pachauri and Peter Gleick, the international green movement has displayed a penchant for colorful personalities. But the root cause of the green meltdown is not the flawed personalities and eccentric ethical standards some greens display. The problem has been that the greens tried to stick the world with a monstrous and unworkable climate control system through the flawed medium of a global treaty. This project is so expensive, so poorly conceived and, in fact, so naive and unthinking, that greens increasingly felt their only hope to get their agenda adopted involved scare tactics.
Like Dean Acheson addressing the communist menace, they were “clearer than truth.” They stretched evidence, invented catastrophes — vanishing glaciers, disappearing polar bears, waves of force five hurricanes sweeping up the coast, the end of snow — to sell their unsalable dream. Not all greens were this irresponsible, but many prominent spokespersons and journalists working with the movement were; ultimately the mix of an unworkable policy agenda and a climate of hype and hysteria holed the green ship below the waterline.
Of contemporary mass movements, the green movement has been consistently the most alarmist, the least constructive, the most emotional, the least rational, the most intolerant and the most self righteous. What makes it all sad rather than funny is that underneath the hype, the misstatements, the vicious character attacks on anyone who dissented from the orthodoxy of the day, and the dumbest policy ideas since the Kellogg-Briand Pact that aimed to outlaw war, there really are some issues here that require thoughtful study and response.
Unfortunately, we’re not going to get it from people who are reflexively anti-human socialists, such as John Holdren.
Obama’s Corporate Tax Plan
Eight reasons it’s a disaster, and why Geithner should resign over it.
The Needs Of The New Generation
James Lileks provides a righteous fisking to a pompous, confused yout.
So, Santorum Is The Anti-Satan Candidate?
Well, now who am I supposed to vote for?
“Cthulhu 2012!” Why settle for the lesser evil?
Oh, and the tweet du jour from Taranto: “Weird religion: Satan is against America. Normal religion: ‘God damn America.'”
The Climate Insanity
[Wednesday-morning update]
I have a piece up a PJMedia about the latest climate fraud.
[Below was posted yesterday]
“…has just jumped upward a big notch.”
Also, Peter Gleick’s remarkable confession. Remarkable in the sense that it’s probably continued lying.
[Bumped]
The King Who Wasn’t Crowned
Thoughts on the Father of our Country:
Rather than calling for royal robes and a crown, Washington said no. Even more important, despite his own dreams of glory, he was horrified that he had somehow inspired the idea in the first place.
Today, most politicians would be calling for the tailor and jeweler: Politicians at every level seem more worried about personal glory than public service. It is not that ambition is wrong or incompatible with a sense of duty to one’s country over one’s self; it is that ambition must be properly channeled and understood.
The current political class is a pretty sorry lot compared to the Founders. Screw “Presidents'” Day. I’m flying the flag tomorrow.
The Climate Fraud
Ross Kaminsky called it:
If those climate alarmists who went after me (for what I said explicitly in my note was “my speculation”) had any honor, they would not just apologize, but feel some guilt for being associated with the religion of climate change whose high priests could sink to identity theft because they feel “frustration” at not being able to get the rest of the country to join their rent-seeking, anti-human cult.
In the meantime, I take some satisfaction in believing, though I’ll never know for sure, that my article gave Mr. Gleick some incentive to confess, before the FBI agent came to his door. Or perhaps he just didn’t want to spend the money on a new (non-Epson) scanner.
Note also the comments from Judith Curry, who has been one of the few people in the climate community actually acting like a scientist.
[Update a few minutes later]
The Johann Hari of climate “science.”
Kind of funny the sort of people they’ll hand out “Genius Awards” to.
[Update a couple minutes later]
But it was only a first offense: Gleick has apparently been removed from the AGU Task Force on Scientific Ethics. Gee, I’d have thought he’d be a poster boy.
[Update a few minutes later]
Related: Don’t know much about science books.
[Update a while later]
In apologizing, Gleick blames his victims:
Once you begin to believe that the success of the Cause justifies deceit and theft, how long until you begin making excuses for other crimes committed on behalf of the Cause? I do not accuse Peter Gleick and his fellow fanatics of any Stalinist ambitions, but when we see them engaged in Stalinist methods — publishing forged documents to smear their critics – aren’t we justified in suspecting that they are not otherwise honest?
Actually, I suspect that some of them harbor Stalinist ambitions (e.g., Holdren). What a piece of work this guy is.