In 1974, a pair of scientists published a paper claiming that chlorofluorocarbons, a compound used in refrigerators, air conditioners, aerosol spray cans, and other devices, migrated into the atmosphere, where they damaged the ozone layer. The ozone layer protects human beings from some of the harmful effects of the sun; the predictable consequence of its […]
Archive | Climate Change
Physicists Ask American Physical Society to Rescind Its Statement on Global Warming Because It Was Based on “Cheat[ing]” and “Corrupted” Work
By Jim Lindgren on December 7, 2009 2:29 am in Academia, Climate Change, Environment, Politicizing Science
While the wider world is just beginning to realize that the subfield of paleoclimatology is in shambles (and has been for the last decade), scientists in related disciplines are increasingly fighting back against the shoddy work and orthodoxy that was foisted on them. A small group, including several prominent physicists, are asking the American Physical […]
Steven Hayward on ClimateGate
Steven Hayward (of AEI) has an excellent article in the Weekly Standard on the CRU scandal (tip to Powerline and Adler below). Hayward concludes: The distinction between utterly politicized scientists such as Jones, Mann, and NASA’s James Hansen, and other more sober scientists has been lost on the media and climate campaigners for a long […]
Threatening Reporters with the “Big Cutoff”
University of Illinois climate scientist Michael Schlesinger threatens the NYT‘s Andrew Revkin with “the Big Cutoff” because he quotes and interviews the wrong people. According to Schlesinger, this makes Revkin’s reporting “very worrisome to most climate scientists.” Revkin’s offenses? Noting that some Copenhagen prostitutes promised to give freebies to climate conference delegates (“gutter reportage”) and […]
ClimateGate Fallout Continues
Last week, Rajendra Pachauri, who heads the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told BBC Radio that there would be a full investigation of the revelations contained in e-mails and documents leaked from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit. This must have been done awfully quickly, as the IPCC’s Working Group I released […]
Debunking Briffa’s Version of the Hockey Sticks
By Jim Lindgren on December 6, 2009 12:18 am in Academia, Climate Change, Environment, Politicizing Science
Among the most ethically challenged of the scientists at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia is Keith Briffa. A couple of months ago, the Bishop Hill blog retold in detail the sad story about Briffa’s own version of the Hockey Stick, which he was able to keep alive by his attempts […]
Looking Back at the Hockey Stick Thesis: The JoNova Acoount
By Jim Lindgren on December 4, 2009 10:16 pm in Academia, Climate Change, Environment, Politicizing Science
Besides last year’s Bishop Hill post discussed below, another blog account of the “Hockey Stick” thesis that merits excerpting is at JoNova. I do this despite my finding its tone a bit overheated and its generalizations not being adequately qualified. Substantively, I disagree with its treatment of the evidence in favor of the Medieval Warming […]
Looking Back at the Hockey Stick Thesis: The Bishop Hill Account
By Jim Lindgren on December 4, 2009 9:39 pm in Academia, Climate Change, Environment, Politicizing Science
Because a big part of the scientific misconduct in ClimateGate involves Michael Mann’s now discredited “Hockey Stick” thesis, I thought it might be good to review a couple of the better posts outlining some of the misbehavior. The first is a long post from 16 months ago at the Bishop Hill blog (tip to Andrew […]
Using Eminent Domain to Take Wind Rights
The city of New Ulm, Minnesota may try to use eminent domain to promote wind power [HT: VC reader Paul Milligan]: Does the government’s power of eminent domain include seizing the rights to the wind that wafts over your property? That’s the controversial question swirling around an 8 megawatt wind farm proposed by the southern […]
IPCC’s Pachauri Should Shut His Mouth
The National Journal‘s Neil Munro has an interview with climatologist Judith Curry (featured in this, this, and this prior post). The interview is a must read for those interested in the ClimateGate story and the broader questions about the intersection of science and politics. There’s lots of good stuff in the interview — so you […]
Jon Stewart on ClimateGate
ABC, CBS and NBC have yet to air anything on the leaked e-mails and documents from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, but The Daily Show did — and they got the story right.
Hulme on ClimateGate and the Politicization of Science
Climatologist Mike Hulme, who worked at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, gets the big picture in a WSJ Europe op-ed. Some excerpts: One thing the episode has made clear is that it has become difficult to disentangle political arguments about climate policies from scientific arguments about the evidence for man-made climate change […]
ClimateGate Updates
Last night, the University of East Anglia announced that Phil Jones, a central figure in the e-mails and other documents disclosed last month, would temporarily step aside as head of the Climate Research Unit pending an independent review of the matter. Penn State University has also announced an investigation regarding the conduct of Michael Mann, […]
More on Data Sharing and Climate Change Research
I much appreciate all the responses to my earlier question about data sharing in the climate change debate. The quantity and the detail of the responses was dauntingly high, and I’ve just managed to get through them all. I thought therefore that I’d post a bit more about the subject. 1. It looks like some […]
MIT’s Lindzen on “ClimateGate”
MIT’s Richard Lindzen is one of the world’s leading climate scientists. He is also a climate “skeptic,” rejecting claims that anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are likely to create a climate catastrophe. Above all others, he is the climate skeptic environmental activists most fear, as he has unimpeachable credentials. As a prominent climate scientist who […]