by Judith Curry
A few things that caught my eye this past week.
Lindzen
The Weekly Standard has an extensive article on Richard Lindzen, What Catastrophe? This is a very good article, not just on Lindzen but on the state of debate in climate science.
The Age
John McLean has a must read essay in The Age: Lack of Accountability Clouding the Climate Change Debate. Excerpt:
The reality is that the IPCC is in effect little more than a UN-sponsored lobby group, created specifically to investigate and push the ”man-made warming” line. With no similar organisations to examine other potential causes of climate change, it’s only the IPCC voice that is heard. But the IPCC’s voice isn’t heard in context and with all the necessary caveats; it’s distorted via the UNFCCC and others who imply that the IPCC is the sole scientific authority on climate matters.
Michaels
Pat Michaels has a new article Putting Headlines Ahead of Science. Michaels addresses the following profound question: This leads to the question: do the journals’ propensity for flashy research result in biased research?
David Gelemter
David Gelemter has a mind boggling but interesting essay The closing of the scientific mind. Excerpt:
Science is caught up, also, in the same educational breakdown that has brought so many other proud fields low. Science needs reasoned argument and constant skepticism and open-mindedness. But our leading universities have dedicated themselves to stamping them out—at least in all political areas. We routinely provide superb technical educations in science, mathematics, and technology to brilliant undergraduates and doctoral students. But if those same students have been taught since kindergarten that you are not permitted to question the doctrine of man-made global warming, or the line that men and women are interchangeable, or the multiculturalist idea that all cultures and nations are equally good (except for Western nations and cultures, which are worse), how will they ever become reasonable, skeptical scientists? They’ve been reared on the idea that questioning official doctrine is wrong, gauche, just unacceptable in polite society.
Bob Tisdale
Bob Tisdale announces he is retiring from full time blogging (see post at WUWT). The issue is financing, I wish there was some way to make blogging pay. In any event, I would like to show my appreciation for Bob’s careful ocean data analysis, and wish him well in his new job.
Merchants of Doubt – the movie
I kid you not. Ex-Ebay President Jeff Skoll is making a movie, see [link].
And the movie he’ll release a year ahead of schedule? It’s called Merchants of Doubt based on the bestselling book about how climate change deniers have adopted the same techniques as the tobacco industry in influencing public opinion. The film, explains Skoll, aims to “explain to people why there’s still so much doubt in public about climate change when there’s almost unanimous consent among scientists. Basically, the fossil fuel industry is funding campaigns for disinformation and misinformation.”
I can’t wait to see the casting.