Monthly Archives: September 2025

by John Ridgway

In an earlier essay [1] I explained how positive feedbacks can lead to potentially problematic scientific mono-cultures. I also acknowledged that poor research design and data analysis had become commonplace within the behavioural sciences, largely as a result of a ‘natural selection’, driven by the career enhancement that comes with publication. However, I did not question whether there were any reward structures within climate science that may also have led to a natural selection for bad statistical practice.

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by John Ridgway

Any politician faced with the challenge of protecting the public from a natural threat, such as a pandemic or climate change, will be keen to stress how much they are ‘following the science’ — by which they mean they are guided by the dominant scientific narrative of the day. We would want this to be the case because we trust the scientific method as a selective process that ensures bad science cannot hope to survive for very long.  This is not a reality I choose to ignore here, but it is something I would certainly wish to place in its proper context. The problem is that the scientific method is not the only selector in town, and when all others are taken into account, a much murkier picture emerges – certainly not one that is clear enough to place a dominant narrative upon an epistemological pedestal.

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by Judith Curry

A month has passed since the DOE climate assessment report was published.  It’s time to reflect on what we might learn from the responses to this Report.  Of particular relevance is the report that was issued earlier today, led by Andrew Dessler.

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