by Judith Curry
Barry Woods highlights a twitter exchange about my hosting a guest post, where I am accused of purveying disinformation:
@ Richard Tol: Its wrong, but with @JudithCurry lending her authority it becomes disinformation
with Keith Kloor forwarding the following Tweet:
@KeithKloor: @Richard Tol says to @JudithCurry: “I think you have done a disservice by lending your credibility to these two papers.”
Posted in Communication, Ethics
by Judith Curry
I’ve been meaning to write a post on the recent “Open Science Conference” organized by the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). A post at RealClimate entitled “Conference Conversations” provides a starting point for my post, with this concluding sentence:
The contrast between the conversations in this meeting and what passes for serious issues in the media and blogosphere was very clear.
Posted in Communication, Policy
by Judith Curry
…on average, climate change researchers will prefer to reach a decision or come to closure and ‘move on’ to the next step more quickly than the general population.
Posted in Communication
by Judith Curry
“Climategate”—the unauthorized release of, and news stories about, e-mails between climate scientists in the United States and United Kingdom—undermined belief in global warming and possibly also trust in climate scientists among TV meteorologists in the United States.
Posted in Communication
by Judith Curry
Here is the punchline of a new paper by Besley and Nisbet:
Most scientists in the US and UK blame public ignorance of science for flawed policy preferences and political choices. They tend to be critical of media coverage, yet rate favorably their own experience with the media. Scientists say policy-makers and journalists are the most important groups to engage and view the public as having secondary importance in political decision-making. Among scientists, perceptions of science-related policy debates are likely to be influenced by ideology and like-minded information sources such as blogs.
Posted in Communication
by Judith Curry
I was going to try to ignore Al Gore’s 24 Hours of Climate Reality, but I am starting to get queries from journalists.
Posted in Communication, Politics
by Judith Curry
A boomerang effect occurs when a message is strategically constructed with a specific intent but produces a result that is the opposite of that intent.
Both sides of the political debate surrounding climate change in the U.S. seem to be feeling the boomerang effect.
Posted in Communication, Politics
by Judith Curry
Douglas Sheil from Uganda sent me an interesting article with the provocative title “A modest proposal for wealthy countries to reforest their land for the common good.” Following in Swift’s footsteps, the paper uses satire to highlight some inconsistencies regarding international agreements on land cover and ecosystem conservation.
Posted in Communication, Policy
by Judith Curry
On a previous thread, I made the following statement:
I am striving for something different, sort of an e-salon where we discuss interesting topics at the knowledge frontier.
Lets take a closer look at how this might work.
Posted in Communication
by Judith Curry
Shakespeare’s writings are infused with with weather references, and even some that are arguably relevant to climate change. The insights, however, come from the academic debate surrounding the actual authorship of the Shakespearean opus.
Posted in Communication
by Judith Curry
A Scientist’s Manifesto challenges scientists to think about their work in a broader context, and to engage more fully with the society that supports them and ultimately stands to be impacted by them – for good or bad.
Posted in Communication, Ethics
By Judith Curry
On the first anniversary of Steve Schneider’s untimely death, it is worth reflecting on his contributions at the intersection of climate science, policy, politics and media in the public communication of climate change. Schneider’s views on this topic are infamously characterized by his 1989 statement (page 5 of the link):
On the one hand, as scientists we are ethically bound to the scientific method, in effect promising to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but — which means that we must include all the doubts, the caveats, the ifs, ands, and buts. On the other hand, we are not just scientists but human beings as well. And like most people we’d like to see the world a better place, which in this context translates into our working to reduce the risk of potentially disastrous climatic change. To do that we need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination. That, of course, entails getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have. This ‘double ethical bind’ we frequently find ourselves in cannot be solved by any formula. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest. I hope that means being both.
Posted in Communication
by Judith Curry
Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project aims to “reveal the complete truth about the climate crisis” and “bringing the facts about the climate crisis into the mainstream and engaging the public in conversation about how to solve it.” Gore’s promotional video accuses “Big Oil” and “Big Coal” of evil manipulation.
Posted in Communication
by Judith Curry
Much has been written on the need for better communication of climate science and for rebuilding trust in the wake of Climategate. Such efforts are generally dismissed by climate skeptics as manipulative and further increase distrust. But surely there must be better modes of communication between climate scientists and the lay public?
Posted in Communication
by Judith Curry
Chris Mooney has a new post up entitled “A little knowledge: why the biggest problem with climate skeptics may be their confidence.” Mooney’s post responds to Kahan et al.’s new study entitled “The tragedy of the risk-perception commons: culture conflict, rationality conflict, and climate change.”
Posted in Communication, Skeptics
by Judith Curry
There is an interesting new paper in press in Behavioral and Brain Science that is generating substantial discussion in the blogosphere, entitled “Why do humans reason? Arguments for an argumentative theory.” Perhaps this article can provide us with some insights on the climate debate.
Posted in Communication, Scientific method
by Judith Curry
I am trying to germinate an idea on how to move forward on the climate debate. Bear with me through this argument, and let me know what you think.
by Judith Curry
Matt Nisbet has published a new report entitled “Climate Shift: Clear Vision for the Next Decade of Public Debate,” that is generating substantial controversy in the blogosphere.
Posted in Communication
by Judith Curry
NSF has a press release on a perspective published in Nature Climate Change, by Baruch Fischoff, which I reproduce here in full. The full perspective can be found online here.
Posted in Communication
by Judith Curry
There is a recent article in the NYTimes entitled “Snubbing skeptics threatens to intensify climate war, study says.” The NYTimes article refers to a study entitled: “Talking Past Each Other: Cultural Framing of Skeptical and Convinced Logics in the Climate Change Debate.”
Posted in Communication, Policy, Politics
by Judith Curry
There has been much discussion in the climate blogosphere this past week on scientific story telling and communicating with the public.
Posted in Communication
by Judith Curry
Motivated by a post by David Roberts at Grist, there has been some interesting reflection on Climategate this past week. Roberts’ post entitled “What we have and haven’t learned from Climategate” says:
Posted in Communication, Ethics, Uncertainty
by Judith Curry
Continuing the themes of conflict prevention and best practices developed in Part III, I would like to discuss some pages from Edward Tufte’s book Beautiful Evidence, which was introduced here by Steve Mosher (seconded by MrPete). Of particular relevance is a chapter entitled “Corrupt Techniques in Evidence Presentations: Effects Without Cause, Cherry Picking, Punning, Chartjunk.”
Posted in Communication, Ethics, Scientific method
Posted in Communication, Scientific method
by Judith Curry
Motivated by discussion initiated by Brandon Shollenberger, I put together a post that discusses conduct for effective rational discussion and blog netiqette.
A code of conduct for effective rational discussion
I just came across an excellent post at Evolving Thoughts, entitled “A code of conduct for effective rational discussion” (h/t Bob Grumbine), based upon Attacking Faulty Reasoning: A Practical Guide to Fallacy-Free Arguments by Edward T. Damer.
Posted in Communication
