Category Archives: Ethics

Too much advocacy?

Posted on September 10, 2012 by | 492 comments

by Judith Curry

By advocating social policy positions, scientists may be forfeiting their credibility, instead becoming just ordinary folks with opinions. – Greg Breining

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492 Comments

Posted in Ethics, Policy

Activate (?) your science

Posted on August 30, 2012 by | 953 comments

by Judith Curry

We need bold science and bold action.   There is a vital role for governments to play, but equally importantly is the role of academia, civil society, and industry.  Harnessing that collective commitment is underway – but it remains to be seen if changes will be rapid and substantial enough. Her Excellency noted in her powerful opening remarks that there is a significant gap between the accelerating pace of degradation and the rate of effective response.   
Each of you here can influence the rate of response by activating your science.  – Jane Lubchenco, NOAA Administrator

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953 Comments

Posted in Ethics, Policy

The legacy of climategate: Part II

Posted on May 9, 2012 by | 317 comments

by Judith Curry

I’ve just been informed that WIREs Climate Change invited two articles on this topic, and also editorial commentary.

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317 Comments

Posted in Ethics

The legacy of climategate

Posted on May 7, 2012 by | 669 comments

by Judith Curry

But when evaluating climategate, a variety of responses is seen, ranging from the apologetic to the highly critical. It is argued that reluctance to critically examine the climategate affair, including suspect practices of scientists, has to do with the nature of the debate which is highly politicized. A call is made for more reflection on this case which should not be closed off because of political expediency.

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669 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Climate change and moral judgement

Posted on April 28, 2012 by | 1,270 comments

by Judith Curry

Converging evidence from the behavioural and brain sciences suggests that the human moral judgement system is not well equipped to identify climate change — a complex, large-scale and unintentionally caused phenomenon — as an important moral imperative. 

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1,270 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Should we tell the whole truth about climate change?

Posted on March 8, 2012 by | 416 comments

by Judith Curry

In principle, yes of course.  In practice, many journalists, scientists and government officials are not so certain as to how to balance telling the whole truth and being truthful in an “effective” way.

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416 Comments

Posted in Communication, Ethics

Gleick’s Testimony on Threats to the Integrity of Science

Posted on February 26, 2012 by | 479 comments

by Judith Curry

The enduring question re Peter Gleick is how to reconcile his apparent commitment to the integrity of science with his behavior in the Heartland affair.

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479 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Gleick’s ‘integrity’

Posted on February 21, 2012 by | 653 comments

by Judith Curry

How can we reconcile Gleick’s possibly criminal behavior with his essays and testimony on scientific integrity?

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653 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Breaking News: Gleick Confesses

Posted on February 20, 2012 by | 438 comments

by Judith Curry

Peter Gleick Admits to Deception in Obtaining Heartland Files

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438 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Nullius in Verba

Posted on February 10, 2012 by | 447 comments

by Judith Curry

The motto of the Royal Society is:

Nullius in verba:  on the word of no one

“…it is an established rule of the Society, to which they will always adhere, never to give their opinion as a Body upon any subject either of Nature or Art, that comes before them.”

The ‘advertisement’ to The Philosophical Transactions, 1753.

Andrew Montford’s new report provides a lucid account of the transformation of the UK Royal Society.

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447 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Questions on research integrity and scientific responsibility: Part II

Posted on January 26, 2012 by | 242 comments

by Judith Curry

Here is the content of my presentation to the UN InterAcademy Council Project on Research Integrity and Scientific Responsibility.

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242 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Questions on research integrity and scientific responsibility

Posted on January 18, 2012 by | 138 comments

by Judith Curry

Earlier today via email, I received the following list of questions on research integrity and scientific responsibility.

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138 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Emails

Posted on November 24, 2011 by | 891 comments

by Judith Curry

Two years ago on Thanksgiving, I was working on my Climategate essay An open letter to graduate students and young scientists in fields related to climate research.  It was a topic of family discussion, and my 4 nieces and nephews (high school and college age) were all discussing and commenting on my essay.  I was also involved in extensive e-discussions with Joe Rom and Andy Revkin, who were hosting my letter on their blogs.

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891 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Research ethics training

Posted on November 22, 2011 by | 871 comments

by Judith Curry

I have been pondering how to best teach research ethics to incoming graduate students and to meet the new NSF guidelines.   While googling around, I found an interesting document from the Department of Meteorology at Penn State.

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871 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Disinformation and pseudo critical thinking

Posted on November 7, 2011 by | 759 comments

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.”

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759 Comments

Posted in Communication, Ethics

Is there any good news for the environment among Evangelicals?

Posted on October 28, 2011 by | 506 comments

by Ken Wilson

It’s not been a good year for the environment or for evangelicalism. I received an especially pained email from Carl Safina, our church’s  “adopted scientist.”  Carl and I, secular scientist and evangelical pastor, have worked together to bridge the historic divide between our respective communities. But my team isn’t making that easy lately. Case in point: Carl bemoaned the fact that prominent evangelical presidential candidates are anti-science; Governor Perry of Texas, for example, denies climate change while calling constituents to pray for rain in a time of drought (a predicted effect of climate change.)

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506 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Laframboise on the IPCC

Posted on October 19, 2011 by | 1,092 comments

by Judith Curry

I’ve finished reading Donna Laframboise’s book “The Delinquent Teenager Who Was Mistaken for the World’s Top Climate Expert: An Expose of the IPCC.”

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1,092 Comments

Posted in Ethics, Policy

Advocacy science and decision making

Posted on October 13, 2011 by | 209 comments

by Judith Curry

Partisan groups lobbying for preferred outcomes have a long history of the selective use of information to support predetermined conclusions. This is acceptable in politics, but not in science.  The motivations for such advocacy science may be a sincere desire to improve the protection of . .  ecosystems and frustration with decision-making processes that seem to give too little weight to longer term environmental considerations, or a cynical strategy to exploit the challenges that uncertainty poses to decision-making. Whatever the cause, making science advice itself partisan means it no longer deserves to be treated in any special way in the decision-making process. There is a serious risk that the long-term costs of merging advocacy with science advice would outweigh any short-term benefits of greater impact on a particular decision. If scientists do wish to increase the impact of science advice on decision-making, there are alternatives to advocacy in doing so. These approaches make the advice more amenable to decision-makers, while avoiding turning science advisors into partisan lobbyists.

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209 Comments

Posted in Ethics, Policy

Liability(?) of scientists

Posted on October 1, 2011 by | 195 comments

by Judith Curry

Six Italian seismologists and one government official went on trial for manslaughter in Italy last week. The unusual trial stems from accusations that the seven failed to adequately communicate the potential for a major earthquake to the population around the central Italian town of L’Aquila, which was hit by a devastating magnitude 6.3 earthquake in the predawn hours of April 6, 2009.

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195 Comments

Posted in Ethics

On torturing data

Posted on September 15, 2011 by | 205 comments

by Judith Curry

although very few researchers will go as far as to make up their own data, many will “torture the data until they confess”, and forget to mention that the results were obtained by torture….

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205 Comments

Posted in Data and observations, Ethics, Scientific method, Sociology of science

Update on Spencer & Braswell: Part II

Posted on September 5, 2011 by | 845 comments

by Judith Curry

Given the substantial number of comments on Part I, I’m starting a new thread to discuss the post by Trenberth, Abraham and Gleick, and Pielke Sr’s response.

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845 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Update on the Spencer & Braswell paper

Posted on September 2, 2011 by | 1,012 comments

by Judith Curry

I have just received notice of some dramatic news re the Spencer & Braswell paper.

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1,012 Comments

Posted in Ethics

A Scientist’s Manifesto

Posted on July 25, 2011 by | 111 comments

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.

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111 Comments

Posted in Communication, Ethics

Dueling grandchildren

Posted on June 25, 2011 by | 261 comments

by Judith Curry

I am visiting my 9 month old granddaughter Clara this week, which provides motivation for this post about intergenerational equity and justice.

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261 Comments

Posted in Ethics

Conflict of interest guidelines for the IPCC

Posted on June 20, 2011 by | 411 comments

by Judith Curry

The current issues surrounding conflict of interest guidelines for the IPCC are summarized in this recent news release from the U.S. House Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight:

Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight Chairman Paul Broun (R-GA) today sent a letter to United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, calling for the adoption of a Conflict of Interest Policy for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

“Despite my previous requests for the IPCC to adopt and enforce more stringent policies related to conflicts of interest and the use and citation of ‘gray literature,’ the IPCC has delayed action.”        

In the letter, Broun wrote that it is “imperative for the IPCC to adopt a rigorous conflict of interest policy before its 34th Session, tentatively scheduled to take place in January 2012.” 

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411 Comments

Posted in Ethics, IPCC