Re: [Phys-L] Garth Paltridge: Climate Change's Inherent Uncertainties

[Ze'ev Wurman <zeev@ieee.org>]

Perhaps we are not reading the same article. It is not a "scientific" 
article but rather a social commentary on the way the scientific 
community behaves, written by someone who has been in a position to 
observe the process from his high perch and who also understands the 
specific science both broadly and deeply. I didn't realize that one can 
criticize a NYT article on the grounds it is not "peer reviewed." A nice 
thought.

Paltridge does not say that GW and/or AGW are real or drastic, nor does 
he say they are not. What he says is that the data is highly uncertain, 
that the scientific community knows it, yet the same scientific 
community risked it credibility when it uncritically hitched its wagon 
to political interests and political advocacy business in its quest for 
more funding and employment opportunities. And that some in the 
scientific community "began to enjoy the advocacy business." And that 
the chickens may be coming home to roost.

He also gives some examples of scientific community promotion of 
one-sided interpretations of the data -- in his considered opinion -- 
based on the advocacy posture it has taken.

Ze'ev

On 2/5/2014 12:49 PM, John Clement wrote:
> Paltridge certainly has a point that the climate change "might" not be
> drastic because of uncertainties, but the opposite is also a possibility.
> ...
>
> As to the publication, I think the first criticism was that it was not a
> "peer reviewed" publication, which means that it is a popular journal and
> not necessarily a good source for science news.  ...
>
> CSIRO is obviously legit as a quick web search shows.  Paltridge is
> obviously legit also when he writes about scientific matters in his field,
> but conspiracy comments are not legit.
>
> John M. Clement
> Houston, TX
>
>
> > I am shocked by this. It took a full 8 hours for someone to
> > handwave off Ze'ev's posting because the source of the
> > article was found to be a "conservative" publication. I also
> > found it odd that Paltrige's credentials weren't somehow
> > immediately challenged - after all, who's ever heard of
> > CSIRO? Perhaps the response was a little slow today because
> > many of us are out shoveling snow from our driveways.