Posted on 01/01/2010 12:18:01 PM PST by neverdem
The battle over the science of global warming has long been a street fight between mainstream researchers and skeptics. But never have the scientists received such a deep wound as when, in late November, a large trove of e-mails and documents stolen from the Climatic Research Unit at Britain's University of East Anglia were released onto the Web.
In the ensuing "Climategate" scandal, scientists were accused of withholding information, suppressing dissent, manipulating data and more. But while the controversy has receded, it may have done lasting damage to science's reputation: Last month, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 40 percent of Americans distrust what scientists say about the environment, a considerable increase from April 2007. Meanwhile, public belief in the science of global warming is in decline.
The central lesson of Climategate is not that climate science is corrupt. The leaked e-mails do nothing to disprove the scientific consensus on global warming. Instead, the controversy highlights that in a world of blogs, cable news and talk radio, scientists are poorly equipped to communicate...
--snip--
Meanwhile, the task of translating science for the public is ever more difficult: Information sources are multiplying, partisan news outlets are replacing more objective media, and the news cycle is spinning ever faster.
--snip--
So while public interest in hurricanes was at a high after Katrina, much of the science reporting at the time portrayed researchers bickering with one another ("Hurricane Debate Shatters Civility of Weather Science," announced a Wall Street Journal cover story). Judith Curry, a climate scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a co-author of one of the contested studies, told me recently that the experience made her realize that "this was really the wrong way to do things, trying to fight these little wars and knock the other side down."...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Geophysical Research Letters and ScienceDaily.com, a nonpartisan press release source, are partisan news outlets? ScienceDaily.com links the abstract at Geophysical Research Letters.
Chris Mooney insidiously conflates two separate, contentious topics.
Judith Curry should get out of the kitchen if she can't take the heat.
Typical liberal slant and refusal to accept responsibility or assign accountability when it goes against them. The "controversy" hasn't done damage to the so-called scientist's reputation. The controversy is a result of the scientists' actions. It is their actions that have damaged their reputations.
The central lesson of Climategate is not that climate science is corrupt.
Ah, yes, it is.
The leaked e-mails do nothing to disprove the scientific consensus on global warming.
Wrong on two counts. First, there is no consensus on global warming, there is plenty of dissent. Second, the emails show just how right the dissenters and non-believers are.
Funny.
I think they need to STFU and let someone who disagrees with them speak up more.
Nazis.
Sorry Chris baby. A “consensus” is NOT science. That’s something that jerks like yourself need to understand. Most “consensuses” these days are created due to the need for another government grant.
>>>So called Scientists need to present evidence and discuss possibilities and work with other’s ideas not say they are right and the discussion is over.<<<
True words, bro.
That's such crap. These so-called scientists like Mann and Jones are all about PR and nothing else. There was far more PR than science going on at the CRU. Read the emails, man. You look foolish doing apologetics that ignore widely known facts of the case.
What a disappointing failure of an article by Chris Mooney. Mooney is evidently not a journalist, rather he is a merely a propagandist repeating the party line in this piece.
Devoid of critical thinking skills, Mooney takes Mann’s statements at face value as if they were gospel truth - he resorts to a “reference to authority”, rather than behaving as an actual journalist would by investigating whether or not Mann’s statements are true instead of merely repeating them. For example, Mann’s “out of context” claims are provably false - but only if the “journalist” has the innate curiosity and drive and takes the initiative to do some actual investigation and reporting rather than merely parroting the words from the Ministry of Truth.
Its time for honest scientists and citizens to tell the “Soviet scientists” to stop shoving their political agenda down our throats in the name of “science.”
Absolutely right. Good science can stand on it’s own and should welcome alternate theories and debates.
This whole climate-gate scandal just goes to show that a great many people who call themselves “scientists” are using the cloak of science to pursue their personal agendas of power and self enrichment.
Arrogance will always be man’s failing.
The central lesson of Climategate is not that climate science is corrupt.Ah, yes, it is.
Science is not corrupt. That's just a method for determining natural laws. Scientists are corrupt.
No. The science is not corrupt. It is the politicians.
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