Comments on: Spectator on Steig v O’Donnell

By: Name-Calling in Climate Change may harm Our Future « Manicbeancounter’s Weblog

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:30:59 +0000

[...] For sceptics, research grants are not nearly as available and sceptical views are more difficult to publish. Any public figure who doubts orthodoxy, or any business which funds scepticism, are targeted by [...]

By: Richard Drake

Richard Drake — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 09:45:38 +0000

Matt Ridley has been calling himself a lukewarmer since at least August Steve. It made me think of you when I read that. A useful label allowing a key UK science writer to join the fray without becoming a crazy (like me)!

By: mark t

mark t — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 01:10:16 +0000

The difference, of course, was that the accepted view did not fit with the polar amplification meme and thus, a challenge to the scripture was what they were looking for. Shame on you for not seeing this.

Mark

By: NicL

NicL — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:17:19 +0000

Many thanks!

By: Dave Andrews

Dave Andrews — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 21:07:02 +0000

Are you sure it didn’t annoy the mainstream?

After all it took almost a year to be accepted and Trenberth was pretty dismissive of its attempt to manufacture data where none existed.

By: Nicolas Nierenberg

Nicolas Nierenberg — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:54:59 +0000

Yes, one way of telling whether something challenged the orthodoxy is by seeing who was annoyed by it. In this case the Steig paper clearly annoyed the skeptics (unconvinced?) and not the mainstream.

By: Tom Gray

Tom Gray — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:24:50 +0000

I think that the orthtodox view in this case refers to the Antarctic warming predicted by climate models. Teh cooling described elsewhere was used as a club by scptics and wasd considered an embarrassment by teh AGW establishment

By: steven mosher

steven mosher — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:36:13 +0000

Mentioning the lukewarmer(tm) word. Moshpit approves.

Congrats Nic.

This issue is messy on all sides! the scientific, the personal, the institutional.

By: NicL

NicL — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:30:42 +0000

Thanks!

By: Jonas N

Jonas N — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:53:50 +0000

John N-G

Is this really your best point or argument? That Steig et al were ‘challenging’ the scripture ..

In that case, I would say: “The debate is over … “