How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus
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How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus
1–10 of 58 posts
Re: How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus
#2This is a pretty powerful article. Regardless of your thoughts on global warming, it's rather upsetting to see scientists' careers ruined through having opinions differing than the gatekeepers of the peer reviewing system.
Re: How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus
#3As a scientist, I find it depressing that people would engage in this kind of behavior. But on the issue, I just watched this MIT "debate" about the impact of this incident:
http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/730
One thing I specifically remember is that one of the panel members (and member of the IPCC) concluded that the attempt by Mann et al. to bury conflicting studies was not successful, as some of those very papers were discussed and cited in the IPCC reports.
Re: How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus
#4Should I overlook the fact this guy is employed by The Cato Institute, which is funded by big oil?
Re: How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus
#5As a scientist, I find it depressing that people would engage in this kind of behavior. But on the issue, I just watched this MIT "debate" about the impact of this incident: http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/730 One thing I specifically remember is that one of the panel members (and member of the IPCC) concluded that the attempt by Mann et al. to bury conflicting studies was not successful, as some of those very papers w…
I believe if you reduce the argument to one or two specific papers you can easily see that they get out.
More distressing is the overall pattern of behavior, where editorial boards are rigged and scientists just "give up" working in this field. No amount of good papers getting through is going to fix that, unfortunately.
Re: How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus
#6Should I overlook the fact this guy is employed by The Cato Institute, which is funded by big oil?
No, but also don't miss the fact that most of those on the other side are funded by big government. Neither side is neutral.
Re: How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus
#7Should I overlook the fact this guy is employed by The Cato Institute, which is funded by big oil?
This is just ad hominem. You might as well say "I am politically on the left and I don't like the Cato Institute". It would be more honest.
As an aside, the Cato Institute turned down a donation from Fannie Mae before the financial crash so as to avoid the appearance of bias in their advocacy, so I have a bit of respect for them. How many think-tanks would do the same?
Yes, they were founded with a gift from the Koch families decades ago, but does that invalidate the work of Michaels, who by all appearances is a climate scientist that has published real research? Should we dismiss his thoughts outright and not listen to what he has to say?
(Update: a link below shows 3/4 of Cato's annual funding comes from individual donations, only 2% comes from corporations. Presumably, the rest comes from non-profit foundations.)
Sorry, I accidentally up-voted you when attempting to do the opposite.
Re: How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus
#8As a scientist, I find it depressing that people would engage in this kind of behavior. But on the issue, I just watched this MIT "debate" about the impact of this incident: http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/730 One thing I specifically remember is that one of the panel members (and member of the IPCC) concluded that the attempt by Mann et al. to bury conflicting studies was not successful, as some of those very papers w…
I believe if you reduce the argument to one or two specific papers you can easily see that they get out. More distressing is the overall pattern of behavior, where editorial boards are rigged and scientists just "give up" working in this field. No amount of good papers getting through is going to fix that, unfortunately.
Agreed. It's a fine line between rejecting "crackpots" and those with whom you simply disagree.
Re: How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus
#9Should I overlook the fact this guy is employed by The Cato Institute, which is funded by big oil?
This is just ad hominem. You might as well say "I am politically on the left and I don't like the Cato Institute". It would be more honest. As an aside, the Cato Institute turned down a donation from Fannie Mae before the financial crash so as to avoid the appearance of bias in their advocacy, so I have a bit of respect for them. How many think-tanks would do the same? Yes, they were founded with a gift from the Koch…
meta-note: I've noticed a tendency on HN for commenters to impeach people sometimes without good reason (this case may or may not be a good example, that's not the point) On several articles today the comments basically boiled down to an ad-hominem -- and this was on subjects as far-ranging as naval warfare, startups, science, etc.
I'd like to call it out more, but there's so much of it -- it's a lost cause, I think.
Re: How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus
#10Should I overlook the fact this guy is employed by The Cato Institute, which is funded by big oil?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute#Funding
Looks like they receive funding from ~20 corporations annually accounting for 2% of their overall funding.