Climate scientists admit fresh error over data on rising sea levels
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: Climate scientists admit fresh error over data on rising sea levels
#2 "The sea-level statistic was used for background information only, and the updated
information remains consistent with the overall conclusions," the IPCC
note states. Nevertheless, the admission is likely to intensify claims by
sceptics that the IPCC work is riddled with sloppiness.
Re: Climate scientists admit fresh error over data on rising sea levels
#3Houghton's "quote" has become one of the most emblematic remarks supposed to have been made by a mainstream scientist about global warming, and appears on almost two million web pages concerned with climate change.
It is interesting that not only is Google used as an authoritative news source, it is considered authoritative enough that it doesn't even need to be mentioned as a news source, even when they are reporting a number which is for all practical purposes flimsier than the flimsiest speculation ever to escape a scientist's lip regarding global warming.
Re: Climate scientists admit fresh error over data on rising sea levels
#4"The sea-level statistic was used for background information only, and the updated information remains consistent with the overall conclusions," the IPCC note states. Nevertheless, the admission is likely to intensify claims by sceptics that the IPCC work is riddled with sloppiness. I think that quote needs to be highlighted before people start making claims that this doesn't matter. This just shows (again) how polit…
A better statement would be that political motivations and money affect scientist not science. Science is a procedure for validating theory with observations. The extent to which some claim observations validate their theory is always debatable. People with political or monetary motivations sometimes forget this.
Re: Climate scientists admit fresh error over data on rising sea levels
#5To be fair, shoddy science is probably common in every field. It's just that this is such a politically charged issue that it attracts far more attacks and attention.
Re: Climate scientists admit fresh error over data on rising sea levels
#6To be fair, shoddy science is probably common in every field. It's just that this is such a politically charged issue that it attracts far more attacks and attention.
> To be fair, shoddy science is probably common in every field. It's just that this is such a politically charged issue that it attracts far more attacks and attention.
You get a pass for making mistakes when:
1. You don't claim there's a "consensus" when anyone disagrees with you.
2. You don't try to paint people who disagree with you as "deniers" and otherwise ignorant and horrible people.
3. You don't try to suppress publication of dissenting views and campaign against people with dissenting views coming into important positions.
4. You're not asking for trillions of dollars of bureaucratic measures to be put into place by claiming there's an imminent catastrophe if we don't.
5. You take it seriously when someone points out an error in your method, instead of calling them "an idiot" or dismissing them in a cavalier fashion.
6. You're more concerned about finding out the truth of the matter than pushing your agenda and trying to fit the facts to your agenda.
Really, the climate science people are reaping what they sowed. They were nasty to people who disagree with them, even boring unemotional scientist types who disagreed with them.
Re: Climate scientists admit fresh error over data on rising sea levels
#7If this story was actually about an "error over data on rising sea levels", it would be interesting. It's only a minor factual mistake that is easily checked and corrected.
The important story is that the change in sea level rolls up many other effects into a single indicator of the extent of global warming, and that sea level is rising faster than IPCC models predict.
Re: Climate scientists admit fresh error over data on rising sea levels
#8"Admit" or "were caught"?
Re: Climate scientists admit fresh error over data on rising sea levels
#9To be fair, shoddy science is probably common in every field. It's just that this is such a politically charged issue that it attracts far more attacks and attention.
> To be fair, shoddy science is probably common in every field. It's just that this is such a politically charged issue that it attracts far more attacks and attention. You get a pass for making mistakes when: 1. You don't claim there's a "consensus" when anyone disagrees with you. 2. You don't try to paint people who disagree with you as "deniers" and otherwise ignorant and horrible people. 3. You don't try to suppr…
At least 1, 3, 5, and 6 are more common in many fields than you might hope. It's quite hard to get work published that is "outside the mainstream consensus", and how exactly that "consensus" is defined is not always so narrow as to only exclude genuine cranks. It particularly often excludes anything challenging the work of important people in the field who edit its important journals. And there are a ton of shady things that go on around #5/#6. Reviewers don't always honestly review work that shows theirs in a negative light, sometimes steal results from papers they've rejected, etc. It's what happens when lots of money, positions, and reputations ride on these sorts of things, along with the cutthroat professorship/tenure competition. Climate change just magnifies all that by having a lot more money and general politics (as opposed to only academic politics) riding on the result.
Here's one of many recent non-climate-change examples: http://scienceblogs.com/ethicsandscience/2009/08/the_saga_of...
Re: Climate scientists admit fresh error over data on rising sea levels
#10"Admit" or "were caught"?
It's a trivial factual error. RTFA before making conspiracist comments.