Regular readers of this blog will know that we’re been trying to develop the idea that a great deal of politics exists prior to the science in the argument for a political response to climate change. This was the basis of our criticism of studies such as the GHF’s and...
The Poverty of the Ambitious
According to the Observer today, Some of the planet's most powerful paymasters will gather in London on Wednesday to discuss a nagging financial problem: how to raise a trillion dollars for the developing world. Those charged with achieving this daunting goal will...
Don’t You Believe in Global Warming?
Venture a doubt about climate change politics or ethics, and you’ll likely be asked, “Don’t you believe in global warming?” If you express suspicion about the prominence and function served by alarm and catastrophe in arguments for political responses to climate...
Do You Want “Ethics” With That?
The desire that things be “ethical” has developed in the same era as climate change anxiety. Naturally, there is some convergence. Things which promise to lessen ‘environmental impact’ are considered ‘ethical’, and the implication is that things that aren’t clearly...
Climate Politics Will Eat Itself
The public opinion expert's opinion on the public's opinion of experts is that the public still have confidence in the experts. (H/t: Roger Pielke)
Trust and Science
One of the things that often emerge from the climate debate is the problem that few people have a sufficient grasp of any aspect of the climate issue to speak with any authority. As far as some are concerned, the fact that we are not climate scientists hangs over...
Warming or Not Warming: You Can’t Decide
It’s a familiar refrain... Without hard evidence to support their claims, climate denialists are attacking the process of climate-change science. This is the line that appears before Bill McKibben’s article, “Climate Change's OJ Simpson Moment“, which is currently...
It’s all in the Head…lines
David Adam in The Guardian, 11 March 2009: Sea level could rise more than a metre by 2100, say experts David Adam, Guardian podcast, 13 March 2009: The scientists, they have been saying it for a while, and we’ve been saying it in the media for a while… but I think the...
IPCC WGI Ch10 – Projecting Alarm
In our previous post, we argued that 'Without WGII and WGIII, there is no grounds for alarm'. Our point being that WGII and WGIII take certain premises for granted in order to be able to talk about the inevitability of Nth-order effects of climate change, especially...
Precaution, Projection & Parthian Shots
It can't be easy being a climate change alarmist just at the moment. In its desperation to keep the ragged flag flying, the Guardian has run a couple of very strange stories today. First up, in What happened when scientists photoshopped climate sceptics, they've...