Dealing in doubt
‘The Skeptics Handbook’ by Jo Nova
Greenpeace’s new report Dealing in doubt leads with a great quote from John Cook of Skeptical Science (a fantastic resource for those who are curious about climate change). He says:
“Scepticism is not believing what someone tells you, investigating all the information before
coming to a conclusion. Scepticism is a good thing. Global warming scepticism is not that.
It’s the complete opposite of that. It’s coming to a preconceived conclusion and cherry–
picking the information that backs up your opinion. Global warming scepticism isn’t
scepticism at all.”
This is certainly how I feel when acquaintances forward me the latest missive from ‘skeptical’ web sites like Watts Up With That or, closer to home, Jo Nova’s blog, and more depressingly the latest oped’s from The Australian newspaper. These commentators aren’t skeptics, they are just peddling doubt and attacking science. These attacks are the subject of Greenpeace’s report, which draws the parallel with with tobacco industry’s misinformation campaign that began just as government began to regulate smoking.
Professor Phil Jones, who heads the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University is one of the subjects of the kinds of attacks Greenpeace discusses in their report. He is now infamous because of the so-called climategate affair when his personal e-mails were hacked and released on the Internet. The climate change denial community gleefully concluded that the e-mails ‘proved’ that anthropogenic climate change was a fraud and a scientific conspiracy. This was always nonsense, but it is pleasing that Phil Jones has just been exonerated by a British house of commons inquiry.
The report also briefly discusses the situation in Australia. It mentions the ousting of Malcolm Turnbull because of a “backbench climate denier revolt” and his replacement by Tony Abott, “a confirmed climate sceptic”. It also specifically mentions the Institute of Public Affairs, a right-wing political think-tank in Australia. Here is the IPA’s commentary on climategate. Many of the prominent climate change ‘skeptics’ in Australia have some association with the IPA, including Alan Moran, David Evans, Ian Pilmer, Tom Switzer, Bob Carter and Jo Nova.
Here is another great example of the kind of attacks on climate change the Greenpeace report is talking about and a great read: Esquire magazine on Marc Moranco. He is the same Marc Moranco who ran the the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth smear campaign that stalled John Kerry’s presidential run.
Number of record hot day maximums (CSIRO and BOM)
While the attacks continue, Australia’s two lead climate science agencies – the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology – have just issued another state of the climate snapshot, providing observations and analysis of changes in Australia’s climate. They conclude that Australia will be hotter and dryer in coming decades, that climate change is real, and, that it is very likely that human activities have caused most of the global warming observed since 1950.
But there is some good news. As of March 31st, the number of nations backing the Copenhagen Accord has risen to 110, representing over 80% of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions.
There was a great segment on climate change skepticism on the ABC Science Show recently:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2010/2859986.htm.