Telegraph, Time Mag, etc: Hundreds of scientists say, in Science, to cut it out already with this Climategate canard
Some news reporting, not much but some, today greets a letter signed by 255 scientists denouncing the continuing attention to Climategate and the attention given to smears and other attacks on climate scientists specifically and the process of science generally. The letter runs in the journal Science – which may have reduced its impact some by having it in the same issue as a huge story on traces of Neanderthal genes still being carried about on Earth by certain bipeds.
A good, straight-new account of the letter and its signatories is in the UK”s Guardian, by Celia Cole. It’s also commendable for running the full text of the letter and list of the signers, saving me the trouble of downloading a pdf and linking to that. It is below in Grist.
One comment, just to be fair here. The people who signed this, all members of the US National Academy of Sciences, are mostly luminaries. But, as climate skeptics have their own petitions by scientists (so they say) that have been scoffed at by a few in the worried scientific majority as including a lot of people who are not climate specalists, one must say ditto. This list, scanning down, has lot of non-climate experts. Ones that jump out include paleoanthropologist Birhane Asfaw, population biologist Paul Ehrlich, ecologist Daniel Janzen, and physicist Buford Price. All great scientists. Not in climate.
But so what. For one thing, that pretty well undermines the idea that scientists who want action, and fast, against global warming are only in it for the grant money. Crazy as it is, that’s taken as fact by plenty of people these days. But why would a physicist get more grant money by believing the climatology majority is on to something big, and scary. The list is heavy with real authorities in the field, too. It is a pretty good indicator where the big brains in science overwhelmingly tend to put their bets.And this petition confronts the deniers of climate as a serious problem straight up. McCarthyism gains mention. So does a warning not to hide our heads in the sand.
Other stories:
- Reuters – Deborah Zabarenko: Scientists Decry “Assaults” on Climate Research ;
- Time Magazine – Bryan Walsh – Still Under Attack, Climate Scientists Fight Back ; He backs into the headline, first running through the field’s public and political woes, then getting to the letter in Science.
- NYTimes (DotEarth blog) Andrew C. Revkin: Scientists Lash at ‘McCarthy-Like Threats” ; Andy sensibly cautions against expecting the letter to change the tide – it has, he writes, “a defensive tone that hasn’t served scientists particularly well in the past..”
- CanWest/Montreal Gazette – Margaret Munro: Stop politicizing climate change, urges letter from top scientists ;
- Telegraph (UK) Louise Gray: Climate change deniers accused of McCarthyism ;
As the deniers think climate science is a bunch of leftist hooey anyway (that’s silly – it’s the environmentalst brigades waving their pom poms for global warming actions that are mostly lefties, which hardly means the science is wrong, and now to get back on track) let’s look at a lefty magazine for a pretty good and pretty angry wrapup on what’s going on:
The Nation (May 3) Johann Hari: Climategate Claptrap ; This screed, incidentally, was picked up today in the UK’s Independent newspaper.
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Grist for the Mill: Open Letter: Climate change and the integrity of science ;
Pic: Hypatia, Scientist of Egypt, murdered by the Mob / source
- Charlie Petit
