Sir John Houghton: Objective scientist or driven ideologue?

Sir John Houghton, an ex-boss of the IPCC, and the hockey stick graph, visually demonstrating that the flawed hockey stick graph has never played any important role for the IPCC statements. H/T Lubos Motls
http://motls.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/sir-john-houghton-is-liar.html

Wikipedia tells us:

He was the lead editor of first three IPCC reports. He was professor in atmospheric physics at the University of Oxford, former Chief Executive at the Met Office and founder of the Hadley Centre.

He is the chairman of the John Ray Initiative, an organisation “connecting Environment, Science and Christianity”,^[1] where he has compared the stewardship of the Earth, to the stewardship of the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve.^[2] He is a founder member of the International Society for Science and Religion. He is also the current president of the Victoria Institute.

Jon Jones alerted me to a press cutting this morning. I was amazed:

The FoxNews Interview

Reblogged from NoFrakkingConsensus:

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I've had a bad experience with a FoxNews reporter in the past. Which was why Charles Couger apologized for an offense he had nothing to do with and promised to behave professionally.

His story appeared earlier today and is titled Leaked UN climate report slammed for citing WWF, Greenpeace. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a big, complicated bureaucracy.

Read more… 1,471 more words

Early examination of IPCC AR5 shows lessons not learned on grey literature.

Richard Tol: Climate Economics Book Available For Open Review

The energetic Richard Tol has completed the first draft of his new book, and made it available online for open review. Excellent work, and excellent idea. To gauge Richards attitude to the climate debate, this quote should suffice:

Climate research is rather controversial. Good introductions to the controversy are Mike Hulme’s book Why we disagree about climate change: Understanding controversy, inaction, and opportunity, Donna Laframboise’ book The delinquent teenager who was mistaken for the world’s top climate expert and Andrew W. Montford’s book The hockey stick illusion: Climategate and the corruption of science.

Another whopping leak from the IPCC.

Reblogged from Pointman's:

A substantial second leak, already nicknamed the Secret Santa leak, of further portions of the forthcoming IPCC AR5 has just occurred. There was a smaller leak of material last year, which was owned up to by the person who did it on their blog.

While everyone is no doubt considering how on Earth to work their way through a gigabyte of dense reading material, my first thoughts before plunging in myself is to wonder if the leaker is perhaps the same person or persons, commonly called FOIA, who leaked the original climategate material.

Read more… 432 more words

End of an era for popular Astronomy: Patrick Moore joins the sky gods

A well known and loved British science personality, Sir Patrick Moore, has died at the age of 89.  The voice of popular astronomy for more than half a century, his monocled presentation of ‘The Sky at Night’  on BBC TV was  a fixture in many astronomers almanacs. This article has just been posted on the BBC website:

British astronomer and broadcaster Sir Patrick Moore has died, aged 89, his friends and colleagues have said.

He “passed away peacefully at 12:25 this afternoon” at his home in Selsey, West Sussex, they said in a statement.

Sir Patrick presented the BBC programme The Sky At Night for over 50 years, making him the longest-running host of the same television show ever.

Very British Humour: Jonathan Sale, and Marriot Edgar

Here’s an interesting article which was published in ‘Punch’ in 1976. My thanks to Ian Laidlaw for providing copy. It provides some historical context to the climate debate, and shows not much has changed in terms of uncertainty. It’s also a fun, well written piece. Following that, some more very british humour from Marriot Edgar, for the amusement of those hit by flooding this weekend.

 

Institute of Physics: Free Animal Physics Special Issue

Here’s a nice freebie from the  Institute Of Physics; a special issue of ‘Physics World’ looking at animals which employ interesting physics in their daily lives. Grab the link below the break.

 

Cartoons by Josh: 2013 Calendar now at the printers – Order now!

Our old friend Josh has sent me flyer for his 2013 calendar. This is great idea for a stocking filler, buy one (or more) for your climate friends (or foes) and support Josh’s fantastic (and mostly unpaid) work.See below the break for the description and ordering instructions. Humour is a powewrful force in shaping ideas, and Josh’s talent speaks volumes for his insight into the important factors in the climate debate.

Click to order your 2013 Calendar at Josh’s website

 

Limited Availability: Wind Controlled Climate: Thesis by Hans Jelbring

Hans Jelbring has kindly sent me seven copies of his successfully defended 1998 Doctoral Thesis ‘Wind Controlled Climate’ from Sweden. Nicely produced and bound, these are rare. I’m keeping one, and to cover production and postal costs from Sweden, these copies are for sale at the special introductory price of £12 inc VAT + postage to your location.

Given this historical moment as the momentum gathers around the new understanding of the causes of the atmospheric thermal enhancement, and Hans Jelbring’s authorship of an early paper pointing the way to a study of other planets as the correct method of confirming the effect of atmospheric mass rather than composition as the major cause of surface temperature level above grey-body baseline, this is a truly smart investment, and a bargain.

Prof Richard Lindzen: Fear based science

My thanks to Ned Nikolov, who has sent me a paper by Richard Lindzen, recently retired professor of Meorology at MIT. This work is of prime importance to those interested in the issues surrounding the development of science in society, and the outcome in climate science. Names are named, and some dirty washing hung out to air.

Climate Science: Is it currently designed to answer questions?
Richard Lindzen 2012 www.euresisjournal.org

Abstract:

For a variety of inter-related cultural, organizational, and political reasons, progress in climate science and the actual solution of scientific problems in this field have moved at a much slower rate than would normally be possible. Not all these factors are unique to climate science, but the heavy influence of politics has served to amplify the role of the other factors. By cultural factors, I primarily refer to the change in the scientific paradigm from a dialectic opposition  between theory and observation to an emphasis on simulation and observational programs. The latter serves to almost eliminate the dialectical focus of the former. Whereas the former had the potential for convergence, the latter is much less effective. The institutional factor has many components. One is the inordinate growth of administration in universities and the consequent increase in importance of grant overhead. This leads to an emphasis on large programs that never end. Another is the hierarchical nature of formal scientific organizations whereby a small executive council can speak on behalf of thousands of scientists as well as govern the distribution of ‘carrots and sticks’ whereby reputations are made and broken. The above factors are all amplified by the need for government funding. When an issue becomes a vital part of a political agenda, as is the case with climate, then the politically desired position becomes a goal rather than a consequence of scientific research. This paper will deal with the origin of the cultural changes and with specific examples of the operation and interaction of these factors. In particular, we will show how political bodies act to control scientific institutions, how scientists adjust both data and even theory to accommodate politically correct positions, and how opposition to these positions is disposed of.