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All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

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Comments 29401 to 29450:

  1. citizenschallenge at 04:44 AM on 9 May 2015
    Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    SkepticalinCanada @ 13,

    you wouldn't have a list of such US lawsuits would you?

  2. citizenschallenge at 04:41 AM on 9 May 2015
    Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    PS

    The lawsuit has been brought by the sustainability foundation Urgenda with 886 Dutch citizens acting as co-plaintiffs including teachers, entrepreneurs, artists and children legally represented by their elders.

  3. citizenschallenge at 04:38 AM on 9 May 2015
    Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

     

    @14 jenna.  It doesn't look as though that lawsuit against the Dutch government has anything to do with "beliefs" it's focused on lack of action that 'We The Dutch People" believes needs to be taken.  

    (no I'm not Dutch, just a figure of speach)

    see: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/14/dutch-government-facing-legal-action-over-failure-to-reduce-carbon-emissions

    "Dutch government facing legal action over failure to reduce carbon emissions.  Landmark case brought by 886 Dutch citizens aims for more robust policy to cut emissions within targets set by IPCC to help avoid critical 2C rise in global temperatures.

    The first public hearings will take place in the Hague on Tuesday in the first case in the world to use existing human rights and tort law to hold a government responsible for failing to reduce carbon emissions fast enough. ...

    They will ask the judiciary to declare that the Dutch government must implement policies to reduce its emissions by between 25% and 40% below 1990 levels by 2020. This was the target for developed nations – established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – as necessary to create a 50% chance of avoiding a dangerous 2C rise in global temperatures."

    Unfortunately the legal system moves slower than our cryosphere is melting.

    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/nov/14/dutch-legal-action-climate-change

    The Dutch government is facing the threat of legal action if it fails to take swift action on climate change.

    The move, which is thought to be the first time that European human rights legislation has been used to take a government to court over climate change failures, is intended to put the spotlight on what campaigners say is a lack of action and force them to prioritise cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

    Urgenda, the pressure group behind the move, sent a letter to ministers calling on them to announce new initiatives on cutting emissions. Without that, the group said it would proceed to the courts.

    The government of the Netherlands has not yet responded.

  4. Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    IMO, lawsuits against politicians or 'anybody' based on their 'beliefs' (or lack of action based on someone else's beliefs) is a very slippery slope.

    I'm for more education and interaction with people that aren't yet convinced of the seriousness of AGW. Lawsuits against polticians or whole countries/governments, will be seen more as radical publicity stunts by your average Joe and may not have the intended results on the public mind. After all, it is the people who will drive the politicians to drive change on this issue, IMO.

  5. SkepticalinCanada at 02:37 AM on 9 May 2015
    Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    villabolo @4, one of the current lawsuits has been filed against the Dutch government (as documented at The Guardian), while others I am aware of have been filed against individual politicians in the United States.

  6. Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    OPOF @10, dictionaries only, or should only, report on actual usage.  In this case, an example of actual usage is found in the wikipedia article to which I previously linked.  In particular, that article has a section heading "near-unanimous consensus".  If "consensus" means "unanimous agreement", then "near-unanimous consensus" is a contradiction in terms.  It should strike you as odd or as nonsensical as, for example, a dark light, or a spherical cube.  As it does not, or at least it does not strike me that way, current usage does not make unanimity a necessary feature of consensus.  Ergo, treating it as such is indeed an error, whether in 1860 or 2015.

  7. Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    "what are the main reasons someone would deny climate change?"  Some of the people I mix with and who dont seem to mind assuming everyone shares their view seem to have a suite of beliefs that seem to tie together - homosexuality is a lifestyle choice, the university (name any one) is a hot-bed of Moaist and Trotskyites, New Scientist is a left-wing magazine and you dont believe all that rot about global warming do you? - Oh, and I hand our how to vote cards for (guess who).  This gives me the creeps as to what the hell is going on in one of our major political parties.

  8. One Planet Only Forever at 00:35 AM on 9 May 2015
    Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    Tom Curtis,

    Truth can be understood to be "in agreement with facts". In that sense it does not relate to spirituality or religious beliefs which have no objective confrimable facts for consideration.

    It is probably better to describe the intended meaning of a term like consensus (or strong consensus - weak consensus, or objective truth) whenever such a term is used. English is an amazing evolving language. Regardless of the history of meaning of a word, an expected meaning of a term should not be relied upon.

    The full definition of consensus in the 1988 edition of "The New Lexicon - Webster's Encyclopdic Dictionary of the English Language" is:

    "concord (of opinion, evidence, authority, testimony, etc.) [L. = agreement].

    And concord is defined as "a state of agreement or harmony ll a treatment or agreement ll (mus.) a chord harmonious to iteslf, not needing others to resolve it ll (gram.) agreement between the forms of words, e.g. (for number) 'this house, these houses' [F. concorde]"

    By that definition the interpretions of the term to mean unanimous agreement are not currently 'an error of interpretation'. Believing or claiming it to be an error of interpretation is an error.

  9. Mighty Drunken at 22:53 PM on 8 May 2015
    Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    The lukewarner question is a good one and so is the answer. The lack of action by Government and companies needs only to look at reasons for delaying action. For a better future climate that is not possible

  10. What if Climate Change is Real? Katharine Hayhoe TEDx at Texas Tech

    Thanks, Katharine's a great communicator.

    Out of interest, any idea where the source is for the 26,500 indicators of warming?

  11. uncletimrob at 18:01 PM on 8 May 2015
    What if Climate Change is Real? Katharine Hayhoe TEDx at Texas Tech

    Thank you!  Another keeper for my students.  Most inforative and easy to understand.

  12. Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    OPOF @7, my Shorter Oxford defines "consensus" as:

    "1.  Phys. General concord of the different organs of the body in effecting a given purpose. ...

    2. Agreement in opinion."

    The first recorded instance of the first meaning is in 1854, of the second, it is in 1861.  Most internet sources define "concensus" as "general agreement" which is not the same as unanimous agreement.  It is glossed as such by Miram Webster.  However, Miriam Webster provide a second defintion as "the judgment arrived at by most of those concerned" (my emphasis).  Based on that, I believe the idea that "consensus" means the same as "unanimous opinion" is just an error of interpretation.

    The error arises, I believe, due to many people being familiar with the term from consensus decision making, which often involves a requirement of unanimity, especially from small groups.  Even there, however, near unanimous decisions are often accepted as part of consensus decision making.  Indeed, for clarity it may be helpful to borrow some terminology from that field.  Specifically, some consensus processes can be decided by an agreement by all but one member or all but two members, described as U-1 and U-2 respectively.  With so large and amorphous a body as that of all climate scientists, using individual counts of dissenters is hardly usefull.  However, we might define a "strong consensus" as U-5%, ie, agreement by all but 5% or less of climate scientists, and a "weak consensus" as U-10%, ie, agreement by all but 10% or less of climate scientists.

    If we use those definitions, and by my estimate from familiarity with various surveys, there is a strong consensus that:

    1) Anthropogenic emissions are the primary (>80%) cause of the recent rise in CO2 concentrations;

    2) That increasing greenhouse gas concentrations cause an increase in Global Mean Surface Temperature; and

    3) That anthropogenic forcings have caused more than 50% of recent global warming (ie, warming since 1950).

    There is at least weak consensus that:

    1) That anthropogenic forcings have caused more than 50% of industrial era global warming (ie, warming since 1750);

    2)  That unmitigated global warming will result in temperature increases over the coming century between the upper bound of RCP 8.5 and the lower bound of RCP 6.0; and

    3) That unmitigated global warming has a statistically significant risk of being very dangerous.

    Finally, there is at least a super majority (66% or more) of the opinion that unmitigated global warming will more likely than not be very dangerous.

    Re Degrasse's statement, "objective truth", if it means anything more than just "truth" means merely the truth, objectively determined.  By definition, therefore, the consensus opinion of scientists is not thereby objective truth, for it is determined by a subjective measure, ie, the actual opinions of scientists.  It is, however, our current best guess as to the truth objectively determined, ie, as determined by the scientific method.

  13. One Planet Only Forever at 14:06 PM on 8 May 2015
    Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    I understand that the intended meaning of consensus is a 'majority view' on a matter. However, not all dictionaries include that definition for the term. My Oxford Dictionary 1985 edition does, but my Webster's dictionary published in 1988 does not. And our Scholastic Children's Dictionary published in 2002 defines consensus as "An agreement among all people in a discussion or meeting". So, by definition, there is no consensus regarding the meaning of the term consensus according to the definitions provided by Websters and Schoalstic.

    Neil Degrasse Tyson refers to generally accepted scientific understand as objective truth.

    I like that term, objective truth, because it reinforces the need to be objective and points out that all people who truly objectively review all of the evidence on a matter will come to essentially the same conclusion, the objective truth that could be altered by new information, but that is not altered until there is new substantive information that objectively warrants a change of the understood objective truth.

    However, the term Objective Truth is also used in a variety of ways including claims of objective truths about unobservable matters like spirituality, matters that are important to ponder but that cannot truly be evaluated 'objectively' at least not yet.

    What a conundrum. (at least everyone can agree about that term ... or can they?).

  14. Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    I think the most important thing about scientific consensus, is that it should be the guide to policy. Consensus may change (eg fat in diet) in which case policy needs to change with it, but the current scientific consensus, when strongly formed, is the only rationale guide to policy.

    For practising scientists, the consensus is usually the underpinning for further work, but of course a scientist should challenge the consensus when there is an observation that doesnt fit or an hypothesis that better fits observations. This is the normal progress of science. eg I would assume say Fourier's Law in my work pretty much without question. However, if some observation turned up that defied explanation within that framework and I could dream up an alternative that also worked with all previous observations, then I am in position to challenge that consensus.

  15. Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    Consensus starts with nomenclature so to say consensus is not a part of science is incorrect by-ahem- definition.

  16. Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    @ SkepticalinCanada #2,

    Are those lawsuits directed at individual politicians or their party?

  17. Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    Under Scientific Consensus, the first questioner is confusing consensus as a decision making process with consensus amng scietists on what constitutes the body of accepted and agreed upon scientific evidence. The two are quite different uses of the word.

  18. SkepticalinCanada at 05:08 AM on 8 May 2015
    Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    @ villabolo   And that of course is why I am encouraged to see lawsuits being initiated in several countries against politicians who fail to act responsibly based on the science.  If they are successful, I believe (maybe just hope) that the lawsuits will trump the lies.

  19. The DENIAL101x temperature tool

    @ Kevin C   why do you say " to eliminate the jargon term 'Anomaly' from all my graph axes," ?  I would have thought the 'anomaly' term is important.

    Brilliant tool.

  20. Ask Me Anything about Climate Science Denial

    "When enough people speak up to politicians, the politicians will realise that the one thing they care about - their job - is at stake and will act accordingly."

    Actually, the one thing that politicians care for are campaign funds to keep their jobs. That determines whether or not they get elected. These funds, of course, come from the fossil fuel industry which has the deepest pockets of all. There is no way we can match the money and power of the corporate elite.

    Also, if enough people complain to politicians about any one subject that they don't want to accept they will simply lie about their position in order to get elected.

  21. The DENIAL101x temperature tool

    A very nice addition! There are a lot of talented people who contribute to this site!

  22. It hasn't warmed since 1998

    Quick, two points you can make:

    1) The entire earth system is accruing heat. To try to disprove that by looking at the lower troposphere alone is a bit silly. As most of the heat (95%) goes into the ocean+ice caps looking at a graph of sea level is going to be more useful (it tells you about the rate of thermal expansion and meltwater).

    2) if you look in the 'resources' section of the website, and use the trend calculator to plot the RSS trend from 1997, you get a range of +0.17c to -0.17c / dec. Now, if your friend wants to call that cooling, well, that's an interesting interpretation. The central estimate might be a tiny cooling trend, but the error bars are huge. Furthermore, if you use UAH rather than RSS, you get substantially different estimates - given that, and the error bars, I'd be reluctant to make any statement based on those data.

  23. Models are unreliable

    All @90x:

    I have been reviewing Hansen et al 2011 (http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2011/20110415_EnergyImbalancePaper.pdf), and think it would be a useful exercise to update this paper with the very latest data on sea ice (from PIOMASS), continental ice melt (from GRACE), atmospheric heat gain (but from TLT, not surface temperature), land heat flux (let's use HadCRUT4 as the delta T flux driver). Here's my first step, atmospheric heat gain (the easy one), using Hansen's method and replicating his work with one slight difference, I used monthly rather than annual data.

    You can see the 2 methods don't give a significant difference (you can cross-check my work against Hansen's Figure 12) . You can also see for the recent years, the the atmospheric input is close to zero for both GISS SAT as the delta T and RSS TLT.

    Any comments? This looks like a weekend project, but a great learning opportunity all the same.

  24. Pause needed in global warming optimism, new research shows

    Greg,

    There are multiple possible causes of what you note.

    One is that it is real effect, with the climate having a long term memory of the "hiatus".

    Another is that it is purely by chance. It appears to be about 0.25 standard deviations on each line, so no big deal.

    Finally, there may be selection bias. A model showing lower warming overall, may be more likely to "by chance" look like the "hiatus" (independently of the overall quality of the model).

    I'm not a climate scientist, nor have I looked at the details of how the graphs are constructed, but my first bet would be on selection bias, unless that was specifically corrected for.

    Ralph.

  25. The DENIAL101x temperature tool

    Absolutely, positively, completely blown away.  Most useful tool since the Robogrip

  26. gregcharles at 04:07 AM on 7 May 2015
    Pause needed in global warming optimism, new research shows

    That's a very interesting graph. I'm surprised, though, that the two models show small but significant differences in predicted temperatures far into the future ... past 2100 for the RCP 4.5 scenario, and until around 2090 for RCP 8.5. I think of the so-called hiatus as being caused by purely temporary phenomena ... basically all those called out in this article. I don't understand how any of those could have long-term effects on global temperatures.

  27. It hasn't warmed since 1998

    Tom Curtis@327. I'm in an ongoing "exchange" with a skeptic who believes man's influence is there, but very minimal. He recently posted this: 

    "The 18 plus years of no warming, and the more than a decade of cooling, are factual data from the current version global satellite lower troposphere temperature anomaly datasets from both RSS and UAH(v6). Atmospheric temperature readings by satellite are NOT "surface station" temperature readings.

    Go to woodfortrees dot org and plot the past 18 years, 5 months of RSS MSU/AMSU TLT global temperature and you will see not only has there been no warming for that period of time, but the past 14 years have been progressively cooler, and all are cooler than 1998."

    I realize the 1998 cherry-pick, but could you please elaborate on these comments of your's?:

    "the UAH trend from 2001 to current is 0.070 ±0.217 °C/decade. That compares to an IPCC projected trend over the interval of 0.2 °C/decade. That is, it is well within error of the IPCC projection. That the error margin on measurement is larger than the projected temperature rise, however, tells you that it is too short a period to test the theory."

    What is the trend looking back further...how far previous to 1998 can you go with this UAH trend and what would it be?

    "The RSS data should be ignored. It uses the same basic data as UAH but the processing results in values distinctly different not only to UAH, but also to all other temperature records. Until it is found out why that is, and a correction made, it must be regarded as inaccurate for short term trends."

    Can you provide more detail on what is different about the data processing which results in distinctively different values for RSS vs. UAH?

  28. Arctic sea ice has recovered

    Continuing an (off topic!) conversation from elsewhere, Cryosphere Today is finally back to normal after its long "hiatus". The "homebrew" calculation from the Arctic Sea Ice Forum was in error by 0.3k.

    The official CT Arctic sea ice area is currently 11,796,725 km2 for day 124 of 2015.

  29. Week 1 of Denial101x: 14,000 students from 159 countries

    This is a useful course to understand all other denial phenomena as well. I've been applying the denial Framework to understand how the Animal ag industry has distorted our behaviors. For instance, human mother's milk has 5-6% protein content while the USDA recommends 30% protein in our diet - a Logical Fallacy, since mammalian infants require the MOST protein content in their diets.

    Thank you, John Cook and all the faculty of Denial 101X!!!

  30. The DENIAL101x temperature tool

    Difference vs 61-90 average (like HadCRUT4).


    I though I'd been so careful to eliminate the jargon term 'Anomaly' from all my graph axes, but there it is again!

  31. PhilippeChantreau at 16:35 PM on 6 May 2015
    Models are unreliable

    Klaper at 903: BS. Tom Curtis and others make a number of substantive arguments backed by the litterature. If you don't want to address the arguments, it's likely because you can't do so without officially abandoning your pet theory. There is lots to be learned from lectures, by the way. And quantitative arguments have meaning only to the extent that we understand the quantities being argued. In this case, the quantities are physical. Physics always win, eventually.

  32. uprightsquire at 13:31 PM on 6 May 2015
    The DENIAL101x temperature tool

    Can it clarify what the anomaly is on the vertical axis? (i.e., 'difference to 1900-1980 avg' or whatever is actually is?)

  33. Heartland takes climate foolishness to a Biblical level

    longjohn119, if you see it in the selection of modifications in the writing window, then it's ok.

    On the off chance that your comment was void of irony, I'll point out that superiority of the spoken word has not led to its being adopted by science as the primary means of communicating ideas.

  34. longjohn119 at 10:25 AM on 6 May 2015
    Heartland takes climate foolishness to a Biblical level

    Are italics Politically Coerrect for emphasis of certian words or phrasse that deserve emphasis? Writing is such a poor way to convey ideas compared to orally 

    Moderator Response:

    [JH] The use of italics and/or bold font is acceptable.

  35. Week 1 of Denial101x: 14,000 students from 159 countries

    @5 Andy Skuce: although many would argue that it's has nothing to do with telling people about the course, but is an entirely natural phenomenon driven by a recovery from the non-internet age and anyway it doesn't exist because John Cook invented the data to hide the decline.

  36. Rob Honeycutt at 05:27 AM on 6 May 2015
    The DENIAL101x temperature tool

    The only thing that I would wish for relative to this would be to see a pre-industrial baseline and a way to show the 2C limit.

  37. The DENIAL101x temperature tool

    Wow!  And thankyou.

  38. Week 1 of Denial101x: 14,000 students from 159 countries

    Alexandre, mid-April was when we started actively promoting the course in the press and on social media.

  39. Week 1 of Denial101x: 14,000 students from 159 countries

    What caused the surge in enrolments by mid april?

  40. Models are unreliable

    Moderator Response @903.

    I think accusing Klapper of being "insulting" is a bit strong. I would accept that refusing even to read a replying comment is outrageously discourteous. But my characterising Klapper's comments as "pretty-much wrong on every point" without explanation - now that could be construed as being insulting, although if asked I am happy to provide such explanation.

    Klapper @901.

    I do not see that I did put words in your mouth. You are on record as objecting to the statement "We have OHC data of reasonable quality back to the 1960s" by saying "I've looked at the quarterly/annual sampling maps for pre-Argo at various depths and I wouldn't agree that's true for 0-700 m depth and certainly not true for 0-2000 m. There's a reason Lyman & Johnson 2014 (and other stuides) don't calculate heat changes prior to 2004 for depths greater than 700 m; they are not very meaningful." If you are stating that pre-Argo 0-2000m data is certainly not of reasonable quality, that trying to use it would be not very meaningful, this can only suggest that you are saying it is not useful data and thus it is junk. And others elsewhere have inferred the same from less well defined statements of your position on pre-Argo OHC data, inferences that did not meet objection from you.

    I have in the past seen the early OHC data point maps. Sparce data is not the same as no data, is it?

    And if you don't read something, how can you know what it is saying? Indeed, was I "hectoring" @900?

  41. bwilson4web at 03:22 AM on 6 May 2015
    Week 1 of Denial101x: 14,000 students from 159 countries

    Any possibility of showing paid vs free registrations?

    Like the pig and the chicken who met for a breakfasf of ham and eggs to discuss the farmer. The chicken was interested but the pig was committed.

    Bob Wilson

  42. The DENIAL101x temperature tool

    This is an awesome tool!  Thanks so much, Kevin!

  43. Heartland takes climate foolishness to a Biblical level

    @10, don't forget 440ppm is locked in!

  44. longjohn119 at 02:27 AM on 6 May 2015
    Heartland takes climate foolishness to a Biblical level

    I take it this is mostly a non-US audience here .... Here's a little fact about American Politics that has been true since the 80's ...

    During an election year (I'm from Iowa, the first in the nation caucus/primary and believe me the 2016 election is already in full swing mode here) ALL Conservative groups become Religious Based Groups. All you have to do is see who the Republican/Conservative candidates are talking to here in Iowa and it's 90% religous based organizations

    When you say "radical right" today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican Party away from the Republican Party, and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye.

    - Barry "The Last Conservative" Goldwater, 1994 Washington Post interview

  45. longjohn119 at 02:17 AM on 6 May 2015
    Heartland takes climate foolishness to a Biblical level

    Corrextion KR

    Not just Lobbyists but UNTAXED untaxed weakly Regulated Lobbyists .....

    Moderator Response:

    [JH] The use of "all caps" constitutes shouting and is prohibited by the SkS Comments Policy.

  46. longjohn119 at 02:16 AM on 6 May 2015
    Heartland takes climate foolishness to a Biblical level

    Didja ever notice that those who **claim** to believe in Intelligent Design are usually the ones most likely to muck that Intelligent Design all up?

    If you believe in Intelligent Design then how could you possibly justify mucking up the Intelligent Design that set CO2 levels for Human existance at ~270ppm by raising it to 400pmm, or in other words an imbalance of nearly 50% from the Intelligent Design?

  47. Models are unreliable

    Klapper @902, science is not arithmetic.  Specifically, in science the numbers represent actual states in the world.  They have meaning.  If you base your arguments on rejecting or ignoring those meanings, as evidently you do, it makes discussion impossible.  In this case, you ignore the fact that empirical values must be set by observation, and consequently (apparently) are distressed that I cite observational papers in support of a claim that a particular number has a particular value (897:1); are distressed that I find it necessary to explain the basic meanings of certain scientific terms, and how that relates to a simple quantitative argument (897:2); apparently are distressed about my pointing to a simple observational proof about the meaning of some data (897:3); and are further distressed by my again having to explain some very basic facts about models and their relation to the world (897:4).  If you were distressed by my explaining these simple facts, be assured I was extremely annoyed that your logic chopping responses made it necessary.  In all my impression is that you are keen to seize on numbers that you think "refute AGW", and are both happy to misrepresent those numbers by willful invalid comparisons (ie, comparing non-equal time periods) to exagerate discrepancies), apparently to leave out numbers that weaken your case (eg, the post 2010 NODC data), and above all, to ignore the meaning of the numbers if understanding it will require you to let go of your argument.  If you wish to stop wasting my time by discussing science you clearly do not understand on SkS, be my guest.

  48. Models are unreliable

    Klapper - After taking a look at your past comments, I would have to agree with scaddenp. You've apparently decided that CO2 warming, AGW, and all climate modelling are somehow incorrect, and have spent considerable time splitting hairs and decimal points attempting to find some reason to reject them. 

    Most recently you've been rejecting all OHC data before 2005, you've refused to consider recent volcanic activity that has presented a different actual forcing history than was run on the models, both accepted and rejected model drift in the same (contradictory) argument, making impossible claims for perfection by ignoring uncertainties, and have in essence dismissed the fact that models accurately project climate responses to forcings, which can be seen if you use historic forcings (Schmidt et al 2014, also discussed here)

    In short, you've been rejecting every piece of evidence contrary to your conclusions while misinterpreting data you feel supports them. The best description I've seen of such confirmation bias is Morton's demon - IMO you are so afflicted, and quite frankly it's not worth the time to watch you run in circles. 

  49. 2015 SkS Weekly Digest #18

    Good grief!  Monkton is now claiming that global warming is a "political issue" and as such, the Pope should not get involved.  Why didnt Monkton tell us this before?  I always though it was a matter of science!

  50. Models are unreliable

    @Moderator #902:

    "...[JH] If you can't stand the heat, it's best you get out of the kitchen..."

    I'm happy to respond/discuss quantitative arguments. They are the only ones from which you learn something. My point was hectoring lectures are a waste of time for both the lecturer and the lecturee. Ultimately our opinions about other people can't change the numbers, can they? Opinion has a place in these technical discussions since oftimes the the numbers are highly subject to interpretation but repetitive judgements on the motive of your opponent is a kind of opinion that doesn't move the discussion forward. If anything they move the discussion backward since you're less likely to pay attention to someone who hectors you.

    I came here as a respite from the monotony of righteous opinion at the Guardian, however here it's not much different. In some ways it's worse in that the technical blogs like Skeptical Science tend to be echo chambers and technical opinion, such as you find it at the Guardian, tends to be more free ranging than here.

    Hopefully this opinion will be allowed by the moderators.

    Moderator Response:

    [JH] I believe it is time for you to move on to a different venue. You have exhausted our patience and have insulted both Tom Curtis and MA Rodgers. Posting on Skeptical Science is a privilege and not a right. 

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