{"id":12468,"date":"2010-11-05T08:29:53","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T14:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rankexploits.com\/musings\/?p=12468"},"modified":"2010-11-05T14:55:17","modified_gmt":"2010-11-05T20:55:17","slug":"carnac-predicts-two-more-years-of-climategate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rankexploits.com\/musings\/2010\/carnac-predicts-two-more-years-of-climategate\/","title":{"rendered":"Carnac predicts: Two more years of Climategate!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, Roger Pielke Jr.<\/a> discusses his contributions to the Purdue Discussion, which included Judy Curry<\/a> and Andy Revkin<\/a>. Reading, I pondered whether Mann’s pre-election editorial might worsen the climate for climate scientists. <\/p>\n

Roger’s observation about Mann’s op-ed includes:<\/p>\n

In one interesting exchange, Revkin brought up as an example of the messy interface of science and politics Michael Mann’s Washington Post op-ed last month that sought to associate the climate science community with the fortunes of Democrats in the mid-term elections. I followed Revkin’s criticism of Mann’s op-ed by arguing that in the face of Republican-led attacks Mann made a decision (and it was a decision) to characterize this issue in politically partisan terms.<\/em> He could have instead chosen to characterize the issue of his personal fortunes as one of academic freedom and integrity, which matters irrespective of one’s political stance.<\/p>\n

The fairly obvious implication of Mann’s acceptance and amplification of the stark partisan terms of the debate offered by those Republicans is to make not only himself, but the broader climate science community, poster children for the Tea Party movement. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Beginning with, “As a scientist, I shouldn’t have a stake in the upcoming midterm elections, but unfortunately, it seems that I — and indeed all my fellow climate scientists — do. “<\/em>, including references to “pseudo-science”, “cigarettes”, and “anti-science”, and naming specific Republican legislators Mann’s<\/a> editorial is<\/em> ideally suited to amplify partisan sentiments vis-a-vis climate change. <\/p>\n

The loaded language evokes an emotional response rather than an intellectual one. It seems to me this is a rather unwise choice for climate scientists – activists who would prefer the narrative of scientists as intellectual rather than scientists as high strung divas dominated by right brain thinking. But maybe it’s understandable Mann wrote in this style “because we’re hardwired not to always think clearly when we’re scared”. <\/p>\n

Now, let’s turn to some specific things that worried Mann when he wrote his October 8, 2010 editorial:<\/p>\n

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has threatened that, if he becomes chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, he will launch what would be a hostile investigation of climate science. The focus would be on e-mails stolen from scientists at the University of East Anglia in Britain last fall that climate-change deniers have falsely claimed demonstrate wrongdoing by scientists, including me. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) may do the same if he takes over a committee on climate change and energy security.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The elections have now taken place. With Republicans assuming control of the House, Darrel_Issa<\/a>, barring any personal catastrophes, Issa will control the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.<\/a> We can’t know for sure whether he will initiate investigations into climategate, but he may. <\/p>\n

What of Sensenbrenner? Such was the force of the Republican Tsunami, the wave made it to Wisconsin and AP called the race for him by 8:54pm on Election day.<\/a> We can’t know for sure if he<\/i> will initiate investigations, but he may. <\/p>\n

Given some perception that the UK investigations were less thorough that might be desired by US taxpayers whose money funded some of the American scientists and even some work at CRU, I suspect one or the other will decide to hold investigations. When they are held, journalists will cover the story. <\/p>\n

Politics being politics, I predict at least two more years of climate science news being dominated by discussions of Climategate. If that occurs, will Mann continue to publish emotionally laden editorials in major newspapers? We’ll have to wait and see. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, Roger Pielke Jr. discusses his contributions to the Purdue Discussion, which included Judy Curry and Andy Revkin. Reading, I pondered whether Mann’s pre-election editorial might worsen the climate for climate scientists. Roger’s observation about Mann’s op-ed includes: In one interesting exchange, Revkin brought up as an example of the messy interface of science and … Continue reading Carnac predicts: Two more years of Climategate!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankexploits.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankexploits.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankexploits.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankexploits.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankexploits.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rankexploits.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12468\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankexploits.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankexploits.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankexploits.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}