Thursday
May132010
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Back in the saddle
May 13, 2010 Blogs I'm back in the saddle, but overwhelmed with the amount of work I have to do to catch up after a couple of days' break.
I may get to post something this evening.
Reader Comments (3)
I see you got a good reference in the Hartwell report:
"The principal e-mails of concern are reproduced and discussed in A.W. Montford, The Hockey Stick Illusion, London: Stacey International, 2010, pp. 402–49. This work conveniently relates the topics back to a detailed narrative of the major disputes in climate science, and specifically paleoclimate studies, with which much of the Climatic Research Unit archive is concerned."
A friend sent me a link to an article in Science that has been commented on in other media.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/328/5979/689?eaf
The article contains a list of points that include some assertions that are objectionable to 'skeptics'.
It would be interesting to comment on these in turn:
...But there is nothing remotely identified in the recent events that changes the fundamental conclusions about climate change:
(i) The planet is warming due to increased concentrations of heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere. A snowy winter in Washington does not alter this fact.
(ii) Most of the increase in the concentration of these gases over the last century is due to human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.
(iii) Natural causes always play a role in changing Earth's climate, but are now being overwhelmed by human-induced changes.
(iv) Warming the planet will cause many other climatic patterns to change at speeds unprecedented in modern times, including increasing rates of sea-level rise and alterations in the hydrologic cycle. Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide are making the oceans more acidic.
(v) The combination of these complex climate changes threatens coastal communities and cities, our food and water supplies, marine and freshwater ecosystems, forests, high mountain environments, and far more.
You must be aware of the duststorm kicked up by Science and its publication of a polar bear photo.
"As digital technology undermines the distinction between the real and the
unreal, one can invoke claims of deception or conspiracy to warrant a lack of interest in many
things. Not only can images be altered or fabricated in spectacular ways, but also the Internet
teems with so many competing claims and myths that the public has little shared basis for
assessing evidence."
-Sheldon Ungar