Tuesday
Jun222010
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Deepak Lal on consensus
Jun 22, 2010 Climate: other This is an excerpt from a paper by Deepak Lal, an economist at UCLA. It dates from the year 2000.
My friend John Flemming who was then chief economist at the Bank of England, and also chairing a subcommittee of one of the UK's research councils, told me on reading the lecture that I would get nowhere by taking on the scientists who, at a meeting he attended to distribute funds for climate research, had explicitly said that they were not going to behave like economists by disagreeing with each other!
Reader Comments (5)
All together now, breathe.
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"they were not going to behave like economists by disagreeing with each other!"
This had to be a campfire meeting where those oh-so-nice scientists could sit around holding hands while singing kumbaya.
Where do you get these things? I don't believe you can make this stuff up.
Suspicions confirmed!
You have to remember that 'climate science' has become wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of its participants 30 years ago. A veritable Eldorado takes some adjusting to. I think it is a bit like an obscure football club being catapulted into the top league, with modest wages turning into generous salaries and all sorts of other financial awards (1). The players are presented with a wonderland of opportunity, complete with an adoring set of highly vocal supporters determined to help them save the world. Hard to resist.
But there are dark clouds all around, with growing rumbles of thunder threatening the sport. Players' PR groups are being formed for their defence (2), even as the supercells of dissent grow and gather speed. And in the USA, a new team is being assembled combining star players of the past with some complete unknowns. Club Stasi-Lysenko-McCarthy has a remarkable pool of players (3), and may yet be the last hurrah before the deluge.
(1) http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2010/06/climate-fraudster-james-hansen.html
(2) http://www.australianclimatemadness.com/?p=4020
(3) http://www.australianclimatemadness.com/?p=4073
If you want a bracing defence of classical liberalism I recommend Lal's "Reviving the Invisible Hand".
Yes, he's a Fellow at the ASI but it's still a very good book.