
A difference of opinion


According to an article in the University of Virginia newspaper, Michael Mann returns to his old haunting grounds next week, lecturing at a student-run environment week. I was struck by the comments of the university's dean, James Galloway:
Mike has been an extremely positive force in climate change science for a long time, and it is a pleasure to see that his analytical assessment has prevailed over that period," Galloway said. "It has not only provided a strong foundation for future advances in understanding how humans have altered the global climate, but also provides society with a scientific context to guide how society will address climate change.
This seems to be a different take to that of closer colleagues - men like Ed Cook who, in email 4101, bandies round expressions such as "a bad enemy" and words like "vindictive".
Reader Comments (12)
Michael Mann is a mann with a cause........ Much like the sorcerer's apprentice...
http://fenbeagleblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/221/
I am truly sad to see the name of a once great university dragged through the mud by Dean James Galloway. I pray that the Board of Directors of the university will take some action to slow its rapid decline.
Mann's keynote speech is due to be livestreamed on Tuesday 17 Jan 2012 at 1.45 pm EST, which is 18.45 GMT by my reckoning, via this site or an alternative also linked on it
https://sites.google.com/site/enviroday2012/keynote/keynote-live-stream
As for Prof Galloway, his beat is nitrogen, its environmental beneficial and (God help us!) negative impacts on people and ecosystems.
http://www.evsc.virginia.edu/faculty/galloway-james-n/
The Mann is a "Prollix". This is a word I "coined" some time back where I regard someone as a Pratt and a *ollix
A few other comments from his peers:
Ed Cook, 4369:
"I am afraid that Mike is defending something that increasingly can not be defended. He is investing too much personal stuff in this and not letting the science move ahead."
Phil Jones, 0497:
"Keith didn't mention in his Science piece but both of us think that you're on very dodgy ground with this long-term decline in temperatures on the 1000 year timescale."
Simon Tett, 0562:
"I don't think we can say we didn't do Mann et al because we think it is crap!"
Tim Barnet 2383:
"maybe someone(s) ought to have another look at Mann's paper. His statistics were suspect as i remember... "
David Rind 4133:
"what Mike Mann continually fails to understand, and no amount of references will solve, is that there is practically no reliable tropical data for most of the time period"
And jolly fantastic work Fen!
Thanks Pharos,
"As for Prof Galloway, his beat is nitrogen, its environmental beneficial and (God help us!) negative impacts on people and ecosystems."
It is fitting that Dean Galloway's expertise lies in animal waste. A little NH3 is good for everyone.
All this professional bitchiness, good gawd.......................Mike and his oh so prickly hauteur, who does this bloke think he is................God?................. Or, someone who had a rep' for being a teensy weensy bit vindictive...................
I begin to imagine him as the Arch Inquisitor Torquemada of C15th Spain;
"the orthodoxy is unimpeachable, you will recant, you doubting dog, or taste the fire of divine retribution!" - [followed by maniacal scream - psst how about it Fen or Josh??]
The Independent has a long article about Michael Mann today, touching on The Hockey stick ("The original 1998 hockey stick study by Mann and his colleagues did in fact emphasise the tentative nature of estimating past temperatures before the invention of accurate thermometers"), Climategate ( "Even though they haven't solved the crime of who actually broke in, the entire apparatus for propelling this manufactured scandal on to the world stage was completely funded by the fossil-fuel front groups."), Cuccinelli ("Dr Mann's hockey stick graph is based on suspect data. Others have shown that random numbers can be put into Mann's algorithm, and they always produce a hockey stick graph."), FOI requests from the American Tradition Institute, and Delingpole ("How many more times does it need to be shredded and splintered before the eco zealots who gather to froth and foam at warmist sites like Real Climate accept that their flimsy theory has been falsified beyond credibility?") and, of course, his share of the Nobel prize.
Remarkable. Almost like an obitury - as if they know the game is up.
Thank you Josh :-)
I am tempted to say 'What a load of b*ll*cks' with regard to that eulogy about Mann by James Galloway, Dean of the University of Virginia, but I will refrain from doing so...
When Mann falls not only will there be long line of people wanting to kick him on the way down , but I think we will be surprised by whose actual in the line .