Bishop Hill Rose in the Mail
Mar 17, 2013 Climate: Models Climate: Surface Climate: sensitivity David Rose, writing in the Mail on Sunday, has penned a long feature on the temperature slowdown and what this implies about UK energy policy. I don't know about you, but the Mail on Sunday's willingness to publish science-heavy articles of this kind really should be celebrated.
There are plenty of scientific big-hitters in there too: the article features quotes by Judy Curry, Myles Allen, James Annan and Piers Forster, so one would think that it would be hard for anyone to dispute that Rose is presenting a legitimate view of the science. However, the reaction from sci-blogger (and occasional Guardian writer) Martin Robbins seems to suggest not:
Wow - the Mail on Sunday have gone into full on bat-shit-crazy conspiracy theory mode… pic.twitter.com/YW2dPyNpTK
Whoever David Rose is, his interpretation of that graph is illiterate. Either it's a deliberate lie, or he's barely capable of functioning.
I've asked Robbins to expand on why he thinks the interpretation is illiterate and what conspiracy theory Rose is putting forward.
No reply as yet. Hmm.
Reader Comments (70)
I just tried a quick experiment. I downrated the warmist comment at the top of the list, and of course the option to downrate that comment again went gray. However, after clearing my cookies and refreshing the page, the down arrow lit up again! Because I am honest, I didn't actually use the option a second time!
I'll bet this is how this trick is operating.
A more subtle, but faster technique would be to delete just the offending cookie, or maybe automate the whole process.
On the bright side, I think they are shit scared of articles like this, or they wouldn't bother to mess about like this.
Presumably the DM could monitor the IP addresses involved in this - what is the betting it comes from the CRU!
Thank you for the link to the Foster review of the Darwall book (Mar 17, 2013 at 3:03 PM | Gary Mount). Here is an extract from it that is relevant to the Rose article. I note from Dave Ward's comment (1:49 PM) that Rose has also read and favourably reviewed this book. I hope it will inspire him to keep on digging at the climate coal-face
It is not yet finished. And clear-sighted, independently-minded journalists like David Rose will surely have a further part to play both in helping close this awful chapter of irresponsibility around science and in helping document some of the details.
I'm not very far into the Darwall book myself, but it is sure looking good so far with lots of new information and insights.
"Australian scientist David Archibald has shown a remarkable correlation between the sun’s activity and our climate over the past 300 years."
A Martian would be baffled that anyone might ever have thought otherwise.
Actually a half-brick would wonder the same.
I had to laugh. The currently-highest-rated comment concludes with, "This article is propergander." A fowl thing to say.
It looks like Martin Robbins doesn't like blogs either, wonder if he means Bishop Hill.... (afew minutes ago)
Martin Robbins @mjrobbins
The key problem for me around all of this Leveson stuff is that people want to pretend the issues are neatly confined to 'the press'.
Martin Robbins @mjrobbins
I don't really understand how you can sensibly have regulation that applies to one set of domain names while ignoring all the rest.
Interesting that David Rose's article received a straight report on this morning's BBC Radio 4, in News and Papers at 8,00.am.
Please note, it is the "loss-making" Guardian, as now always so named in a number of blogs.
A point on the Mail and the Guardian. The Guardianistas believe that they are the mouthpiece, and represent the views of the poor, the deprived, working folk and blue collar workers. (You see, they can't speak for themselves, because the Tories chopped their tongues out). However, that they despise the Mail (which is of course read BY the people they claim to speak for) shows that in fact, they hold them in contempt.
"This article is propergander." A fowl thing to say.
Bugger! Another keyboard splattered with coffee.
I didn't believe it so I had to have a Proper Gander for myself :-)
Jeremy Poynton
We Guardian readers can be obtuse, but I don’t think we’re that daft. The Guardian was the voice of radical middleclass Britain for almost two centuries, defending such absurd left-wing ideas as decolonisation and votes for women. They weren’t to know it would lead to Dr Pachauri and Baroness Worthington.Berkshire as a means to promote credibility? It didn't do much for David Brent.
This video is a repackage of all the arguments that haven't worked before. He even admitted it wasn't working on climate scientists. I'm going to make a list of 'things a warmist must mention'. Tick tobacco lobbying, tick fire insurance analogy, tick showing warming since 1850 and don't mention when CO2 became an issue...
oopse, posted in wrong wrong window.
The Daily Mail "recommend" system is clearly being subjected to some sort of robot attack. When I first looked this morning, the most recommended comments were unspectacular pro-AGW-hypothesis ones that ostensibly garnered thousands of votes in minutes. Around lunch time one unremarkable pro-AGW comment received several hundred comments in minutes, surrounded by other pro- an anti-AGW comments all of which received a handful of recommends. The recommend voting pattern is manifestly anomalous by outliers having some two orders of magnitude greater rate of recommends that the norm! Probably a malicious shell script clearing cookies or similar mischievous bot. Other commenters have made this point. It is clearly organised by incompetent geeks, but massively self-incriminating.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100207342/when-will-this-green-madness-cease/#comment-832198421
Geoffchambers
A big lol, but careful, you might be sounding a bit crotchety there...... J/k
Watch all this idle talk about comment-bots. There'll be another recursive fury paper waiting in the wings
"Whoever David Rose is, his interpretation of that graph is illiterate. Either it's a deliberate lie, or he's barely capable of functioning."
If you can't interpolate a graph, you are innumerate, not illiterate. Mr. Robbins is condemned as illiterate by his own words.
Just now read a page of "highest rated" comments. They seem to be of the lukewarmer variety - "don't throw out the baby with the bath water." They did not come from Guardian pit bulls.
Ronaldo - I heard that too, but was half-asleep at the time and thought it must have been a particularly fanciful dream!
Just caught up with all things climate change. Martin Robbins used to be proprietor of Lay science or lay scientist blog - forget which. Not sure if he still has involvement. He used to frequent BadScience forums (formally linked to Ben Goldacre but now largely disowned by him due to close calls with litigation I think - Sarah Myhill in particular IIRC)
MJRobbins (or Jobbins) as he was referred to was full of his own importance and never wrong on the bad science forum - he then got some work peddling science stories the press and had his user ID removed and all his posts - presumably so he couldn;t be linked to any bias in future articles. This caused outrage at badscience and th eposts may have been reinstated - I'm not inclined to go and check.
i have an idea he did some research in the antarctic on ocean currents and therefore became an "expert" on climate change - go figure!
One of my few discussions with him at bad science resulted in his assertion that polar albedo causes sunlight to be reflected which causes cooler temps and using this argument he sought to prove that positive feedbacks tend not to run away to an extreme - contrary to what any control engineer will tell you. At that point I stopped arguing with him as he (and his minions) were clearly being woefullly obtuse - I assume so anyway - they couldn#t have all been that dumb!