Harmless Sky

TonyN at Harmless Sky blog emails to say that his site will be down until the early part of next week and that he is still alive and kicking.

Power down

I'm expecting to have no electricity for much of the day, so posting will be light.

Andy Russell's blog

The Guardian piece I cited in the last article quotes a physicist named Andy Russell who has written to the IoP expressing his dissatisfaction with their submission. It turns out that Andy also has a blog, which looks very interesting and can be seen here.

JeanS on anonymity

JeanS is well known to followers of climate blogs, being a regular commenter and occasional author at Climate Audit. After Leo Hickman's piece the other day criticising anonymous posters, I asked Jean (not his real name), who is a professional statistician, whether he'd like to say something about his desire as a practising scientist to remain anonymous when contributing to blogs. The following has been lightly edited for language.

...being anonymous is deliberate decision I made after long consideration when I started actively commenting on climate-related blogs. The main reason is that I want to keep my real career out of this. I'm in the academic world, and unlike the US, we do not have a tenure system. People are only human, and anything, even a small thing, that can be used against you might be used, even if it does not have anything to do with the actual topic. That is, I see that using my real name would present some risks to my academic career but I can hardly imagine any situation where it might be helpful.

Click to read more ...

Rude bloggers

There's a fascinating analysis of the effect of rude blogging on climate science at the Times. In related news the Guardian decides it's no longer going to call us "deniers". At least not in news stories.

(H/T Anthony Watts)

Tip jar

I've added a tip jar to the top of the sidebar for anyone who is so inclined. All contributions gratefully received.

How to report climate change after Climategate?

These are notes taken from a discussion meeting at Oxford University on 26^th February 2010 and sent to me by reader, Simon Anthony. I think they are extremely interesting.

Question and answer format featuring environmental correspondents Richard Black (BBC), Fiona Harvey (FT), David Adam (Guardian) and Ben Jackson (Sun) and chaired by Fiona Fox, director of the Science Media Centre.

(Abbreviations: CG = Climategate; CC = Climate change; CH = Copenhagen meeting)

FF: Has the press done a disservice to the public in reporting CG?  Has media a responsibility to make the public “think the right way”?

Click to read more ...

Leo Hickman on anonymity

The Guardian's Leo Hickman has added his thoughts to my earlier piece commenting on his call for climate bloggers to lose their anonymity. This, he believes, will create trust in what they are saying. Many readers have responded with thoughtful contributions, and in particular I'd echo Lucia's point about the nature of the problem being one of the public not trusting the scientists rather than the other way round, as Leo seems to think. Turning Tide also points out that anonymity of commenters does encourage readers to assess comments on the arguments made rather than any spurious authority of the writer.

Click to read more ...

Curry and Hickman in the Guardian

It looks as though Judith Curry is going to have a piece up at the Guardian in which she continues in her struggle to bridge the chasm between the sceptics and the mainstream. It's not available yet, but reader Fran Codwire, in the comments, has caught a glimpse of Graun regular Leo Hickman's response, which looks as though it will appear before Curry's original.

Hickman's contribution seems like something of a rant to me, holding McIntyre and Watts responsible for the contributions of their commenters and apparently demanding that anonymous commenters be unmasked. This is the only rational explanation I can reach when he says "I think until those that frequent these sites come out from behind the cloak of anonymity that most of them choose to hide behind very few people, particularly climate scientists, will be willing to trust the motives of this army of DIY auditors."

I mean, how will retribution be handed out if nobody knows who these people are?

Update on Feb 24, 2010 by Bishop Hill

Curry's article is here.

Hickman's is now online here.

Email

I seem to be getting a certain amount of incoming email going astray. If you've sent me something important and I haven't responded you may want to send it again.

Use the unthreaded link

Please could readers who want to make general and off topic comments use the unthreaded posting. I've added a link at the top of the navigation bar so you can always find it.

I'd also appreciate it if commenters would maintain a calm tone and refrain from making rash remarks.

Update on Feb 18, 2010 by Bishop Hill

I've also added a recent comments section in the nav bar so that unthreaded comments get noticed.

Scotsman premium content

Does anyone have access to the Scotman's website premium content? If so can you get in touch please. Contact link at the bottom of the nav bar.

Update on Feb 12, 2010 by Bishop Hill

Got it now. Thanks to everyone who has been trying to get this for me.

On being a country boy

One of the problems with living in the country, with its early-to-bed, early-to-rise ways is that you're not geared to the daily cycle of TV news.

Someone from the BBC emailed a couple of times last night asking for a reaction to the Campbell resignation, but unfortunately your humble blogger was already fast asleep. I dare say they managed OK without me. And fame can wait.

Paul Dennis blogs!

UEA geochemist Paul Dennis, who has been much in the news recently, has started a new blog called Harmonic Oscillator.

Why not go over and wish him well.

(H/T Lucia)

Spectator article now online

Matt Ridley's piece in the Spectator is available here.