Dr. Kevin Trenberth has another travesty on his hands. UPDATE: Commenter Lee Harvey has the best point I’ve seen so far.
The next IPCC report will be “blander”; it’s now “harder to gain a consensus”; Climategate “made an immense difference”
From the Brisbane Times: Climate scientist loses faith in the IPCC
AS THE world’s elite global warming experts begin poring over the drafts of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report this week, one leading scientist doesn’t believe the process should be happening at all.
”I think it will be less successful than the last assessment, and I think it will be blander – I’m disappointed in what I’ve seen so far,” said Kevin Trenberth, the head of the climate analysis section at the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research.
…Dozens of Australian scientists are among hundreds of international experts who started reviewing the IPCC’s fifth summary report this week, with the final version to be published next September.
…
But Professor Trenberth believes too many researchers and too much ”second tier” science are diluting the report’s quality, and that science has jumped far ahead of the lumbering process. ”There are more people, it’s more diffuse, it’s harder to gain a consensus – quite frankly I find the whole process very depressing,” he said. ”The science is solid, but with a larger group it’s harder to reach a consensus, and updates every six years are just too slow. After the fifth assessment, we should push on with a different format.”
…
Professor Trenberth is a bruised survivor of the so-called ”climategate” scandal, which involved the theft and publication of thousands of emails that had been sent between some of the world’s most influential climate researchers.
…
Professor Trenberth believes it had a big impact on public debates about climate science. ”It made an immense difference – the level of vitriol and hate we received,” he said. ”Not only do we have waves of attacks when we publish and it ends up on a denialist website, but it has affected politicians.”
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently had its climate change-related research budget slashed by a fifth, affecting Professor Trenberth’s peers, as a result of online campaigns against climate scientists, he said. He believes uncertainties in climate change models scientists rely upon is being falsely inflated as a general uncertainty about the status of climate science.
h/t to Tom Nelson
UPDATE: Lee Harvey says in comments:
No Kevin, the problem isn’t that the Denialists are aligned against you.
The problem is that reality is aligned against you.
Darn those evil denialist websites
/sarc
“He believes uncertainties in climate change models scientists rely upon is being falsely inflated as a general uncertainty about the status of climate science.”
What a disconnect.
Geeeese… What a heart breaker.
Yeah, that’s the trouble when there are more of you making the decisions, everybody wants a piece of the action, & the more there are the less they are likely to be bullied & cajoled into going along with the plotline! Is this what he means? Ah diddums, what a shame, couldn’t have happened to a nicer fella! Could this really be the end of the whole shebang? Or are “they” seeking an alternative system so that they can proppagate scare stories with impunity?
That is so sad. I feel for him. I’ll bet all those scientists publishing in 2nd tier journals know how to fit a trend line to data though.
I have never seen Trenberth or anyone else deny that this is true about him not knowing Excel. Sad thing is, he was in his office, everyone had gone home and not only could he not do it in Excel, he apparently did not have any other program (or calculator) that he could use to do it. Now that I use a Mac, I only have about 4 programs I could use but I could find dozens online and learn to use them in 5 minutes. On my older PC, I had at least 5 or 6 programs I could use to fit a trend line. Now on a calculator I would be lost as I have never bought a programmable one, preferring the $10 scientific calculators myself.
Blander…? Suppose he means more bland. I do, however, like the sound of the word blander – reminds me of balderdash. Which seems an appropriate term to associate with an IPCC report.
Gee, Kevin, it influenced politicians? What, does that mean your influence over the same is waning? Or, better yet, exposed for all to see? Hypocrite.
Yes dictators make science so much more efficient, just ask the Jews.
“The next IPCC report will be blander; it’s now harder to gain a consensus”
Oh no, gasp, what a travesty!
Poor Kev. It s a tough life being a climateer 🙁
ROFLMAO
Climateer – from privateer. = posh word for pirate. An untrustworthy fellow.
The KT boundary…..definition of an alarmist.
Perhaps we could paraphrase another infamous quote and say that Dr. Trenberth just “played a blander”? 😉
With an attitude like that is he entitled to claim to be a scientist at all ?
When I saw “blander” the word that came to my mind was “blather”.
The backstory is of course that Trenberth and Jones were coordinating lead authors on the IPCC AR4 report, 2007, writing Chapter 3 on Observations, full of misleading and exaggerated claims, with cherrypicked literature to support their activism (“redefining the peer-reviewed literature”).
For the new IPCC AR5 currently in preparation, Jones and Trenberth have been kicked out, hence his sour grapes. It remains to be seen whether their replacements will be any better.
Again, as long as the earths remains, our climate, seasons & day & night will never cease((Gen.(Bere-shith) 8:22! I believe truth & not MARXIST MANDATED MANIFESTO LIES! Just saying what’s
written both in the Hebrew inspired Scriptures & marxist manifesto!
Oh. Poor babies. Their tight-knit little club house of consenting friends was party crashed.
That will teach him, I wonder what Chris Landsea makes of all this?
It is a travesty that his English is so poor – “blander” no such word he means more bland – yeah lets just make up words
Good to see he is as consistently bad in climate science – lets just make up “missing heat”
No Kevin, the problem isn’t that the Denialists are aligned against you.
The problem is that reality is aligned against you.
It is a travesty. First they can’t find the heat, now the team is losing its precious consensus. Bahawwwaa! Long ago they lost the plot.
Blander presumably means less extravagant with assertions. I suspect that there are now so many high-calibre shredders of climate-related hyperbole and shoddy science that the cabal in and around the IPCC are now forced to choose their words with more care.
AR5 will be so much blander
Without all the hype and the intrigue and slander
But Kevin’s still game
To shoot the horse with no name
And fill in the cracks with Tiljander
In the war between math and “climate science,” my money is on math.
Too bland? No problem! Spice it up with Santer’s Secret Sauce.
Yeah Kev. Sorry to spoil all your fun and all that. But you’ve all been rumbled.