Dr. Judith Curry was recently called a heretic by Scientific American due to her views on climate science and public policy. Here, in a post at he new blog, she shows her resolve to maintain her independence from consensus thinking and to ignore the slings and arrows.
She takes no prisoners with this missive where she asks a very direct and effective question:
Let me preface my statement by saying that at this point, I am pretty much immune to criticisms from my peers regarding my behavior and public outreach on this topic (I respond to any and all criticisms of my arguments that are specifically addressed to me.) If you think that I am a big part of the cause of the problems you are facing, I suggest that you think about this more carefully. I am doing my best to return some sanity to this situation and restore science to a higher position than the dogma of consensus. You may not like it, and my actions may turn out to be ineffective, futile, or counterproductive in the short or long run, by whatever standards this whole episode ends up getting judged. But this is my carefully considered choice on what it means to be a scientist and to behave with personal and professional integrity.
Let me ask you this. So how are things going for you lately? A year ago, the climate establishment was on top of the world, masters of the universe. Now we have a situation where there have been major challenges to the reputations of a number of scientists, the IPCC, professional societies, and other institutions of science. The spillover has been a loss of public trust in climate science and some have argued, even more broadly in science. The IPCC and the UNFCCC are regarded by many as impediments to sane and politically viable energy policies. The enviro advocacy groups are abandoning the climate change issue for more promising narratives. In the U.S., the prospect of the Republicans winning the House of Representatives raises the specter of hearings on the integrity of climate science and reductions in federal funding for climate research.
What happened? Did the skeptics and the oil companies and the libertarian think tanks win? No, you lost. All in the name of supporting policies that I don’t think many of you fully understand. What I want is for the climate science community to shift gears and get back to doing science, and return to an environment where debate over the science is the spice of academic life. And because of the high relevance of our field, we need to figure out how to provide the best possible scientific information and assessment of uncertainties. This means abandoning this religious adherence to consensus dogma.
Judith, I salute you!
To Judith Curry,
OUTSTANDING!
And a humble thank you for making this stand, hopefully many will follow the example you have set.
You go girl! (as my once teenage daughters used to say).
Can somebody please warn Australian politicans, BOM, CSIRO, the popular press and perhaps even the ABC. (On second thought, don’t tell the ABC, they might cry).
The big party is over.
Time to open the window and let reality in for a while.
On a more serious note, congratulations Dr Curry.
Well said.
Judith’s principled stand is an admirable one. Pity there aren’t more like her. She just needs to take her logic one step further to see that there really isn’t much science to Warmism. It is more of a Belief system than anything else, which is why it is so easy for them to throw anyone who doesn’t toe the Warmist line under the Climatist bus.
She just needs to make the decision to become a climate realist.
It is one small step, Judith. You are almost there!
Heretic and Hero are close together in my dictionary.
The key players in this struggle are probably the young people in graduate school and the newer PhDs. They will lead climate science ten to thirty years from now. The older folks are calcified and entrenched. I am very optimistic that the younger people “get it” and will lead the reform, but it will take years. For the remainder, probably not.
YOU GO GIRL!!
Dr Curry, I have just one bone to pick with you when you wrote:
QUOTE
And because of the high relevance of our field, we need to figure out how to provide the best possible scientific information and assessment of uncertainties.
UNQUOTE
There I must differ from you.
Climatology is of absolute unimportance.
There is no creditable evidence that humans affect the climate in a significat manner.
Studying the climate may be fascinating.
But important?
Definitely not.
Jolly good show, but the warmists are religionists and are thus essentially unreachable on the basis of appeals to reason.
Dr Curry,
One final comment in support of your brave call.
I agree that it is essential that all persons with any claim to be scientists,
must abandon all religious adherence to dogma.
“The enviro advocacy groups are abandoning the climate change issue for more promising narratives.”
Yes, particularly “biodiversity,” which is largely about land use rights aka “private property” and which can be battled by enviros in the judicial courts rather than in the court of public opinion where their warmist propaganda has been soundly and (almost) thoroughly trounced.
Hence “biodiversity” will be the next big enviro issue, because a retreat to the courts (and a departure from public opinion) is where their authoritarian impulses will find the warmest (not warmist) welcome.
Wonderful. In just 3 paragraphs, she reminds us of the integrity that science had before the powerbrokers moved in and presumed to own it.
Dr. Judith Curry,
Wonderful statement. That expresses well the intellectual high road of independent thinkers.
A key is to champion absolute openness in climate science from: the processing temp/CO2 records & proxies; to the basis in data/methodology/code of published papers; to the detailed daily activities of the IPCC on preps for AR5.
I also sincerely hope you are active in getting the climate science community to handle misconduct within its own profession. I hope the self-correcting process will be totally open.
John
Judith Curry has my utmost admiration; for her clear vision of how science should be debated and for her principled determination for scientists to speak for themselves as individuals free from peer pressure. Her stance may allow many more scientists to speak out, free from juvenile schoolyard bullying from those who stridently advocate government policy of their own choosing.
Three cheers for Judith! I hope her principled example becomes a rallying point for true scientists everywhere. There is power in telling it like it is.
When Dr. Curry first appeared on this site some months ago I was pleasantly surprised by her open and engaging manner when dealing with a great deal of hostility from many on here at that time. She showed the beginnings of her current stance then and this now solidifies her stance as a questioning ( sceptical?) scientist.
Now it remains to see how many of her colleagues realize how gullible they have been in their deference to authority. Dr. Curry has thought this thing through for herself and by trusting her capabilities she has arrived at the correct conclusion , mainly that not much is known about our climate yet and even less about the effect our CO2 has on it.
Today is a good day.
A wonderful piece. Thank you.
But if they abandoned the religion part, they wouldn’t be able to sell indulgences anymore.
Think of the bank accounts!
‘… my actions may turn out to be ineffective, futile, or counterproductive in the short or long run…”
Somehow, I really doubt that will be the outcome. A well struck blow for Science.
I watched a great program on BBC 2 last night about DNA, some scientist’s like the one’s on that program and Judith do actually care about human being’s.
The rest just prove power corrupt’s.
Great woman, great statement. I hope more true scientists will follow her lead.
She nailed it. Enviromentalism is dogma, not science and it has lost the faith of the people.
I have to apologize beforehand about my inability to properly articulate my sentiments, but ……..Did she just call the warmistas a bunch of stooopid losers? Duh-AMMMN! Dr. Curry just b-slapped the [poo] out of her critics! bwahahahhahahahhhaha!
Three cheers for Judith Curry.
Can’t wait for the headlines in the MSM tomorrow and the BBC news tonight.
Some hope, but the pressure sure is building – one day maybe….
Excellent – trouble is, someone (like her) needs to get hold of the politicians, shake them warmly by the throat, and ask them: ‘Are you LISTENING yet..?’