Jeff Condon writes at the Air Vent:
Over the past few weeks I have had several communications with Dr. Lewandowsky regarding his wonderful contribution to science very appropriately titled:
MOTIVATED REJECTION OF SCIENCE
NASA faked the moon landing|Therefore (Climate) Science is a Hoax:
An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science
“MOTIVATED REJECTION OF SCIENCE”
Think about that. Who could reject the truth of “science”?…. It must be one who has such powerful beliefs on something that scientific fact, real proof, even unequivocal evidence has no effect on their opinion. How much more Orwellian a title could be written? As we have learned at Climate Audit, from the content of the paper the irony is difficult to overstate.
As you unfortunate victims readers know, I have a naturally acerbic personality which is even more poorly contained in blogland. The very title of the Lewandowsky article attacks the open discussion on which science is necessarily based. A more biased attack on reasoned skepticism is hard to fathom.
The Air Vent blog isn’t exactly a great life achievement in my point of view but it is one of the far too rare science-first blogs skeptical of <b>catastrophic</b> anthropogenic global warming. I didn’t imagine that a conservative engineer who started a free blog under a pseudonym complaining about political and monetary pollution of climate science would extend to being banned by climate blogs, being outed by the British press, surprise phone calls on Sunday morning, hacked email drops, being contacted by the anti-terror squads of the British government and then recently being libeled with accusations of being an anti-science denier and advocate of conspiratorial whatever in the Journal of Psychology..
You have to love liberalism in all of its wonderful forms. Does anyone wonder now why I published under “Jeff Id” ?
Here is what Lewandowsky wrote under the guise of science:
Thus, AIDS denial has been linked to the belief that the U.S. Government created HIV; the tobacco industry viewed lung cancer research as an \oligopolistic cartel,” and climate deniers believe that temperature records have been illegitimately adjusted to exaggerate warming (e.g., Condon, 2009).
The article in the references is the lone Internet link of any kind in the references:http://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/global-temperature-records-above-the-law/ (Accessed 6 May 2012). Certainly the post is argumentative but it is about the collusion by Jones and UEA officials to ignore legal freedom of information requests. Unlike Lewandowsky, it seems obvious that nobody really knew what data was used in CRU ground temperatures at that time. Now we know even Phil Jones was a bit confused on the matter. Fortunately, after climategate, Dr. Phil became a lot more open to releasing the data and I believe tAV was the first blog to reproduce his results after code became available.
The accusations by Dr. Lewandowsky were allowed by the editorial review of the Journal of Psychology yet claims that I’m a climate change denier and that I believe temperatures were illegitimately adjusted are clearly false. I wrote first to Lewandowsky regarding the error and received an automated reply about his travel so I wrote to his coauthor. After some time, I was told that Lewandowsky didn’t believe he was in error using this rather cute bit of sophistry:
I don’t believe I cited you inaccurately given the context of what I was saying and referring to—although I agree that your name was listed in a sentence with the noun “denier,” thereby creating a tacit association that was in fact not intended on my part.
So even after telling him of his error, Lewandowsky is still saying that I have accused someone of illegitimate temperature record adjustment for the explicit purpose of exaggerated warming but apparently I’m not a denier. I have not made either claim of course, however, on a similar vein there are some UHI based embarrassments by the climate change extremist community that I could happily detail for him. The funny bit is that Lewandowsky proposed to replace the Condon reference for climate change deniers with a “google search” that would include my blog amongst others:
I therefore suggest that I remove the citation “(e.g., Condon, 2009)” and replace it with “(see supplementary material for sources).” The supplementary material can then contain a set of links to 10 or so sites making claims about illegitimate adjustments, presented in an order based on Google-rankings, so that other than entering search terms, no human intervention is required in selecting citations. (Of course, that’s how I got to your post in the first place, so there is no guarantee that your link might not pop up again; I hope you can accept that because I don’t want to re-introduce human selection.)
Read the entire story here
Lewandowsky had his media blitz; it is now no longer necessary to defend the claims. Another social scientist/ethicist/psychologist or whoever is designated to will make the next proclamation of AGW skepticism as mental illness.
And Lewandowsky also got his money.
wermet says:
September 27, 2012 at 8:50 pm
“I have a theory concerning psychologists. I believe that the reason that many people choose to enter this field is to discover what is wrong with themselves. ”
Psychology was a pseudoscience from the start, and made , together with Marx1sm, Popper write his definition of the scientific method.
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/popper_falsification.html
Siegmund Freud only got popular after his nephew Eddie Bernays, the inventor of modern PR/propaganda, helped sell his books in the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
Doug S says:
September 27, 2012 at 8:22 pm
Watching this false religion fall apart is a once in a lifetime experience. I’m fascinated by the minds and the thought processes of “believers”. Have they not studied history?
=============================================================
They haven’t and certainly in no real detail. “Those who do not know
history are doomed to repeat it.”
You can already see the same sort of acceptance of a dogma, and the
rejection of those who refuse to adopt the insanity which the National
Socialists seized upon in Germany in the second half of the 1920s.
Fortunately, it has not yet gone so far as modern equivalents of the
Nuremberg rallies, nor the Brown Shirts, but the potential is there should
a charismatic demagogue adopt it as a cause.
It’s already a grand addition to (or update for) Charles MacKay’s famous
book! (“Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”)
Doug S says:
September 27, 2012 at 8:22 pm
“Watching this false religion fall apart is a once in a lifetime experience.”
No. It is a run of the mill PR/propaganda driven enterprise. Examples:
In about 2005 futerra, UK propaganda company, schooled BBC journalists to report Global Warming as fact instead of as scientific theory, omitting counter opinions as would be appropriate when reporting about a theory.
Modern day example of a PR/propaganda driven campaign and its collapse: The bizarre weaseling of the Obama administration regarding events in Libya. Obviously after the unforeseen event, the PR hacks needed time to fit it into their propaganda roadmap and issued the order to blame a youtube video even though other knowledge already existed.
Unfortunately, you will see more of such PR/propaganda driven pseudorealities presented as fact by the NYT and other conforming outlets in the future.
sophocles says:
September 27, 2012 at 10:31 pm
“You can already see the same sort of acceptance of a dogma, and the
rejection of those who refuse to adopt the insanity which the National
Socialists seized upon in Germany in the second half of the 1920s.”
That is not astounding at all. The Naz1s used Bernays’ techniques as well. Goebbels had his books.
honestly, i’m a little surprised this would pass muster with the Human Subjects committee. To just willy nilly use disparaging words to describe people you are studying hardly seems judicious. The entire reason for Human Subjects review was to make sure that the Psych researcher didn’t adversely impact the subjects of his research.
sophocles says:
September 27, 2012 at 10:31 pm
“Fortunately, it has not yet gone so far as modern equivalents of the
Nuremberg rallies, nor the Brown Shirts, but the potential is there should
a charismatic demagogue adopt it as a cause. ”
I don’t agree. It has gone that far many times. When Sting, or U2, or some other “wannabe your great leader” ( but pay me too, please ) has a rally, the masses was even more hysterical than they ever was at Nuremberg.
rk:
Your post at September 27, 2012 at 11:09 pm says in total
“A little surprised”? Clearly, you don’t know much about the AGW issue, academia and institutions.
As a start in your education I suggest you read this
http://www.lavoisier.com.au/articles/climate-policy/science-and-policy/LindzenClimatescience2008.pdf
Richard
Thanks for the laugh. 🙂 But it has nothing to do with a lack of patience.
Either the comment gets preliminarily posted with: Your comment is awaiting moderation or it gets tossed to the spam bin with NO feedback at all.
For over a year and a half I have immediately followed up SPAM binned comments with such a notification. Is this now a problem? No offense, just asking.
Mark Fawcett says:
September 27, 2012 at 9:52 pm
“Lew says “rankings, so that other than entering search terms, no human intervention is required in selecting citations”
Is the great man aware that _his_ google search results will be biased by the history of previous searches _he’s_ done…unless he takes some careful steps to avoid this.”
Does he also realise that Google applies biases to AGW searches, contre the “deniers”.
I have to say that this idiot has completely lost the plot and is dire need of a psychologist.
As with all great tragedy, there were elements of comedy to it, but unfortunately more in a Benny Hill sense, rather than Dante. Lewandowsky thinking he could take out McIntyre on points of statistical methodology, was right up there with a one-legged man entering an ass kicking contest.
http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/intentions-profiles-and-predictability/
Pointman
D. Healey said “The first law of holes; if you are in one, stop digging.”
Who believes psychologists? Well, unfortunately, many. Do they contribute anything useful or real? Well, a few, maybe. But, in serious, scientific terms, dealing with reality, most are wankers (Brit.) or drongos (Aus.). Want to guess how I classify Lew?
“I have a naturally acerbic personality which is even more poorly contained in blogland.” — Anthony Watts
OMG! I am in trouble. I am so bad that I always thought of Mr. Watts as a warm fuzzy teddy-bear who was much too kind. What does that say about me? 🙁
The Google search ranking does and will change for various reasons – it can not be considered reproducible.
“I have a naturally acerbic personality which is even more poorly contained in blogland”
I have been a long time reader of “The Air Vent” and I don’t think that I would have described you as “acerbic”. I thought that suffered fools too well and show great restraint.
Keep up the great work.
pat says: September 27, 2012 at 9:20 pm Miner Rio Tinto boss accepts global warming???
I think if you read more carefully, you will find that the main action is being taken to reduce a pollutant produced by man. Whether this pollutant causes global warming is a separate question.
Rio took over parts of my former company. In the mid 1980s I had noted to my management colleagues that CO2 was one of the fastest growing industrial pollutants, so I did an audit of it for our group, with recommendations on remediation. It had nothing to do with global warming, an increase in natural catastrophes or climate change. That all remains to be proven – and is a long way from proof in any signficant sense of consequences. I recommended greater use of nuclear power, which has been opposed by successive governments here as they kowtow to the green vote.
markstoval says:
September 28, 2012 at 2:41 am
“I have a naturally acerbic personality which is even more poorly contained in blogland.” — Anthony Watts
OMG! I am in trouble. I am so bad that I always thought of Mr. Watts as a warm fuzzy teddy-bear who was much too kind. What does that say about me? 🙁
================================================
You can keep thinking that Anthony is a warm, fuzzy teddy bear
Jeff ID wrote the post
Geoff Sherrington says:
September 28, 2012 at 3:47 am
“I think if you read more carefully, you will find that the main action is being taken to reduce a pollutant produced by man. Whether this pollutant causes global warming is a separate question.
Rio took over parts of my former company. In the mid 1980s I had noted to my management colleagues that CO2 was one of the fastest growing industrial pollutants, so I did an audit of it for our group, with recommendations on remediation.”
That means that office workers are in acute danger as they are living in a highly polluted environment. Did you consider lobbying for legislation that prevents office workers from having to breath air with elevated CO2 levels?
Very Bizarre!
As I read it, Lewpy indirectly admits he did not verify his statements about Jeff Id. Then he further proposes to use a Google search listing instead. In his statement about the Google search listing, he admits that the listing may (and will) change.
Delving into the whys of the Google listing is too much trouble for the Lewpy, so unverified wild results are therefore listed as fact. That the search list itself is more likely to refer to CAGW religion sites falsely disparaging Condon, is not proof of CAGW conspirists is a bizarre twist of the facts. I expect Lewpy believes the inability to reproduce search results exactly will protect him from adverse claims, like sheer unmitigated fraud and gall. Not to overlook Lewpy’s condescending tone towards Condon.
Book Lewpy and his fellow shrinkers for the next Galactic Hitchhiker’s ship for all of the hairdressers and similar ilk.
Condon has a minor victory, but no acknowledgement that, as a skeptic, that he has anything valid to say. This is the same with Lewandowsky as well. To admit that there is any possibility of alternative viewpoints within the science would open the flood gates to genuine questions about the weighting we should attach to the consensus.
Geoff Sherrington says:
September 28, 2012 at 3:47 am
“In the mid 1980s I had noted to my management colleagues that CO2 was one of the fastest growing industrial pollutants, so I did an audit of it for our group, with recommendations on remediation.”
===============================
A simple search… http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pollute
“1. To make unfit for or harmful to living things, especially by the addition of waste matter. See Synonyms at contaminate.”
How is that CO2 makes the atmosphere “unfit for living things”? Particularly if you are willing to accept that “It had nothing to do with global warming, an increase in natural catastrophes or climate change.”
A video for Lewadowski
Yeah, piling on here. You must be a fracking loon; man is doing a slow, overdue, and still inadequate job of returning the base for virtually all organic life (some extremophiles excepted) into circulation, after its over-deposition by the unthinking hyper-sequestration by the flora and coral and plankton in chalk and coal and limestone beds, by the gigaton, resulting in the current CO2 near-famine.
“presented in an order based on Google-rankings, so that other than entering search terms, no human intervention is required in selecting citations.”
I’m assuming Lew doesn’t realise how google rankings work – he’ll get ones influenced by his search history.