Calling all UK Skeptics – Free Talk with 97% Bias – plus the ability to ask questions

UPDATE: It’s a double feature, Mann will be there too, see below

From the University of Bristol: Dogma vs. consensus: Letting the evidence speak on climate change

19 September 2014, 6 pm Victoria Rooms, Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1SA

In this Cabot Institute public lecture, we are pleased to present John Cook, Global Change Institute, University of Queensland and owner of the Skeptical Science blog, in what promises to be a fascinating talk.

In 2013, John Cook lead the Consensus Project, a crowd-sourced effort to complete the most comprehensive analysis of climate research ever made. They found that among relevant climate papers, 97% endorsed the consensus that humans were causing global warming. When this research was published, it was tweeted by President Obama and received media coverage all over the world, with the paper being awarded the best article published by the journal Environmental Research Letters in 2013. However, the paper has also been relentlessly attacked by climate deniers who reject the scientific consensus. Hundreds of blog posts have criticised the results while newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe have published negative op-eds. Climate denial organisations such as the Global Warming Policy Foundation and Heartland Institute have published critical reports and the Republican Party organised congressional testimony against the consensus research on Capitol Hill. This sustained campaign is merely the latest episode in over 20 years of attacks on the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming. John Cook will discuss his research both on the 97% consensus and on the cognitive psychology of consensus. He will also look at the broader issue of scientific consensus and why it generates such intense focus from climate deniers.

Registration

You must register for this event. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dogma-vs-consensus-letting-the-evidence-speak-on-climate-change-tickets-12288231431?ref=ebtnebregn

This event is free to attend and open to all.  Please contact cabot-enquiries@bristol.ac.uk if you have any accessibility requirements.

The event will run from 6 pm – 7.30 pm.  Please ensure you are seated by 6 pm.

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Note: I registered since I’ve always wanted to come to England anyway, and this was as good as an excuse as any…plus I have many questions to ask. Note also that while the event is free, there are a limited number of tickets available.

All that is required is an email address and name. The ticket was delivered by email as a printable PDF – Anthony

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UPDATE:  Guess I’ll be staying longer. I just registered for this one too:

Cabot Institute Lecture: The Hockey Stick and the climate wars – the battle continues

23 September 2014, 6 pm The Victoria Rooms, Queen’s Rd, Bristol, BS8 1SA

In this special Cabot Institute lecture, in association with Bristol Festival of Ideas, Michael E Mann will discuss the science, politics, and ethical dimensions of global warming in the context of his own ongoing experiences as a figure in the centre of the debate over human-caused climate change.

Dr. Michael E Mann is Distinguished Professor of Meteorology at Penn State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center. He is author of more than 160 peer-reviewed and edited publications, and has published books include Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming in 2008 and The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines in 2012. He is also a co-founder and avid contributor to the award-winning science website RealClimate.org.

Registration

This event is free to attend and open to all but you must register to attend.  We expect this event to be very popular so we encourage you to register as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.  If you can no longer attend this event, please email cabot-enquiries@bristol.ac.uk so that we may reallocate your ticket.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/custombutton?eid=12014388359