I've been meaning to do this for a long time, snarky bon mots deserve a place in the sun. In a comment on Eli's post "Going off the deep end" Coby Beck points out that
One of the keys to understanding Roger is realizing that as soon as you say "we should do something", you are a policy advocate and as soon as you pick up a phone to tell a friend about your research you are politicizing your science. I find defining things like that a bit less than useless though
This Roger?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.climateaudit.org/?p=857#comment-52315
I think that if Roger finds out that you've been breathing air, then you're also an issue advocate.
ReplyDeleteHey, can we get back to the subject of this post please: me! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the promotion, Eli!
Hey, Coby, bringing it back to you: Dr. Curry's final two posts signing off at climateaudit contain some wise words that could well, if she'll give you permission, be included in the "How to talk" file.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.climateaudit.org/?p=857#comment-52757
"... Lindzen ... differentiated “industry stooges” as a separate category, people who were interested in obfuscating the issue towards supporting their own agenda, as opposed to people that are interested in the scientific truth. This is an important distinction, separating the Marshall Institute type reports (many of which are of the stooge nature), vs the more credible scientific scepticism. The challenge is for a bona fide skeptic to steer clear of being associated with stoogedom. ... Gray’s use of the 1970’s global cooling thing is one of the favorite arguments of AGW stoogedom and doesn’t hold up under any analysis (I suspect Gray came up with this on his own, independently of stoogedom PR). So stoogeism is arguably making the job of the real skeptic more difficult. The reverse is also a true. The enviro groups do sort of the same thing but with a somewhat different strategy (although arguably not as effectively), and close alignment with the more extreme enviro advocacy groups can hurt the credibility of pro AGW scientists. As a result of the policy relevance of climate research, all this definitely does get in the way of sorting out the “truth” and uncertainty. This whole issue presents a huge challenge to scientists working on relevant problems (as well as to the public who is trying to make sense of it all)."
and
http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=857#comment-52775
Now back to you and yours (grin).
and as soon as you write a letter to the editor with one or more of your scientific colleagues, you are taking part in what brad allenby calls 'nightmare science':
ReplyDeleteaccording to allenby -- and pielke -- this amounts to unduly using one's standing as a scientist to influence policy outside science.
i guess we need to have the 'science police' to decide when a group of scientists have 'crossed the line' and need to be disciplined with twenty lashes.
Just for the record, my comments about Roger were made tongue-in-cheek. While I do not really agree with him on this point, I think it's useful to discuss these issues.
ReplyDeleteand my comments were made tongue in groove.
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