Thursday, October 06, 2011

Media finally listening to what Brian Schmidt has to say about climate change

Yep:

Astrophysicist Brian Schmidt, 44, named in Sweden as one of three winners of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics, used his first day in the spotlight to appeal to "policy people" to listen to scientists on climate change.

....

"The science is science. Policy is policy. And I would really like the scientists to continue to debate what's right and what's wrong about everything, accelerating universe, climate," he told reporters in Canberra.

"And I'd really like the policy people to debate how to deal with what is coming in from the scientists, rather than an ill-formed scientific debate.


I even like astronomy. This guy is my overachieving alter-ego. He could at least have the common decency of getting old before receiving the Nobel Prize, but no.

14 comments:

Steve Bloom said...

He did at least have the common decency to get 10,000 miles or so out of your face before he won. :)

J Bowers said...

I see The Motl's been fed by Willie Soon on this. Apparently, Brian Schmidt needs to win another Nobel to have his views taken seriously by The Motl.

What was that about deniers always demanding higher standards?

Anonymous said...

Can someone remind me... for what was Motl's Nobel awarded?


Bernard J. Hyphen-Anonymous XVII

badger badger badger said...

Motl gets prizes for his theoretical advances in the field of liquidation.

Lionel A said...

Anon

'...for what was Motl's Nobel awarded?'

For his bicycle which happened to lack a bell, I hear the wheels are coming off too.

Anonymous said...

Recently (here and elsewhere), I posted a link to Michael Mann's appropriately combative Op/Ed piece over at http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20111001/EDITS/110939988/1021&ParentProfile=1065 and asked folks to support Dr. Mann in a small way by clicking on the "recommend" link at the top of the page.

Well, the turnout has been pretty good (whether or not I can take any credit remains an open question), and we are closing in on 500 "recommends".

So if there are any anonylagomorphs/anonyrodents here who haven't yet weighed in on Dr. Mann's behalf, please hop/scurry on over to the web-page at the above link and give Dr. Mann a little mouse-click of support... Let's see if we can't crash through that psychological "500" barrier.

The Vail Daily provides a list of articles/opinion-pieces ranked by recommendations, and Dr. Mann is leading the pack by multiple laps. So don't be shy about piling on, folks -- let's make sure that Dr. Mann's piece reigns unchallenged at the top of that list for long time to come!

--caerbannog the anonylagomorph

David B. Benson said...

Nah, he's over 40. Over the hill now.

:-)

THE CLIMATE WARS said...

The WUWT commenter consensus is that Monckton & Motl deserve the Peace, Physics and Medicine prizes for curing Bright's Syndrome and climate change in 11 dimensions with faster than light cosmic ray neutrinos from the iron sun.

Chris McGrath said...

I don't see why the media bothers with listening to a nobel prize winner on climate change when it can find out the facts from a third generation mountain farmer who "refused to believe the doomsayers" and is "not a believer in global warming": http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/at-last-dams-are-deep-and-meaningful/story-fn59niix-1226161667601

Spashed with a lovely colourful picture on the front page of the Weekend Oz so it must be true!

Anonymous said...

The same issue of the OZ also published a letter from Michale Asten of Monash Uni.

He praises the recent Physics & Chemistry prizes as examplars of "scepticism in science"... "free of the confines of conventional wisdom" , concluding

"I look forward to the day when such elevated scientific method replaces the bitter and personalised arguments over settled science which today characterises earth-scale climate studies."

His web page at Monash shows him to be an exploration geologist and human-caused climate change denier (or is that a tautology? He is of the "it's all natural, been worse than this before" camp).

I have sent in a letter pointing out how right he is, and that Michael Mann's hockey stick work is an excellent example of this sort of counter-intuitive science, telling us something new that we don't really want to know. I invite him to join me in condemning the attacks on Mann.

But, you know, The Murdoch Oz. I doubt it'll see print...

Rob Day

J Bowers said...

This is worth spreading around:

Tar sands action: Open letter to the Prime Minister of Canada from a mother and extremist

J Bowers said...

Chris McGrath -- "Spashed with a lovely colourful picture on the front page of the Weekend Oz so it must be true!"

Here's a very colourful picture of Sydney. Not Mars, but Sydney, Australia.

David B. Benson said...

Rob Day --- Not all geologists are so beknighted. Exploration geologists?

Anonymous said...

@David B. Benson

Exploration geologist as in oil & mineral exploration.

There's a lot of it about here in Oz.

Rob Day