Thursday, February 15, 2018

Nothing New in the Pielkesphere

Well Gavin, Climate of, has had it with a certain political scientist, 


and And is naval gazing about how scientists should communicate, so memories stirred in Eli's Email list about science communication and Ethon's friend, so with the majic of search Eli found this letter which discussed how the National Assessments of Climate Change impacts came into being and the role of scientists as communicators.  
But Roger didn't like that either. It became evident that Roger's modus operandi, like his father's, is along the lines of "everyone but me is full of shit so stop thinking about what you think is significant and do my agenda instead."  
Bush-Cheney suppressed the National Assessment for the denial machine, because they could see the implications of allowing that discourse to flourish. But Roger has nothing to contribute on any such matters. He has failed so badly, and even harmfully, to see that the science community is not the problem on climate change (not to say that scientists couldn't benefit from knowing how to communicate better), it's much more importantly what happens on the receiving end of politics, media, and the public -- and how that connection has been mediated and manipulated by various interests.  
If it could be fixed by heroic efforts of scientists to communicate with civilians on climate change, it would be fixed already. I believe that a serious discussion of climate change as a policy problem calls for a progressive critical analysis of the political situation, not just beating up on the science community. For someone whose degree is in political science (my field of graduate study as well), Roger is just friggin clueless (to put it as kindly as I can) about how to think about and discuss the political aspect of things. That contributes to his remarkable, never-ending ability to miss the key point of whatever matter he is discussing and say something wrong-headed. If he gets into new subject matter the same problem will occur.  
 That only scratches the surface of the problem, I realize.


8 comments:

THE CLIMATE WARS said...

What a prawn !
Roger is fast earning a place on the baby bunny barbie .


Fernando Leanme said...

I liked Pielke's Tokyo presentation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B92CyI7iP9pqdjlxX0RLUFZHczVFRERtdXhmZ3hvYzd0T1BF/view

If you see slides 18 and 19 you will see he mentions the misuse of RCP8.5, This of course is my number two pet theme (number one being my concern over the gradual destruction of Venezuela by communists inspired by Fidel Castro and Pol Pot).

Anonymous said...



and And is naval gazing

I'm slightly struggling to do much else at the moment.

Fernando,
Yes, we know that RCP8.5 is one of your pet themes. Maybe a little surprising that it's been taken up by someone who claims to be a serious academic. Less surprising when you realise that it's RPJ. There are a number of reasons why we might want to still consider RCP8.5. It provides one extreme of a range of possible concentration pathways. It provides good signal to noise in impact studies. Given uncertainties in carbon cycle feedbacks, we still can't rule it out as a concentration pathway.

Unknown said...

Aside from looking for ocean going military vessels, it is clear that since both Pielkes have been right all along, they will never be forgiven.

Measuring variation in the heat content of the oceans is the correct metric for assessing human contributions to climate change. Thank you Senior.

The Art of the Possible is the dead solid perfect key to understanding what we can do about climate change. Thank you Junior.

Commence whining from idiots everywhere.

Unknown said...

Oh--I'm anonymous now! Previous comment humbly submitted by Tom Fuller

Unknown said...

As Eli pointed out to Sr. at the time, measuring ocean heat content only takes you so far back, and that is not very far. Sr. also dropped Argo floats like a hot potato as soon as they started showing global temperature rising.

THE CLIMATE WARS said...

The next bitcrude pipeline that doesn't make it to a seaport should be terminated as the eternal flame at the Tomb Of The Unknown Fuller

Unknown said...

Russell, all things considered I'd rather have a solar panel.

Of course, all things considered I'd rather be in Philadelphia...

tf