[Vision2020] IPCC Critic Pielke & IPCC Author & NASA Scientist Schmidt's "Meeting Of The Minds"

[Ted Moffett]

Recent and past Vision2020 discussion regarding anthropogenic climate change
has sometimes been polarized, with explicit or implicit charges that the
opinions are based on personal bias, propaganda, junk science, politics, an
uncertain so called consensus becoming dogma (if you think anthropogenic
warming seriously doubtful, with minority views not given their due) or
"well established consensus science" being subjected to
unrealistic standards demanding "absolute" certainty (if you think the
science that humans are altering climate reliable).

The climate science community's integrity has come under vigorous attack,
with assertions they are "sheep" blindly following a peer consensus that
human impacts are altering climate, pushing a political agenda aimed at
government regulation (IPCC scientists described as "European socialists,"
as New Saint Andrews librarian Ed Iverson phrased it in a Moscow/Pullman
Daily News Op-Ed), or pursuing selfish career or monetary exploitation of
anthropogenic warming for grants, research funding, professional publishing
kudos, or popular book sales.  But the fact there is debate among scientists
on climate change argues that the scientific community is open to
disagreement, with scientists who are skeptics given a prominent voice in
the media.  Don Easterbrook from Western Washington University, who appeared
on MSNBC national cable news expressing views skeptical of global warming,
and science fiction writer Michael Crichton, who expressed his doubts about
global warming before the US Congress, are examples. Crichton made money
from his book "State of Fear," that expresses skepticism about anthropogenic
warming science

I've followed the polarized politicized climate of debate on this issue with
dismay, given that it portends a low probability of significant action to
address climate change.  The public in large numbers dismisses the
scientific consensus that humans altering climate is a significant problem,
or they simply do not want to assume costs of emissions reductions
(lifestyle changes, higher taxes or energy costs). Politicians are
influenced by these voters and the influence of money (lobbying, campaign
funding) from the private sector aimed at blocking legislation to lower
greenhouse gas emissions that may negatively impact their bottom line.  What
is often absent is a calm balanced wide ranging survey of the published
science, coupled with a long term analysis of the economic costs of climate
change.  Of course, if the climate scientific community is mostly "sheep,"
what's the point of surveying published scientific findings that amount to a
lot of "ba, ba, baah?"

Which brings me to the point of this post, a "meeting of the minds," if
I may call it that, between two scientists, one a critic of the IPCC,
another an IPCC lead author: Roger Pielke and NASA's Gavin Schmidt.  It's
encouraging to discover that a climate scientist, Pielke, who might
otherwise be at loggerheads with an IPCC author, can praise his views on
some issues.  The impression often given in the media that the scientific
community is divided into warring polarized politicized camps on the issue
of climate change is an exaggeration that encourages the public to have far
more distrust of the objectivity of scientists than is justified.  There are
a wide variety of views with a lot of subtly and variation.  This argues
against the view that the consensus on anthropogenic climate change is based
on blind conformism among scientists who are not examining the evidence.

Below read Pielke on Pielke's climate science blog praising Schmidt for
Schmidt's July 3 "Popular Mechanics" interview regarding the article "5
Climate Studies That Do Not Live Up to the Hype:"

http://climatesci.org/
 July 3, 2009 Gavin Schmidt’s Interview On Media Hype On Climate Science
Issues<http://climatesci.org/2009/07/03/gavin-schmidts-interview-on-media-hype-on-climate-science-issues/>
Filed
under: Climate Science
Misconceptions<http://climatesci.org/category/climate-science-misconceptions/>,
Climate Science
Reporting<http://climatesci.org/category/climate-science-reporting/>—
Roger Pielke Sr. @ 10:50 am

I was pleased to see an interview of Gavin Schmidt in Popular Mechanics on
July 3 2009 with the headline “5 Climate Studies That Don’t Live Up to the
Hype” <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529953,00.html>[and thanks to Joe
D'Aleo for alerting us to it!].

This news article is refreshing, after the Real Climate’s recent
overstatement on climate
(see<http://climatesci.org/2009/06/30/real-climates-misinformation/>and
see<http://climatesci.org/2009/07/02/response-by-roger-a-pielke-sr-to-the-real-climate-weblog-more-bubkes/>),
as it provides a balanced presentation of the subject by Dr. Schmidt.
Hopefully, this will translate to more balance, and less personal criticisms
on Real Climate than we have seen repeatedly in the past and as recent
as this week [e.g. More
bubkes<http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/07/more-bubkes/langswitch_lang/sp>
].

The article is introduced with the text

*“A leading climate scientist argues that overbroad claims by some
researchers—coupled with overblown reporting in the media—can undermine the
public’s understanding of climate issues. Gavin Schmidt, a NASA climate
modeler, author and PM editorial advisor, concurs with the consensus view
that the planet’s temperature is rising due largely to human activity. But,
he says, many news stories prematurely attribute local or regional phenomena
to climate change. This can lead to the dissemination of vague,
out-of-context or flat-wrong information to the public.”*
--------------
At the website below are Pielke's views on climate science which are
critical of the IPCC:

http://climatesci.org/main-conclusions/
--------------
And below is recent discussion on Realclimate.org regarding Pielke's
criticism of Realclimate content that is mentioned in Pielke's post on
Schmidt's "Popular Science" interview:

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/07/more-bubkes/#more-692

NASA's Gavin Schmidt's bio:

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/gavin-schmidt/

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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