[Vision2020] Skeptics Confirmation Bias Filter?: American Statistical Association: Status of Climate Change Science

[Paul Rumelhart]

Is there room in your philosophy for doubt?

Paul

Ted Moffett wrote:
> Once again, below read more overreaching unjustified statements on 
> human impacts on climate (tongue in cheek alert), this time from 
> statistical professionals who must also be deluded, like those fools 
> at the National Academy of Sciences, and MIT, statements that need to 
> be tempered by the wisdom of certain Vision2020 skeptics on climate 
> science...
>  
> This post also generated not one response on Vision2020....
>  
> This is my fourth post today, over the informal limit...
>  
> Goodbye!
>  
> http://magazine.amstat.org/2010/03/climatemar10/
>  
> http://magazine.amstat.org/2010/03/climatemar10/2/#transcript
>  
> Statisticians Comment on Status of Climate Change Science
> 1 March 2010 3,860 views 19 Comments
>  
> /Richard L. Smith, University of North Carolina; L. Mark Berliner, The 
> Ohio State University; and Peter Guttorp, University of Washington and 
> Norwegian Computing Center/
>
> In November 2009, ASA Past-President Sally Morton joined with the 
> leaders of 17 other science organizations to sign a letter 
> <http://www.amstat.org/outreach/pdfs/climateletterfinal.pdf> (pdf) to 
> all U.S. senators summarizing the consensus of climate change science. 
> In short, the letter cited the strong scientific evidence that climate 
> change is happening and that human activities are the primary driver. 
> It went on to list the many likely consequences, some of which are 
> already starting to occur.
>
> As members of the ASA’s Climate Change Policy Advisory Committee 
> <http://www.amstat.org/committees/ccpac/>, we commented on early 
> drafts of the letter and, upon reviewing the final version, advised 
> Morton to sign it. We are well aware that some disagree with the 
> statements in the letter. The views of climate change ’skeptics’ and 
> ‘deniers’ appear in many media, from blogs and videos to op-eds and 
> congressional testimony. We prefer to think of the views of skeptics 
> as part of the scientific spectrum, but nevertheless believe they are 
> a minority who do not represent the mainstream scientific viewpoint.
>
> Some organizations that feature these views in sophisticated 
> advertising campaigns have manipulated the evidence to create the 
> impression that the consensus among climate scientists is quite 
> different from what it is. Here, we comment on some of the most common 
> arguments that climate change is not happening or that humans are not 
> responsible.
>
> ------------------------------------------
>
> Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
>