One year

Tomorrow is the anniversary of my first post on this blog. It’s been an interesting year. I’ve learned a lot, about myself, about others, and about climate science. I’d really like to say that I’ve become more optimistic and less cynical, but I’d be lying if I did. I don’t know if this blog has has a positive impact, a negative impact, or not much impact at all – probably more of the latter than anything else, but it’s not really my place to judge. I decided a while ago that I would try and make it to a year and then have a bit of a break. This certainly isn’t the least stressful thing I’ve ever done. I don’t know how long a break I’ll take. Probably until the next thing fires me up and I decide I need to write something 🙂 A few weeks, though, I hope.

I also need to decide how best to proceed. I really wasn’t expecting anyone to take what I wrote all that seriously. These are just my views, and the blog was really more for my benefit, than for anyone else. I may also have said pretty much all I was wanting to say. I’ve written almost 350 posts. I’ve developed a few simple models. I’ve redone some studies to see whether I can replicate other people’s results. I’ve tried to focus on science, rather than policy, but haven’t always succeeded. I’m not sure what else I can say that won’t just be a repeat of what I’ve already said.

Sadly, it’s also fairly clear that serious dialogue between those who disagree strongly about climate science is virtually impossible. There are indeed some who are genuinely sceptical of some of the mainstream views and who are knowledgeable and informed. There are others, however, who confuse being dubious with being sceptical. I certainly can’t claim that I haven’t let my frustrations show in discussions with some people, but – in my defense – some haven’t tried particularly hard to not be frustrating. Given this, however, it’s not quite clear what role this blog will play. It’s certainly not really a site for those who disagree to have constructive dialogue. Maybe some who read but don’t comment learn something useful, but that may be just wishful thinking.

Another issue is my anonymity. I don’t really think that I can continue anonymously. When I started, I didn’t really think anything of it and didn’t really expect many to read what I write. Given that there are many more reading and commenting than I had expected, I think that if I do continue, I should probably de-anonymise. I’ve never had a particularly good reason for being anonymous. Just seemed easier and I thought it was better for people to simply judge the blog on the basis of what I wrote, rather than who I am (not that I am anyone really). I’ve also been leaking who I am to various people, so it would probably come out eventually anyway. I had wondered about having some kind of competition to see if anyone could guess – or already knew – who I was. My worry there, though, was that could then lead to various people getting all sorts of unpleasant emails if the guesses were wrong.

First thing first, though, and that’s a bit of a break. I’m off to a meeting tomorrow for a few days and then have some work to do on some of my own papers. I’ll may respond to comments if there are any, but don’t plan to write any posts, for a while anyway. I’ll also be thinking about whether to continue or not and – if I do – whether to de-anonymise or not. Anyway, that’s all I was going to say. If you have any thoughts, feel free to make them, but I reserve the right to simply ignore them for a while :-). I’ll leave you with some music – that may be apt – from my youth.