Monthly Archives: March 2020

Sometimes it’s never good enough

I’ve, in the past, suggested that climate scientists could end up being criticised whatever happens. If the impact of climate change ends up being less severe than it could have been, climate scientists will probably be criticised for being alarmists. … Continue reading

Posted in Philosophy for Bloggers, Policy, Politics, Scientists, The philosophy of science | Tagged , , , , , | 105 Comments

Richard's Decoupling

Richard did it again and forgot to say “oops”: Negative feedback was to be expected. Some argue that only by decoupling can we understand Richard’s point. Facts don’t care about feelings and all that jazz. I love thought experiments. They … Continue reading

Posted in Freedom Fighters, Philosophy for Bloggers | Tagged , , , , | 92 Comments

Responsible SciComm

Yesterday, a group in Oxford released a paper that implied that a signifcant fraction of those in the UK may already have been infected. This was quickly picked up by numerous media outlets who highlighted that coronavirus could already have … Continue reading

Posted in Scientists, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , | 115 Comments

Some thoughts about science advice

I hope everyone is keeping well and listening to all the advice which, in the UK, is basically to stay at home and to only go outside for food, some exercise, or to go to work (where this cannot be … Continue reading

Posted in Philosophy for Bloggers, Policy, Science, Scientists, The philosophy of science | Tagged , , , | 70 Comments

A physicist for president?

Jim Al’Khalili has an article in Scientific American called [a] physicist for president? Jim is a physicist, so he’s probably being somewhat provactive. Also, he’s mostly arguing for someone who applies the scientific method to thinking and decision-making and is … Continue reading

Posted in economics, physicists, Politics, Scientists, The scientific method, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 51 Comments

Andrew Dessler rebuts Roy Spencer

Most of the focus at the moment is rightly on the coronavirus. Since I have no relevant expertise whatsoever, all I’ll say is that I hope everyone is doing their best to stay safe, and listening to the advice that’s … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, Policy, Roy Spencer, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , | 68 Comments

A couple of highlights

Since I haven’t had much chance to write anything recently, I thought I would briefly advertise a couple of papers that may be of interest to my regular readers. One is by Clare Marie Flynn and Thorsten Mauritsen and is … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, Climate sensitivity, Global warming, Research, Science | Tagged , , , , | 19 Comments

Zharkova et al. – retracted

Just a quick post to highlight that the Zharkova et al. paper, that I’ve discussed in a couple of previous posts, has now been retracted. The retraction notice is here. There’s a Retraction Watch post, which also includes a link … Continue reading

Posted in Gavin Schmidt, Global warming, Philosophy for Bloggers, Sound Science (tm), The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 116 Comments

Growth?

Just over a year ago, I wrote a post about limits to growth that focussed on an article written by Michael Liebreich. I found his argument particularly silly as it seemed to suggest that the economy could grow until the … Continue reading

Posted in Environmental change, ethics, Philosophy for Bloggers, Policy | Tagged , , , , , , | 18 Comments