Monthly Archives: December 2021

Maybe a little science denial is actually in order?

I ended up in a brief discussion on Twitter with Matthew Nisbet, Professor of Communication, Public Policy, and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University, and Sander van der Linden, Professor of Social Psychology in Society at the University of Cambridge. Matthew Nisbet … Continue reading

Posted in advocacy, Environmental change, Policy, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , | 140 Comments

Seasons greetings

Just a quick post to wish everyone seasons greetings. For those who celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a really enjoyable, and festive, day tomorrow (or, today, in some parts of the world). For those who have some spare time … Continue reading

Posted in Astronomy, Personal, Research, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

Cumulative and (probably) irreversible

This post may be written more in frustration than anything else, but I’ve had some recent discussions that have made me wonder if even those who spend their time thinking/writing/commenting about climate change fully appreciate that it’s a cumulative problem … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, Environmental change, Global warming, Policy | Tagged , , , | 31 Comments

Climate Change Chat for Realists

Steve Dondley, who used to run the Tony Heller, Exposed site has started a youtube channel called Climate Change Chat for Realists. He invites people to spend a couple of hours chatting about various aspects climate change. Previous guests have … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

How to Do Things with Claims

A recent paper introduced the idea of contrarian claim. Expectedly, contrarians raised concerns about it. A recurring one is: what if the claims were true? This note shows how this may lead to a head fake {1}. Let’s look at … Continue reading

Posted in ClimateBall, how-to | 21 Comments

Vulnerability and resilience

I’m starting to better understand why some reasonable people are often concerned about the way in which the impact of extreme weather events are sometimes framed. It’s quite well explained in this recent paper by Myanna Lahsen and Jesse Ribot … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, Environmental change, Global warming, Policy, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 146 Comments

Classification of contrarian claims about climate change

The latest controversy in the climate debate is the publication of a paper on [c]omputer-assisted classification of contrarian claims about climate change. The authors are Travis Coan, Constantine Boussalis, John Cook, and Mirjam Nanko. You may recognise John Cook as … Continue reading

Posted in ClimateBall, Philosophy for Bloggers, Research | Tagged , , , , , | 203 Comments

Decoding the Gurus

Since I haven’t had much to write about, I thought I would briefly highlight a podcast that I’ve really enjoyed listening to. It’s called Decoding the Gurus, and is run by Chris Kavanagh, an anthropologist, and Matt Browne, a psychologist. … Continue reading

Posted in Pseudoscience, Research, Science, Scientists | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments