Category Archives: advocacy

Scientific Shenanigans

An anonymous stan of Junior challenged me to opine on a recent Climateball episode. While thinking about what to say in response, another kerfuffle emerged. So allow me to explain why outrage porn over scientific shenanigans leaves me cold in … Continue reading

Posted in advocacy, ClimateBall, Comedy, Philosophy for Bloggers, Scientists | Tagged , , , , , , , | 71 Comments

The Bad Boy of Science

I realise that this was mentioned in the comments of my previous post, but I thought I would just advertise that I spent a bit of time last Friday chatting with Sam Gregson, who runs the Bad Boy of Science … Continue reading

Posted in advocacy, Climate change, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , | 39 Comments

Giving up on 1.5C?

One of the talking points of COP27 is giving up, or compromising, on the 1.5oC target. The main reason is simply that the remaining carbon budget is very small. Essentially, to stop global warming requires getting human emissions to (net) … Continue reading

Posted in advocacy, Climate change, Global warming, Policy | Tagged , , , , | 33 Comments

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

Speaking out

Bill McGuire, who is Professor Emeritus of Geophysical & Climate Hazards at UCL, has written a post suggesting that climate scientists should speak out more and that they should Come down off the fence and choose the path you know, … Continue reading

Posted in advocacy, Climate change, Climate sensitivity, Scientists | Tagged , , , , | 85 Comments

Some reflections on (corona) truth wars

I wrote this in response to a paper by Jaron Harambam called The Corona Truth Wars, published in a journal called Science and Technology Studies. I submitted it to this journal but it was (desk?) rejected because they felt that … Continue reading

Posted in advocacy, Climate change, Philosophy for Bloggers, Policy, Scientists, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , | 59 Comments

The is-ought distinction

There was an interesting panel discussion, as part of Andy Revkin’s #SustainWhat webcast, involving Naomi Oreskes and Mike Hulme. Andy was highlighting it because of what Naomi Oreskes was saying about people staying in their lanes. There can be a … Continue reading

Posted in advocacy, Philosophy for Bloggers, physicists, Policy, Scientists, The philosophy of science | Tagged , , , , , , | 55 Comments

Do lockdowns work?

Preamble: I wrote this post for another site that was considering myth-busting type posts, which is why it’s written in the third person. However, the myth-busting part of the site never really took off, so I thought I would post … Continue reading

Posted in advocacy, Philosophy for Bloggers, Research | Tagged , , , , | 22 Comments

Honest brokering

I thought I might follow up on my previous post, with a brief discussion of an article by Sonia Sodha called [t]he anti-lockdown scientists’ cause would be more persuasive if it weren’t so half-baked. I found it interesting partly because … Continue reading

Posted in advocacy, Climate change, ClimateBall, Roger Pielke Jr, Scientists | Tagged , , , , , | 88 Comments

Wilfrid’s Bro

Sometimes people message me on teh tweeter. Here’s a chat from this summer, with a friend I will call Wilfrid. His lines start with a Capital, mine are lower case and in italic. * * * Willard help, my brother … Continue reading

Posted in advocacy, We Are Science | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments