Category Archives: Philosophy for Bloggers

Namecalling in science

Posted on November 8, 2020 by

A couple of days ago, I retweeted an article with the title [t]he trouble with ‘Covid denialism’. I thought the article was reasonable, but some objected to the use of ‘denialism’. There are a number of very credible scientists who … Continue reading →

Posted in ClimateBall, Personal, Philosophy for Bloggers, The scientific method, We Are Science | Tagged , , , | 170 Comments

Evidence-led?

Posted on September 19, 2020 by

I was blocked on Twitter by Zion Lights after I, somewhat snarkily, retweeted one of her tweets. Zion Lights is the UK director of Michael Shellenberger’s organisation, Environmental Progress. Zion Lights has had a bit of a rough week, having … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Philosophy for Bloggers, physicists, Research, Science | Tagged , , , , , | 156 Comments

The Auditing Problem

Posted on September 18, 2020 by

Auditing leads to an open problem. Let’s try to specify it as lightly as possible. Technical notes follow the main text, they’re tagged using curly brackets, like {this note}. §1. Alvaro’s Story Alvaro wrote a piece called What’s Wrong with … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy for Bloggers, Research, Science, Scientisits, Sound Science (tm), The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , , , | 28 Comments

Matt Ridley – How Innovation Works

Posted on August 23, 2020 by

Despite having been a regular critic of Matt Ridley’s Lukewarmerism, I’ve just finished reading his new book How Innovation Works. I actually quite enjoyed the book and found it quite an easy read. Ridley is clearly a very convincing writer. … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy for Bloggers, Policy | Tagged , , , | 89 Comments

Climate sensitivity – narrowing the range

Posted on July 22, 2020 by

Since I’ve discussed climate sensitivity on a number of occasions, it seems worth highlighting the new paper that assesses climate sensitivity using multiple lines of evidence. The authors include many who will be familiar to my regular readers. The key … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Climate sensitivity, Philosophy for Bloggers, Research, Science | Tagged , , , , , | 98 Comments

Deep Adaptation

Posted on July 20, 2020 by

Something I haven’t paid much attention to recently is the Deep Adaptation arguments. I think it originated with a paper by Jem Bendell. The reason it’s of current interest is because of a critique called the faulty science, doomism, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Philosophy for Bloggers, Policy | Tagged , , , , | 54 Comments

Cancel culture?

Posted on July 9, 2020 by

The talking point in social media at the moment (in my bubble, at least) seems to be the letter on justice and open debate, signed by 150 luminaries. It’s not been universally well-received. There was some quite measured comments in … Continue reading →

Posted in advocacy, Personal, Philosophy for Bloggers | Tagged , , , , | 399 Comments

A modelling manifesto?

Posted on June 27, 2020 by

There’s a recent Nature comment lead by Andrea Saltelli called Five ways to ensure that models serve society: a manifesto. Gavin Schmnidt has already posted a Twitter thread about it. I largerly agree with Gavin’s points and thought I would … Continue reading →

Posted in ClimateBall, Philosophy for Bloggers, Research, Scientists, Sound Science (tm), The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , | 73 Comments

Extreme event attribution and the nature-culture duality

Posted on June 19, 2020 by

I’ve been reading a paper by Shannon Osaka and Rob Bellamy called Weather in the Anthropocene: Extreme event attribution and a modelled nature–culture divide. I’ve written about event attribution before, and I’m largely in favour of the storyline approach; given … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Environmental change, Global warming, Philosophy for Bloggers, Severe Events, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , | 138 Comments

Mitigation, adaptation, suffering

Posted on June 6, 2020 by

I’ve been struggling, more than usual, to find things to write about. Everything seems to just be a bit of a mess. The pandemic itself, how it’s been handled in some cases, and the protests in the USA, especially how … Continue reading →

Posted in advocacy, Climate change, Climate sensitivity, Philosophy for Bloggers | Tagged , , | 41 Comments