Category Archives: Philosophy for Bloggers

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 , , , , | 139 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

Across the lines

Posted on May 31, 2020 by

I haven’t really come across anything to write about recently. I’ve been thinking a bit about models and how they are used to inform decision making. I’ve been thinking a bit about the use of scientific advice. I also had … Continue reading →

Posted in advocacy, Personal, Philosophy for Bloggers, Policy, Politics | Tagged , | 20 Comments

Outgoing longwave radiation

Posted on April 30, 2020 by

Something that often strikes me is that when I think I understand something quite well, there often turns out to be an aspect that I haven’t understood particularly well. I sometimes think that this is can be an important thing … Continue reading →

Posted in Global warming, Greenhouse effect, Philosophy for Bloggers, The philosophy of science, The scientific method, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 37 Comments

Scenario use in climate research

Posted on April 23, 2020 by

If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you will be aware that I’ve commented on a number of occasions about the whole RCP8.5 issue. You may also be aware that one of the chief protagonists in that whole … Continue reading →

Posted in ClimateBall, Contrarian Matrix, Philosophy for Bloggers, Roger Pielke Jr, Scientists, The philosophy of science | Tagged , , , , , | 44 Comments

Chanting to the choir?

Posted on April 22, 2020 by

Before I head off to the office (or, more correctly, go from watching the news in the living room, to the dining room table) I thought I would briefly mention a recent paper that has analysed blog comments. It’s by … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Global warming, Philosophy for Bloggers, Scientists | Tagged , , , , , | 70 Comments

Seven years

Posted on April 13, 2020 by

Once again, WordPress has reminded me that this is the anniversary of me starting this blog. It’s been going for seven years now. If you’re interested in numbers, I’ve written about 1080 post. There have also been about 20 Guest … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal, Philosophy for Bloggers | Tagged , | 14 Comments