Against Evidence-Based Policy-Making

I have a post at the Independent on the Battle of Ideas blog about the problems with 'evidence-based policy-making'. The big lie about evidence-based policy-making is that it’s based on evidence. Evidence no more produces and speaks for itself than cars decide their...

Climategate II – Derailing the Re-Railing

So... Part two of the Climategate series is out. Popcorn is flowing. It's too early to say anything that isn't already being said about what the new emails revealed. But, as per usual, what's being said about what the emails do or don't reveal is interesting. Leo...

Not the BEST way to debate climate

<em>Published on Spiked-Online at http://www.spiked-online.com/site/article/11597/</em> In late 2009, not long before the Copenhagen climate-change conference, thousands of private emails by climate researchers based at the University of East Anglia’s...

When the BEST Ain't Good Enough, Make Stuff Up

This story was intended for Spiked-Online, who may be publishing it at some point, but I wanted to get it out a bit sooner. A new scientific study of the Earth's temperature record aimed to rescue climate science's reputation from the aftermath of the 'Climategate'...

Natural History — a Morality Tale

I have no idea about the truth of a story in the Telegraph today. As usual, however, I find that the way the facts -- whatever they are -- are treated is more interesting than the reality. BBC drops Frozen Planet's climate change episode to sell show better abroad The...

Indirect Action

Predictably, the UK's first shale gas fracking plant has become the site of 'direct action'. Once again, a small number of protesters have decided to inflict themselves on the rest of the world. The Guardian reports this morning that, Protesters from the UK's...

Still Subsidising the Argument…

Something of a brouhaha is developing in the debate about the extent of subsidies for renewable energy in the UK. Green energy campaigners are complaining about a proposed cut in the Feed-In Tariff (FIT) scheme which promises owners of domestic solar PV up around...