What is Science?

The previous post here made the point that the IPCC serves much less to inform debate than as a vehicle for any number of political ambitions or prejudices, few of which can be justified on the basis of the IPCC's reports -- assessments of what 'science says'. The...

What is the IPCC?

Apparently some scientists have written some kind of 'Assessment Report'. There's lots of comment about it all over the web, media, and politics, and this probably the last climate blog to comment on the story. But perhaps there has not been as much comment as there...

Battling the Environment

The Institute of Ideas' annual Battle of Ideas meets again next weekend, at the Barbican Centre in London. On the Sunday, I'll be discussing 'What is Environmentalism' with Mark Lynas, Joe Smith, and Caspar Hewett, and with Timandra Harkness in the chair. What is 'new...

Whither 'Extreme Weather'…

David Whitehouse and I have produced a few films for the GWPF on the subject of 'extreme weather'. There are two versions -- one shorter, a second longer with more detail. Short version: Longer version: The videos centre around interviews between David Whitehouse, and...

The Guardian’s ‘Scientists Warn…’ Meme

In today's Observer, Robin McKie channels scientists... Climate change: IPCC issues stark warning over global warming Call to 'stop dithering about fossil fuel cuts' as expert panel warns entire globe is affected This is now part of the ritual established by the...

Australian Elections – a Test of Climate Politics?

Over at the new-format Spiked, Rob Lyons has a short piece on the Australian elections. One of the biggest issues in Saturday’s Australian election will be the ‘carbon tax’. Coalition leader Tony Abbott said this week: ‘If the Coalition wins the election on Saturday,...

A wind of Change – or an Unchanging Windbag?

Amongst a number of things going on in the climate debate, two things caught my eye last week. The first is this video from 350.org 350 want to use the names of prominent climate sceptics, rather than an list of names in alphabetical sequence, to refer to tropical...

Science without an Object

In my post at the Nottingham Uni's Making Science Public blog, I discussed the possibility of an empty consensus: The consensus referred to by Davey and Nuccitelli, then, is what I call a consensus without an object: the consensus can mean whatever the likes of Davey...

Eco Films

World Write -- an educational charity that produces excellent videos made by volunteers in East London -- invited me to appear on their talk show about environmental movies and emotionalism recently. The three films discussed were The Age of Stupid, An Inconvenient...

Tom Curtis Doesn't Understand the 97% Paper

My post over at the Nottingham University 'Making Science Public' blog has ruffled some feathers. This was caused in no small part by Mike Hulme's intervention: Ben Pile is spot on. The “97% consensus” article is poorly conceived, poorly designed and poorly executed....