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Fox News lost in space
A paper published in a second-tier, online-only journal is, once again, receiving grossly disproportionate attention because it reaches a conclusion attractive to global-warming denialists:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/29/data-cooling-on-global-warming/
I'm familiar with the author's work - for starters, he's a creationist, which raises a big red flag right off the bat. He has a long history of questionable assertions on the subject of climate sensitivity. He is among the small number of legitimate climate scientists who, for a variety of reasons, disagree with the 97% who have concluded that anthropogenic global warming is happening.
Spencer is one of the few "climate skeptics" that have real engagement with climate science - he does actual analysis of actual data. For the rest of the skeptics, who are desperate for any shred of scientific authority, this is quite exciting. However, that's a long way from saying his theory is correct.
His work, suggesting that the earth is radiating more heat than climate models predict, contradicts numerous studies using multiple approaches that are, even on an individual basis, much more direct and more relevant to the global warming question. It is only from total ignorance of existing research that you could suggest that current models have "collapsed".
Individual scientists working within the academic community do have the (unfortunate) ability to promote truly crazy ideas and get them published - witness Peter Duesberg, a Ph.D. molecular biologist who still denies that HIV causes AIDS. This is the nature of academic freedom. What is really discouraging, though, is for a "fair and balanced" news organization to ignore hundreds of satellite-based studies that have clearly established the earth's ongoing heat accumulation in favor of one analysis that contradicts it. Just another sign that there is no accountability left in journalism.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/29/data-cooling-on-global-warming/
I'm familiar with the author's work - for starters, he's a creationist, which raises a big red flag right off the bat. He has a long history of questionable assertions on the subject of climate sensitivity. He is among the small number of legitimate climate scientists who, for a variety of reasons, disagree with the 97% who have concluded that anthropogenic global warming is happening.
Spencer is one of the few "climate skeptics" that have real engagement with climate science - he does actual analysis of actual data. For the rest of the skeptics, who are desperate for any shred of scientific authority, this is quite exciting. However, that's a long way from saying his theory is correct.
His work, suggesting that the earth is radiating more heat than climate models predict, contradicts numerous studies using multiple approaches that are, even on an individual basis, much more direct and more relevant to the global warming question. It is only from total ignorance of existing research that you could suggest that current models have "collapsed".
Individual scientists working within the academic community do have the (unfortunate) ability to promote truly crazy ideas and get them published - witness Peter Duesberg, a Ph.D. molecular biologist who still denies that HIV causes AIDS. This is the nature of academic freedom. What is really discouraging, though, is for a "fair and balanced" news organization to ignore hundreds of satellite-based studies that have clearly established the earth's ongoing heat accumulation in favor of one analysis that contradicts it. Just another sign that there is no accountability left in journalism.
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They all think alike.
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