… and a lot of conservatives and right-wing ‘libertarians’ are getting very excited. It seems a hacker has obtained the private email correspondence of researchers who were looking at AGW. The candid comments found therein (always quoted out of context by said conservatives/libertarians, of course) are supposedly further proof that claims about AGW are merely a hoax, and that the science is a scam.
From what I can see of the emails, they prove no such thing. What they do demonstrate, however, is that scientists, and science itself, are fallible, and subject to the vicissitudes of personality and politics (broadly speaking), just like every other aspect of life. To construct an entire conspiracy theory out of this decades-old fact is to therefore be clutching at straws.
None of this ought to be news for the conservatarians, or anybody else, for that matter, except the former have an irrational fear and hatred of all things that smell even vaguely pomo. Because of this, some fairly basic points, such as science being fallible, or occurring within a context that is full of contingencies, are likely to be new and unfamiliar, despite these points having been made, in different ways, some time ago.
Indeed, Kuhn argued long ago that ‘more than one theoretical construction can always be placed upon a given collection data’, and that ‘personal and historical accident is always a formative ingredient of the beliefs espoused by a given scientific community at a given time’.
Note also that, whatever the purported sins of these AGW scientists from East Bumcrack, their scientific failings are utterly trivial when compared to the shenanigans of Big Pharma, for instance, about whom the conservatarians are entirely silent.
We can expect to see plenty more about this on the blogosphere. (Larvatus Prodeo has a thread here — the comments are interesting, though the post itself pulls its punches, IMHO). This is what constitutes a scientific scandal when an entire generation of computer-literate conservatarians have been getting their ‘science’ from Andrew Bolt and Ann Coulter.
#1 by Scott Bridges on 23 November 2009 - 2:51 pm
Quote
I’ve been very busy the past few days so haven’t seen much of this email material, but what I’ve seen hasn’t been the kind of stuff that’s going to help build trust in science. It’s a shame that one set of actions in one small section of the scientific community has given certain trollumnists a free kick and helped them to smear the entirety of climate science.
#2 by David F on 23 November 2009 - 2:58 pm
Quote
Granted, but how much trust ought there to be in any case? I’m not suggesting these characters were doing best-practice scientifical stuff, but it’s not unusual for scientists to be biased toward their own pet theories, or for researchers to seek out positive evidence that supports their theories at the expense of the negative stuff that doesn’t. Journals in the health sciences, for instance, may not even publish a negative result. The trollumnists here have gotten themselves over-excited about a point that’s trivial and apparently well-known to everybody except them.
#3 by Mr Pastry on 23 November 2009 - 3:35 pm
Quote
My thermometer goes up and down like a yoyo every day, why aren’t the politicians doing something about it.
#4 by Ant Rogenous on 23 November 2009 - 3:52 pm
Quote
This method of gathering and disseminating information would sound eerily familiar to Andrew Bolt and those of his ilk if they had an iota of self-awareness between them.
#5 by stewie on 23 November 2009 - 7:55 pm
Quote
Yes hacked by patriots! The tree of liberty’s roots need fresh blood! The warmenistas are busted, their confabulatory conspiracy made plain. The islamofascists, single mothers and the gays too and they all want to take my gun’s off me – the commie nazi bastards. It’s all there, Michael Moore, Al Gore, Britney Spears, Osama Bin Laden, the NZ coach of the Wallabies (name cannot be spoken) they’re all on the cc lists. Numerous decades of research on publicly available data notwithstanding, this is damning proof! – of the power of science to overcome individual peccadilloes of researchers in order to compile a fairly accurate picture of what’s happening. Are you 100% certain? No, but pretty confident. Me I’m happy betting on the long shot that benefits my conservative powerbroker mates and all the businesses and assets they own. But that’s alright ‘cos I’m a rebel (cue banjo playing dixie), yee–haa! yeah a rebel against all this socialism and informed debate and using my god given brain to think critically, Amen.
#6 by stace on 24 November 2009 - 3:53 pm
Quote
Blimey. Forgot where I was for a moment and read Piers Akerman’s demented diatribe on the climate hoax emails in the Terror – what a gibbering fat turkey wipe that guy is.
Sometimes I want to give up and say, Yes. You’re right. We were secretly plotting to replace your 4WDs with vegetables carriages. Yes, we’ve been lied to for years – humans actually breathe carbon dioxide, not oxygen. Yes. The sun is very hot. Gosh. Your crayon graph is just, well it’s brilliant.
#7 by Molesworth on 26 November 2009 - 11:47 am
Quote
I think the most shocking revelation in this saga is the scientists are informal and not always polite. They are, in fact, people. Who knew?
#8 by Rah on 27 November 2009 - 6:08 pm
Quote
Interesting to note what happens when scientists actually do release basic observational data relating to climate change to sceptics. The sceptics, just use it to lie, as recently happened in NZ. Goes to show exactly why UK scientists are sick of releasing data to people who havent a friken idea… as the saying goes, a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing…