The CRU has been exonerated of manipulating data or hiding information that challenged the consensus on global warming.
If they had, though, it would certainly be understandable. As with any issue that deals with a lot of motivated cognition, climate skeptics will seize on any data that will support their disbelief out of the sea of all the data that confronts it, and not revise their confidence back down if the data is retracted or shown to be false. A single study contradicting the consensus at low P-value would be no problem in a rational world, but it’s a social liability in our own. But no bigger a liability than being found hiding information. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
The CRU has been exonerated of manipulating data or hiding information that challenged the consensus on global warming.
By whom? is the important question. Having read some of the incriminating emails and the infamous harryreadme.txt I certainly don’t exonerate them.
If they had, though, it would certainly be understandable. As with any issue that deals with a lot of motivated cognition, climate skeptics will seize on any data that will support their disbelief out of the sea of all the data that confronts it, and not revise their confidence back down if the data is retracted or shown to be false.
If this is the case, I wonder why legitimate scientists never caught on to that idea in the past – defeat the skeptics by hiding data and the details of scientific practices from them. This seems 180 degrees from reality.
Creationists are often mentioned in this context – transparent scientific practices have failed to persuade them. However, this is simply because creationists are in possession of a memeplex that renders them immune to reason; hiding data and scientific information from the public would only embolden them, besides giving more rational people reason to doubt the veracity of Darwinism.
Even if there were any substance to the idea that transparency in science empowers skeptics, that is vastly outweighed by the hazards involved in permitting these people to recommend massive social and economic policy changes, without their being subject to scrutiny from outsiders (NB: peer review is not incorruptible, as the climategate emails have revealed). They can hardly claim to be minding their own business!
By the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, the Independent Climate Change Review, the International Science Assessment Panel, Pennsylvania State University, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and the United States Department of Commerce, as stated in the article I already linked to.
If this is the case, I wonder why legitimate scientists never caught on to that idea in the past – defeat the skeptics by hiding data and the details of scientific practices from them. This seems 180 degrees from reality.
Science is rarely so closely connected to social policy; whether public officials accept that evolution is true mainly determines whether kids get taught about evolution. Whether public officials accept anthropogenic climate change determines whether we attempt to do anything about it.
I doubt that legitimate scientists in any field have ever systematically refused transparency in order to protect their favored theories, and it’s certainly not the case with climate change research, but it’s not as if there’s been a historical shortage of scientists who don’t play their cards straight. I’m simply saying that this is a case where there’s a particularly obvious motive.
No, when I said legitimate scientists in any field, I meant the body of scientists in a legitimate field. There have certainly been scientists who have earned their degrees legitimately who systematically refused transparency, but I do not think there has been any legitimate field of science where the practitioners in general had a systematic tendency to refuse transparency. I apologize if my wording was unclear.
The CRU has been exonerated of manipulating data or hiding information that challenged the consensus on global warming.
If they had, though, it would certainly be understandable. As with any issue that deals with a lot of motivated cognition, climate skeptics will seize on any data that will support their disbelief out of the sea of all the data that confronts it, and not revise their confidence back down if the data is retracted or shown to be false. A single study contradicting the consensus at low P-value would be no problem in a rational world, but it’s a social liability in our own. But no bigger a liability than being found hiding information. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Noticably more damned if you do, insofar as actually being found hiding information also damages your credibility among the rest of the population.
By whom? is the important question. Having read some of the incriminating emails and the infamous harryreadme.txt I certainly don’t exonerate them.
If this is the case, I wonder why legitimate scientists never caught on to that idea in the past – defeat the skeptics by hiding data and the details of scientific practices from them. This seems 180 degrees from reality.
Creationists are often mentioned in this context – transparent scientific practices have failed to persuade them. However, this is simply because creationists are in possession of a memeplex that renders them immune to reason; hiding data and scientific information from the public would only embolden them, besides giving more rational people reason to doubt the veracity of Darwinism.
Even if there were any substance to the idea that transparency in science empowers skeptics, that is vastly outweighed by the hazards involved in permitting these people to recommend massive social and economic policy changes, without their being subject to scrutiny from outsiders (NB: peer review is not incorruptible, as the climategate emails have revealed). They can hardly claim to be minding their own business!
By the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, the Independent Climate Change Review, the International Science Assessment Panel, Pennsylvania State University, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and the United States Department of Commerce, as stated in the article I already linked to.
Science is rarely so closely connected to social policy; whether public officials accept that evolution is true mainly determines whether kids get taught about evolution. Whether public officials accept anthropogenic climate change determines whether we attempt to do anything about it.
I doubt that legitimate scientists in any field have ever systematically refused transparency in order to protect their favored theories, and it’s certainly not the case with climate change research, but it’s not as if there’s been a historical shortage of scientists who don’t play their cards straight. I’m simply saying that this is a case where there’s a particularly obvious motive.
So what you’re saying is that no true scientist has ever refused transparency in order to protect favored theories.
No, when I said legitimate scientists in any field, I meant the body of scientists in a legitimate field. There have certainly been scientists who have earned their degrees legitimately who systematically refused transparency, but I do not think there has been any legitimate field of science where the practitioners in general had a systematic tendency to refuse transparency. I apologize if my wording was unclear.