Sunday 4 March 2012

Michael Mann: Climate sceptics are "a few marginal individuals largely affiliated with special interests"

The warmist National Public Radio is doing its best to promote Michael Mann´s book The Hockey Stick And The Climate Wars.

Considering Mann´s role in Climategate, it is rather amusing to hear him speak about those, who "don´t play by the rules":

But unfortunately, scientists are ill-equipped to deal with those who, like I said, don't play by the rules. They are more than happy to make disingenuous and sometimes, frankly, quite dishonest allegations and arguments against the scientists.
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And we can't play by the rules of knife-fighting ourselves, because, you know, science is about being honest, about following the data and your hypotheses, where they lead you, by changing your, you know, conclusions when led to do so by the data.

So we can't engage in the dishonest tactics that those looking to discredit us may be willing to engage in. But we can try to become better communicators of the science, try to find novel ways to explain to the public the fact that the science is solid, that this is a real problem. We can't just bury our heads in the sands and pretend it doesn't exist. And there is a good-faith debate to be had about what to do about this problem.

But there can no longer be a good-faith debate about the reality of the problem, and unfortunately, there are still those who are trying to have that debate.
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And so I think we have to get away from this idea that in matters of science, it's, you know, that we should treat discussions of climate change as if there are two equal sides, like we often do in the political discourse. In matters of science, there is an equal merit to those who are denying the reality of climate change who are a few marginal individuals largely affiliated with special interests versus the, you know, thousands of scientists around the world. U.S. National Academy of Sciences founded by Abraham Lincoln back in the 19th century, all the national academies of all of the major industrial nations around the world have all gone on record as stating clearly that humans are warming the planet and changing the climate through our continued burning of fossil fuels.

Read and listen to the entire interview here

PS

Here is an account of how the great scientist and humanist Mann treats his critics.

2 comments:

A K Haart said...

Mann should be more careful, he could end up carrying the can if political sentiments turn.

Scott said...

Mann must live in the academic equivalent of a toilet. After a time, occupants don't notice the smell.