Roger Pielke, Jr. said… 23
For experts in the climate issue, there is enormous social and peer pressure on what is acceptable to say and who it is acceptable to associate with. My recent experiences are quite similar to Bengtsson’s:
http://www.denverpost.com/carroll/ci_25395242/extreme-weather-censors
Unfortunately, “climate mccarthyism” is not so far off. It has been practiced for a while:
http://thebreakthrough.org/archive/climate_mccarthyism_part_i_joe
The main problem here is not that people have strong views or call people names. It is that the elite in this community – including scientists, journalists, politicians — have endorsed the climate mccarthyism campaign, and are often its most vigorous participants.
Over the long run, of course, good science will win out and policy will muddle through. In the short term however, the community will continue to do itself a lot of damage.
The climate issue is coming to represent a globalized version of the US abortion debates. I tell my grad students that there is no use for policy analysts in the abortion debates. I should follow my own advice!
May 14, 2014 at 4:45 PM