Comments on: Skepticism’s Permanence – A Political Reality http://cstpr.colorado.edu/prometheus/?p=4648 Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:36:51 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: tomfid http://cstpr.colorado.edu/prometheus/?p=4648&cpage=1#comment-11186 tomfid Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:46:47 +0000 http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/?p=4648#comment-11186 There's a certain irony about this. If policy is not robust, emissions follow BAU (assuming no other feedbacks - always a bad idea). Eventually skepticism goes away or dominates because we get to find out if the models were right. If policy is robust, emissions follow some other trajectory, and it remains popular to question whether climate is stable because of successful policy, or because GHGs never mattered in the first place. There’s a certain irony about this. If policy is not robust, emissions follow BAU (assuming no other feedbacks – always a bad idea). Eventually skepticism goes away or dominates because we get to find out if the models were right.

If policy is robust, emissions follow some other trajectory, and it remains popular to question whether climate is stable because of successful policy, or because GHGs never mattered in the first place.

]]> By: Jim Clarke http://cstpr.colorado.edu/prometheus/?p=4648&cpage=1#comment-11145 Jim Clarke Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:41:28 +0000 http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/?p=4648#comment-11145 "Rather than a stodgy old field with a few loose ends to tie up, climate science is increasingly looking like a Rube Goldberg device." That's because the 'science is settled' argument is and always has been a myth. Climate science is extremely complex and, in many ways, poorly understood, but it is not a complex description of a simple process (a Rube Goldberg device). The description is complex because climate is very complex. The reality of climate science, complexity and skepticism has not changed in 20 years. What seems to be changing is number of people who are finally realizing what that reality is, much to the chagrin of the majority that propagated the myth. “Rather than a stodgy old field with a few loose ends to tie up, climate science is increasingly looking like a Rube Goldberg device.”

That’s because the ’science is settled’ argument is and always has been a myth. Climate science is extremely complex and, in many ways, poorly understood, but it is not a complex description of a simple process (a Rube Goldberg device). The description is complex because climate is very complex.

The reality of climate science, complexity and skepticism has not changed in 20 years. What seems to be changing is number of people who are finally realizing what that reality is, much to the chagrin of the majority that propagated the myth.

]]> By: stan http://cstpr.colorado.edu/prometheus/?p=4648&cpage=1#comment-11143 stan Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:28:29 +0000 http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/?p=4648#comment-11143 "Climate policy should be robust to skepticism, because skepticism is not going away." Nor should it. “Climate policy should be robust to skepticism, because skepticism is not going away.”

Nor should it.

]]> By: Paul Biggs http://cstpr.colorado.edu/prometheus/?p=4648&cpage=1#comment-11142 Paul Biggs Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:00:52 +0000 http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/?p=4648#comment-11142 Insightful as ever. Insightful as ever.

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