Judy Curry, a climate scientist at Georgia Tech, has
written a thoughtful essay on credibility in climate science. She has asked that it be discussed on a range of blogs with different perspectives. I am happy to discuss it here. Here is an excerpt:
In their misguided war against the skeptics, the CRU emails reveal that core research values became compromised. Much has been said about the role of the highly
politicized environment in providing an extremely difficult environment in which to conduct science that produces a lot of stress for the scientists. There is no question that this environment is not conducive to science and scientists need more support from their institutions in dealing with it. However, there is nothing in this crazy environment that is worth sacrificing your personal or professional integrity. And when your science receives this kind of attention, it means that the science is really important to the public. Therefore scientists need to do everything possible to make sure that they effectively communicate uncertainty, risk, probability and complexity, and provide a context that includes alternative and competing scientific viewpoints. This is an important responsibility that individual scientists and particularly the institutions need to take very seriously.
Please go and
read the whole thing, and feel free to come back and discuss here.