Acknowledging doubt about climate change:
A former head of the IPCC, the British scientist Robert Watson, notes, “The mistakes all appear to have gone in the direction of making it seem like climate change is more serious by overstating the impact.”
Too many of the creators and guardians of the “consensus” desperately wanted to believe in it. As self-proclaimed defenders of science, they should have brushed up on their Enlightenment. “Doubt is not a pleasant mental state,” said Voltaire, “but certainty is a ridiculous one.” The latest revelations don’t disprove the warming of the 20th century or mean that carbon emissions played no role. But by highlighting the uncertainty of the paleoclimatic data and the models on which alarmism has been built, they constitute a shattering blow to the case for radical, immediate action.
And not a moment too soon, though fortunately, it coincided with an appropriate collapse of confidence in Washington wisdom in general. Unfortunately, it’s clear that many still desperately want to believe. That’s how religions work.
Not just religions but human nature. There is going to be a tendency to interpret data to go along with the prevailing viewpoint and to emphasize the most potentially dire results, especially when funding agencies are involved. I see this in my field all the time, even though our work has no public policy implications.