In this incident, what I see is a field of study that has apparently taken a values-position on a research topic and allowed that values-judgement to bias and taint their work to the point that their findings are knowingly or unknowingly, intentional or unintentionally, skewed to agree with their political advocacy goals and support their value-judgement. The prevailing bias in the field, in this case demography, thus leads to attacks on any research finding contrary to the bias — on moral grounds.
This situation may remind you of another field of study — Climate Science.
Challenging the Establishment
The last instalment (probably) of this mini-series, I go on a picture tour of the N hemisphere looking into big snow and extreme cold events and ask whether these events are down to CO2 warming or could they be linked to the premature death of sunspot cycle 24?
There’s huge snowfall in the Alps this year, and one picture in particular caught my attention.
The Death of Sunspot Cycle 24, Huge Snow and Record Cold
What has this winter been like where you are?
Challenging the Establishment
In my recent post on The Cosmogenic Isotope Record and the Role of The Sun in Shaping Earth’s Climate an interesting discussion developed in comments where there was a fair amount of disagreement among my sceptical colleagues. A few days later, retired Apollo astronaut Phil Chapman sent me this article which lays some of the doubts to rest. Phil never got to fly in space but was mission Scientist on Apollo 14. It is not every day I get the opportunity to publish an article from such a pre-eminent scientist.
Cosmic Rays, Magnetic Fields and Climate Change
The N magnetic pole used to lie in northern Canada, but not any more.
The Sound Of Settled Science
Sorry, Quebec is still with us: Long-lost chunk of Canada found in Australia
Challenging the Establishment
A couple of weeks ago we began a discussion on my blog with the Geological Society of London (GSL) about their published statement on climate change which pretty well follows IPCC orthodoxy. The GSL have participated in the discussion (commenter Polar Scientist). The post is stuck to the top of Energy Matters. We have a series of articles in progress that examine the roles of the Sun’s and the Earth’s magnetic fields in deflecting cosmic rays and how this may impact climate change.
The Cosmogenic Isotope Record and the Role of The Sun in Shaping Earth’s Climate
In 1728, an Inuit paddled this canoe into the estuary of the River Don, Aberdeen, Scotland.
Y2Kyoto: The Planet Has A Fever
Recent Deaths In Texas Attributed To Climate Change
First, let’s pretend we’re back in USDA Hardiness Zone 7. We got pushed into the warmer Zone 8 in the newest map in 2012, but many of those Zone 8 plants have suffered mightily in our cold winters since. As you’re replacing them this spring, concentrate your re-plantings on Zones 7 and 6 plants that will hold up to the cold. Limit the numbers of more tender types that you plant to smaller quantities.
Related: The mercury fell to 2.6 degrees Celsius at Tetulia in Panchagarh on January 8, the lowest temperature ever recorded in the country’s history
The Sound Of Settled Science
A new study has found that parasites carried by rats were probably not behind the outbreak of plague in Europe.
h/t nv53
The Sound Of Settled Science
A new study led by geologists at the University of Johannesburg found that compounds in the Hypatia stone are distinct from anything discovered in the solar system. The researchers therefore conclude that parts of the rock formed before the solar system, and if these compounds are not presolar, the prevailing idea that the solar system formed from a nebula of homogenous gas is called into question.
Bird Brains
Raptors, including the whistling kite, are intentionally spreading grass fires in northern Australia, the paper argues. The reason: to flush out prey and feast.
The Sound Of Settled Science
‘Economists Say’ is used to coat liberal policy positions with a veneer of scientific certitude.
h/t TLH
Y2Kyoto: End Of Snow
We Are All Treaty Immigrants
The discovery of two infants, ceremonially buried by a previously unknown population of ancient humans in Alaska around 11,500 years ago, offers stunning new clarity to the story of how humans came to inhabit the Americas, according to a new scientific paper.
By confirming the theory that Indigenous Americans are descended from Asians, the find also threatens to inflame a cultural controversy that has long troubled the study of human origins in the New World.
Published This Month In The Journal Of The Blindingly Obvious
These results indicate that higher economic status can offset lower physical attractiveness in men much more easily than in women. Neither raters’ BMI nor age influenced this effect for females rating male attractiveness. This difference explains many features of human mating behavior and may pose a barrier for male engagement in low-consumption lifestyles.
The Sound Of Agenda Science
The World Health Organization’s cancer agency says a common weedkiller is “probably carcinogenic.” The scientist leading that review knew of fresh data showing no cancer link – but he never mentioned it and the agency did not take it into account.
Read it all. Because you won’t hear about it elsewhere.
h/t nold
Cloud cover and the creation there of.
Last week WUWT laid out some breadcrumbs. Yesterday, we got back home.
The implications of the study suggests that the mechanism can have affected:
The climate changes observed during the 20th century
The coolings and warmings of around 2°C that have occurred repeatedly over the past 10,000 years, as the Sun’s activity and the cosmic ray influx have varied.
The much larger variations of up to 10°C occurring as the Sun and Earth travel through the Galaxy visiting regions with varying numbers of exploding stars.
This should be fun.
Anthony bounces the bait.
What Would We Do Without Experts?
By its fruit the tree is known, and the tree of expertise hasn’t been doing well lately. As Nassim Taleb recently observed: “With psychology papers replicating less than 40%, dietary advice reversing after 30 years of fatphobia, macroeconomic analysis working worse than astrology, the appointment of Bernanke who was less than clueless of the risks, and pharmaceutical trials replicating at best only 1/3 of the time, people are perfectly entitled to rely on their own ancestral instinct and listen to their grandmothers.”
We’ve noticed.
The Sound Of Settled Science
Females’ Eggs May Actively Select Certain Sperm: New evidence challenges the oldest law of genetics.
What Would We Do Without Peer Review?
There needs to be adequate due diligence, especially when selecting and approaching potential peer reviewers. This shouldn’t need to be said, but the fake peer review cases have thrown up many instances where this hasn’t occurred. I was shocked back in 2012 when the first cases came to light, and now that over 500 retractions due to fake reviews have been reported by Retraction Watch, I’m quite stunned.
h/t Rolf
The Sound Of Settled Science
This essay by Rupert Darwall explores the expressions of public certainty by climate scientists versus the private expressions of uncertainty, in context of a small Workshop on Climate organized by the American Physical Society (APS). I was privileged to participate in this workshop, which included three climate scientists who support the climate change consensus and three climate scientists who do not–all of whom were questioned by a panel of distinguished physicists. – Judith Curry