Saturday, February 20, 2010

Scientists stuff it up

I fully agree with Tim Flannery on this one. As an exercise is clear communication the scientific case for global warming has been a complete disaster. 

Environmentalist Tim Flannery has blamed scientists for a rise in climate scepticism, saying they had not clearly explained the science to a ''confused Australian public''.


Professor Flannery, a long-time climate campaigner, told The Age that scientists needed to get back into the community and explain the link between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.


He said a lack of simple communication to the public about the science of climate change meant sceptics had been able to fill the void with misinformation.


Professor Flannery also supported comments by Climate Change Minister Penny Wong that there was a concerted world effort by sceptics to stop action on global warming.


''We've got a big problem with the gap between scientific information and a very confused public here in Australia,'' Professor Flannery said.


''The only way to solve that is to listen to the Australian people's questions and talk to them about it, and they [the scientists] have been rather poor at doing that.''
Here's some suggestions for improvement:

1) Stop the exaggerations , Prof Flannery can take the lead here.

2) Check major reports for accuracy.You know, like the IPCC report.

3) Separate the politics from the science. An ETS is policy, that's what politicians do. If you propose policy expect to be treated with the same degree of skepticism as any other politician.

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