Friday, November 27, 2009
Editorial: Scientists being human
Skeptics read too much in stolen climate change documents.
From the RoundTable blog
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Hackers recently broke into computers in Britain and stole thousands of documents and e-mails about climate change. If they are caught, the law will deal with them. For now, debate rages over the content of those communications, which have surfaced on the Internet. They reveal something important, just not what global warming deniers claim.
First, what the e-mails and documents do not show: They do not prove that an international conspiracy of climate scientists, environmentalists and liberals is bent on imposing a Luddite agenda on the world, especially America. They also do not contain secret data that undermines climate science.
The scientific theories and immense body of evidence that shows global climate change is happening and that humans contribute to it remains secure.
What the pilfered documents do show is that scientists are human beings, and sometimes not very pleasant ones.
Many people idealize science as a search for truth untainted by human foibles. Those who engage in that search should be Vulcan-like: cold, logical and devoid of emotion.
In reality, scientists can be egotistical, rude and dismissive of people with whom they disagree. Sometimes they word things poorly and use terms that mean something specific inside their clique but something else entirely to a layperson. And sometimes they disagree and bicker about what some data mean.
The writers of the e-mails refer to global warming skeptics as "idiots" and talk about a "trick" to deal with troublesome data. Without context, it sounds bad. Yet who can blame them for feeling hostile toward people who reject good science? As for the "trick," it refers to a clever way to solve a problem, nothing nefarious.
Climate science has open questions even as the basic science is sound. That is true of all scientific fields. In the politically charged debate over climate change, it should surprise no one that public statements from scientists are more cautious and tempered than their private conversations.
Unfortunately, that will not prevent skeptics from jumping to conclusions.
