Richard Dawkins' pro-am clash in the boffins’ blogosphere - Times Online

...Mann was investigated by his employer, Penn State University, and cleared. As a first study, said the report, the data were a sound starting point.

Not that his detractors care: a funny but nasty little spoof song about him on YouTube has drawn more than 500,000 hits. It shows Mann’s head on a ludicrous dancing cartoon body, to the words: “Michael Mann thinks he’s so smart, totally inventing the hockey-stick chart ... I hope you do a long hard time, because what you did was such a crime.” This is just one example of a massive campaign of abuse against Mann. His findings may or may not have been watertight but the football chant din caused by sceptics has tended to drown out rational debate.

Improving How Scientists Communicate About Climate Change [Fraud] « Climate Progress

[Susan Joy Hassol] Clearly state the settled scientific conclusions. Do not overdo “weasel words” and caveats. We know it is warming and we know it is due primarily to human activity. Say so. Saying human activity “contributes” to global warming makes it sound like human activity might be only a minor contributor. It would be more accurate to say “most of the warming….”

Clearly distinguish settled science from the details on which scientists frequently focus their attention. Avoid using the word “debate” in connection with climate change. It reinforces the mistaken notion that there is a debate about basic issues that are settled science. When referring to the whole issue, try something like “the urgent challenge of human-induced climate disruption” rather than “climate debate.”

Polar bear is a ‘new’ species - Times Online

Polar bears may have come into existence only 150,000 years ago, when trapped brown bears had to adapt to an ice age
...
It means polar bears have already survived a global warming that affected the northern hemisphere from 130,000 to 115,000 years ago, when the Greenland ice sheet and the Arctic ice cap were smaller than now. Professor Chris Stringer, of the Natural History Museum in London, an expert in ice ages, said: “Early polar bears would not have had all the specialisations of modern animals and we know nothing about their behaviour.

“Living through a warm period back then does not mean they are resilient to climate change now.”

‘Urricanes ‘ardly Hever ‘appen | The SPPI Blog

When I recently testified in front of Congress and mentioned that, if anything, one would expect fewer and less intense hurricanes after “global warming”, Tom Karl, another Climategate emailer who is also director of the National Climatic Data Center, tried to correct me by producing a graph which – to his horror and my delight – showed that for 150 years there had been no trend – no trend at all – in landfalling Atlantic hurricanes. My own record only went back 100 years.

However, Karl then said there had been a noticeable increase in lesser storms over the past 30 years. I corrected him on this, too, by pointing out the obvious: that for 30 years we have had satellites, and they are able to identify far more storms from above than previous human observations from below.