Self-esteem and the misplaced fervour of climate scientists | Digging in the Clay

Now don’t think for a moment this book is saying that self-esteem and self-control are mutually exclusive, certainly they are not. Academic high achievers in climate science (or any discipline) have used plenty of self-control to get to where they are, but the esteem thing has led individuals to be flattered by the attentions of policy-makers and the need to deliver science in support of policy, even if that has meant crossing lines that should be uncomfortable for scientists. The rewards have of course flowed – awards, fame, Nobel Prizes, grant money. For the narcissist, accolades are more addictive than opium.

As the seams of the CAGW story unravel, is it any wonder that those who have thrived on this heady mixture defend their position or react so badly to critiques that do not agree with their expert opinion?

More on the Iconography of IPCC 1990 Figure 7 « Climate Audit

As a mild break from Lewandowsky’s fake data and false results, I am going to revisit IPCC 1990 Figure 7, which I discussed in several Climate Audit posts from 2005-2008 – a topic that was raised at Lewandowsky’s blog by conspiracy theorist John Mashey, who, rather than confronting the problems of Lewandowsky’s use of fake data, recently went into paroxysms of ecstasy at the discovery of an incorrect citation in an early Climate Audit post. An incorrect citation in a Climate Audit post – it doesn’t get much better than that for Mashey. Mashey feverishly extrapolated a simple incorrect reference to belief in a flat world.

Normally, I’d just ignore this sort of deranged commentary...