For it would appear that some climate scientists are remarkably ignorant about what is going on. And this rather worries me: the idea that people who quite literally do not know what they are talking about making government policy is scary.
I present as my example this from Sir David King, until recently the chief scientific advisor to the UK Government. There are various misunderstandings of how economics and finance work in his expressed views but this is particularly horrible:
He also believes it is imperative to fund other major infrastructure projects, such as the Severn Barrage, which would provide three gigawatts of electricity and still run in 200 years with minimum maintenance.
“The problem is that the longest time an economist will work on investment returns is 25 years. We need to look at taking a much longer view. What is missing is clear direction from number 10 and 11.”
The problem with this is that it is entirely nonsense. The report by economists into that Severn Barrage is here. You will see there, at the top of page two, that the costs and benefits are projected out to 120 years: the rough lifespan of the asset if it is ever built.
The reason the economists have downvoted the plan is not because they’re not looked out beyond 25 years: it is because they have. They’ve looked at it and found that all possible variations of the project lose money. All are more expensive than not building it and doing something else instead.
I’m entirely happy to take climatologists’ word for it about climate. Hydrologists’ about water, cloud specialists about clouds and so on but I do object vehemently when the experts on those same subjects decide to try pronouncing on a subject they’re ignorant of, economics. As Sir David clearly has done here.
19 Jun
Perhaps We Shouldn’t Listen To The Climate Scientists About Climate Change
Like everything else, climate-change-denyer-ultra-conservatives are limiting American research and development, and placing this country at a disadvantage technologically. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-the-us-falling-behind-in-clean-energy
But, of course, these same people are going to take the anti-science position that regarding Chu’s analysis and quotation, he’s is just an Obama lacky, and hence everything he says is just communist propaganda.
@Liberal1 (objectivity):
ROFLMAO,
Yeah, like all the big bucks CA made on embryonic stem cell research.
The only thing the government is even half assed good at researching is how to kill people and blow things up. Even at that they overspend.
When it comes to being suckered by pseudo-science like AGW we can only hope we’re last. Go play with your mercury laden light bulbs.
More news on man-made warming. And it’s more factual than anything from the Gorebull Warmmonger crowd:
http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/man-made-warming-blamed-for-disappearing-bird-populations-t9119.html