Diary

Wednesday, 21st April 2010

Jo Nova opens her diary

I often wonder what it must be like for these researchers who are being exposed as unscientific, unprofessional, or worse (who are on the pointy end of my words). I guess they started with small ‘tweaks’ and were emboldened when they were rewarded instead of criticised. I do feel a bit sorry for them, as I watch their fall from grace. Science has been a tool for larger forces. These mediocre scientists were tested in ways that most scientists are never tested. They’ve been given rock-star status, a mission and a red carpet. If science-the-process were not broken, and peer review wasn’t so corrupted, these minor scientists would have been pinged 20 years ago for minor transgressions. They wouldn’t have become famous, but nor would they face the public crushing now. That said, other scientists faced the same temptation and stood up to it. It’s time those with a conscience were treated like the heroes they are.

Sometimes I am just astounded by the gall, the unbounded effrontery. I marvel at how a dubious idea can thrive under the spotlight, almost like it’s hidden by the blazing glare itself. I’m staring at three graphs from James Hansen of NASA. I’m agog. They span 20 odd years, but viewed side by side I can see that the global squiggle of the 1960s and 1970s keeps changing form. The 1970s apparently kept getting warmer for three decades after the 1970s. Surely, I think, this highly suspect pattern has been noticed before? Over the next two weeks and from hundreds of thousands of viewers on sceptical blogs the answer turns out to be probably, ‘No’. It’s just another example of the new form of global bingo for retired scientists — they find great intellectual stimulation and satisfaction in finding new ways to expose the climate change big-scare campaign.

My lifestyle has a surreal nature, and I’m trying to rediscover normality. I have small children so I write most nights from 10pm to 2am, swapping notes with people all over the world. Pulling down peer-reviewed papers from the Journal of International Climatology or some 20-year-old UN report. I marvel that I can do a live radio interview from here with John Batchelor in New York (and one or two million listeners). Within 15 minutes, strangers who heard me are emailing me enthusiastically. A hundred years ago a message from here to the US east coast would have taken weeks.

Jo Nova wrote The Skeptic’s Handbook and blogs at joannenova.com.au

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Lawrence Ayres

April 24th, 2010 6:47am Report this comment

Jo Nova is a true hero. She has been following this scam for ages and has been in the forefront of the awakening. Derided and ridiculed by the "In Crowd" including our own illustrious leader, Krudd, she has persevered and triumphed. In years to come she and the other stalwarts will be thanked for alerting the common folk to the biggest fraud of all time.

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