- JoNova - https://www.joannenova.com.au -

Garth Paltridge offers a solution to CSIRO climate scientists suffering from the “settled” syndrome

Letter to The Mercury published 18/3/15

Keeping quiet about the uncertainty of climate prediction has at last come back to bite the climate research community on its collective bottom.  The obvious question has finally been asked in public – namely, if the science behind disastrous climate change is so settled, why continue to spend money on it?  It is not surprising that CSIRO is now cutting the number of its staff involved in climate research.

May I suggest to the remaining staff that they might profitably spend their time attempting to disprove the theory of disastrous global warming rather than simply finding data to support it?  There is more than enough uncertainty about climate change to give them a very good chance of upsetting what must be one of the world’s greatest scientific applecarts.   Since the upsetting of applecarts is what scientists are paid to do, it shouldn’t be long before they are once again showered with money and roses.  Just think of it – massive reward simply by returning to a research philosophy fundamental to scientific progress.  It is known as scepticism.

Garth Paltridge

Sandy Bay, Tasmania

_______________

Garth Paltridge is a former CSIRO Chief Research Scientist and was Director of the Antarctic Cooperative Research Centre. He wrote The Climate Caper, reviewed here. He’s a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University and Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Antarctic and Southern Oceans Studies (IASOS), which is now called the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Science (IMAS), University of Tasmania. In his career, he worked as an atmospheric physicist, predominantly with CSIRO and briefly with NOAA , and has published more than 100 books and scientific papers. 

All the posts here involving Garth Paltridge.

9.3 out of 10 based on 107 ratings