Weeping in the crysophere

The canary in the coal mine died of old age. And now the IPCC has departed from science. What does it all mean?

I have a long piece over at the Daily Skeptic today, which I’ll post here in a few days. However, I’ve a hell of a lot more to say about it.

Back in the mid 2000s, the major story driving the climate agenda was the imminence of the melting Arctic. The story was a symbol of the wider concern about a looming catastrophe -- a complex constellation of debates that were crystallised by the story of frozen seas and polar bear populations' collapse. People who criticised it were 'deniers'.

I began writing about climate around the same time at this peak hysteria. The melting ice was only symbolic, and the stories from science lacked any historical context, and confined to the satellite era. The charts were being abused, and straight lines drawn through recent data to extrapolate trends, to fuel utterly unhinged speculation in the news media.

That was not science. And its reproduction was not journalism. Pointing it out yielded absolutely furious reaction from academics and scientists.