I recommend this post: “Openness & Government“, Shane Deichman, at MountainRunner, 26 July 2008 (hat tip to Zenpundit) — Relevant and excellent material, including a gem of a quote. Excerpt:
One of the major opportunities for enhancing the effectiveness of our national scientific and technical effort and the efficiency of Government management of research and development lies in the improvement of our ability to communicate information about current research efforts and the results of past efforts.
President John F. Kennedy’s opening statement in the “Weinberg Report“, 10 January 1963
President Kennedy’s vision was consistent with these principles, and a key question asked by Dr. Weinberg’s panel was “How should Government agencies deal with information, other than its own reports, that is relevant to its mission?” In “Part 4: SUGGESTIONS: THE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES”, the Weinberg Report says:
- “The Federal Government … must maintain an effective internal communication system; and it must see that an effective overall communication system is maintained”, and …
- “Since information is part of research, Government must assume responsibilities even toward those parts of the non-Government system that do not overlap with its own, simply because Government has assumed such heavy responsibilities toward research.”
One of the great public policy issues of our day is global warming: magnitude, duration, causes, effects, and mitigation. Although largely government-funded, it appears that that climate science is not run according to President Kennedy’s high ideals. Concealment of data and models is very common in climate science, making replication and criticism almost impossible.
Here are descriptions of some current efforts — in a long and only partially successfully multi-year effort — to force public release of key data and calculations. Appeals to major journals that they enforce their own standards, freedom of information act requests, pressure from Congress … progress has been slowly made, but pitifully little for a issue of such global importance.
- “CSIRO adopts Phil Jones’ Stonewall Tactic“, Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit, 15 July 2008.
- “NOAA Response to March 2007 FOI Request“, Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit, 8 July 2008.
- “Climate Audit and NOAA FOI Policy“, Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit, 3 July 2008.
- “E-Mail, “Personal” Records and Privacy“, Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit, 2 July 2008.
- “Fortress Met Office continued“, Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit, 23 June 2008.
- “Fortress CRU #2: Confidential Agent Ammann“, Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit, 20 June 2008.
- “Fortress CRU“, Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit, 20 June 2008.
- “Fortress Met Office“, Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit, 20 June 2008.
- “Is Briffa Finally Cornered?“, Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit, 30 July 2008
Esp note this comment on why data is selectively shared among a small circle of researchers and effectively concealed from others. While this makes sense in terms of their professional life, it is obviously wrong to restrict access to data from publicly funded work on such a vital subject. It indicates how dysfunctional climate research has become that this problem continues for so many years after being widely identified.
Please share your comments by posting below (brief and relevant, please), or email me at fabmaximus at hotmail dot com (note the spam-protected spelling).
For more information about global warming
(a) Other posts on this site
- A look at the science and politics of global warming, 12 June 2008
- Global warming means more earthquakes!, 19 June 2008
- An article giving strong evidence of global warming, 30 June 2008
- Worrying about the Sun and climate change – cycle 24 is late, 10 July 2008
- More forecasts of a global cooling cycle, 15 July 2008
- Update: is Solar Cycle 24 late (a cooling cycle, with famines, etc)?, (15 July 2008
- Two valuable perspectives on global warming, 4 August 2008
(b) Information from other sources
- “SURFACE TEMPERATURE RECONSTRUCTIONS FOR THE LAST 2,000 YEARS“, Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Division on Earth and Life Studies, NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES (2006) — aka The North Report.
- Report of the “Ad Hoc Committee on the Hockey Stick Global Climate Reconstruction”, commissioned by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce (July 2006) — aka The Wegman Report. Also note this excerpt from the Q&A session of the Dr. Edward J. Wegman’s testimony.
- “The role of statisticians in public policy debates over climate change“, Richard L. Smith, American Statistical Association – Section on Statistics & the Environment Newsletter (Spring 2007) — One of the too-few reports by statisticians on the climate change literature.
- A timeline of the science and politics of climate science.
- A Bibliography by year of climate science research.
