I am an academic myself, and although my field is not Physics, I feel I can safely say that the research on global warming is the least scientifically grounded I have ever seen on any topic in the natural sciences.
Scientific protocols and experimental controls be damned. The powers that be have decided that if the global warming results are consistent with their political beliefs, they will be accepted and published -- sometimes without rigorous peer review.
Sociology has long been notorious for this, but it is truly sad to see the "hard sciences" become corrupted as well. I hope Prof. Lewis's words awaken the APS, but my guess is they are too far gone to be salvageable.
A truly sad situation.
Sir, I appreciate your above statement. While I am no where as educated as you, the small amount of college I experienced made me question even Sociology 101 at the time, simply because I had lived life and found many of their theories erroneous (remember the nature vs nurture issue where nurture was the prevailing theory?).
I realized at the time that Sociology was not an exact science, but did what I had to for a passing grade.
Later, Time Magazine made a big deal out of the "newly" discovered differences between boys and girls, which killed the nurture theory. My wife and I laughed at that article, having a young boy and young girl and watching how they developed.
Not knowing your field, and having no education of earth sciences, I still agree with you. I have read too many climatologists who disagree with the CO2 global warming theory. I read almost every day that some new "earth physics/climate experts" are now starting to question Gore's and others' assumptions. And that is all they are - assumptions. They show some poor polar bear sitting on a small ice floe, but don't bother to mention that the polar bear population has increased some 3 fold over the last decades.
They also claim we shouldn't drill in ANWR because we will kill the caribou, out in that vast wasteland. What they don't show is the photos with all the caribou lying around the pipeline from Purdue Bay, not to mention a photo of a polar bear walking on top of the pipeline. I saved the photos if you want to see them.
The true climate scientists are currently looking at the Sun's cycles. Plus, the Gorebots forget about why Greenland was named that, when it was actually green and fertile. Again, they forget or ignore Sun cycles.
I could go on. I think so much is to scare people for more grants and for others to make money.
Remember back in the 1970's we were facing a new Ice Age according to all the media reports? Remember when we were told that the world population would starve billions and push us towards extinction? Remember the alcar scare that devasted the apple industry that didn't pan out?
I just wanted to thank a man of science for having a unbiased outlook. When you live 60 years as I have, you tend to realize a scam from actual science. Best, Sir.