End of the Peer Show

Steyn On-line ^ | August 24, 2019 | Mark Steyn

[Twotone]

Dr Tim Ball appears to have won the long legal jihad launched against him by climate mullah Michael E Mann. Because his court follows "the English rule" as opposed to the stinkeroo "American rule", the loser (Mann) will have to pay costs - which is as it should be after a decade of entirely meritless litigation.

But what if there's a more effective way to silence your critics? Say, by proving scientifically that they should be expelled from polite society.

Nature, founded in 1869, is generally regarded (with Science) as one of the two most prestigious peer-reviewed journals in the world. Like many great nineteenth-century institutions its distinguished past lends an undeserved imprimatur to its meretricious and ever more politicized present. But that's just my opinion and it hasn't been peer-reviewed in a peer-reviewed journal, so pay no attention to it. Here is Nature's latest "scientific paper". Headline:

Discrepancy in scientific authority and media visibility of climate change scientists and contrarians

This "paper" is by three apparently gainfully employed professors - Alexander Petersen, Emmanuel Vincent and Anthony LeRoy Westerling - who hold distinguished positions at the University of California "Center for Climate Communication" and the School of Engineering's "Management of Complex Systems Department" plus a chap from the Medialab at what Nature calls "Sciences Po", which is the slightly misleading abbreviation (at least for anglophone ears) of the École Libre des Sciences Politiques in Paris. Personally I find it very hard to invest anything called a "Medialab" with scientific authority, but evidently Nature is more easily impressed, notwithstanding the general air of corruption that afflicts Sciences Po and has had it under investigation by France's Court of Audit almost continuously for the last three decades. (Among its many prominent alumni is M Macron lui-même.)

[sauropod]

“Science” jumped the shark quite awhile ago.

Nature followed suit, publishing a journal called Nature Climate Change (I kid you not).

[BradyLS]

Interesting that it’s a spin-off that can quietly end at need.

[aquila48]

““Science” jumped the shark quite awhile ago.”

But unlike the Fonz it hasn’t gotten canceled yet.

[bigbob]

Peer Review is assurance of nothing. Ever hear the term “peer pressure”?

[PGalt]

HOORAY Dr. Tim Ball. HOORAY Mark Steyn. Thanks for posting. BTTT.

[Intolerant in NJ]

We focus on a select set of contrarians who have publicly and repeatedly demonstrated their adamant counterposition on CC issues...so they started by selecting people who had "repeatedly" expressed their denialism, then shockingly found that those people got a lot more press than the "real" climate scientists, and concluded that they should be limited in their opportunity to publicly express their opinions in the future - talk about pre-determining your outcomes - this doesn't even qualify as junk science.......

[Fido969]

Media lab or meth lab?

[BradyLS]

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