'Climate scientist' plan unscientific response to critics

Washington Times:

Undaunted by a rash of scandals over the science underpinning climate change, top climate researchers are plotting to respond with what one scientist involved said needs to be "an outlandishly aggressively partisan approach" to gut the credibility of skeptics.

In private e-mails obtained by The Washington Times, climate scientists at the National Academy of Sciences say they are tired of "being treated like political pawns" and need to fight back in kind. Their strategy includes forming a nonprofit group to organize researchers and use their donations to challenge critics by running a back-page ad in the New York Times.

"Most of our colleagues don't seem to grasp that we're not in a gentlepersons' debate, we're in a street fight against well-funded, merciless enemies who play by entirely different rules," Paul R. Ehrlich, a Stanford University researcher, said in one of the e-mails.

Some scientists question the tactic and say they should focus instead on perfecting their science, but the researchers who are organizing the effort say the political battle is eroding confidence in their work.

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One of the reasons these guys are being challenged right now is because they have responded to critics with insults and arrogant appeals to authority rather than a calm presentation of the evidence and admission of errors. If these guys want to make their situation worse they have chosen the right course. They would be wise to heed the counsel of those who want to perfect their science and be more open and transparent about how they arrive at their conclusions.

When you are pushing to control the world's use of energy which is the engine of our economies, you need to have more than bald assertions and shoddy evidence trails.