My apologies for taking so long to respond, as your note prompted some needed research on my part. My purpose in comparing Mann with McCarthy wasn’t in reference to McCarthy’s (or Mann’s, for that matter) accuracy, but rather to McCarthy’s demagogic style. McCarthy addressed a real problem (at that time), but his approach caused untold g…
My apologies for taking so long to respond, as your note prompted some needed research on my part. My purpose in comparing Mann with McCarthy wasn’t in reference to McCarthy’s (or Mann’s, for that matter) accuracy, but rather to McCarthy’s demagogic style. McCarthy addressed a real problem (at that time), but his approach caused untold grief.
I am not qualified to comment on the accuracy of the “hockey stick,” though it seems that when considering the geologic history of the earth, many such hockey sticks can be found. My problem with Mann is his bullying approach, what Judith Curry calls “the scientific madhouse effect.” This is characterized by rampant overconfidence in an overly simplistic theory of climate change, enforcement of a politically-motivated, manufactured ‘consensus’, attempts to stifle scientific and policy debates, activism and advocacy for their preferred politics and policy, self-promotion and ‘cashing in’, and finally public attacks on other scientists that do not support the ‘consensus’.
Perhaps is a smudge on McCarthy to be compared to Mann? Communism eventually collapsed. Hopefully, “Climatism” will suffer the same fate. Thank you again for enlightening me on McCarthy's history. I am old enough to remember (vaguely) the Army-McCarthy hearings, and the public perception of McCarthy' style. But it was never a period that I found interesting, hence my need for research.
My apologies for taking so long to respond, as your note prompted some needed research on my part. My purpose in comparing Mann with McCarthy wasn’t in reference to McCarthy’s (or Mann’s, for that matter) accuracy, but rather to McCarthy’s demagogic style. McCarthy addressed a real problem (at that time), but his approach caused untold grief.
I am not qualified to comment on the accuracy of the “hockey stick,” though it seems that when considering the geologic history of the earth, many such hockey sticks can be found. My problem with Mann is his bullying approach, what Judith Curry calls “the scientific madhouse effect.” This is characterized by rampant overconfidence in an overly simplistic theory of climate change, enforcement of a politically-motivated, manufactured ‘consensus’, attempts to stifle scientific and policy debates, activism and advocacy for their preferred politics and policy, self-promotion and ‘cashing in’, and finally public attacks on other scientists that do not support the ‘consensus’.
Perhaps is a smudge on McCarthy to be compared to Mann? Communism eventually collapsed. Hopefully, “Climatism” will suffer the same fate. Thank you again for enlightening me on McCarthy's history. I am old enough to remember (vaguely) the Army-McCarthy hearings, and the public perception of McCarthy' style. But it was never a period that I found interesting, hence my need for research.
Thank you for this helpful response!
And I thank you for the reading references.