Oh well, everyone else has a gate, perhaps I can have one too. Incidentally the picture is there for two reasons: firstly I have far too many pix of Darling Daugther and no-one looks at them. If Jules can put up huts, I can do children. And second, it is a cunning attempt to make me a human bean rather than just a face on the internet, so my enemies will find it harder to attack me. Clever eh?
So, the story so far (pay attention at the back!): I wondered about the list of 3 “key” papers that Curry was proposing should have been considered by the Oxburgh inquiry. Or perhaps by the parliamentary inquiry (Curry quite specifically says my source for the specific papers and why i think they are relevant to the UEA investigation is the documents submitted to the Parliamentary Select Committee). And the question was, in what sense were they key? Well, in this there is no secret that she is quoting McI, because she has said as much. So we should look at McI’s evidence to the Parliamentary inquiry. Which contains a helpful reference list at the end. And I don’t see the key papers on that list. Or you could read the evidence form Andrew Montford. Again, no hint of these so-called “key” papers.
So the answer is: the papers are key, post hoc, because they were not considered by Oxburgh. Had Oxburgh considered them, a different set of papers would have become key.
And once again, Curry simply hasn’t done her homework properly. she got muddled over Wegman and withdrew jsut ab out everything she said; I think she now needs to look very carefully at what she has said about “key papers” and consider whether she is just acting as a mouthpiece for the septics rather than doing what she can and should, which is using her expertise to add something new to the debate.
Incidentally: IMHO Curry’s motivations in all this remain somewhat obscure, and I’m interersted in what they might be. KK seems to have gone from chiding people about speculating to inquiring himself, and there is an interesting post: Curry: The Backstory at c-a-s. Which does demonstrate one thing, that journalists do at least have the virtue of asking people questions and some times they reply.
[Update. Oh no, this is going to turn into one of those eternally expanding posts. Over a c-a-s comment 355 (yes really) KK quotes Romm as saying She has joined the WUWT and McIntyre tribe (note my appearance as a side-dish, perhaps at one of JA’s feasts). Well, critical as I am of what Curry has actually said, I don’t think that comment is either true or helpful. And indeed, Curry has no problem demolishing it. There is enough tribalism around without trying to push it futher. Incidentally, the comment that Romm is responding to has misunderstood Curry, though she makes it very easy to do so: she is *not* saying that IPCC is on a level with NIPCC; she (like all sane folk) regards NIPCC as a joke. She is trying to say (but alas saying it very poorly) that the IPCC needs to retain the features that clearly distinguish it from the NIPCC. Like not being crap. My difference with Curry is that I think it is still doing this well, though like all things on this earth it could be better.]
[And another. Speculating on Curry’s motives is the game of the day, but I have no new ideas on that, so instead I’ll offer an analogy. Curry is like the outsider who looks at the two parties fighting over politics and decides to stand as a “clean-up” candidate (no, remember, this is an analogy; I’m not saying that climate is like politics). So she says a number of things, and garners a lot of media attention, and then either doesn’t get elected because the two-party system exists for a reason… or gets elected, and is then either useless or gets dragged into the system anyway.
This musing was brought on by HR drawing out her quote: “… I have been extremely critical of the NIPCC, it is basically a joke ….”. As I said in reply: you won’t find Watt, or McI, or *any* of the sceptics say that – they are, as she says, too tribal. Curry is *not* one of their tribe. Curry is fundamentally a scientist, and a sane one, and wandering off into attacks on her (which I hope I haven’t done) isn’t good -W]
[Also, another note on the paper-selection issue (DS notes): the initial announcement states: The University, in consultation with the Royal Society, has suggested that the panel looks in particular at key publications, from the body of CRU’s research referred to in the UEA submission to the Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee.]
wmconnolley: scienceblogs.com/stoat archive 