Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

Science Catfight: Climatologists versus Meteorologists

Posted by "GrrlScientist" on April 8, 2010
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“In an alarming trend, temperatures this spring have risen. Consider this: on February 6, it was ten degrees. Today it hit almost 80. At this rate, by August, it will be 220 degrees!” declares Stephen Colbert. “So clearly folks, the climate debate rages on. Which is great because I like debate, and I love rage.”

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Gotta say that asking the appropriately-named Bastardi to appear on The Colbert Report looks to be a bad move to me: did he say one thing that is true? Further, the Houston Chronicle named him “worst weather forecaster” in the wake of Hurricane Rita.

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Comments

  1. #1 Arancaytar
    April 8, 2010

    I love Colbert! :D

    “Consider this: on February 6, it was ten degrees. Today it hit almost 80. At this rate, by August, it will be 220 degrees!”

    There’s this xkcd strip I’m reminded of.

  2. #2 Daniel Collins
    April 8, 2010

    And Mark Twain’s extrapolated Mississippi: “…just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long…”

  3. #3 Dan
    April 8, 2010

    Yeah, I hadn’t heard of Bastardi before but he sure made himself sound like a hack. The trouble was that Ekwurzel failed miserably in countering him (IMO). In response to a version of the “Look, there’s warming but it’s not related to changes in atmospheric gases” argument, she basically argues “But look, there’s warming.”

  4. #4 Duane
    April 8, 2010

    Climatologists are losing the communications battle. Why? Because they’re not trained to communicate in simple soundbites.

    Weathermen are trained to stand in front of a camerman and look good. I think it interesting that the anti-global warming guy trained as a bodybuilder. That is as relevant to his ability to understand climate as is the ability of most weathermen to understand climate.