James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.
In an otherwise typically error-dominated Newsweek column, George F. Will spelled "minuscule" correctly. So I don't want to read any complaints that Will gets everything wrong each time he writes about climate change.
Of course, that doesn't mean we can't correct his myriad other mistakes. Here's one paragraph, with some necessary edits, just to get us started.
There is much an unremarkable level of debate about the reasons for, and the importance of, the fact that global warming has not increased continued for that long [11 years]. What we know is that computer models did not did predict this. Which matters, a lot, because we are incessantly exhorted to wager trillions uncertain sums of dollars and diminished increased freedom on the proposition that computer models are correctly projecting catastrophic global warming. On Nov. 2, The Wall Street Journal's Jeffrey Ball reported some inconvenient data that is entirely consistent with the prevailing consensus on the theory of anthropogenic climate disruption. Soon after the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change--it shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the Thinking Man's Thinking Man [George: who calls him this, other than you? -- ed ]--reported that global warming is "unequivocal," there came evidence that the planet's temperature is beginning to cool continuing to rise. [George: temperatures rise or fall, they don't cool or warm; only the subject of measurement warms or cools -- ed] "That," Ball writes, "has led to one point of agreement: The models are imperfect," although climatologists confirmed that the models are performing as well as expected."
Environment
Comments
James, the Thinking Man's Thinking Man comes from a cover story about Al Gore in Time magazine, I believe, looking at his new book.
Posted by: cameron | November 10, 2009 10:48 AM
Interesting - I learned (years ago) that the correct spelling was "miniscule", since "minuscule" was reserved for the antonym of "majuscule".
Posted by: solandic | November 10, 2009 11:39 AM
Actually, as Will notes in the first sentence of that column, the Thinking Man's Thinking Man label is from last week's cover of the very same magazine. Clearly, since you weren't careful enough to note that, everything else you have to say here or anywhere else about global warming or anything is entirely wrong!!
Seriously, I came right here to get some context and correction after reading Will's latest gaseous exhalation. I could spot some of his errors, thanks to yourself and some other science & environment bloggers, but not all. Thanks as usual, although I was hoping for a little more detail. I know you've probably corrected these same canards a million times and maybe just want to sit down and watch some "Star Trek" reruns or read a novel or something for a change, but the rest of us could use a little schooling.
Posted by: MPW | November 10, 2009 7:18 PM
Yes, some more details would be great. We need to send e-mails to Newsweek protesting this trash.
Posted by: Jim Norton | November 10, 2009 11:11 PM
I made some comments on this; Will's columns on climate change are degenerating precipitously.
George Will is a climate change twit
Posted by: Oakden Wolf | November 11, 2009 1:32 AM
Global warming is a GOOD thing, Anthropogenic probably not tho to persuade YOU of that, no matter what the information, would be like convincing a Muslim there is no Allah
Posted by: Russs | November 11, 2009 5:49 AM
As a fellow long-suffering Cubs fan I've always had a soft spot in my heart for George. But his soft-headedness on climate change is beyond annoying. Given the Cubs' near-millennial World Series drought, I'd expect the man to be familiar with long-term models that yield short-term imprecision but long-term certainty.
His endless whining about "trillion dollar bets" on climate science is also a bit of a head scratcher. Clearly it's not the trillion or the bet that bothers him, since the Will weltanschauung accepts wagering such sums on the ability of Wall Street quants to make debt disappear. What kind of vehicle does he drive?
Posted by: Bill Free | November 11, 2009 9:40 AM
It will be interesting to see in 100 years whether all this debate that focus's on the change will change the change. Will all the hot air being released by the scientist cause the earth to react and for temps to drop?
Posted by: Eugene Carpet | November 13, 2009 10:47 AM
GW got it right lately on Afghanistan, too. (Short version: "US Out Now".)
Don't worry: his column indicates that he has recovered from his recent illness and returned to his usual well-spelt wrongness.
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | November 21, 2009 6:43 PM