Bishop Hill An open door?
Jan 21, 2012 BBC H/T to Hengist for pointing us to this interview with the BBC's new science editor, David Shukman. Here's the bit about climate change.
Interviewer: One of the inevitable hot potatoes falling into your lap will be the controversies over climate change. You will not please - probably - anyone in this tormented area but how will you approach it?
Shukman: I think we assess the weight of the evidence on any particular story, whether it's climate science or something else and make a judgement about the strength of that evidence, how we're going to cover it, the relative airtime we might give to different points of view, but it's important to stress that we have an open door and I hope we alway have to the full range of opinions
Interviewer: So no ideas are is shut off, not even in the controversial area of climate change
Shukman: Nothing is shut off, but if you have got,let's say, 30 years of data , painstakingly gathered in lets say the Arctic by the American space agency, NASA, that something you can say "that's a solid body of evidence". We'll explain to viewers where there may be weaknesses, but that's the kind of thing where you can say "let's apply due weight", and the due weight in that case might point in one direction.
Reader Comments (103)
i think we know which way Shukman is heading:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16730834
despite evidence that extreme weather events are not climage change related:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/26/frequency-of-strong-florida-hurricanes-decreased-in-last-600-years/
James P:
There's a need for courage in such areas but also for patience, diligent study and discretion. As for when each facet is needed, your guess is as good as mine :)
Did he mean to say the data was painstakingly hidden ?