Know What “Climate Scientists” Hate? Having To Show Their Work

26 May, 2011 by William Teach

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They’re really, really upset about all those pesky Freedom Of Information requests to pony up their data and research. You know, that government funded data and research

Freedom of information laws are used to harass scientists, says Nobel laureate

Someone needs a waaaahmbulance. Anyhow

Freedom of information laws are being misused to harass scientists and should be re-examined by the government, according to the president of the Royal Society.

Nobel laureate Sir Paul Nurse told the Guardian that some climate scientists were being targeted by organised campaigns of requests for data and other research materials, aimed at intimidating them and slowing down research. He said the behaviour was turning freedom of information laws into a way to intimidate some scientists.

Obviously, the other answer, that people want to know what the hell these so-called climate scientists are actually doing, what the raw data looks like, what they are doing with the data, how they are coming to conclusions, etc and so on, is would be silly.

Nurse’s comments follow the launch of a major Royal Society study into how scientists’ work can be made more open and better used to inform policy in society. The review — expected to be published next year — will examine ways of improving access to scientific data and research papers and how “digital media offer a powerful means for the public to interrogate, question and re-analyse scientific priorities, evidence and conclusions”.

Especially when the “scientists’ work” is government funded.

“I have been told of some researchers who are getting lots of requests for, among other things, all drafts of scientific papers prior to their publication in journals, with annotations, explaining why changes were made between successive versions. If it is true, it will consume a huge amount of time. And it’s intimidating.”

How horrible! The taxpayers want to know what their money is paying for. Perhaps if said “climate scientists” had been open from the start, didn’t try to hide their data and research methods, this wouldn’t be a problem. Also, if they didn’t evidently have an agenda and a clear bias, people wouldn’t need to question what they are doing.

I have a solution to this, though: the “climate scientists” can pay for all the research themselves, and not operate with government money on government property. They can go out and work in the private sector. Then they wouldn’t have to deal with pesky people making FOIA requests.