“How to stop doubting …” was the banner headline topping the Opinion section of last Sunday’s Oregonian newspaper (October 18, 2009). Prof. Julie Fry, the author of this commentary, crafted a two page argument intended to move the paper’s readers past the stale non-debate over the existence and causes of global warming and towards the pressing problem of “what can we do about it?” To this end, she asked and answered four questions about the basis of current scientific understanding of climate change:
- How do scientists establish consensus, and what is the role of consensus documents like the IPCC reports?
- What is the role of computer models? Why should we trust them?
- What aspects of climate science are firmly established?
- What are some remaining uncertainties?
Predictably, this piece, just like Julie’s previous foray into the Oregonian arena (“Don’t Trust Charlatans …”, August 7, 2009), attracted a large number of heated comments in the newspaper’s online zone.