Royal Society whitewashes climate complaint

rs-logo-490In July 2016, Professor Tim Naish and Professor James Renwick embarked on a whistle-stop tour of 11 towns and cities giving a public slide presentation they called Ten by Ten: Climate Change (“Ten things you didn’t know about climate change”). Senior scientists with the NZ Climate Science Coalition raised concerns about the accuracy of the material being presented and on 26 August, before the tour was over, they lodged a complaint (pdf, 2 MB) with the Royal Society of New Zealand.

This blog reported the complaint on 28 August. On or about November 23, a Confidential Draft Report came in from Professors Tennant, Scott and Watts, of the Royal Society Professional Standards and Ethics Panel. Now the the Final Report of the Panel (the Report) has been released, received by the complainants on December 7.

This was not a complaint by the NZ Climate Science Coalition, but by some of its members—scientists and others—some of whom are Fellows or members of the Royal Society. The following comments are addressed to the Ethics Panel, and the term “we” refers to myself and the complainants, not to the Coalition; though I was not a complainant, some of them consulted me and subsequently I prepared material for public release.

Climate change evidence distorted

The complainants were concerned that the nationwide presentation Ten by Ten, presented over several weeks during July, August and September, distorted published climate change evidence and contradicted material published by NASA and NOAA. They were also concerned that the logos of the Royal Society and Victoria University appeared prominently on the publicity and the presentation, since they were endorsing misleading and alarmist information about climate change.

After viewing the final Report, the complainants are concerned that it inadequately addresses their complaints and evinces thinking that is anathema to good science.

The complaint involved infringements of the Society’s rules covering integrity, so it is disappointing that the Report neglects to add a simple assurance that the content of the presentation was true. But the Report has other deficiencies too. The following paragraph numbers appear in the Report.

Paragraph 5 refers to a previous complaint by unnamed persons against an unnamed climate sceptic (“the 2015 Report”) but, though it mentions it at length, it does not explain the issues. Since we know nothing about it we must say it is irrelevant.

Paragraph 7 characterises the climate change debate as being of little significance, referring to “merely” holding different views—as though it doesn’t matter what you believe, since fighting man-made climate change does not demand prodigious funds and effort, and climate predictions do not threaten the environment.

Lack of honesty

This makes little sense, since the paragraph also admits to the existence of “strong disagreement on many climate change issues” among scientists. The professors’ presentation ignored the controversy, a fact which is readily admitted by the Panel but excused as simply “not making time” to address contrary views and was innocent. However, climate change is too important to ignore the controversial areas, some of which are central to the anthropogenic hypothesis. Among senior academics, knowing of significant opposing views and not revealing them in a public forum is the very essence of a lack of honesty.

Then paragraph 7 treats the image of Wellington city under water as similarly innocent. The presenters may indeed have said at the time that the prediction was speculative, but in not disclosing that the only forecast of that extraordinary rise in sea level shown in the doctored photograph comes from a completely fictitious and physically impossible future, the professors let their audience down and again fail the test of honesty.

There is no historical record of unusual sea level rise at Wellington and no science that supports a prediction of dangerous rise, yet that is the impression left by the image of Wellington under water. To our great consternation, the Panel in paragraph 7 admits that the image is not based on science—they call it an ‘intentionally provocative slide ’ but then fail to condemn it or rebuke their members. That is not good enough.

Underplay the importance of climate change

Paragraph 8 asserts that “if [any breaches] were to be established, [they] should be regarded as ‘trivial’”. The Panel thus minimizes the gravity of the professors’ actions and, rather oddly, they also underplay the importance of climate change.

We strongly urge the Panel to reconsider the complaint and produce a ruling that recognises its gravity. The Report refers to the “Society’s weighty disciplinary process,” but we can hardly be concerned with the Society’s administrative difficulties; they are beyond our control. The significance of the topic and the nature of the complaint demand a more thoughtful response than we have seen.

Paragraph 8 says “it was not necessary” for the professors to disclose that some scientists would refute what they said. This is extraordinary. It means that, on a topic of intense public concern, Society members are permitted to give a distorted picture or to express interpretations that don’t reflect the preponderance of published evidence or the need to finalise current research.

Tragic weakening of powerful heritage

In short, the Society has abandoned or proposes to abandon the rule against bias. This would be a tragic weakening of the Royal Society’s previously powerful heritage.

But two factors related to climate change strongly challenge giving in to bias—they deny Society members somehow merit the privilege of presenting biased views to the public, and somehow the public deserves it. This is quite apart from the normal expectation that any scientist in any forum should be “scrupulously honest” (as Society rules state).

The first factor is that the Society shares the professors’ publicly declared position on climate change. What does that mean? The Society agrees climate change will be dangerous and society must be transformed to “fight” it—it is biased in the same way the professors are biased. That’s what made the Panel say “it was not necessary for the presenters to tell the audience that some scientists would not accept all, or indeed any part, of the Presentation.”

Not ethically commendable

But keeping quiet about important controversies means the Society risks being accused of allowing members to indulge their bias not because it was ethically commendable, but just because they agree with it. No scientist should act like this. It is the antithesis of good science and ethical behaviour; it would threaten the independence of its expert advice and smash the foundations of the Society’s tremendous reputation.

The second factor is that the government, too, agrees that climate change will be dangerous and it has pledged to pursue the same policies against it—but that opinion and those policies are based on advice the government received from this very same Royal Society. Our complaint is far from trivial—this is no mere academic argument without real-world repercussions, but enmeshed in all the climate advice the Society gives across the country.

What remains of sceptical climate change argument

It goes further, for to allow Society scientists to ignore their obligation for fair disclosure would shut down whatever remains of sceptical climate change argument at the highest levels.

If the Society were not required to raise at government level an awareness of contentious issues, almost nobody else is capable except groups of sceptics, but the Society and the Professors refer to them with glib dismissiveness as “climate deniers”. Climate policy would be cemented in place for no better reason than a lack of informed scepticism, which would be a scientific abomination, an unthinkable route to expensive public policy and could soon contaminate other areas of policy, crippling society in ways that are today unknown.

Paragraph 9 contains a strange finding: “To the extent that the Complaint sought a ruling that ‘the two members desist from using the Society’s name in conjunction with biased presentations’, the Panel concluded that this was in substance a complaint against the Society for permitting its name and logo to be attached to the publicity and slides for the Presentation. Such a complaint should be taken up with the Society itself rather than pursued through a disciplinary process against the individuals.”

We acknowledge the good sense of that reasoning but confirm that the complaint was indeed addressed to the Royal Society of New Zealand, not to individuals, as the Panel can discover on re-reading it. The Society referred it to the Professional Standards and Ethics Panel, not on our recommendation, as we have no knowledge of the Panels it might assemble, but for its own purposes.

A rather fragile protest

This finding is specious, a little irritating and does not answer our complaint. We were confident that the Society would devise a satisfactory process to investigate the complaint without resorting to the rather fragile protest that it’s too hard. So it has proved. The deplorable result is a different matter.

Paragraph 10 states: “The Panel does point out, however, that the Society’s publicity for the Presentation did make clear that the presentation was the presenters’ personal ‘take’ on the issues, rather than an official view of the Society.”

This is true. It says on the leaflet: “Tim Naish and James Renwick will give their take on this biggest of issues [climate change] – from the very local to the global.”

However, it also says: “the ROYAL SOCIETY of NEW ZEALAND”, and: “With thanks to Victoria University of Wellington for their support of this series.”

On the RS website, it still says: “Ten things you didn’t know about climate change from Royal Society of New Zealand.” The names of the RS and Victoria are prominent and striking. Nobody would imagine that the presentation consisted solely of the personal ‘take’ of the two professors—the heavyweight support just cannot be missed.

Response simulates a threadbare reputation

This response simulates a threadbare reputation for both bodies which does not ring true. It’s like advertising the Prime Minister’s annual State of the Nation address and afterwards claiming he was just joking. This, too, is not good enough.

There is no doubt, and the Panel has admitted, that Professors Naish and Renwick used the protection of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the Victoria University of Wellington to propound their alarmist views on climate change without providing a balanced assessment (“it was not necessary”).

The published literature sometimes declares the opposite of what they stated or shows that further work on the topic is needed and all of that should have been disclosed. In addition, the authors omitted vital topics that would have endorsed their credibility and provided a clear balance in areas of contention.

What may not be true is true

The Royal Society is surely aware—indeed, it must be a source of pride—of the enormous influence it has on public opinion, so it ought to acknowledge that putting professors on stage under the imprimatur of the Society, displaying professional graphics with a practised delivery, will persuade people (for such is the natural gravitas of authority) that what may not be true is true.

As we said, the Panel admits that some of the professors’ material is subject to “strong disagreement” by scientists. But that means the material may turn out to be wrong. So how does the Panel reconcile the professors’ conspicuous advocacy of an alarmist view of climate change that is based on evidence that might be wrong? Is it happy with what appears to be a monstrous disconnect between the Society’s knowledge of the uncertainties and these professors’ unwarranted alarmism?

The slides and narrative are uninhibited by any sceptical viewpoint and ardently promote the alarmist climate forecasts and policy prescriptions without proviso, as though theirs were the only opinion. That advocacy is the target of the complaint, for it rests on a deliberately truncated view of the science; our complaint and its accompanying material gives evidence of this.

Bigoted constraint of sceptical views

The persistence of a bigoted constraint of sceptical views of climate change at the highest national levels of academia, government, public service, local affairs and industry is the only barrier to an open, level-headed discourse that alone, as it proves in all human affairs, can show the way to effective resolution of climate change problems.

We strongly urge the Panel to review its findings at its earliest convenience with a view to engaging determinedly with the complaints, reprimanding the two professors and aiming to reassure the Society’s members and the New Zealand public of the gravity of its Rules 2.1, Integrity and Professionalism, and 3.1, Honesty, for we believe that during that nationwide tour those rules were breached and they ought not to be watered down as the Report proposes.

A Report that is itself a whitewash.

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16 Thoughts on “Royal Society whitewashes climate complaint

  1. Magoo on 13/12/2016 at 10:46 am said:

    It’d be interesting to see the reaction if you put a Royal Society emblem on the Climate Conversation Group or NZ Climate Science Coalition websites, with some small print pointing out that the opinions expressed are “the presenters’ personal ‘take’ on the issues, rather than an official view of the Society.”

  2. Richard Treadgold on 13/12/2016 at 11:18 am said:

    Good thought, Magoo. I like it. It would certainly make the point that they don’t stand behind what they say. All their ‘official’ advice carries a caveat so they can’t be sued, but it makes a loud, sour sound against the background of their magnificent history.

  3. Andy on 13/12/2016 at 4:50 pm said:

    James Renwick seems to have taken up residence as blogger at large at Hot Topic.
    His latest missive is having a go at Guy McPherson who is telling us that humanity only has ten years left.

  4. Richard Treadgold on 13/12/2016 at 4:55 pm said:

    Well, in that, I strongly support James Renwick.

  5. Andy on 13/12/2016 at 8:58 pm said:

    Indeed, James Renwick is a voice of reason in a group of nutters. Like, for example, Herr Thomas, who accuses me of working with the Fourth Reich in liaison with ISIS to overthrow Western Civilisation

    Thomas “knows” this because I don’t comment that often on HT therefore I must be plotting something, and there is no evidence that I am not a “brownshirt”, therefore I must be one

    Therein lies part of our problem: insanity

  6. Richard Treadgold on 13/12/2016 at 10:19 pm said:

    At first I thought “That’s funny!” But you’re not joking, are you?

  7. Andy on 13/12/2016 at 10:21 pm said:

    No I am not joking

    There are more or less the accusations against me
    Oh well…

  8. Andy on 14/12/2016 at 8:46 am said:

    Specifically:

    ” Andy is an active and provocative agent of the Alt-Right Brownshirt movement. He has not said anything to even begin convincing anybody here that he is not. ”

    It goes on in a similar vein. I’ll spare you the details
    http://hot-topic.co.nz/this-year-cant-end-fast-enough/#comment-48398

  9. Simon on 14/12/2016 at 9:54 am said:

    Who really wrote the complaint? It is a crude cut and paste of refutable claims from climate sceptic blogs. I have a lot of respect for Geoff Duffy and David Kear; they both know how to write a proper submission.

  10. Richard Treadgold on 14/12/2016 at 10:36 am said:

    Simon,

    Who really wrote the complaint?

    I don’t know and anyway I wouldn’t tell you. But please note that you haven’t seen our entire submission. In my post, I mention a Confidential Draft Report from the Panel. We responded to that with a well-written series of comments by an experienced author. I haven’t published either of those documents, respecting the request for confidentiality from the RS.

    Your claim of “refutable” claims is refutable if you want to be explicit. Your use of “crude” merely reflects the haste with which the complaint was constructed. As the presentation was still being given we had no time to waste.

  11. Alexander K on 14/12/2016 at 3:55 pm said:

    I assumed that Brownshirts, Blackshirts, and other groups of political thugs were long gone before the turn of this century. There is something about Andy that flushes vocal and unhinged idiots out into the open, but Andy can take comfort from the fact that I don’t appear in print much either – probably, like Andy , I have other stuff to do, stuff which is far more rewarding, such as cooking dinner.
    And no matter how hard Simon tries, he continually fails with his slightly unhinged arguments.
    As for the dear old RS of NZ, they are very similar to their parent body – all supercillious arrogance and not a lot of actual science. Things have not changed much since the Astronomer Royal did his best to swindle the good Mr Harrison, who solved the riddle of Longitude with succession of ever-more accurate timepieces. Our branch of the RS is, like their historic progenitors, more interested in the Class War than science of any kind.

  12. Dennis N Horne on 15/12/2016 at 8:50 am said:

    Some might describe the Royal Society of New Zealand response as diplomatic. I would call it wanky*.

    The science is incontrovertible and the evidence is clear. That is the public position of the Royal Society of London**, National Academy of Sciences of the USA, American Association for the Advancement of Science …

    Those challenging this position don’t know what they’re talking about. Ivar Giaever and Dyson Freeman admit as much. Richard Lindzen has been thoroughly debunked. John Christy and Roy Spencer tried desperately to produce contrary satellite data and failed. Judith Curry is hopeless (satellite gold standard). Bob Carter talked so much nonsense it set alarm bells ringing for me, once a lazy indifferent denier.

    I have had a long correspondence with Michael Kelly FRS, the man in the shadows of this complaint. He was one of the members who persuaded the Amercian Physical Society to drop the word “incontrovertible”. The kindest thing one can say is Mike has misjudged this issue. It brought home to me the brain is one thing and the mind something else all together.

    The mind plays tricks on the best of us. The best defence is a wide, deep and long-established consensus based on the evidence as judged by experts. That is our reality. That does not mean it is not open to challenge. What is does not mean is every crank in Christendom view’s need equal consideration and weighting. That’s false equivalence.

    As for the complaint itself, I have never read so much ignorant twaddle in all my born days. No understanding of the science whatsoever. Embarrrassing.

    More CO2 means acidification of the oceans and more energy retained: higher temperatures and ice lost. Climate change.

    Fact.

    *http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/wanky
    ** The RS has never had any connection with the RSNZ

  13. Andy on 15/12/2016 at 11:02 am said:

    I had some email correspondence this week from MfE who now acknowledge that there is no acceleration of SLR detectable in NZ, and also RCP8.5 will no longer be described as “business as usual”

    No evidence of SLR acceleration = no evidence of significant climate impacts on the oceans, at present.

  14. Magoo on 15/12/2016 at 11:04 am said:

    Dennis dear boy,

    You say ‘The best defence is a wide, deep and long-established consensus based on the evidence as judged by experts’.

    Shame the evidence doesn’t agree with the ‘consensus’ dear boy, whether it be the failed computer models, the failure of the atmosphere to warm over the last 20 or so in response to dramatically increasing CO2 levels, the failure of the upper atmosphere to warm faster than the lower atmosphere as evidence of a failed theoretical positive feedback from water vapour, etc, etc. In fact, is there anything they predicted that actually has come to pass?

    We all know empirical evidence trumps all including ‘consensus’, Galileo proved that one beyond all doubt dear boy, so what exactly is this ‘evidence’ that the ‘consensus’ is supposed to agree on? Surely if they all agree on the empirical ‘evidence’ proving AGW it must be on hand to show us all (it sure isn’t in the IPCC reports). Maybe you know dear boy, where is this all important evidence?

    On your other comment of ‘Some might describe the Royal Society of New Zealand response as diplomatic. I would call it wanky.’ I have to agree, the Royal Society of New Zealand response is rather ‘wanky’ – good to see we all agree on one particular aspect dear boy, there’s hope for you yet, although I would’ve used more a more educated way of describing it rather than resorting to the language skills you probably learned from one of your parents. 🙂

  15. Andy on 15/12/2016 at 12:13 pm said:

    I attended a local community meeting last night where we are proposing to build a $30-$40 million sea wall defence to mitigate the non-existent threat of rapidly rising sea levels

    Obviously this is a good use of public money; much better than spending it on social housing projects, fixing earthquake damaged roads, etc.

    All the world’s scientific experts agree.

  16. Durden Spring on 15/02/2018 at 3:32 pm said:

    Andy, I came across this just now.

    “I had some email correspondence this week from MfE who now acknowledge that there is no acceleration of SLR detectable in NZ, and also RCP8.5 will no longer be described as “business as usual”
    No evidence of SLR acceleration = no evidence of significant climate impacts on the oceans, at present.”

    I have been looking for that acknowledgment/info you say you received from MfE, but on the NIWA website. Any chance I can get a copy of the emails? (to Durden.Spring on Gmail).

    Or a link to any MfE page reflecting the same please. Much appreciated. I will check back here.

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