Into the dustbin is probably a very appropriate title for Donna Laframboise's new book, which I gather is nothing more than a collection of some of her blog rants against Dr Pauchari, Chair of the IPCC. She's timed the release to appear just before the next Working Group 1 report from the IPCC - on the science of climate change. The book is likely to be one big
ad hominem attack so any gullible reader is meant to conclude a. climate science is a hoax because b. Donna Laframboise wrote a book about the Chair of the IPCC. Yeah, right. Only one of the
8% Dismissives would believe a or b.
Donna, you may recall, is known for thinking that anyone under about 50 is too young to read, write, do literature reviews or conduct scientific research. Her last book was called the Delinquent Teenager - a collection of diatribes against young scientists and against the use of any references in the IPCC reports other than directly to peer reviewed scientific literature. In other words, she wanted to cast out the reports of Working Groups 2 and 3 (on adaption and mitigation), because they use industry reports, government statistics and various sources other than scientific literature. She also frowned upon cross references to IPCC reports either in the same volume, different volumes of the same report or to previous reports. She's just another nutter.
More recently she appeared on a
youtube video arguing that the children of the future can clean up after us and we should continue to be profligate and pollute the atmosphere with CO2, presumably because the worst is ahead of us and she's no spring chicken any more so why should she care.
To give you more idea of how worthless the book is likely to be, it has been given the thumbs up by Judith Curry (
archived here - who also praised David Rose's latest atrocity, not everyone there agrees). Richard Tol (who went off the deep end a few months back and is still floundering) and Oliver "iron sun" Manuel have
written positive reviews on Amazon. And now, Anthony Watts who apparently runs the most viewed anti-science blog on the internet (
archived here). Anthony/Donna mysteriously writes:
Scientists aren’t supposed to embellish. They’re supposed to be clear-eyed about what is true and what is false. The idea that hundreds of scientists have been padding their resumés, that they’ve been walking around in broad daylight improperly claiming to be Nobel laureates, isn’t something any normal person would expect.
Umm, ye-e-es, these probably aren't what you would expect. Anthony or Donna, you'll notice, isn't saying that any scientist is embellishing anything. Nor are they accusing hundreds of scientists of padding their resumes and walking around in broad daylight (heaven forbid a scientist ever had the time to emerge into daylight). Nor are they saying that hundreds of scientists are improperly claiming to be Nobel laureates. They are just saying that these are not things that any normal person would expect.
I guess that is setting the tone for Donna's book. If what Anthony/Donna wrote is any guide and you are silly enough to waste any time reading Donna's book, you will undoubtedly be treated to a host of things that no normal person would expect. Not that anyone is doing those unexpected things. It's a bit like Richard Tol's comment on Amazon - if only Donna had dug up some actual dirt instead of just hinting that there might be some to dig up. (His actual words were: "
Laframboise' material consists of publicly available documents. She does not use freedom of information legislation to find out about internal discussions. She does not interview people. As a result, Into The Dustbin is a series of misdemeanors and glimpses of worse. Deeper digging would have revealed more." He doesn't say what so I guess that means he's got "nothing" either.)
If you want gossip and scandal, you can always go and read the Mail Online. It's cheaper than Donna's book and likely to be more titillating.
There is one more thing that Anthony strongly disapproves of and that is having the courage of one's convictions. Dr Pauchari in his role as Chair of the IPCC as well as in his other day jobs is more aware than most of us of how dangerous is the territory we're heading toward. However Anthony thinks that neither he nor, presumably anyone who has an understanding of climate, the earth system as a whole of any part of it, should act on that understanding.
I'm not sure where Anthony and Donna draw the line. They are very prudish and don't approve of any scientist writing novels. They probably also disapprove of any scientist reading a novel. Science is serious stuff.
They also frown on certain activities associated with protecting the environment. Whether they would go as far as urging scientists not to pick up litter on the street isn't clear. But it's on the cards. Donna thinks that Dr Pauchari is the devil in disguise for being recognised as a "green crusader", whatever that is. But it must be quite dreadful. He probably made the mistake of advocating that we do more to protect earth's resources somewhere along the way.
There are a few comments up on WUWT - I'll let you read them for yourself (under the
article archived here).
I reckon save your dustbin for more worthy trash.
If you've got this far and you are wondering when I'm going to start reviewing Donna's book - you don't know me. I've wasted enough time on the topic already. I hope you don't expect me to waste time and money only to end up tossing it
into the dustbin!
