Judith Curry: How Climate “Science” Got Hijacked by Alarmists.

From the RealClearPolitics

By Tim Hains

Scientist @curryja published research that fueled climate change alarmism.

“I was…treated like a rock star."

Then she realized some of her research was wrong.

When she admitted it, the corrupt climate change industry attacked her.

Here she exposes how alarmism is REWARDED: pic.twitter.com/YoBBdflPPz

— John Stossel (@JohnStossel) February 22, 2024

John Stossel interviews “Climate Forecast Applications Network” president Judith Curry about why she changed her mind about climate change:

JOHN STOSSEL: Climate change is a crisis we’re told. Anyone who’s skeptical or raises any questions about the alarm is dismissed.

The consensus is so strong, there shouldn’t even be a debate.

Climate alarmists claim there’s an overwhelming scientific consensus but researcher Judith Curry says climate scientists have an incentive to exaggerate risk.

JOHN STOSSEL: Why, what’s in it for them?

JUDITH CURRY: Fame and fortune.

She knows about that because she once spread alarm about climate change. The media loved her when she published this study saying there was an increase in hurricane intensity.

JUDITH CURRY: We found that the percent of category four and five hurricanes had doubled, so this was picked up by the media. Alarmists said, “Oh, here’s the way to do it.” Tie extreme weather events to global warming.

JOHN STOSSEL: So this hysteria is your fault?

JUDITH CURRY: Well, sort of, not really, they would have picked up on it anyway.

But Curry’s more intense hurricanes gave them fuel.

JUDITH CURRY: I was adopted by the environmental advocacy groups and the alarmists, and I was treated like a rock star.

JOHN STOSSEL: What does that mean, treated like a rock star?

JUDITH CURRY: Oh my God, I was flown all over the place to meet with politicians and to give these talks and lots of media attention.

But then some researchers pointed out gaps in her research, years with low levels of hurricanes.

JUDITH CURRY: So like a good scientist, I went in and investigated all that stuff.

She realized her critics were right.

JUDITH CURRY: Part of it was bad data, part of it is natural climate variability.

JOHN STOSSEL: So you’re the unusual researcher who looks at criticism of your paper and actually concluded they had a point.

JUDITH CURRY: They had a point for sure.

Then the Climategate scandal taught Curry that many researchers aren’t so open-minded. Leaked emails showed university climate scientists conspiring to hide data.

JUDITH CURRY: It showed a lot of really ugly things — avoiding Freedom of Information Act requests, trying to get journal editors fired from their jobs.

One email read, “Do you think this Yale professor is in the skeptics camp? Get him ousted.” Seeing emails like that made Curry realize that climate change fanatics had corrupted the science because there’s a climate change industry set up to reward alarmism.

JUDITH CURRY: The origins go back to the 1980 and the UN environmental program.

Some UN officials had a specific agenda.

JUDITH CURRY: Anti-capitalism, they hated the oil companies and they seized on the climate change issue as one to move their policies along.

The UN created what’s called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

JUDITH CURRY: The IPCC wasn’t supposed to focus on any benefits of warming. The IPCC’s mandate was to look for dangerous human-caused climate change.

Obviously, if you’re only looking for risk, that’s what you’ll find.

JUDITH CURRY: Then the national funding agencies directed all the funding in the field.

JOHN STOSSEL: If you say we’re all going to die and we’ve got to spend a ton of money on this, you get funding. If you say we don’t know, you don’t get funding.

JUDITH CURRY: No, it’s more subtle than that. The announcements of opportunity for funding are really tied to assuming that there are dangerous impacts.

JOHN STOSSEL: So the researchers aren’t stupid. They know what they need to say to get funding.

JUDITH CURRY: Exactly.

This is how manufactured consensus happens. Then even if a skeptic does get funding, it’s harder to publish because journal editors are alarmists.

JUDITH CURRY: About 10 years ago, the editor of the journal Science, she wrote this political rant about we need to stop emissions now, that was published in Science. So what kind of message does that give, promote the alarming papers and don’t even send the other ones out for review.

Getting published is crucial to researchers because that’s how they advance in academia.

JUDITH CURRY: If you wanted to advance in your career, like be at a prestigious university, get a big salary, have big laboratory space, get lots of grant funding, be director of an institute. Well, there was clearly one path to go.

So alarmist researchers control the discussion. They publish lots of scary papers and alarmist media jump on those Time Magazine says climate is everything.

JUDITH CURRY: Transportation congestion, the size of frogs, you know everything.

JOHN STOSSEL: Airplane turbulence, childhood obesity. Activists hear the media and freak out.

…

Why don’t other scientists who recognize the nonsense push back?

JUDITH CURRY: If they work in a university, it’s going to be very uncomfortable for them.

JOHN STOSSEL: Universities have become idiots, and they punish people who tell the truth?

JUDITH CURRY: I mean, I felt the hostility.

Curry was a department chair at Georgia Tech until she concluded that fossil fuels aren’t so terrible.

JUDITH CURRY: They want fossil fuels to go away.

When they made life uncomfortable for her.

She looked for other university jobs but was told…

JUDITH CURRY: Nobody will hire you because if you Google “Judith Curry,” you know everything that shows up with Judith Curry Denier, Judith Curry Serial Climate Dis-informer. At that point, I started making my plans to transition 100% to the private sector.

She started this weather forecasting company. Now, climate alarmists smear her as a climate denier “doing it for the money.”

But she made more money at Georgia Tech.

JUDITH CURRY: If I was doing this for the money, I would have stayed at Georgia Tech and sucked up my big salary. But that’s not who I am.

My personal and professional integrity would not allow me to play that game.

It’s unfortunate that many university departments now shut down debate and reward alarmism.

Curry agrees that climate change is a problem, but she says it’s not a crisis.

In a few weeks, I’ll post our full interview with a more complete discussion about climate and what scientists really agree about.