Tom Chivers writes with insight as a Unherd’s science editor Can we trust the climate scientists? Excerpts in italics with my bolds.
The reaction to Steven Koonin’s book highlights just how toxic this debate has become
There’s a problem with writing about science — any science — which is that scientists are human like the rest of us. They are not perfect disembodied truth-seeking agents but ordinary, flawed humans navigating social, professional and economic incentive structures.
Most notably, scientists, like people, are social. If they exist in a social or professional circle that believes X, it is hard to say not-X; if they have professed to believe Y, they won’t want to look silly and admit not-Y. It might even be hard to get research funded or published if it isn’t in line with what the wider group believes.
All this makes it very hard, as an outsider, to…
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