| THE HOCKEY STICK AND THE CLIMATE WARS Dispatches from the Front Lines Michael E. Mann Bill Nye (Fwd.) New York: Columbia University Press, November 2013 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-231-15255-6 | ||||
| ISBN-10 0-231-15255-8 | 423pp. | SC/GSI | $19.95 | |
| Page xi: | "Bill Nye: "Dr. Michael Mann became, if I may, a main man among these researchers..." |
| In my experience, this phrase distinguishes one leading individual from his group; it is always "the main man" and never "a main man." |
| Page xviii: | "...natural archives of information that record, either physically, chemically, or biologically, some attribute of the climate back in time." |
| I'm not quite sure why, but this phrase strikes me as awkward. |
| Page 8: | "...they had been working for months to model the behavior of just such a material: yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO)." |
| This may be an acronym used in the trade; but if it's a chemical formula it should be "YBaCO". |
| Page 9: | "That's when the dinosaurs went extinct, due to—it is now generally accepted—the impact of a large asteroid that struck Earth..." |
| Word order: S/B "due—it is now generally accepted—to the impact". |
| Page 11: | "Quoting Smashmouth: "The waters getting warm so you might as well swim." |
| Missing apostrophe: S/B "water's". |
| Page 20: | "However, when all the various potential impacts of the climate changes are taken into account, the weight of impacts have been shown to be decidedly negative..." |
| Number error: S/B "has been shown". |
| Page 83: | "...suggested that considerable caution was needed before jumping to the conclusion that such a change in circulation was in fact underway." |
| Missing space: S/B "under way". |
| Page 86: | "...it questioned the simplistic notion that the globe should simply warm or cool in unison in response to external influences..." |
| Word choice: S/B "uniformly". A single thing cannot act in unison with itself. |
| Page 92: | "Despite the multiple layers of review, errors sometime occur, not surprising given the huge size of the multivolume reports." |
| Missing letter: S/B "errors sometimes occur". (Unless the author is going Shakespearian here.) |
| Page 92: | "Despite the multiple layers of review, errors sometime occur, not surprising given the huge size of the multivolume reports." |
| Wrong part of speech: S/B "not surprisingly". |
| Page 102: | "...plays a key role in maintaining the conveyer belt pattern of poleward traveling surface currents in the North Atlantic ocean." |
| Missing hyphens: S/B "conveyer-belt" and "poleward-traveling". |
| Page 106: | "These critiques did not appear in the peer reviewed scientific literature..." |
| Missing hyphen: S/B "peer-reviewed". |
| Page 133: | "Each of the patterns in the data are important, and one would be in error to throw out..." |
| Number error: S/B "is important". |
| Page 140: | "This inappropriate noise model allowed them both to greatly underestimate the reliability of actual proxy reconstructions and to grossly overstate the potential for our statistical conventions to 'manufacture Hockey Sticks' from noise." |
| Word order: S/B "allowed them to both". |
| Page 186: | "...showing that Douglass et al.'s approach gives clearly nonsensical results when applied to a climate model simulation where the cause of temperature trends are known." |
| Number error: S/B "the causes of temperature trends". |
| Page 195: | "...CEI, Peabody Energy, and the attorney generals of Virginia and Texas." |
| Usage: S/B "attorneys general". (Compare correct usage on page 255.) |
| Page 200: | "With no scientific leg to stand on, manufactured claims of incompetence and malfeasance, ladened with innuendo and vilification, have emerged as the denialist weapon of choice." |
| Spelling: S/B "laden". |
| Page 201: | "...catching many scientists both bemused and unprepared for the character attacks to which they would be subject." |
| Arguable, but I think this S/B "subjected". |
| Page 201: | "...particularly in the West Antarctic region so critical to the stability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet." |
| Is this region critical to the stability of Antarctica's entire ice sheet? |
| Page 210: | "Funny how silent he and other deniers went the following summer when D.C., like many cities around the United States and the world, were experiencing record-setting heat." |
| Number error: S/B "was experiencing". |
| Page 221: | "Then there was 'Amazongate' and 'Africagate based, respectively, on media distortions of what the IPCC actually said about Amazon drought, and African crop yields..." |
| Extra comma: S/B "Amazon drought and African". |
| Page 222: | "But a series of articles by Fred Pearce, previously of the New Scientist, mangled the facts, distorting key details such as the chronology of events, to fit a preconceived narrative..." |
| Extra comma: S/B "of events to fit". |
| Page 230: | "...supposedly founded by a Elmer Beaureguard." |
| Wrong article, spelling: S/B "an Elmer Beauregard".1 |
| Page 247: | "Similar efforts by other scientific groups were soon underway." |
| Missing space: S/B "under way". |
| Page 248: | "It simply wasn't worth risky McCarthyesque hearings that held out the distinct threat of backfiring." |
| Word choice: S/B "risk" or "possibility". (In fact, I would use "risk" and write "It simply wasn't worth McCarthyesque hearings that held out the distinct risk of backfiring.") |
| Page 249: | "We look back now with revulsion at the corporate CEOs, representatives, lobbyists, and scientists-for-hire who knowingly ensured the suffering and mortality of millions by hiding their knowledge of tobacco smoking's ill effects..." |
| Word choice: S/B "the suffering and premature death". Tobacco does not cause mortality. |
| Page 254: | "They involve a good faith give-and-take of scientific ideas..." |
| Missing hyphen: S/B "good-faith". |
| Page 256: | "...against well-funded, well-organized groups that place little value on honesty or integrity, that cleverly masquerade denialism as skepticism..." |
| Usage: S/B "mask" or disguise". |
| Page 257: | "Yes, the public discourse has been polluted now for decades by corporate-funded disinformation—not just with climate change, but with a host of health, environmental, and social threats." |
| Word choice: S/B "about climate change, but about". |
| Page 263: | "Several of the most prominent American climate scientists, incidentally, are registered Republicans.[21]" |
| Two are listed in the note (page 389). There's no reason for it to be a complete list, but I think Dr. Mann should have included Katherine Hayhoe. She is an evangelical Christian, a climate scientist, and (I think) a Republican. Working without pay, she wrote a chapter on climate science for a book by Newt Gingrich, was told by Gingrich's co-author in 2011 that it was accepted, only to find out late that year (from a reporter) that Gingrich had deleted it.2 |
| Page 268: | "Among other things the documents revealed was a plan underway to promote disinformation..." |
| Missing space: S/B "under way". |
| Page 297: | "36. The episode in question is detailed in Hoggan and Littlemore, Climate Cover-up, 135-138." |
| I think this is the wrong source. I know it is covered in detail by Oreskes & Conway, the source cited in note 37. (See e.g. Revelle and Singer, my take on the matter.) |
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