Bishop Hill Book shelf at Judy C's
Sep 26, 2010 Climate: HSI Judith Curry is discussing recent climate books at her new website, including The Hockey Stick Illusion. This is what she says:
The value of the book is this: it is a well documented and well written book on the subject of the “hockey wars.” It is required reading for anyone wanting to understand the blogosphere climate skeptics and particularly the climate auditors; it is needed reading for anyone confusing Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick with merchants of doubt. The book is not a rant, but presents a well reasoned and well documented argument. The book has been referenced in at least two scholarly (refereed journal) publications that I am aware of. Apparently the book was completed before 11/19/2009 (the unauthorized release of the CRU emails); a chapter was tagged on at the end related to the emails, and the title was changed. I suspect that if the the title didn’t include “Climategate and the Corruption of Science” that the book wouldn’t have encountered such controversy.
I'm not sure I agree with the last bit: there are plenty of people out there who will want to protect the Hockey Stick no matter what.
Reader Comments (26)
If there are those who call McIntyre and McKitrick "merchants of doubt" (as if doubt was a bad thing), what would they call the RC crowd - "merchants of certainty"?
As for the reference to Climategate in the book title, my impression is that it has made it easier for critics to use the strawman that it is primarily about the emails - Schmidt has done that - and so avoid the actual issues. Apart from that, what she says seems extraordinarily naive.
HI Bish I have read your book through twice, once before and once after the Tamino critique. It was better the second time because I was looking more critically after the Tamino thing. As it turns out he did you a great favour for it becomes much clearer that the book presents a very clear and unequivocal presentation of what happened. It obviously impressed Judith Curry and that alone brings great credit to your book and her for seeing through the misrepresentation that the "team" wishes to portray.Cannot wait for the sequel for the abuse of the scientific method does no one any good, including the abusers.
I have had read HSI twice and the second reading was by far the more informative. I would describe the book as a documented history of the hockey stick. In my opinion, it is extremely well written, insightful and required reading for a comprehensive understanding of the current state of climate science. I would add that it is very disturbing and consequently, controversial; which is what it should be. One incredible aspect of the story is that it was written prior to the release of the climategate e-mails which subsequently added significant support to the narrative. Futher proof (if it was required) of the validity of the contents of the book. This was an observation that i had made whilst reading it, but before the author commented on it.
Our noble host wrote:
As they have already demonstrated so many times by their "responses" to anyone who dares to diverge from their hol(e)y writ. The Hockey Stick promoters' responses to McShane & Wyner being the latest and (least) greatest in a long conga-line of diversions and deceptions.
Unlike some, I must confess that I've read THSI only once (so far ... so many books to read and so much time consumed by blog-reading!)
All of that being said, while I believe that JC's heart is definitely in the right place, I would have phrased her "last bit" somewhat differently:
"Those who have skimmed/cherry-picked rather than read Montford's work may well be inclined to judge this book by its cover('s sub-title). In so judging, they do themselves - and Montford - a great disservice".
P.S. O/T but ... why is it that at the new "net-bishopric" my "author" credentials are not retained - and I have to enter 'em every time I comment?!
I recall Judith saying she was, like most of us, struggling to get a grasp on the McIntyre blog postings until the Bishop's book explained all so lucidly. There can be no greater praise, from a leading professor and lecturer of climatology.
Bish, I don't disagree with Judy on this. The key word is "Climategate". There is so much resistance to this word from the alarmists. I reject the claim that scientists are not good at PR, and their reaction and resistance to the establishment and normalisation of "Climategate" in the vernacular is proof that they know precisely what they're about with regard to sales and marketing of their position, and protection of their image.
Your inclusion of the word "Climategate" frames the hockey stick in a very specific way that is damaging to their position. If the word had not been a part of the title of your book, I agree with Judy that the reaction to it would not have been so great. That the word is familiar to everyone and his dog makes the book attractive, and an attractive book is a book well-read. A book well-read, which contains the detail of information and citations that your book does.. well, it's a very harmful book to a lot of scientists and to an untenable hockey stick.
I have read HSI only once, which puts me one up on most of its critics, apparently.
I was surprised by Climategate being a last-minute addition to the book, but I can see several reasons why it had to be added. Most importantly, it provided confirmation for many lines of reasoning already developed. Less importantly, but still important, most readers would be looking for some connecting up with recent developments. I think that this section was prepared more hurriedly than earlier sections. But I thought the treatment was satisfactory.
As for Mr. Montford's next book: I look forward to it. His style is engaging with clear narratives and good use of foreshadowing. I hope he considers applying his talents to a wide field of exposition beyond climate science.
The HSI is a great book, and of the sceptic books I've read, the HSI is far the best. But I would definitely add the label "sceptic" to it. If I could create three position labels: Activist, Observer or Sceptic. Then I would say about HSI, if you took the "Climategate" section out that could have put the book in the more neutral "Observer" territory, but I think any amount of being "Initiate" is definitely important. The more you know, the more you can't help either being annoyed by some of the worst examples of actvist-science being practiced today, or excusing it as a worthwhile vice.
That seems to be the dividing line for me. I really, would be interested to hear the views from some hypothetical genuine "Unitiate Observer" that has some respect from all sides to help break that line, but I think that may be an impossibility for the time being.
Basically I think Judith Curry's last bit is spot on, but I don't think it could have been any other way given the timing and history, and the book needed the section and title modification and I was impressed by how good that section was.
Bishop
Judith is right, your title was inflammatory and so got some hackles up. However, as I have droned so many times, it is the rhetoric that matters so you needed to do that to get their attention, and with it controversy, and with it interest, and with it readers who read the facts.
It's called advertising.
Now, don't get me wrong, facts do matter, but you have to get them to listen. With the title you do. Perhaps by accident, but it worked and worked well.
Peter Whale
Cannot wait for the sequel for the abuse of the scientific method does no one any good, including the abusers.
While it may take another year for this to play out in the murky world of "Climate Science", I believe it is an excellent idea. While you may not have "scientific credentials", there are enough of us who do who know that you fully understand what it is really all about. If you didn't, none of use would be here posting. Credentials are just pieces of paper you frame and hang on the wall. What matters is what is between the ears. Anyone who can dig into the abuse of statistics as you did in HSI understands. Plus, you are an excellent writer. And far more important, you care enough to spend the time. Given a day job and family, that is the dedication that is needed. You have it.
There are some great comments above which would be very welcome in Amazon reviews where the Bish is attacked my many clueless activists who have not read the book.
As an aside, if you're inclined to help, I have commited all proceeds from a month's sales of HSI to help the website below survive.
http://www.ilovemycarbondioxide.com/
Thanks as always for all the supportive comments. A few points:
1. The final chapter was added in just a few days. I don't seem to have a record of when I sent it to the publisher, but we were certainly working on revisions to it by the 30th November, so my guess is that I wrote it in 2-3 days. It holds up reasonably well given that, although close examination reveals that much of the text is quotes from the emails rather than anything I've written.
2. I had no idea that Climategate would be inflammatory, so the suggestion that the attention-grabbing nature of the subtitle was accident is right.
3. I've been giving some thought to a follow-up volume. Nothing decided as yet, particularly as I need to work pretty hard at the day job at the moment - time is a problem. Writing isn't going to pay the bills (unless I can interest a big publisher), so it's difficult to justify the effort.
3." I've been giving some thought to a follow-up volume. Nothing decided as yet, particularly as I need to work pretty hard at the day job at the moment - time is a problem. Writing isn't going to pay the bills (unless I can interest a big publisher), so it's difficult to justify the effort"
Now you have realy wet our appetites.
I suggest that you calculate the figure required to provide you with the necessary sustenance during the project and let your readers come up with the funds.
I have not got a clue how much would be required but would be prepared to start the ball rolling with £150.00.
Just let me know and i will send it.
3." I've been giving some thought to a follow-up volume. Nothing decided as yet, particularly as I need to work pretty hard at the day job at the moment - time is a problem. Writing isn't going to pay the bills (unless I can interest a big publisher), so it's difficult to justify the effort"
Now you have realy wet our appetites.
I suggest that you calculate the figure required to provide you with the necessary sustenance during the project and let your readers come up with the funds.
I have not got a clue how much would be required but would be prepared to start the ball rolling with £150.00.
Just let me know and i will send it.
Damn you Pesadia. I'll match your £150 but in three instalments. One this month and the rest in successive months.
No need for the Bishop to write another book. If he can, he will. If he can't then he's already done plenty.
Can't ask for more than that, although ....
PS
Where's the Alms Chest?
I only put it up occasionally.
As for further writings, and the difficulties faced by authors in preparing their works, contemplative and appreciative readers can only marvel that any worthwhile books are ever published.
I noted, because I read books from the front cover forward, that Mr. Montford dedicated the HSI to his family. I further noted that, in the Preface, acknowledgements were given to Dr. Angela Montford and Dr. Lesley Montford, which suggested to me that the Author has strong and dependable family commitments and support. I admit that this information, and my ensuing surmises, colored my views on HSI before I had read a single word of the book per se. It did not color my views as to whether the contained information was more or less reliable, nor did it color my views as to the validity of the conclusions reached. It did, however, compel me to see that the HSI was not dashed off lightly and to see that a good deal of commitment and resolve had gone into the book's preparation. As a result, I felt that I owed HSI and myself a more careful reading and consideration. For that, I feel I have been adequately rewarded; and I hope that, in appropriate measure, the Author has been rewarded too.
Beautifully put Pluck. I, on the other hand, have not yet purchased a copy of the HSI. I have, however, enjoyed and been enriched by the many hours with which I have immersed myself with the Good Bishops musings.
I remember fondly hearing about the wind-talker that was line of sited with Council offices that, irrespective of atmospheric circumstances, merrily turned between the hours of 9am and 5pm.
That and so many other posts have given me both pause and pleasure over the years.
My choosing not to purchase the HSI just yet, is more a reflection of my impatience in waiting for the sequel than disregard for its merits.
I already hold that regard. In spades.
Someone should get out the Brasso and polish the collection plate.
But, most importantly, make it publically available for contributions.
I requested my library (Douglas I.O.M) to procure the HSI & just got word it's available.
just been on holiday so will be reading it ASAP, kinda know the story anyway thru' lurking at CA etc.. but still interested in you take/interpretation.
advise all lurkers to get this in their local library by requesting it.
cost me 50p, not sure who pays the rest!!
keep up the good work Bishop.
PS. notice there is another Dougie commenting so to differentiate I am now dougieh (the thick one).
oops
missed the 'h' (thicko)
Bishop
Writing isn't going to pay the bills (unless I can interest a big publisher), so it's difficult to justify the effort.
Writing is for fun, not money. Some, like Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling make millions, but the rest of us make maybe enough for a night at the pub -- once a month.
Still, I want to encourage you to do another book. I think you have the right set of skills and interests to have a moderate success. Next time I would suggest you do the publishing yourself, it is not hard and if you had done it, you could have had control of the printing of books in the US. Given today's technology, self publishing is a very good option and with the advent of eBooks (just look at all the iPods and look-a-likes) the only sensible way to go. Trust me on this, it is not hard.
Publishers are a dying breed as are the book shops. It is all on-line now and Amazon is just as happy to sell my books as any large publisher's. The difference is the large publisher will spend money on advertising your book if you are a big name, but I haven't see anything out of your publisher with that regard. What success you had with HSI is due to the controversy and your position in it. You are selling more books through this blog than any other means, and you control it yourself. So why do you need a publisher? You're the one doing all the work to promote HSI, not them.
While I am not interested in being your publisher, I will extend to the offer I have made to another and help you navigate the issues of doing it yourself. I would suggest that you form Bishop Hill Press as a doing-business-as (DBA) proprietorship (no need to form a corporation) and print your own book. If you can run this blog, you can do what is needed to create a printed book or ebook. The technology is really that simple. The only skill needed is can you write, and obviously you can.
If there are those who call McIntyre and McKitrick "merchants of doubt" (as if doubt was a bad thing), what would they call the RC crowd - "merchants of certainty"?
Sep 26, 2010 at 8:48 AM Peter B
Merchants of certainty is fitting but I visualize the Real Climate troupe as Keystone Cops who have just erected a tent over the resultant corpse of a friendly fire incident(all the time tripping over themselves), menacingly waving police batons as they instruct passers-by to "move along swiftly, there is nothing to see here" while heckling members of the public who pause to question the nature of the tragedy.
Climategate did nothing to change the long recognized underlying shoddy science, irrational conclusions and absurd policy recommendations of the global warming community. The The Hockey Stick Illusion's step-by-step detailed analysis of the rise and fall of the iconic symbol of the Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming movement would have drawn the the disdain of the Hockey Stick Team, their accomplices and supporters regardless of the brief concluding transitory remarks on Climategate.
It is my hope that The Hockey Stick Illusion is one day re-published with the full integration of the known facts of the Climagegate whistleblower FOIA file release as well as the scandals surrounding the cover-ups by the numerous investigations into the affair.
Don P
HSI started out as a self-publishing project - working in book production as I do I can do everything myself bar the cover. But I think there are still credibility issues attached to self-publishing. This is fading, but I don't think HSI would have had the impact it did if I published myself.
royFOMr
Thats a deal then, see if you can persuade the bishop to open the tip jar.
P.S.
My £150, like yours comes without the sequel. That will just be a bonus.
How do we do persuade the good Bishop to buff the collection plate and pass it round the congregation, P?
He's a proud prelate, that's for sure, and far too unworldly for your typical churchman!
If they'd all been like him in Tudor times then the dissolution would never have happened.
Ah yes, memories of 1538, i remember it well. Come to think about it, thats what the bishop is doing just like Henry. Little by little, bit by bit, taking the AGW proponents down. HSI is just the first step. Disposessing them of their spurious theory. Needs now to dispossess us of a few pennies in order to continue.