Bishop Hill Who is Joe Smith?
Nov 20, 2011 Joe Smith has posted a comment on Booker's Telegraph article disputing the characterisation of him as a "climate activist".
Christopher Booker describes me as a ‘climate activist’. In the interests of accuracy and fairness I want to state clearly here that that is a label which I flatly reject. The research and policy dimensions of climate change are not simple or easy. Myself and thousands of scholars around the world will need to be thoughtful, open minded and dogged in doing justice to their complexity. People need to keep in touch and exchange views in a thoughtful and civil way. I would have welcomed a conversation with Christopher as he prepared his piece but was not given the opportunity. The free exchange of views about demanding topics is one of the things that the seminars that his piece refers to have been all about.
Yours
Dr. Joe Smith
The Open University
Bishop Hill
Take a look at this video of Joe Smith speaking at the Communicate 2009, a conference for environmental communicators (sponsored by, among others, the BBC). Particularly from 2min30s.
Reader Comments (115)
"Scholar".............Could've fooled me.
Green PR operative.......maybe.
I think I'll stick with "activist"...... like Booker.
"Myself.....will need to be". A scholar! What language is that?
I simply don't have time to assess Dr. Smith but I do value the opportunity to read his defence - as it happens, within a few minutes of skimming Booker's article for the first time. Thank you for the courtesy and even-handedness of this blog.
BA in Social And Political Sciences (Cambridge), PhD in Geography (Cambridge)
So what does he know about Science?
BA in Social And Political Sciences (Cambridge), PhD in Geography (Cambridge). So what does he know about Science?--Dizzy Ringo
There is places where left-wing politics and nothing but left-wing politics are taught. Are Cambridge one of them?
"thoughtful, open minded"
Sorry does not the concept of 'consensus' and 'settled science' rather make that a pale joke ? and does Mr Smith think the " free exchange of views" should only be through a invited audience with no outside influences?
He states his aim is to produce a plan to engage more of the public between 2010-2020, and then states that he wants Bristol to move "their" football ground somewhere else.
He may not be comfortable with the label... but he seems to want to delve into the world of politics, yet run for cover when the spotlight falls..
As so often is the case of climate activists, they want political Authority without Responsibility...
"Yours
Dr. Joe Smith"
Haha...
There is a pattern of cowardice that permeates the AGW community.
At 3.00 he lists the "achievement" of the environmental movement as having been "to increase fear, concern, and anxiety" and having managed to "knock at the door of everyone motivated by these kind of emotions".
Science not so much.
Is he for real? Surely this is some kind of spoof?
Open Minded?
"The Open University’s Dr Joe Smith sets sail for the North Pole with Jarvis Cocker"
http://www3.open.ac.uk/media/fullstory.aspx?id=14511
If it looks like activism, sounds like activism, then it is activism.
To participate in the Cape Farewell project is to indulge in climate activism.
http://www.capefarewell.com/people/science.html
@mac... banged to rights... well done
Also on the 2008 Cape Farewall voyage to the Artic that Dr Joe Smith was involved in was BBC science journalist Quentin Cooper.
As it happens Mr Cooper's wife works for the Cape Farewell project in the UK.
It is an exceedingly small world that these BBC science/environment journalists work in.
From the video:
"Now, a bundle of words that we could apply to most of the achievements of the environmental community of the last twenty years include 'fear', 'concern', 'anxiety'. And I think we have now knocked at the door of everyone who is going to be motivated by those kinds of emotions. And they've come out and they've signed up. To find a working majority to, for example, change the political economy of energy [...] will require, I think, a different set of emotions. We need to extend out into an excitement, the creativity, imagination, innovation and passion, actually, that we might uncover as we respond to environmental change issues."
From the comment on the Telegraph:
"Christopher Booker describes me as a ‘climate activist’. In the interests of accuracy and fairness I want to state clearly here that that is a label which I flatly reject."
Really. See, here's where the internet can catch you out. If you tell porky pies, we can see it.
That talk wasn't a dry academic analysis of the current dynamics of environmental politics. It was a talk on how *we* can get people to become actively engaged in fighting for green issues. If that isn't activism, then what is?
Dr Smith's homepage is much more informative:
http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/staff/people-profile.php?name=Joe_Smith
The "open letter to a climate skeptic" is not recommended for those who suffer from high blood pressure.
Dr Smith describes himself as a "action researcher". That is a bit of social science jargon to describe those who are not content with studying their subject but want to change it too. Objectivity and subjectivity easily blur in the social sciences (which is humans studying humans, after all), but where most social scientists are dispassionate about their conclusions, action researchers are not.
Dr Smith does not have a great track record in peer-reviewed publications.
Quentin Cooper's wife is Suba Subramaniam
http://www.capefarewell.com/people/arts/suba-subramaniam.html
It would appear that Mrs Cooper's latest project was “Dancing on Thin Ice” that involved working with 25 students, a scientist, a composer and a film maker to create a dance, music and media production around the theme of climate change.
It would appear BBC journalists are dancing on thin ice in their association with climate activism.
How does this guy get funded?
If by public money, which institution granted him licence to spend his time (i.e our money) on 'Action Research'?
Under what legal authority did they do so?
What are his KPIs - or equivalent - so that the funding institution - and we the public - can judge whether our money is being well spent?
(KPI = Key Performance Indicator).
My guess is that Open University pays his salary and then he uses his time on green activism. My sense is that this is a relatively widespread problem in academia.
@Bish
Is it possible to use FoI to get a look at the Ts and Cs of his employment and of his KPIs? Sounds like the sort of thing that FoI was designed to achieve...but I am no expert.
Ditto for Mrs Cooper's employment at UoL.
[BH adds: It's possible that it would be rejected as personal info, but my guess is that such a decision would not withstand appeal.]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/people/presenters/quentin-cooper/
"Quentin spends an increasing amount of time dealing with the issues surrounding climate change and the environment and is particularly entangled with the ongoing science-art Cape Farewell project having been a crew member on their 2004 Svalbard and 2008 Greenland voyages."
What connects BBC journalists and academics is climate activism.
@Latimer, Your grace
The typical academic spends two days a week on education, one day a week on management, and two days a week on research -- during term, that is. The other half of the year, it's five days research. At top universities, the teaching load is lower. At bottom universities, the teaching load is greater. The Open University is in this sense a typical university.
This freedom attracts great minds to universities. This is how fundamental research gets done.
Unfortunately, there are also people who take advantage.
I want a convincing and detailed report on what Dr JH Smith contributed at the OU program the last 12 months. Conniving with the BBC carmine myomorph does not figure as productive.
Excruciatingly detailed report and with an open mind how a freshly graduated new person in place of Dr JH Smith could maybe do it better and more efficient
FOIA !!
@Latimer
If you go to the Open University website, click on "jobs" and then look at the particulars of any of the academic posting, you'll find the KPIs.
If Bishop Hill is going to insist that Dr Smith's efforts at communication mark him out as an 'activist' why sould we accept Bishop Hill's increasingly thin claims of being merely a skeptic of anthropogenic climate change ?
@richard tol
Yeah , yeah we all know how hard academics work, the poor wee things. Unlike those of us outside the ivory tower who allhave cushy jobs uninterrupted by any of those demands. Just targets to meet or patients to treat or shops to open or services to provide or businesses to keep afloat or criminals to nick or life-critical equipment to keep running.
We cannot begin to comprehend the sheer pressure of having to do 5 days a week of research in a nice warm office in midwinter. Or the chore of eating those 4 course fine dinners at High Table a few times a week. Nor the difficulty of working in an an enviorenment with no outsids regulation and so needing to work hard to keep yourselves honest and above board rather than having auditors or inspectors or external authorities to help you. A real bummer no doubt.
But my point was not about the poor downtrodden academics in general, but the actuality of this particular guys contract of employment. I assume it says something less open-ended than 'here is an annual salary - spend it on anything you like, we don't care'. Like some specific duties for which he is being paid. Otherwise it isn't a legally enforceable contract it is just a gift.
So what is he actually paid to do? And how do his 'activist' activities contribute to that? Who decides that they are acceptable ways to spend our money?
I don't think I've ever heard such a torrent of shallow, banal, content-free verbiage from anybody professing to be educated - let alone an educator.
You can hear random, disjointed, uninformed opinionating in any pub in the land, after about half past nine - when did it become acceptable as academic discourse?
Our taxes at work - Jesus!
This is what he said about Climategate.
"What to say about ‘truth’ and climate science in the context of what appears to be the theft of ten years worth of private e-mails between climate researchers by mischief-making hackers? I’m not going to comment further on the incident, but it proves once again that there are some highly motivated people out there who want to tear up the narrative that climate change is human caused and requires urgent action. There are a small number of high profile media commentators who have savoured the opportunity to insist once again that climate change is a massive science fraud and big-state tax plot.s"
@richard tol
I went to the OU website as you suggested and looked at one of the vacancies - IT Project Mgmt - which is a subject about which I know quite a lot. There's a lot of management guff about generalities and experience required.
But there's nothing there against which I could conduct an annual review of performance and judge whether the incumbent had achieved their targets. The nearest I can find is
'You will be responsible for the successful delivery of all projects assigned to them' (sic), which is pretty self evident from the title.
Is this as near as academia ever gets to a definite job spec? If so, no wonder some of the 'greatest minds' choose to drive a coach and horses through them.
@Latimer
Dr Smith has probably about 3.5 days per week (on average over the year) to spend on his own research agenda -- that is, do what he f***ing well likes. He is an "action researcher" so he argues that his activism is part of his research. He is in the social sciences, so his department head may well accept this argument.
That said, he is in his late 30ies. He's only a senior lecturer. Should have been a reader by now. So he's not that well-regarded by his peers.
Any chance of an English translation, Hengist?
@Latimer
Here's a job spec for a senior lecturer at OU
http://www3.open.ac.uk/events/jobs/20111026_37753_o3.doc
“Fear, concern, anxiety – we have knocked at the door of all of those who will be motivated by those kinds of emotions”
I wonder how many more doors would be receptive if instead of playing on emotions somebody actually gave people the credit of being able to understand and react to plain and simple facts?
Hmm....... sounds a bit as we might be dealing with the Tracey Emins of the academic world.
"It's science 'cos I say it is".
@richard tol
Thanks for the clarification.
3.5 days per week to do what he f***g well likes! Nice work if you can get it.....
What if he just played golf, or wrote poetry or stayed in bed with his partner? Who would know? Who would care? How long can he get away with it? who signs his pay cheque as being legitimate use of public funds?
Coz if this is all as easy as it sounds, I want in on this scam...self-certifying employment, congenial working environment and total job security...great!
He's such a believe, he probably cannot see himself with the label of activist. It's his very lifestyle.But amazingly, his talk is so much an activist's presentation.
It would appear that one of the main topics of training available at OU is snake oil sales. Very sad for what was once a noble idea.
Is Joe Smith this person's true name?
I wonder.
Well this is quite clearly an excersise in social manipulation, about changing attitudes to policy under the auspices of the BBC, to quote an example of what Smith says his goals include:
"to find a working majority to change the political economy of energy"
There is no doubt that this film is a key document demonstrating BBC bias , Smith mentions the BBC several times, so there is no doubt
So now we all know this we have to wonder when the BBC is being employed in an excersise "to find a working majority to change the political economy of energy" how we should in future, say, treat their stories about fuel poverty? How can we trust them as a public funded organisation?
"Fear, concern, anxiety - surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the IPCC"
He's obviously Cardinal Fang of the Climate Inquisition.
@Latimer
One of my colleagues spent his days hunting. He never missed a class, so there was no way one could show in labour court that he did anything wrong. He was doing fieldwork, you see, and he kept records to prove it.
These are exceptions, though. Most academics work hard.
This is a scholar? I must be a rat, then.
Foxgoose
Nah, think mthis one is more like Cardinal Ximinez.
There is a very good reason why activists/fanatics play on emotions, it very successful. The nanny states of the western world having delivered to them a generation of supplicants.
His influence with the BBC Trust is telling, and influential:
You can get a bit more of a sense of my argument on media and environment from the International Broadcasting Trust’s submission to the review – I contributed to the drafting this time last year. Some of these points will also appear in a journal article I’m working on currently on climate change on TV. Here are the summary and recommendations:
http://citizenjoesmith.wordpress.com/2011/07/23/science-politics-and-storytelling/
But I get the feeling that he is not the only one out of Cambridge that will be influencing large corporations:
http://www.cpsl.cam.ac.uk/Network.aspx
Sounds as though they have a secret handshake and roll up one trouser leg.
Re: Latimer Alder
Generally they are judged on the papers they publish and the funding they manage to get. Get lots of funding and they don't care about the papers. Get lots of research "points" and they don’t care about the funding. No funding or papers then you will have problems.
The more prestigious a journal, the more research points. Being a lead author on a paper is worth more than just being named as an author. Having your papers cited also generates points.
Research points make prizes. The more points you accrue the more likely you are to rise through the ranks (or stay employed). The more points a University gets, the higher standing it has and the more grant it gets from the government.
I would imagine that the OU may also view having someone who is plugged into the global warming media circle as being a good thing since that may also attract certain government grants and other forms of funding.
This is how academia becomes politicised and rotten.
Terry S - Nov 20, 2011 at 10:55 PM
In my hard bitten engineering world it is known as "gaming the system".
Produces now't but problems for other folks.
I notice that 'Communicate 2009' conference was held on October 21st-22nd 2009, about a month before the UEA Email disclosures.
I imagine that full-scale activist alarmism seemed a pretty safe horse to back at that time, probably the only fly in the ointment being the little ongoing spat over Yamal trees which might well have been buried in time, all things being equal.
Sadly times aren't so kind now for your average activist, so a change of image becomes necessary. - a bit like the Vicar of Bray?
Dr Joe Smith does seem to - at the very least - tread a thin line between academia and activism.
This might be of interest - an Open University project called Interdependence Day, which was organised by Joe Smith in 2006:
Here he mentions "a call to re-think the boundaries of politics".
More here.
I agree with Smith - 'climate activist' isn't correct - the appropriate term is 'fraud'.
Have a look at the Creative Climate website. Under the Research tag and then "Big thoughts, big nature" Dr. Smith talks about his motivation. I especially like the paragraph about deniers, sceptics and the smoking not causing lung cancer smear. And this is a joint OU and BBC project. I can't say that it seems to have taken off since it's inception in 2009, thank goodness.