This is guest post by Messenger.
I was in the audience at the Bishop’s talk in St Andrews. He had been sponsored for this appearance by a member the Tayside branch of the Royal Society of Chemistry, who had read the Hockey Stick Illusion, and who, as I mentioned elsewhere, had thought it was a Good Thing.
The talk was the closing one of a regular annual series held on Friday nights at the University. The lecture theatre was just about full, probably 80 people or so, including St Andrews academics, which was more people than usual and very encouraging. The Bishop’s presentation was confident and entertaining, giving a condensed version of the highlights of the HS controversy with graphs and photographs of the protagonists on the screen. He went on to demonstrate how the CRU emails showed that Steve McIntyre’s suspicions had been correct, matching the most damning email comments to what the audience had already been told. He followed this section with a brief look at the various inquiry fiascos and summed up with an optimistic look at the future possibilities for how this current situation in climate science might develop, both here and in the USA.
The fifteen minutes allowed for questions was filled by a wide-ranging selection of queries on the possible motivation or the CRU scientists; peer review – is it broken?; the effect of dust clouds; the precautionary principle, CO2 and the greenhouse theory among others. The general impression I received was that the audience was very interested in what he had to say, and there was no overt hostility from anyone.
Afterwards there was a rush for the copies of the HSI, which sold out, and the Bish. was a kept busy signing the books and talking to members of the audience. A Tayside RCS member had to be levered away by his wife from his long conversation with the Bish…People I knew who spoke to me suggested that his talk had been another Good Thing and it seemed that a good time was had by all.