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This Discussion Paper is motivated by the recent debates about the “truth” of climate change research and the shift in public opinion about whether man made climate change is actually happening or not.
It occurred to me that discussions were always centred on either instrumental records from the late 19th Century onwards, or past climate reconstructions from proxy data like tree rings, or climate models’ predictions. All these require training to be appreciated and discussed.
Any measurement comes with uncertainty, any proxy data comes with a theoretical model linking it to the climate variable it is supposed to measure, and of course all climate models, however complex, come with
simplifications. This state of affairs is very unfortunate because it takes away from people the freedom to understand for themselves the scientific issues when these appear to be solely understandable by experts in the field in question.