This is a very quick post to say thanks to John Cook of Skeptical Science for the recent “Woody Guthrie award for a thinking blogger” and especially the kind comments he made.
The idea is the award gets passed on from blog to blog, to those whom they deem a ‘thinking blog’
I’m proud to be the recipient and already in a panic about the next recipient, apparently it’s up to me to decide. It is especially a problem in this divided world we live in.
I’m very happy that many sides of the climate debate visit this blog and contribute and ask questions. I can only ask again what I ask in About This Blog:
It’s easy to trade blows on blogs. It’s harder to understand a new point of view. Or to consider that a different point of view might be right. And yet, more constructive for everyone if we take a moment, a day even, and try and really understand that other point of view. Even if it’s still wrong, we are better off for making the effort.
And sometimes others put forward points of view or “facts” that are obviously wrong and easily refuted. Pretend for a moment that they aren’t part of an evil empire of disinformation and think how best to explain the error in an inoffensive way.
Congratulations.
“…If we take a moment, a day even, and try and really understand that other point of view…”
This is the hardest thing.
Cheers
Michael
There are two parts to the value of a blog in this category. The first is the technical details, which has several requirements such as clarity and reasonableness of the science. The second is only applicable to those blogs that allow comments. This is how the comments are treated. By cutting out comments that are respectful, but that disagree with or question parts of the blog, the blog loses validity. The form of responses to comments are also critical. If a clearly one sided type of response is given, it also removes validity from the blog. Your blog is a good example of a strongly positive blog on both parts. I think Climate Audit, The Blackboard, Die Klimazwiebel, and some others are also good on both. I think blogs like Real Climate are good on the first part, but fail the second. Good luck on choosing the next Woody Guthrie award if it is up to you.
You very much deserve it. Not only do you provide good information, but you demonstrate a method (both for how to approach a problem, and for how to educate) that would be well carried over to any field.
[…] other point of view. Even if it’s still wrong, we are better off for making the effort. —Steve Carson You might also like…Science […]
A well deserved reward. This blog is a great resource for any of us amateur climate scientists to get a good grasp on the basics.
Good luck figuring out who to award it to next! It might be a tad early, but I’d suggest looking at the new generation of quantitative analysis blogs (e.g. Nick Stokes, Chad, Ron Broberg) as a good way to give their work more prominence.
‘Gratz, ‘doom.
I would only add to your commentary that even when a question is misguided or a comment wrong, it is almost always a teaching moment for somebody who is watching the back-and-forth.
“And who could get a better moniker than ‘doom’?”, one might ask.
Here’s an idea to diminish your award-passation angst: create a scienceofsalvation blog; discuss over there policy issues in the same remarkable way you do here; pass up the award back and forth between your blogs.
Congratulations!
The award would rightfully be yours if the site had done nothing else except publish the series “CO2 – An Insignificant Trace Gas?”.
“The Science of Doom” represents blogs at their best and the award gives folk like us a chance to say “Thanks”.
Thanks to everyone for their encouragement.
Dear Science of Doom, thank you for this very interesting blog (also, thank you to Peter Cook of Skeptical Science for the tip-off). I’m not a physicist (sadly), but I really enjoy reading your blog and hope to learn a great deal from your lucid explanations. All the best!
It’s “John Cook” rather than “Peter Cook”. More to the point, if anyone here isn’t familiar with Skeptical Science, do yourself a favor and go check it out. It’s an excellent resource:
http://skepticalscience.com/
congratulations!!
Have you passed this on to another blog yet? If so, who did you select? (If not, would you like nominations?)
Not yet.
You can suggest/recommend if you like.
In terms of suggestions, I would put forward The Oil Drum. A very technically in depth discussion of the resource constraints issues we are facing. Its sort of the flip side of the coin from the climate change issue\ resource constraint issues we are epxeriancing.
[…] received this award some time ago from Skeptical Science, and passing it on is long overdue. The idea is the […]