We are told climate change is a crisis, and that there is an “overwhelming scientific consensus.”
“It’s a manufactured consensus,” climate scientist Judith Curry tells me.
She says scientists have an incentive to exaggerate risk to pursue “fame and fortune.”
She knows about that because she once spread alarm about climate change.
The media loved her when she published a study that seemed to show a dramatic increase in hurricane intensity.
“We found that the percent of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes had doubled,” says Curry.
“This was picked up by the media,” and then climate alarmists realized, “Oh, here is the way to do it. Tie extreme weather events to global warming!”
“So, this hysteria is your fault!” I tell her.
“Not really,” she smiles.
“They would have picked up on it anyways.”
But then some researchers pointed out gaps in her research — years with low levels of hurricanes.
“Like a good scientist, I investigated,” says Curry.
She realized that the critics were right.
“Part of it was bad data. Part of it is natural climate variability.”
Hellbound and Down 