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Roger Pielke Sr's avatar

wrt

“the IPCC holds a natural monopoly on science advice for climate change policy. It’s not that there are no alternative views available; it’s that the dominance of the IPCC hinders the competitiveness of these views”

this is very true.

I have directly experienced this. Here is an example which I documented on my weblog

https://pielkeclimatesci.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/protecting-the-ipcc-turf/

Two other examples are the two assessment reports

National Research Council, 2005: Radiative forcing of climate change: Expanding the concept and addressing uncertainties. Committee on Radiative Forcing Effects on Climate Change, Climate Research Committee, Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Division on Earth and Life Studies, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 208 pp

Kabat, P., Claussen, M., Dirmeyer, P.A., J.H.C. Gash, L. Bravo de Guenni, M. Meybeck, R.A. Pielke Sr., C.J. Vorosmarty, R.W.A. Hutjes, and S. Lutkemeier, Editors, 2004: Vegetation, water, humans and the climate: A new perspective on an interactive system.Springer, Berlin, Global Change - The IGBP Series, 566 pp

which the IPCC has essentially ignored.

Thank you for your excellent posts!

Roger Pielke Sr

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Peter Welsh's avatar

You're on to something important here, but I'd offer a semantic nitpick:

It isn't "knowledge" that the IPCC has a "stranglehold" on. It's credibility among voters and policy makers.

There is plenty of relevant knowledge that the IPCC chooses to mischaracterize or ignore. One only has to consult Clintel's review of the IPCC Summary for Policymakers or the many critiques - often devastating - of the CO2 climate catastrophe story.

The appeal to authority citing the IPCC works far better than it should. The body was set up to investigate anthropogenic global warming damaging to humanity. The mission statement assumes at the outset a result in scientific inquiries that are central to climate policy.

An absurd situation, and yet here we are. Jonathan Swift would have loved it.

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