We might err, but science is self-correcting

An Oxford colleague, one of the world’s top climate scientists, made the same point last week when he said to me: “It’s odd that people talk about ‘climate sceptics’ as though they are a special category. All of us in the climate science community are climate sceptics. It’s our job to question and challenge everything.” Any scientist will tell you that when you turn up at a conference the audience will do its best to tear your findings to pieces: no one takes anything for granted.

I can vouch for this being true, as I’ve seen it firsthand. There are some very frank exchanges that go on at conferences, either in the Q&A session or after a talk is done. Putting those coffee breaks in the schedule isn’t just for caffeination opportunities — they are also a chance to track someone down and hash out claims made in talks (or pump them for more information, depending on your motivation). I recall a conference a few years back where someone came up to a colleague who had just given a talk and said, “You do realize what you said about X was bullshit, right?” We proceeded to have a spirited conversation on the subject and eventually agreed that what had been said was true under the conditions that had been implied, but was not generally true. And you can be sure we clarified that when it came time to write it up for the conference proceedings.