When All Models Are Wrong

Beware the rise of the government scientists turned lobbyists, trumpeted the headline on an article by British journalist George Mombiot in the left-leaning newspaper The Guardian, adding that "From badgers to bees, government science advisers are routinely misleading people to support the politicians' agendas. The article, published on Apr 29, 2013, criticized the current chief scientist at the UK'S environment department for his assessment of the desirability of cuffing badgers, and the British government's new chief scientist for his opposition to the European ban on the pesticides blamed for killing bees and other pollinators. Scientific leaders have long portrayed their enterprise as a self-regulating community bound to a higher ethical commitment to truth-telling than society as a whole. Yet the tone and intractability of controversies ranging from badgers to bees to fracking suggests that society may be less willing to accept such claims than in the past. The challenge becomes even more daunting when modelers turn their attention to the economic consequences of changes in atmospheric composition.