Mathematical Modeling on parade
Readers will know that I have a special soft spot for purported 'climate' scientists that base their work on proxies and computer models. These have been shown false and are unable to hind-cast. For example, we have 200 years of decent weather data available. When this data is plugged into the modeling software, it yields results that are nothing like today's climate. How then can we expect to believe the forecasts from these scientists and their models. The three climategate releases show that there are a lot of cases where data has been cherry-picked and that the models have been tweaked to produce the desired results. Political correctness masquerading as science.
Now modeling is going crazy -- from the (Non)
Scientific American:
Strength in Numbers: Mathematicians Unite to Tackle Climate Change and Other Planetary Problems
What do polar ice caps, guinea worm disease and wildfires have in common? All are being modeled with cutting-edge mathematics. Mathematical societies and institutes around the world are participating in "Mathematics of Planet Earth," or MPE, this year. They aim to study the math that underpins geologic and biological processes on our planet as well as encourage more math researchers to tackle these problems. Events are planned for the year 2013, but the organizers hope that the initiative will have lasting effects.
More:
Some mathematicians themselves don't realize that all of this modeling actually uses novel techniques. Barry Cipra, a freelance mathematics writer, says, "Within the mathematics community there can be the view that these are differential equations that were worked out hundreds of years ago," but in reality the models aren't all "off-the-shelf." Real ingenuity and new ideas are needed to develop them. One goal of MPE is to convince more mathematicians that climate change and other planetary problems are not only important but also interesting. "That's what the mathematicians like when they choose a problem," Rousseau says.
No mention of accuracy. Fun problems yes, accurate results? . . . crickets . . .
Some fun comments. This group also has a blog here:
Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013
Posted by DaveH at March 21, 2013 8:37 PM