Countering a climate of scepticism

In this context, we need to understand what a climate model is: a conceptual construct of how a system works, in this case Earth. Many people, when they think of models, straight away turn to mathematical models. However, because everybody views the world as a set of concepts, we use models all the time.

A scientific model differs from an everyday conceptual model by being a systematic framework of observation, hypothesis, experiment and review of hypotheses.

The last two steps are critical in qualifying a model as scientific. Climate models are continually subjected to testing and revision in the light of new evidence. Most significantly, when statistical principles are violated to discount a scientific model, a red flag should go up: what is being violated is common sense.

Those who wish to discount this scientific effort are driven by their own ideologically dominated models, which are unreviewed, unaccountable and unverifiable. They should be disregarded.