Climate change can be categorized as a “wicked problem.”[Note] Wicked problems are difficult or impossible to solve, there is no opportunity to devise an overall solution by trial and error, and there is no real test of the efficacy of a solution to the wicked problem. Efforts to solve the wicked problem may reveal or create other problems….

Xu, Crittenden et al. [Note] argue that “gigaton problems require gigaton solutions.” The wickedness of the climate problem precludes a gigaton solution (either technological or political).

Judith Curry abandoned science this year.  She asserted I was “directly involved in Climategate”; James Annan explained “(S)He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense“; William Connolley eviscerated a recent paper on Antarctic sea ice (here), which notes, “The main problem with the paper is the uncritical use of invalid data“; and Bart Verheggen explained, “Her unfounded allegations are insulting for the whole profession.”

Her House testimony quoted above is another confusing mess.  It uses the word ‘wicked’ in various forms 11 times, glomming onto a 27-year-old paper by an architect and an urban designer, apparently to prove that the climate ‘problem’ may be ‘impossible’ to solve and indeed that even trying to solve it may only make things worse.

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Richard Lindzen routinely accuses scientists, even his close friends, of scientific misfeasance, based on no evidence whatsoever (see Kerry Emanuel asserts Lindzen charge is “pure fabrication”).

So it’s no surprise that in written testimony for a congressional hearing on the state of climate science that comes on the one-year anniversary of the hacking of climate scientist emails, Dr. Lindzen of MIT accuses his colleages of academic corruption.  Brad Johnson has the low lights.

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In written testimony for a congressional hearing on the state of climate science that comes on the one-year anniversary of the hacking of climate scientist emails, Dr. Dick Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology accuses his colleages of academic corruption. Lindzen, a right-wing ideologue who has also argued on behalf of corporations that cigarettes are safe and CFCs don’t hurt the ozone layer, was asked to testify by the Republican minority, dominated by global warming deniers.

Lindzen cites “climategate” as proof of “overt cheating” and claims “so-called climate science” is actually “science in the service of politics.” Although he concedes that manmade global warming is “trivially true,” Lindzen essentially argues that as long as you ignore the data that indicates CO2-driven global warming, you can’t find CO2-driven global warming.

Other lowlights of Lindzen’s testimony:

– Argues that the deceased Steven Schneider, one of the most influential climate researchers up to the time of his death this year, was not an “active contributor” to climate science

– Calls the global surface temperature anomaly an “obscure statistical quantity.”

– Claims “so-called climate science” is actually “science in the service of politics.”

– Says climate science “has become a quasi-religious issue.”

– Says “climategate” is one of several “instances of overt cheating.”

– “I am quite willing to state that unprecedented climate catastrophes are not on the horizon.”

Of course, Lindzen’s testimony somehow manages to ignore the crushing weight of scientific research finding dramatic, unprecedented changes in the natural world in all realms, including (for just one example) the freak Russian heat wave and associated Asian monsoon which killed over 60,000 people this summer during the hottest year on record.

Lindzen’s own work carries all the hallmarks of the crimes he plants on the rest of his colleagues — science designed to get pre-determined results driven by political ideology.

Interior Department OKs Second Large Solar Project on Nevada Public Lands

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) on November 15 approved the second large-scale solar energy project on U.S. public lands in Nevada. The Amargosa Farm Road Solar Project, a 500-megawatt (MW) facility, will provide electricity to about 150,000 homes. The project, an initiative of Solar Millennium LLC, is expected to create 1,300 construction jobs and up to 200 permanent operation jobs. Last month, DOI green lighted the first solar energy project on U.S. public lands in Nevada, First Solar’s Silver State North Solar Project, a 50-megawatt facility to be built in the Ivanpah Valley, 40 miles south of Las Vegas.

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Click here.

UPDATE:  The climate scientists on the first panel did not do a good job of 1) stopping Lindzen from hogging the mike and 2) bluntly and simply debunking the nonsense from him and Rohrbacher.

It was a dreadful idea for the Dems to let the Republicans invite Lindzen and Michaels, particularly if they are not given witnesses on each panel in the new Congress.

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Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the second round of recipients selected to receive funding for intercity rail projects under the administration’s High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program on October 28, 2010. These projects will bring us one step closer to realizing the benefits of greener transportation.  CAP has the story.

The graph below shows the projects currently under development as a result of the High-Speed Intercity Rail Program’s funding, which includes Recovery Act funding and funding from the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008. Some projects are in the planning stages while others such as California’s existing corridors (solid red) are already built and are being developed or expanded. The Milwaukee to Madison line and projects in Ohio will likely be canceled by incoming governors for those states (see “Passenger rail is not in Ohio’s future”: New GOP governors kill $1.2 Billion in high-speed rail jobs).

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The 10:30 am DC hearing will be webcast here, I’m told.

Science’s Eli Kintisch will be live blogging it with “rolling, real-time transcript” and “color commentary” from NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt at ScienceInsider.

I may excerpt from them and offer my commentary as well.  I’d love to hear from you all.

There are many witnesses for this hearing who are worth hearing, notwithstanding the last-minute addition of fully discredited disinformers Lindzen and Michaels.  Here’s the full list with links to their testimony:

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