Sometimes the climate change debate descends from the clouds and lands in the middle of the real world.

Here’s an example.

At the end of January 2024 I drove down to Washington D.C. to attend a session of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

The climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann was suing two conservative bloggers for defamation…in 2012. Dr. Mann eventually won and was awarded $1 million.

This defamation trial was an opportunity to be around a number of climate scientists, who were going to be witnesses…for both sides.

During the breaks in the trial, I would approach people and ask, Who are you? Why are you here? What’s your interest in this case?

One of the people I asked that question to turned out to be the husband of Judith Curry. Dr Curry used to be a very prominent climate scientist before she retired. She has agreed to be one of the scientists on The Climate Verso podcast.

Her husband cell phoned her to join us. I wanted to meet Judith Curry because of the stands she has taken about the climate debate.

But, what if you’re a climate scientist who says:

• Maybe natural factors are still very important in climate change, or
• Maybe a change in climate is not necessarily bad.

The mainstream climate scientists are said to be in the “crisis camp.” The “maybe” climate scientists are said to be in the “skeptics camp,” or are just considered “climate deniers.”

If you are a skeptic who pokes even a potential hole in the mainstream theory of human-caused climate catastrophe, then it’s easy to get kicked out of the “good climate scientists club.” To the mainstream, you’re now a “rogue climate scientist.”

Judith Curry testified about that “legitimate vs. rogue” divide at the trial…but for the defendants, not for Dr. Mann.

Like I said, Dr. Curry used to be a very prominent mainstream climate scientist. But then she started getting a little skeptical about the direction that the field was going. And just by even raising a few questions, she became a rogue, a kind of pariah.

In 2010 Dr. Mann described Dr. Curry as among “a new breed of climate change contrarian – the delayer,” who “claim to accept the science, but downplay the seriousness of the threat or the need to act.”

Ultimately, she quit. Dr. Curry left her tenured job in 2017 to run the Climate Forecast Applications Network, a climate-risk consulting company whose clients include federal agencies, insurance companies, and energy companies.

I think there’s almost an attempt to pretend that all scientists think the same way. For example, as far as I can determine, someone like Michael Mann is very interested in controlling who was considered a legitimate climate scientist. That would explain his suing for defamation, a case that took some 12 years to resolve.

The ongoing climate debate shows that we need a neutral place where both sides can have serious but friendly conversations. A forum that encourages constructive dialogue and mutual understanding. Where the everyday public could listen and be inspired.

I felt I needed to create such a place.

Keep the conversation going! Please share your comments, feedback, questions, additional information, funny anecdotes, or ideas for future blog posts in the Comments below. Thanks!