Thanks to a tip from Sou over at HotWhopper, I came across an excellent introduction to climate models that's definitely worth sharing... {and it'll make a nice break from the crazy-makers I've been featuring over here} because in the process I became familiar with an impressive young rationalist. Scott Johnson who's a hydrogeologist, geoscience educator and freelance science writer and has a blog at fractalplanet.wordpress.com.
I thought he did a good job of explaining some of the details and facts of climate models and how they are used to inform scientific learning.
Since Climate Models are constantly being misrepresented and derided based on false claims and deliberate misperceptions, this is an article worth becoming familiar with. I'm hoping to get permission to repost more highlights from the text in the future, right now I'll limit myself to the introduction and one paragraph from the closing and short descriptions of the sections of his article.
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Why trust climate models?
It’s a matter of simple science
How climate scientists test, test again, and use their simulation tools.
by Scott K. Johnson - Sept 5 2013 - ARS TECHNICA.COM
http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/09/why-trust-climate-models-its-a-matter-of-simple-science/
http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/09/why-trust-climate-models-its-a-matter-of-simple-science/
It starts out:
¶1 " Talk to someone who rejects the conclusions of climate science and you’ll likely hear some variation of the following: “That’s all based on models, and you can make a model say anything you want.” Often, they'll suggest the models don't even have a solid foundation of data to work with—garbage in, garbage out, as the old programming adage goes. But how many of us (anywhere on the opinion spectrum) really know enough about what goes into a climate model to judge what comes out?
