AEI and AR/4

Climate scientist Andrew Dessler has started a blog (join … usss …).

Today he brings word that the American Enterprise Institute — a right-wing think tank famous for housing warmongers — is offering $10,000 (PDF) to anyone who can write a cogent critique of the coming Fourth Assessment Report from the IPCC (or as everyone cool calls it, AR/4).

Dessler seems to think that the amount of the award and the recipients of the offer indicate a seriousness of purpose on AEI’s part, but … color me skeptical. The IPCC is going to be a huge media event. Everyone will be talking about it, at least for a week or two. ‘Wingers will need something they can point to and say, "oh, look, that’s been refuted." They won’t particularly know or care whether the alleged refutation is valid. They just need it to exist. They just need a URL. That’s what AEI appears to be purchasing with their $10K.

But we’ll see.