I suspect the issue is the vague nature of the ‘some things said about this’ comment. Yes, some things said about it are undoubtedly false, but some quite incisive things said about the conjecture are true!
Oh yes, for sure. That comment was a lazy shorthand for something like this: “Some unscrupulous people have played up past conjectures about global cooling in order to discredit what is now said about global warming, and a great deal of what they have said on this subject is bullshit. By referring in this context to global cooling, I am not endorsing any of that bullshit.” But that seemed like too much to cram into a comment that was actually about something else, and no way of making it much shorter sprang to mind.
I suspect the issue is the vague nature of the ‘some things said about this’ comment. Yes, some things said about it are undoubtedly false, but some quite incisive things said about the conjecture are true!
Oh yes, for sure. That comment was a lazy shorthand for something like this: “Some unscrupulous people have played up past conjectures about global cooling in order to discredit what is now said about global warming, and a great deal of what they have said on this subject is bullshit. By referring in this context to global cooling, I am not endorsing any of that bullshit.” But that seemed like too much to cram into a comment that was actually about something else, and no way of making it much shorter sprang to mind.