Calibrating statistical tools

Improving the measure of Humanity's influence on the climate

authored by

Corey Dethier

Abstract

Over the last twenty-five years, climate scientists working on the attribution of climate change to humans have developed increasingly sophisticated statistical models in a process that can be understood as a kind of calibration: the gradual changes to the statistical models employed in attribution studies served as iterative revisions to a measurement(-like) procedure motivated primarily by the aim of neutralizing particularly troublesome sources of error or uncertainty. This practice is in keeping with recent work on the evaluation of models more generally that views models as tools for particular tasks: what drives the process is the desire for models that provide more reliable grounds for inference rather than accuracy to the underlying mechanisms of data generation.

Organisation(s)

Graduiertenkolleg 2073/1

Type

Article

Journal

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science

Volume

94

Pages

158-166

No. of pages

9

ISSN

0039-3681

Publication date

08.2022

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

History, History and Philosophy of Science

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 13 - Climate Action

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.06.010 (Access: Closed)