M.S. at The Economist notes that climate scientists are engaged in a difficult form of asymmetric warfare with their critics:
There are two ways to approach this problem. One is more effective mass communications that present the evidence of dangerous man-made global warming in an easy-to-understand, visually clear fashion. This is what Al Gore did with "An Inconvenient Truth". And while most people found it convincing, for political opponents of Mr Gore and other climate change sceptics the movie simply became one more text to comb for trivial errors, make dark insinuations about, and finally inveigh against as communist propaganda. The other approach climate scientists are trying is to confront politically driven populist attacks with greater openness and calm, reasoned replies to every criticism. This is laudable. But mere openness and calm won't do the job alone. If they don't work on their mastery of hard-hitting, punchy retorts, and start getting themselves on television and radio, media-trained and ready to make their case with urgency and a bit of anger, all the openness in the world won't change much. Against their nature though it may be, the scientists need to learn how to fight, fairly, but harder than ever.