The real holes in climate science

Researchers say it is difficult to talk openly about holes in understanding. “Of course there are gaps in our knowledge about Earth’s climate system and its components, and yes, nothing has been made clear enough to the public,” says Gavin Schmidt, a climate modeller at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and one of the moderators and contributors to the influential RealClimate blog. “But this climate of suspicion we’re working in is insane. It’s really drowning our ability to soberly communicate gaps in our science when some people cry ‘fraud’ and ‘misconduct’ for the slightest reasons.”

Nature has singled out four areas