The IPCC has been telling us for years that climate models are accurate and thoroughly verified. Now Hansen says that they were never very good.
From Chapter 8.1 IPCC AR4
There is considerable confidence that climate models provide credible quantitative estimates of future climate change, particularly at continental scales and above. This confidence comes from the foundation of the models in accepted physical principles and from their ability to reproduce observed features of current climate and past climate changes. Confidence in model estimates is higher for some climate variables (e.g., temperature) than for others (e.g., precipitation). Over several decades of development, models have consistently provided a robust and unambiguous picture of significant climate warming in response to increasing greenhouse gases.
Hansen – May 2011
We conclude that most climate models mix heat too efficiently into the deep ocean and as a result underestimate the negative forcing by human-made aerosols. Aerosol climate forcing today is inferred to be -1.6 \pm 0.3 W/m2, implying substantial aerosol indirect climate forcing via cloud changes. Continued failure to quantify the specific origins of this large forcing is untenable
This is a fake controversy, obviously — the prime “greenhouse effect” incompetent calling out his own incompetent gang on a side issue. Hansen clearly wants to use aerosols to “explain” why the model predictions about rising temperatures have failed miserably in the last decade (and he wants to blame this, too, on humans).
The climate models made it through peer review. What exactly is James Hansen saying about the peer review process?
IPCC Calls Out Hansen