tools designed to investigate very different phenomena; this argument is an extension of that position to cover CGCMs as well. Rather than seeing CGCMs as the apotheosis of climate modeling--and seeking to improve on them to the exclusion of other models--we should understand them in the context of the broader practice of climatology, and investigate what unique qualities they bring to the table.
This is a strong argument in favor of ineliminable pluralism in climatology, as supported by Parker (2006), Lenhard & Winsberg (2010), Rotmans & van Asselt (2001), and many others. I claim that the root of this deep pluralism is the dynamical complexity of the climate system, a feature which necessitates the kind of multifarious exploration that’s only possible with the sort of model hierarchy discussed in Chapter Four. Under this scheme, each model is understood as a specialized tool, explicitly designed to investigate the dynamics of a particular system operating under certain constraints. High-level general circulation models are designed to coordinate this focused investigation by concatenating, synthesizing, and constraining the broad spectrum of data collected by those models. Just as in the scientific project as a whole, “fundamentalism” is a mistake: there’s room for a spectrum of different mutually-supporting contributions
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