Monthly Archives: December 2011

A controversial look at Blackbody radiation and Earth minus GHG’s

Posted on by
51

“A controversial look at Blackbody radiation and Earth minus GHG’s” (2011-12-26). Anthony Watts provides more space for ill-informed attacks on “the Greenhouse Theory”. Here a savant named Reed Coray eagerly proves his wishful thinking, ominously triggered by Lord Monckton’s blithering. Funny how Anthony lets others espouse ideas that he’s officially too embarrassed to defend.

In this case everyone, except Reed, has miscalculated the Earth’s albedo and therefore there is no Man-made Global Warming. I guess the Earth’s albedo must have mysteriously, and naturally, changed in the last century.

Still, when his thesis is peppered with expressions like “I’m not sure what the definition of the ‘Earth’s characteristic-emission temperature’ is”, “If I am correct” and an apparent belief that he’s the first person to notice clouds and oceans, we are forced to conclude that we are dealing with an ill-informed but enthusiastic amateur with the usual opaque motivations.

It’s always entertaining when cranks latch on to black body radiation. If he’d referenced a spherical cow there might have been some redeeming comic value, but I think one of Anthony’s commenters sums it up best: “This is painful to read.”

Merry Christmas – open thread

Posted on by
4

“Merry Christmas – open thread” (2011-12-24). Anthony Watts takes up a new cause, the “War on Christmas”, by not wishing Happy Holidays to his readers. It’s Christmas or nothing! Funny how everything he does has a myopic, xenophobic tinge to it.

He also reminds his followers to remember Winston Churchill’s advice: “Never give up, never give in.” Yeah, Winston was all about encouraging ignorant people to stubbornly resist the facts. Here’s three Churchill quotes Anthony may want to ruminate over during his holidays:

  • A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
  • A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
  • Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.

Thanks for all the schmaltzy YouTube videos though.

Here at Wotts Up we take a skeptical view of the alleged life of Jesus and of all demands for faith in the unproven. We do hope that you take advantage of this Western cultural ritual to enjoy some time with friends and family.

Update: Of course, even while trying to quote Winston Churchill Anthony Watts manages to both misquote and be selective. Churchill’s full remarks are here, some particularly relevant excluded words are in bold:

never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

Honour and good sense are provably anathema to Anthony and his supporters.

Congressman Rohrabacher’s speech on climate issues

Posted on by
4

“Congressman Rohrabacher’s speech on climate issues” (2011-12-17). Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher stands up and recites the current extended list of stupid denialist arguments (“ice caps on Mars”, “CO2 is not a pollutant”, “systematic oppression”, “global elites” hate “meat eaters”, etc.). He holds in his hand a list of fifty communists… scratch that… an editorial from Investor’s Business Daily to prove it.

This is now “a matter of public record” for the approving Anthony Watts, thus ending Global Warming once and for all, again.

Rohrabacher for President! He’ll read whatever we shove under his nose!

A little security help for my friends

Posted on by
7

“A little security help for my friends” (2011-12-16). Anthony Watts, that paragon of transparency and objectivity, passes on a b-grade security tip to his fellow sneaks now that British denialist Roger Tattersall (aka “Tallbloke”) has had his computers seized as part of the criminal investigation into the second release of old “Climategate” e-mails.

Keep everything important on a USB thumb drive and be ready to smother it with mayonnaise and swallow same on a moment’s notice. This includes your chemtrail studies and skynet preparations.

Because everything you’re doing is totally on the up-and-up.

The IPCC gives me a shock

Posted on by
4

“The IPCC gives me a shock” (2011-12-16). Anthony Watts boasts that as eminent ‘citizen-scientist’ he’s been appointed to the IPCC:

I’ve been appointed as an expert reviewer for the IPCC AR5. I’ve viewed the invitation letter and it’s the real deal.

His “qualification”? He found a web page and entered his e-mail address.

Nobody recruited me, I was not invited by IPCC to apply, I was given a tip by another skeptic on the application page – Anthony

Anthony’s also been appointed customer-in-line #53 by his local butcher and has found the mailing address for submitting  letters-to-the-editor at the Carmichael Times. It’s the trifecta!

His readers (some of them have received the golden ticket too) don’t seem to understand the difference between writing a scientific report and being allowed to whine about same. Are they one of the cool kids now or is it a trap?

Pielke Junior on: The climate debate is ‘over’

Posted on by
14

“Pielke Junior on: The climate debate is ‘over’” (2011-12-12). Wow, this must have been a whopper if Anthony Watts didn’t just brave it out as per usual! How nasty were his supporter’s comments?  So much for Anthony’s version of editorial review, in this case a blind copy-and-paste of a “Global Warming Policy Foundation” book review screed.

I have removed this guest post [by Shub Niggurath] because it has been brought to my attention that it is unfair and has caused inflamed reactions [especially in comments] that were unintended. It was my mistake for posting it without seeing this, and my decision to remove it. – Anthony Watts

What brought this on? Roger Pielke Jr., author of last year’s tepid “science” book The Climate Fix and until now a reliable comfort to denialists, recently said:

The debate over climate science is over and has been won by those who assert a human influence on the climate system.

This seems to have made him the target of denialist’s Two Minutes Hate (did Al Gore feel a momentary abatement in the voodoo doll pricking?). The jilted Global Warming Policy Foundation sniffs that Roger’s “wrong and irrelevant”. The comments on Anthony’s blog post must have been vicious.

Perhaps Anthony realized that if Roger was consumed in the righteous flames of denialist wrath there would be effectively no-one with even faint public policy credibility to point to as a “mainstream” supporter. A follow-up post containing more of Shub Niggurath’s reasoned criticisms was also deleted.

Take note Anthony; this is how your viciously doctrinaire followers will one day treat you. Praised as melding of Galileo and Martin Luther one day, Despised and hated the next. You are the tail, not the dog.

Quote of the Week – what Durban is really about

Posted on by
4

“Quote of the Week – what Durban is really about” (2011-12-11). Anthony Watts thinks that esteemed climate scientist “Cal65” (aka random anonymous commenter) has managed to get to the core truth about the purpose of the Durban climate conference which has, infuriatingly, achieved positive results:

The UN plan will shift wealth from the first world’s poor to the third world’s rich without making any difference in climate control.

That was a real stretch, huh? The invisible hand of the secret commie world government revealed again!

Those “whiny grifters known as the Maldives” are building airports, which clearly means they know that the sea-level won’t actually change for at least eleventy hundred years. Therefore:

“Anything coming out of the mouths of Maldives officials related to climate, CO2, or sea level is pure bullshit.”

I love the nuance of Anthony’s usual noisy arguments:

  1. “Tuvalu and many other South Pacific Islands are not sinking, claims they are due to global warming driven sea level rise are opportunistic.” Good lead! This is as close as Anthony can get to a verifiable claim. Too bad the authors of the paper he’s trying to misconstrue have been summarized thus: “Webb and Kench warn that while the islands are coping for now, any acceleration in the rate of sea-level rise could overtake the sediment build up. Calculating how fast sea levels will rise over the coming decades is uncertain science, and no one knows how fast the islands can grow.“
  2.  “The Maldives can’t take a joke.” Yeah, that’s it! Anthony’s spittle is a joke! Roll with it, dudes.
  3. Willis Eschenbach are smart and he says islands FLOAT! Really Anthony? You’re trying to show that the reaction of the Maldives government to rising sea-levels is “FAIL” and you cite Willis? You should have saved him for last and hoped that your readers wandered away before reading this bit.
  4. “The sea level is actually dropping.” It’s called statistics, Anthony. You’re not using them right. (But you know that.)
  5. Lorne Gunther (a virulent right-wing columnist) says that kooky Nils-Axel Mörner can prove that sea-level ”hasn’t risen in 50 years.” Yes, ignore the sea-level charts you shoved in our faces in point 4, Anthony.
  6. The Maldives government is building things! So is Iceland, and they gots volcanoes. Not everything is intended to last eleventy hundred years.
  7. Airports too! So is the US military in Afghanistan.
  8. The Maldives tricked the USA into giving them $30 billion! Maybe you should change the battery in your Casio.

Anthony, you’re experiencing a panic attack. Frankly we were all a bit surprised that the Durban conference managed to achieve something. Please breathe into a paper bag for the rest of the day, OK?

The flying Monck

Posted on by
6

“The flying Monck” (2011-12-06). Isn’t that just like Anthony Watts? Warm is cold, up is down, grimaces are grins. The aging and unfit Lord Monckton is so desperate for attention that he actually sky-dived over the Durban climate conference to ‘draw attention’ to climate change denial skepticism. Anthony declares that Monckton is “grinning” on the way down, but you be the judge. Anthony’s readers are equally enthusiastic in their admiration of this demonstration of Monckton’s intellect.

Hang on to them choppers, M’Lord. And open them eyes.

Actually, this may be Monckton’s primary talent. Oblivious grinning while his arguments are shot down.

Note also that, just like in the climate debate, Monckton’s role is to clown for the camera while someone else pulls the strings.

WUWT – helping to educate UEA students on climate

Posted on by
2

“WUWT – helping to educate UEA students on climate” (2011-12-04). Gosh, Anthony Watts was “educating” students in a United Arab Emirates [senior moment reversed] University of East Anglia introductory Environment class according to some of the “new” stolen Climategate e-mails! He’s pretty puffed up about it too.

Err, make that “edumacating“. Climate scientists were stunned to learn that a lecturer was using material from university drop-out Anthony Watt’s blog, as well as from his Aussie twin Jo Nova (ask her about the Rothschilds), in his course material. Material which has frequently been shown to either intentionally deceive or be based on scientific ignorance.

Give yourself a pat on the head, but don’t try to rub your tummy at the same time, Anthony. You’re an expert now as long as no-one notices the lecturer’s admission that “I don’t have a grounding in climate science“. All you’ve really done is provide an example of how gullible random Googling can propagate lies and ignorance.

Hiding the decline down under – inconvenient papers censored

Posted on by
2

“Hiding the decline down under – inconvenient papers censored” (2011-12-01). Yawn. Anthony Watts complains again about outrageous scientific censorship. Scientific papers disproving global warming were blocked! Except they weren’t.

A right-wing Australian newspaper has declared that former senior public servant Doug Lord’s “six scientific papers” about sea-level changes at Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour were blocked by “post-normal” partisan (i.e. socialist) bureaucrats. Thus disproving Global Warming once and for all.

Except… even the supporting 1990 paper by E. A. Bryant later brought to Anthony’s incurious attention shows that rates of sea-level change across Australia are not uniform, with Sydney appearing particularly divergent. Funny that that’s the only one Anthony’s interested in talking about.

So… these six papers were the only ones ever prepared by a government employee that weren’t published? Seems a bit of a stretch. Oh wait, only five weren’t published. One of them was published. Which one, Anthony? Your skeptical intellect didn’t bother to investigate, did it.

Australian crank David Archibald (an Energy & Environment author and “endorsed by one head of state and four professors“) rushes in to ‘confirm’ that “there does not appear to be any evidence of acceleration” with his usual straight line slapped on top of a squiggle. While the commenters rail about progressive Australian politics. Same old same old.