“CO2 increases to make drunken clownfish“ (2012-01-18). Seriously Anthony? Researchers reported in Nature Climate Change (Near-future carbon dioxide levels alter fish behaviour by interfering with neurotransmitter function) that increases in dissolved CO2 changes clownfish behavior and all you can do is snicker about the word ‘clown’? Then you report The Daily Bayonet’s hint that the scientists were manipulatively using the clownfish’s cuteness to attract attention.
Anthony Watts looks in the mirror.
From the New Scientist coverage:
Carbon dioxide in the ocean acts like alcohol on fish, leaving them less able to judge risks and prone to losing their senses. The intoxication adds to the threats that global warming and ocean acidification pose to marine ecosystems.
Couldn’t be because clownfish were “the first type of marine ornamental fish successfully bred in captivity on a large-scale“, could it? Neither Anthony Watts or the Daily Bayonet have made the slightest effort to think it through.
Wott's Up With That? 
Signs that you’re a denier…….when denial becomes a knee jerk reaction to ideas that are outside your familiarity, i.e., biological.
“clown”…….Anthony’s stated objection to the paper is apparently to the visual appearance of the clownfish, as shown in the newscientist.com article that he links to.
He would be happier with the sciencenews.org coverage which only shows the other fish in the study, the Australian damselfish.
It would be interesting to find any examples where Anthony has actually “thought through” his slanderous, misrepresentations of climatological studies or the ocean acidification situation in a rational far sighted manner.
Advocacy for the energy industry, and diverting attention from the real issues, are his focus.
~ ~ ~
Heck look at his championing of the transparent fraud (and developer of an AIDS Cure) known as Lord Monckton to see just how rationally Watts’ mind works:
whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2012/01/dont-mock-monck-wuwt-112011-anthonys.html
[I have to admit that Anthony’s energy industry advocacy is probably an accidental consequence of his anti-government bias. – Ben]