Author Archives: Ben

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About Ben

I trained as a sedimentary geologist at a Canadian University, but have worked in the I.T. field as a programmer and manager for many years.

Announcement: WUWT-TV to counter Al Gore’s ’24 Hours of Climate Reality’ with live webcast

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“Announcement: WUWT-TV to counter Al Gore’s ’24 Hours of Climate Reality’ with live webcast” (2012-10-29). Another day, another grandiose proclamation from Anthony Watts. Just last Friday we were told to brace ourselves for “a major announcement” and here it is! Gasp in amazement! Tremble in awe!

Turns out that Anthony merely got wind of Algore’s latest evil scheme – “another transparent attempt to link climate and weather”, which apparently have nothing to do with each other – and he’s banged together a counterattack.

Remember Al Gore’s 24 Hours of Climate Reality last year, which worked Anthony into yet another state of anoxia because it used video production techniques? (Sort of like everything ever produced by professionals.) Anthony ain’t gonna stand for it when Gore presents a “Dirty Weather Telethon” next month.

Anthony knew our minds would be blown if we weren’t given a chance to brace ourselves, hence the 72 hour notice. But here it is: the Koch Brothers bought him a webcam and he’s going to do a webcast! You know it’s PRO because he’s even got PowerPoint and a “clicker”. And it’s called “WUWT-TV”. Almost all of his denialist attention-hound buddies will be firing up Skype so they can blink and cough in the guest window. Denialism’s Who’s Who, ranging from Ross McKitrick (not a climate scientist) to Senator Jim Inhofe (not even faintly a scientist)  to morris dancer Screaming Lord Sutch Lord Monckton (not a scientist, period).

I know Anthony’s puffed-up “major announcement” is just bog-standard web seminar stuff, even though he claims to have “engineered a remote ‘clicker’ that allows guest presenters to control the presentation from their end”, but it will be Community Access comedy gold. Just watch your data cap Anthony, I’d hate to see that Tip Jar get sucked dry.

Since Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on New York City while Anthony spouts his feeble “weather” misdirection, I’ll link to this Climate Progress post:

Atlantic City successfully adapts to climate change, October 29th, 2012. – Climate Progress

Al Gore’s ‘drowning polar bear’ source reprimanded

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“Al Gore’s ‘drowning polar bear’ source reprimanded“ (2012-09-29). A lying scientist has been caught red-handed! We’ll get those guys, one at a time. That’s a check mark on the good guy’s side! No need to read further.

You can always count on Anthony Watts to baldly misrepresent the facts. To put this plainly, Dr. Charles Monnett was accused of corruption (helping a scientist apply for a grant) and scientific malpractice (reporting his observation of drowned polar bears). This appears driven largely by political irritation over how other information he disclosed “helped reveal that Bush administration Arctic offshore drilling reviews illegally suppressed adverse environmental consequences.” Also, his observations were mentioned in that Communist Al Gore’s filthy propaganda, An Inconvenient Truth.

After an incompetent investigation that focused obsessively on the irrelevant dead polar bears, Dr. Monnett was only “reprimanded” because he had “improperly disclosed internal government documents”. Isn’t that the kind of thing that Anthony has been demanding more of? Transparency, letting in the light, resisting persecution, citizen-science, etc.

As usual Anthony falsely holds his target to a higher standard than he could ever live up to. Dr. Monnett is just collateral damage in Anthony’s Gore-ophobia.

REPLY: The issue is mostly with Gore’s ridiculous claims, AGW had noting to do with the dead polar bear and a dead polar bear does not a trend make. Monnet didn’t speak out when Gore took his observation and turned into into a bogus sympathy pitch -Anthony

Here’s an enlightening quote from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management press office that Anthony didn’t manage in include in his conveniently partial copy-and-paste of the Seattle Times article (this is called burying the lede):

A BOEM spokeswoman, Theresa Eisenman, said the findings in the report do not support a conclusion that the scientists involved engaged in “scientific misconduct.”

I note that Google Ads still sees Anthony’s readership as prime targets for Brain Training Games. Indeed, indeed.

‘Reach for the Stars’ now becomes ‘Retreat to the Past’

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‘Reach for the Stars’ now becomes ‘Retreat to the Past’ (2012-08-27). So many dumb posts on Watts Up, but I couldn’t let this reflection the stupidity of Viv Forbes, from Australia’s denialist dumb-tank The Carbon Sense Coalition, sent in as a guest post pass unremarked.

Apparently the deaths of Steve Jobs and Neil Armstrong are evidence that good science (such as coal power) is under attack and that nasty environmentalists are making up excuses to force us all back into dark caves. I suspect both those men would be spinning in their graves if they knew the idiocy they were being connected to.

Already [the “Green Generation”] have re-discovered wind power, wood energy and electric cars that were tried and largely rejected a century ago; they now encourage the production of once-banned ethanol corn whiskey, but waste it on cars; they spurn the energy potential of nuclear, coal, oil and gas; and they would close our airports and lock up our resources whilst developing computerised spy-ware to record, regulate, ration and tax our usage of everything.

And one branch of NASA, the once-great risk-taking body that put Neil Armstrong on the moon, is now supporting an anti-carbon cult that advocates the closure of the whole coal industry from mine to power station.

Viv the philosopher seems to feel that every technological development up until he was born was good, but everything since then is bad. We tried windmills before, don’t try them again! Coal got us here, we must stick with it! Don’t try anything new!

Sorry Viv and Anthony, progress doesn’t follow a forced path. We aren’t required to reject displaced technologies even when reevaluation shows they have advantages again.

The one thing Viv’s guest post does accomplish is to show how Anthony Watts vets these guest posts:

  1. Anti-environmentalist? Check.
  2. Anti-government? Check.
  3. Think about it. 
  4. Paste!

The comments focus on taxation as theft and “Agenda 21”. Surprise!

Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon: 1930-2012

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“Neil Armstrong, First Man on the Moon: 1930-2012“ (2012-08-25). Do you really think that Anthony Watts would pass up the chance to sidle up beside a great man so he can poke his nose into the spotlight? Bet your ass not.

“America has just lost its most heroic son” declares Anthony, tissue dabbing the corner of his eye as he ‘reflects’ on the death of Neil Armstrong, first man to step on the surface of the Moon.

I wonder if Anthony will recognize the contrast: Neil Armstrong did something courageous and audacious. He was part of a concerted effort to face a challenge that had no guarantee of success, that required the best efforts of the entire nation and had to be reinvented every step along the way to finally achieve it. That was America in the 1960’s.

Denialists today say the environmental risks we clearly face aren’t so bad (maybe they’re even good!), are lies, or can’t be conveniently solved and fight for inaction. This is Tea Party America in the 2000’s.

America has gone from “can do ” to “can’t do”.

So Anthony when you declare, through crocodile tears, that “America’s manned space program is also dead” remember that thinking people know that it’s wounds come from the determined efforts of ‘small government’ political zealots like yourself. Reflect on that while you pretend to exalt NASA’s most famous representative.

Farewell to Neil Armstrong, a courageous and dedicated explorer from a time when America faced challenges rather than set them aside and bickered over them.

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. – President Kennedy, 1962.

Apparently Governor Brown, you’ve never visited the weather station at Lake Tahoe

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“Apparently Governor Brown, you’ve never visited the weather station at Lake Tahoe” (2012-08-13). Anthony Watts gets his shorts in a knot because the Governor of California, whom he derisively refers to as “moonbeam” says that “Global warming’s impact on Lake Tahoe is well documented.”

Now if there’s one thing Anthony likes it’s a tasty cherry-pick. His (unqualified) buddy Russ Steele has done the ‘sciencey analysis’ for him too! It’s all laid out on Russ’ website, concerned with “AGW Defeat” as well as security, liberty and property.

First Russ/Anthony decides that the Governor is referring to a particular Lake Tahoe weather station, one that they can spin to their own benefit.

Then he declares that the rise is all “Urban Heat Island” effect – a tennis court was built nearby in 1980! Actually, as Anthony knew, the courts were built in 1973 and can’t be honestly linked to the alleged artificial 1980 change in temperature trend. Which kinda happened globally, so that’s one heck of a tennis court.

Next, it’s also all bad weather station siting. There’s a fire barrel nearby, it must burn constantly! Anthony, of course, has no evidence about how long the fire barrel has been there, how often it was used, or at what time of day it was lit in comparison to the times of measurement. Still, fire barrel!

Next, he selects some other stations that show a different temperature trend (still up though, unless you squint… which Anthony does). This is the one thing that could be a legitimate argument, but of course he restricts himself to selected weather stations that suit his argument, not a scientifically legitimate regional comparison. Doing that might not make his case…

Finally, he declares that the scientists involved are “political hacks”. Surely if this was likely to stick he’d start and finish with this. And maybe demonstrate it clearly.

Well! Done and dusted for Anthony. A disused fire barrel and tennis courts in place long before a disputed temperature trend started have proven, once and for all, that there is no Global Warming. Never mind that his argument never rises above vague, un-verified supposition.

Note: This post was written so that comments made in a recent but unrelated post could be associated with the correct topic. It’s just run-of-the-mill denialist noise on Anthony’s part.

P.S. Love Anthony’s ominous reference to a critical commenter’s personal details, gleaned from IP address snooping. Classic passive-aggression and misdirection!

Dr. Roger Pielke Sr. on two recent “game changing” climate papers

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“Dr. Roger Pielke Sr. on two recent “game changing” climate papers” (2012-07-31). “In case you missed it”, Anthony Watts wants you to know that someone important is singing the praises of his submitted paper manuscript final draft “discussion paper”. Occasional collaborator Dr. Roger Pielke Sr., who has spent years declaring with a straight face that Anthony “is devoted to the highest level of scientific robustness”, still thinks that every time Anthony flaps his trap he educates the world.

It’s a game changer! Yes, but what’s the game?

Pielke Sr. started backing away within a day: “To be very specific, I did not play a role in their data analysis. [Anthony] sent me the near final version of the discussion paper and I recommended added text and references.” He tries hard to maintain BFF status though: “Anthony Watts clearly understands the research process in climate science.” This like telling someone they’re not fat, just “big-boned”.

But surely co-author and obsessive skeptic Steve McIntyre will back Anthony unequivocally? Nope:

Anthony sent me his draft paper. In his cover email, he said that the people who had offered to do statistical analysis hadn’t done so (each for valid reasons). So I did some analysis very quickly, which Anthony incorporated in the paper and made me a coauthor though my contribution was very last minute and limited. I haven’t parsed the rest of the paper.

New study shows half of the global warming in the USA is artificial

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“New study shows half of the global warming in the USA is artificial” (2012-07-29. Originally titled “PRESS RELEASE”). Here it is! The game-changing scientific announcement from Anthony Watts that the entire world will want to know about!

“U.S. Temperature trends show a spurious doubling due to NOAA station siting problems and post measurement adjustments.”

So… Anthony Watts’ science revelation is that his inkjet has finished printing a typo-ridden do-over of his attack on US surface station weather data, “to be submitted for publication”, with his usual denialist pals (McIntyre, Christie, Jones).

Strange that Anthony’s promoting his sciencey-ness before publication (let alone acceptance). Didn’t he rail against the practice when he didn’t like former pal Dr. Muller’s temperature analysis? I guess that was then and this is… now.

Let’s see who he tries to submit this too (Journal of Geophysics, anyone? Oops, all the planted editors have decamped) and how the peer-review turns out. Should be funny to watch him squirm and sputter.

Wait, I just got it!

Anthony knows the evil conspiracy of competent climate scientists will never allow  a threat to the secret communist world government. Like every denialist proclamation yet, Anthony’s moment of shining triumph will last no longer than the delay between clicking “post” and being read by tamino or RealClimate.org (that will be some good readin’).

Make hay while the sun shines, Anthony.

P.S. Looks like Anthony’s barrage was timed to deflect attention from his former denialist buddy Dr. Muller. Muller’s Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature publication confirmed the conventional scientific conclusions. His op-ed today in the New York Times is “The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic”:

Call me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.

Anthony’s been hiding behind a fence, nursing his snowball-with-a-stone-in-it waiting for Muller to walk past. Hell hath no fury like a betrayed denialist.

2012-07-31 Update: Victor Venema (commenting here too) has some good first-pass comments on Anthony’s mediocrity. Eli Rabett has also gathered some entertaining insights into Anthony’s latest self-congratulatory own goal.

But this lack [of perspective] makes amateurs prone to get caught in the traps that entangled the professionals’ grandfathers, and it can be difficult to disabuse them of their discoveries. Especially problematical are those who want science to validate preconceived political notions, and those willing to believe they are Einstein and the professionals are fools. Put these two types together and you get a witches brew of ignorance and attitude.

Unfortunately climate science is as sugar to flies for those types.

WUWT publishing suspended – major announcement coming

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“WUWT publishing suspended – major announcement coming“ (2012-07-27). Anthony Watts alerts the scientific world to his impending ‘Einstein’ moment of “broad global interest”.

What a tease. The suspense is killing me!!!

July 29th Update: Anthony Watts’ science revelation is that his inkjet has finished printing a typo-ridden do-over of his attack on US surface station weather data, “to be submitted for publication”, with his usual denialist pals (McIntyre, Christie, Jones). The apparent purpose being to undermine the actual publication of former denialist Dr. Muller’s ’s Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature results.

Dr. Michael Mann invokes the Streisand effect

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“Dr. Michael Mann invokes the Streisand effect” (2012-07-20). Anthony Watts delights in climatologist Dr. Michael Mann’s response to the bluntly defamatory attack piece in the National Review Online by the demagogue Mark Steyn titled “Football and Hockey”. Anthony barely notices that Steyn tries to link Dr. Mann to the Penn State child abuse scandal. What counts is that Dr. Mann has demanded a retraction, which means more people will read the insinuations. See, malicious lies and slimy insinuations work. Go there! Click! Click!! Click!!!!

Anthony can be reliably depended upon to take the low road, but this is contemptible even for him.

I love Steyn’s slippery wording when he tries to suggest that Penn State “felt obliged” to investigate Dr. Mann’s scientific integrity, implying that they acted to cover up the evil deeds of a member of their inner sanctum when in fact they were trying to address fabricated denialist accusations. Steyn’s little pulpit is called “The Corner” and he has surely painted himself into one…

Remember how all those investigations turned out? Pretty good actually. But of course they are all the product of the same secret worldwide Communist conspiracy, right? Every denialist attack on Dr. Mann’s “hockey stick” evidence has crumbled into ignorance and partisan deception, all that’s left to an enraged denialist is wild, baseless, personal attacks like this.

Steyn, in his lazy malicious way, wanted to send his readers to OpenMarket.org, the “Competitive Enterprise Institute” blog (notice how all “scientific skepticism” is nurtured  by partisan right-wing mouthpieces?) to a post by Rand Simberg titled The Other Scandal In Unhappy Valley. which now contains this statement of bold journalistic defiance:

*Two inappropriate sentences that originally appeared in this post have been removed by the editor.

A few other reactions:

New paper blames about half of global warming on weather station data homogenization

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“New paper blames about half of global warming on weather station data homogenization” (2012-07-17). Anthony Watts eagerly embraces a “peer-reviewed paper” conference abstract that uses some garden-variety data diddling. Sez Anthony:

Authors Steirou and Koutsoyiannis, after taking homogenization errors into account find global warming over the past century was only about one-half [0.42°C] of that claimed by the IPCC [0.7-0.8°C].

Them climate scientists are manipulat’n data for their Commie bosses! Not Steirou and Koutsoyiannis…

Strange how Anthony forgets that even denialist Roy Spencer’s satellite temperature records show a 0.46°C rise in 33 years. One might think a bit of caution is in order when someone claims that only there’s been 0.42°C of warming over the last century.

Anthony Watts just types “told ya so” as fast as he can work his trembling fingers. Where’s the skepticism? Up his ass of course. He, like the paper’s authors, doesn’t seem to understand data homogenization. Here’s Dutch scientist Victor Venema on Anthony’s intentional ignorance:

A student can make an error and conferences are there to talk about preliminary results, much more worrying is that Anthony Watts keeps on getting his facts wrong. An EGU abstract is simply not a peer reviewed paper. Of the three sentences Watts cited from the “peer reviewed paper”, two can only be found in the slides of the talk, which are not reviewed. Every post on Watts up with that?that is on a topic I am knowledgeable about, contains serious factual errors and clear misrepresentations. I am not talking about having another opinion, but facts. If clear facts are already wrong, I start doubting the rest. One wonders why the readers of Watts up with that? keep on reading that stuff. There seems to be little interest in the truth among these self-proclaimed skeptics.

We’ll leave the final insight to one of Anthony’s squad of censors “moderators” who is proud of how enthusiastically and regularly wrong WUWT is:

[REPLY – What it means is that WUWT, unlike nearly all alarmist blogs, does not censor contrary points of view. Science is a very back-and-forth kind of thing. Anyone can be wrong. Anything can be wrong. Consider that. ~ Evan]