“The day TV weather grew up“. Anthony Watts talks about the one thing a TV weatherman is actually qualified to talk about. Weather! In this case, the tornado “swarm” that stuck on April 3-4, 1974. He re-posts a blog article by Mike Smith about being the first TV weatherman to give timely tornado warnings shortly after that event.
Of course Mike seems to share Anthony’s perspective on climate change…
Like a Dad trying to complete a cross-country family trip, I’ve ignored the squabbling pre-teens in the backseat for as long as possible. (That would be the repetitive deceptions of Anthony Watts and his co-bloggers.) It’s been quietly entertaining to glance in the rearview mirror and observe the juvenile shenanigans, but now it’s time to restore order.
The Heartland Institute’s grandiose public relations exercise back in May (I can barely say “4th International Conference on Climate Change” without snorting) is now just an amusing memory exposed so well by other observers. The embarrassed scramble for obscure new arctic sea ice metrics to replace the “unhelpful” conventional ones is continuing. Dr. Spencer is still submitting blog articles that contain boneheaded numerical errors. Steven Goddard is still pawing through data looking for ever-tinier oddities that he can try to pass off as thunderous disproof. Anthony himself is still declaring that his blog is the ultimate source of truth, that his page loads are proof that there is no climate change, and he’s still scouring the web for newspaper articles to get indignant about.
And now and then the denialists realise that it’s time to cut their losses on an unsupportable argument that their dumber followers are looking foolish parroting. Just last week Willis Eschenbach tried to convince denialists to stop disputing the CO2 measurements from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer…
Nice to know that things don’t change that much. Tomorrow I’ll be back on the case…
Update: I forgot to mention the delicious reaction of the Heartland Institute conference attendees when their knight in shining armor, Steve McIntyre, failed to fall in line with the baseless and out-of-jurisdiction legal assault by Virginia’s dumb/partisan ideologue/McCarthyist (take your pick) Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on former UVA climate scientist Michael Mann. Golf clap.
“Dr. Richard Lindzen’s Heartland 2010 keynote address“. In a room full of balding libertarians, Dr. Richard Lindzen tells it like he wishes it was. No doubt his actual remarks will be discussed shortly.
“Volcano Update“. Steven Goddard tells us that Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano is still erupting. He seems to have quietly stopped trying to argue that volcanic CO2 output is more important that human CO2 output.
“Kerry Emanuel and Richard Lindzen: the climatic odd couple“. Anthony Watts says that Richard Lindzen is “easy to talk to and easy to like” (to me, he always looks painfully constipated). Anthony offers no direct opinion on Lindzen’s MIT colleague, fellow conservative and apparent ex-friend, Kerry Emanuel. Instead he pastes in a Boston Globe article.
Apparently Kerry Emanuel has abandoned climate change ‘skepticism’ and now says “I don’t see how a climate scientist can look at the evidence and not see risk“! He also says Lindzen’s recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece was”irresponsible and misleading”! Gosh.
I love the standard defeatist quote from Roger Pielke Jr.: “If these two guys can’t agree on the basic conclusions of the social significance of [climate change science], how can we expect 6.5 billion people to?” Always looking for the silver lining, eh Roger?
“Now it’s more CO2 that will threaten crops“. But plants love CO2! Anthony Watts is confused by this UC Davis press release. Apparently “Rising CO2 levels threaten crops and food quality”. What’s confusing about this, Anthony:
…findings from previous research by Bloom and colleagues suggested that elevated levels of carbon dioxide decreased photorespiration and inhibited nitrate assimilation in plant shoots.
Oh, maybe that ‘whole CO2 is good thing’ isn’t going to stick, even though the partisans at CO2Science.org have an “amazing video”.
“R.I.P. El Niño“. Steven Goddard tells us that El Niño is over, now things are going to get really cold. Yes, that’s it. Nothing but natural cycles here. Move along, move along.
“IPCC’s Chairman Pachauri Conflicted“. Nothing seems to be sticking lately for Anthony Watts, so he’s casting about for more personal attacks on Dr. Pachauri. The denialist Science and Public Policy Institute has produced a so-called report (more of a rant really) titled “Dr Rajendra Pachauri and the IPCC – No Fossil Fool”. Author Dennis Ambler claims that Dr. Pachauri “has previous or present connections, demonstrating a very clear conflict of interest” with energy companies in India.
All these secret connections! That Pachauri’s a tricky one. Wait, they’ve been public knowledge all along? Still, how dare he make intelligent, maybe even profitable, business decisions! Wait, isn’t that good capitalism?
Of course it’s all part of a “long-term UN agenda of wealth transfer from rich nations to poor nations.” Those cunning commies! Maybe someone needs to go back on their meds.
“The Union of Concerned Scientists tackles gardening to save the planet“. Anthony Watts pastes in another press release this time from the Union of Concerned Scientists. They’re offering practical climate-friendly advice to gardeners:
“Seventy percent of Americans garden, and they can have a positive impact. Our guide shows them how.”
Anthony’s snarky response is that “we can just garden our way to carbon nirvana, that is, if the bugs don’t eat it.” It can’t be much fun being so miserable all the time.
“Add your own ‘Radar Channel’ to your TV“. Anthony tells us that he’s “invented” the computer: the “StormPredator Radar Appliance”. Actually he’s selling a small form-factor Windows box that mounts behind your TV and displays local weather radar using your internet connection.
Now you can sit in your living room and watch the climate not change. Wait, didn’t Al Gore invent the internet!?! Oh, the irony.
Wott's Up With That? 