Category Archives: Whining

Marketing Advice For Mad Scientists

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“Marketing Advice For Mad Scientists“. Anthony Watts says that the 250 scientists (all members of the élite US National Academy of Sciences) who have signed a letter condemning the recent political and personal attacks on scientists, particularly prominent climatologists, are not exhibiting “good judgement”.

Anthony also says that “it has not gone over too well” because Andy Revkin, a journalist who is now courting page views from Denialists, says so. The letter even uses “the d-word”! And they’re not climate scientists. Oops, they are. Barely literate Anthony even calls it “poorly written”.

In fact it’s such a failure that Anthony has to resort to putting words in their mouths to assuage his resentment. His post reminds me of the class clown hunched down in the back row, snickering at his own ‘brilliance’.

Anthony’s also putting in a full court press delaying or editing the few comments that challenge his version of the truth, even though his commenters are working themselves into even more of a lather than usual. I particularly enjoyed the comments comparing the letter to the bogus “30,000 scientists” that “signed” the crack-pot Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine Petition.

Read the Science letter here.

Hotness is in the eye of the beholder

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“Hotness is in the eye of the beholder“. Anthony posts more nit-picking from Frank Lansner. He’s confused and angry because different representations of surface temperature anomalies use different colors. Specifically he’s comparing NOAA vs. UNISYS Sea Surface Temperature plots. Of course he has very little idea about the decisions behind the representation of either dataset…

He seems to be of the opinion that only ‘cool’ colors should be used so as not to upset anyone, and that there should only be one baseline value to plot from. Different plots are created for different purposes, Frank. No, “tricking” people is a valid scientific purpose.

At least Frank learned that the NESDIS dataset is gathered at night to eliminate variable solar heating of the sea surface and solar glare.

Sensenbrenner Report Challenges EPA Greenhouse Finding

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“Sensenbrenner Report Challenges EPA Greenhouse Finding“. Anthony Watts gives us part of a post by the right-wing media outlet Pajamas Media about a “staff report” produced for Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner “on the scientific issues that tend to discredit the EPA’s endangerment finding for carbon dioxide as a pollutant.” (emphasis mine.)

This is pretty funny, as I’ve been reading selections of the EPA’s response to submissions opposing the recent finding that CO2 emissions have environmental consequences. They’re straight-faced but hilarious slap downs of denialist stupidity. You can find a bunch of them at Rabett Run.

They’re also excited to report that the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will be hearing testimony from “noted skeptic (as well as a Pajamas Media contributor)” Christopher Monckton, Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. This is called an “own goal” in soccer.

A multi question poll on Real Climate

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“A multi question poll on Real Climate“. Anthony Watts believes that hundreds of denialists obsessively refreshing the comments of his posts so they can shout down people who disagree with them is proof that his website is the best. That’s basically what the Alexa statistics he touts show. He’s way better than those climatologist jerks at Real Climate and better even than that nutty physicist at Climate Progress.

Now he has more supporting evidence. Jeff Id at The Air Vent has created a series of goofball polls asking his loyal denialist readers if they think that Real Climate is mean or stupid. Why can’t they pick mean and stupid?

So now we know who make Anthony and Jeff Id squirm the most. Real Climate and Climate Progress, in their different ways, are both doing something right.

Climate idiocy at the Monterey Bay Aquarium – cow with a gas mask

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“Climate idiocy at the Monterey Bay Aquarium – cow with a gas mask“. The Monterey Bay Aquarium had a goofy image in a display about threats facing ocean wildlife (including climate change) and now Anthony Watts can’t “marvel at the sea otters, jellyfish, and the Mola” because “it’s just another political hack.”

Get over yourself, Anthony.

EPA’s action Jackson moving forward

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“EPA’s action Jackson moving forward“. There’s nothing Anthony Watts hates more than a government actually doing something. The disparagingly nicknamed EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has testified before Congress that the EPA will be setting efficiency and biofuel standards to further reduce pollution and incidentally decrease American dependency on foreign oil sources.

Damn her and her commie meddling!

Dial “M” for mangled – Wikipedia and Environment Canada caught with temperature data errors.

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“Dial “M” for mangled – Wikipedia and Environment Canada caught with temperature data errors.” Anthony Watts finds another report of cherry-picked errors in raw airport temperature data again, this time by “Ecotretas” about the Canadian High Arctic community of Eureka, Nunavut. Darn those human beings and their inconsistent data entry! Or those malfunctioning gadgets! Or maybe those trucks running right beside the thermometer! Or something.

These kinds of data quality errors are corrected before being used in climate modeling. Hence irrelevant to the Global Warming debate. Anthony almost figures it out here (italics mine):

[Here is where it really gets strange, I’ve added two screencaps from Environment Canada, on for the monthly data, another for the daily data from July 14th, 2009. They don’t match! The 20.9C value never appears in the July 14th hourly data. Click images below to enlarge, EC’s July 2009 Monthly report on the left, July 14th, 2009 daily/hourly data on the right. Perhaps EC corrected the error in the daily/hourly data, but missed the monthly?  – Anthony]

Also, as a geologist and a Canadian, I always laugh when people like Anthony get confused by map projections. According to him the Eureka airport data is “responsible for the very big stripe on the very top of Canada.” Um, no. It looks that way because the Earth is being represented using the cylindrical Mercator projection method, which distorts (magnifies) polar regions.

Second Mann spoof video removed

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“Second Mann spoof video removed“. Anthony Watts says that “Somebody just can’t handle satire.” I think the real problem is that somebody is determined to slander a scientist.

But fear not, another ambitiously named astroturf outfit called “Minnesota Majority” has popped up, Whack-A-Mole style, to re-post it.

This reminds me of watching drunken streakers at a college football game.

[Funny, the “Minnesota Majority”, springing to the defense of “Minnesotans For Global Warming” has the same principals. Astroturf puffery.]

Prominent Climategate Figure Threatens Lawsuit over Spoof Video – No Cap-and-Trade Coalition Says “Bring it on”

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Prominent Climategate Figure Threatens Lawsuit over Spoof Video – No Cap-and-Trade Coalition Says “Bring it on” This is a funny one, especially because Anthony Watts’ buddy “Charles the Moderator” has done the posting (read to the end). I’m left wondering – is Dr. Mann thin-skinned or are these guys just stupid?

First act: “Minnesotans for Global Warming” (M4GW) create a video that they posted on YouTube called Hide the Decline that defames Dr. Michael Mann with baseless accusations that he falsified climate data. The video also infringes on copyright and exploits Dr. Mann’s image without permission. Pretty much a legal slam-dunk for Dr. Mann. Usually these slimy things are brushed off, but this time Dr. Mann had his lawyers act on the matter as Rush Limbaugh had begun promoting it. M4GW knew they’d been caught out and immediately caved in, but of course the defamatory video had already spread far and wide and had lodged itself in the thoughts of the feeble-minded.

Hilarity! In a defamatory kind of way.

Second act: “Little guy” M4GW turns out to be a limb of the astroturf operation No Cap and Trade, “an alliance of organizations concerned about the devastating impact that a cap-and-trade scheme could have on American families, businesses and the faltering US economy.” They’ve staged a media event, complete with dancing mascots, to announce that they’ve posted the original defamatory video as well as a revised version that presumably substitutes a malicious caricature for the images of Dr. Mann. Why “presumably”? Go to the third act…

Third Act: YouTube pulls the No Cap and Trade version because of different copyright violation charge by JibJab Media.

Oops.

Denouement: Why didn’t Anthony post this himself? Well he’s been on the wrong end of a copyright violation accusation before, hasn’t he? See this Climate Crock of the Week video and related coverage at Climate Progress.

Royal Ash: Royal society jumps on magma driven worry express

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“Royal Ash: Royal society jumps on magma driven worry express“. Anthony Watts posts more idiocy from Steven Goddard, this time referencing dumb Hollywood disaster flicks to mischaracterize a collection of papers about geological responses (mainly seismic) to climate change. Steven seems to suggest that, over the weekend, the Royal Society whipped up a series of papers from the 2009 conference on Climate forcing of geological and geomorphological hazards (read the preface here) to capitalize on concern over the Icelandic eruptions. However it’s the denialists who specialize in insta-bunk.

Here’s one of the ‘outrageous’ statements in the Daily Telegraph (ugh) article that he links to:

And he warned: ”The rise you may need may be much smaller than we expect. Looking ahead at climate change, we may not need massive changes.

”One of the worries is that tiny environmental changes could have these effects.”

Earth (so to speak) to Steve and Anthony: the planet is in many ways quite delicately balanced. Some small changes can trigger large geologic events. That’s the gist of the Royal Society’s papers. Please don’t substitute your arrogance for rational thought processes.