Cold kills: Summer no sweat for Aussies but winter freeze fatal

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“Cold kills: Summer no sweat for Aussies but winter freeze fatal“ (2015-01-13). In which Anthony Watts tries to move the pea from under the “it’s not getting hotter” shell to the “who cares how hot it gets anyway” shell.

After the crazy temperature records all across Australia earlier this month, Anthony somehow had to change the subject to something a little less awkward I guess.

Not quite sure why Anthony thinks, or pretends to think, it’s a revelation that there are more deaths during cold weather than hot weather. Or what that really has to do with climate. Cold weather deaths are generally a risk to those with inadequate shelter, not some magic indicator of ‘the best’ climate for Homo sapiens.

It makes a useful denialist bellowing talking point I guess, but I love how eagerly Anthony jumps on any mention of the word “cold”. It’s almost Pavlovian!

Climate Extremism & The Chilling Effect On Free Speech

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“Climate Extremism & The Chilling Effect On Free Speech“ (2015-01-12). Anthony’s buddy Benny Peiser, doubles down on the environmentalists are hateful murderous Nazis, not rational, contemplative, free-thinkers like us denialists argument. Benny’s got a passel of right-wing media quotes to prove it!

What’s got Benny’s knickers in a knot, other than opportunistically hopping on the anyone who criticizes us is just like the Islamic murderers in France wagon?

Well, it’s all about Benny of course.

It seems his crony Nigel Lawson at their “high-profile” Global Warming Policy Foundation is so discredited that he’s having a tough time getting on the air at the BBC. And as everyone knows, free speech requires that dishonest statements get just as widely heard as honest ones. Doesn’t it? That’s a Chilling Effect on dishonest partisans!

Also in 2014 Dr. Lennart Bengtsson, 79, jumped from the GWPF after two weeks when he discovered that the GWPF wasn’t part of a “peaceful [scientific] community”. Benny’s left wondering how his anti-science “think tank” can recruit spokespeople. That’s also a Chilling Effect on dishonest partisans!

The GWPF’s critics “reminds me about the time of McCarthy” said Dr. Bengtsson. Here’s a tip for Benny and Bengtsson: McCarthy was the guy who accused people he didn’t like of being communists. Remind you of anyone?

Portents in Paris

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“Portents in Paris“ (2015-01-10). Last week Islamic fanatics cold-bloodedly murdered a dozen French journalists at Charlie Hebdo who have mocked extremist Islam, and there’ll be an environmental conference in Paris this year. Therefore environmental activists are just as bad as murderous Islamic fanatics! An idiot’s cartoon proves it!

That’s Anthony Watts’ fingers-crossed-behind-his-back idea of respectful honest-broker climate debate I guess.

“Freedom of speech” is really just a useful jumble of letters to Anthony, something to whine accusingly while pretending that he doesn’t aggressively impede, censor or block critics on his own little mud-pit of a website.

From the crude pen of a crude thinker.

From the crude pen of a crude thinker.

Here’s a tip: “freedom of speech” doesn’t mean that anyone is required to repeat Anthony or his buddies’ statements. And when the things Anthony declares must be heard don’t rise above the level of malicious, dishonest, false and misleading he’s going to have a hard time finding someone who is willing to share them with others. Unless they have the same malicious agenda. Continue reading →

Arctic cold blast, freezing rain/snow expected for New Years Day

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“Arctic cold blast, freezing rain/snow expected for New Years Day” (2014-12-29). Astoundingly, “weather expert” Anthony Watts has forgotten all about “the least Christmas snow-cover since 2004” just a week ago. Wait a minute, Anthony was profoundly silent about that little weather tidbit.

Still it never hurts to just turn the page and talk about cold weather, somewhere, if you’re beating the climate denialist drum. Snow, somewhere, has always meant global warming is impossible, right?

Christmas 2014 Temp Anomaly

Christmas Day 2014 temp. anomaly. Find the snow!

Let’s say it together (you try too Anthony!) – “weather is not climate.”

Yet another indicator that interest in climate has fallen by the wayside – climate doesn’t make it into the top ten science press releases for 2014

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“Yet another indicator that interest in climate has fallen by the wayside – climate doesn’t make it into the top ten science press releases for 2014” (2014-12-25). This is the kind of post from Anthony Watts that lays bare his real purpose. Public ignorance serves him better than public interest.

Given Anthony’s deep commitment to (muddying) the climate debate, you’d think he’d be upset that a climate topic isn’t among EurekaAlert’s 2014 most popular press releases. (No link to the source in Anthony’s post.) Shouldn’t he want more chances to fool the public, to spread confusion, to smear “bureaucrats”?

No, Anthony’s happy that climate issues seem to be losing attention. He does his best work in the shadows and under rocks.

Regulation gone wild – Christmas lights are the next target of nanny state thinking

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“Regulation gone wild – Christmas lights are the next target of nanny state thinking” (2014-112-28). Anthony Watts discovers the Gub’mint War on Christmas! Obama wants to take away all our Christmas lights!!!!! It’s true because Ernest Istook, a former Republican Congressman from Oklahoma, says so and he’s sure made a dedicated study of the President.

Can you image any other reason the Consumer Products Safety Commission would regulate cheap outdoor electrical products? They can have our Christmas lights when they pry them from our cold dead hands!

Despite posited ‘threats of extinctions caused by global warming’, 221 new species described by the California Academy of Sciences in 2014

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“Despite posited ‘threats of extinctions caused by global warming’, 221 new species described by the California Academy of Sciences in 2014″ (2014-12-29). Hello again! Idling at home over the holidays my curious fingers couldn’t resist Anthony Watts’ latest gum-flapper, a grotesque and deliberate misreading of a California Academy of Sciences press release (which Anthony didn’t bother linking to).

According to biology idiot savant Anthony Watts (you know where the emphasis lies), we shouldn’t care if species are going extinct because we’re finding news ones so fast it doesn’t matter!

Also, some of them ain’t going extinct because of global warming like them lyin’ scientists say because their tiny heads ain’t been found crushed under actual lumps of coal.

The true question here is whether Anthony understands that the rate of species discovery and the rate of species extinction are almost entirely unrelated. Is he too stupid to know this, or is he just playing his readers again? The rate of extinction has skyrocketed since the industrial age, but that got nuthin’ to do with us I guess.

97% of pictures are worth 1000 climate words

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“97% of pictures are worth 1000 climate words“ (2014-02-27). Anthony Watts posts a profound intellectual insight from his favourite denialist blow-hard, Lord Monckton. Shockingly, it seems that not every single climate paper is about the cause of the current rapid global temperature rise! Many of them don’t even mention the issue! Therefore no Global Warming.

In other equally profound news, the cause of Global Warming is never mentioned in surgical journals, more excellent proof that there is no Global Warming.

But wait, Monckton’s claim is that “Only 64 of 11,944 published since 1991 said most warming since 1950 was manmade: i.e. 0.5%” This means that 11,880 papers asserted that the warming has been natural! I’m looking forward to reading some of them.

Sadly for the loony Lord, no. The other climate papers about other subjects entirely.

Fixed it for ya, Monckton.

Fixed it for ya, Monckton. But don’t be so modest, you’re fourth author on that Science & Education paper!

A pointed question

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“A pointed question“ (2014-03-07). Anthony Watts asks a pointed question and proves that he has a pointy head.

“What is the perfect temperature of Earth?”

This is one of those “answer that!” questions that merely reveal the stupidity of the person asking it. I’m not even going to dip a toe into the cesspool of ignorance that drives it.

The concern of environmentalists is that the current, completely unprecedented, rate of climate change dramatically exceeds our civilization’s ability to cope and how that change is un-balancing our biosphere, which we depend upon to feed our human population.

That completely unprecedented rate of climate change is what the hated “The Hockey Stick” showed, and triggered the libertarian/denialist “you can’t tell me what to do!” reaction we’re now so hampered by.

Cue Anthony’s idiot followers declaring warming is better and muttering darkly about taxes. What a pack of pin-heads.

White House science adviser attacks Roger Pielke Jr. for his Senate testimony, Pielke responds with a skillfull counterstrike

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“White House science adviser attacks Roger Pielke Jr. for his Senate testimony, Pielke responds with a skillfull counterstrike“ (2014-03-01). Anthony Watts actually thinks Dr. Roger Pielke Jr., “skeptical” political scientist, can teach Dr. John P. Holdren, the American President’s Science Advisor as well as Past President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, about climate science!

Is this truculent hubris, or just plain old Dunning–Kruger syndrome? You can decide, but I’ll just whisper this to Anthony: “skillfull” is spelt “skillful”. I know, I know, it takes a lot of fingers to keep track of the “l”s. Also, “counterstrike” should have a dash in there somewhere.

I first read about this on HotWhopper, and was reminded by a post on Climate Progress. Thanks guys!

Republican Senator Jeff Sessions had recently tried to use Pielke’s testimony from July 2013 to run the old “nothing’s changed”/”warming is good anyway!” shell game while questioning Dr. Holdren (linked on Rabett Run). Dr. Holdren testified that increased drought in the American West and Southwest has been a consequence of anthropogenic climate change. Sessions tried to dispute this irritating fact using Pielke’s – totally honest-broker, like, fer sure – testimony claiming there hasn’t been a change in drought trends. Dr. Holdren promised to back up his testimony and put Pielke’s in context and did so a few days later. It makes for an amusing read, unless you’re Roger Pielke Jr.

When Dr. Holdren cited research confirming his testimony and exposed Pielke’s classic quote-mining, Pielke revealed his debating ninja skills a blog post titled John Holdren’s Epic Fail. First, the right-wing nutters at The Daily Caller oversold Pielke’s argument in its partisan coverage of the testimony and Dr. Holdren thought they were quoting Pielke directly. Oh, that’s terrible! But more importantly, while Pielke had written that there was no change in drought trends, he put a little footnote-y thing to a journal paper that if you bothered to track down out of idle curiosity and then read through the whole thing shows that there has in fact been an increase in drought in the West and Southwest. That’s how you win the internets. Otherwise it’s all hurt feelings and wailing about politicizing the purity of collegial science. “Tone” is a favourite fall-back position for Pielke.

So no, Anthony: shouting a lie (Pielke’s “Take Home Points”from his 2013 testimony) and then whispering the 180° opposite truth (in a completely opaque footnote) doesn’t count as a “skillfull counterstrike.” It’s just building an escape hatch into the lie.