“Sea change in American media preferences“. Anthony Watts is delighted that right-wing media is getting higher viewer numbers while “mainstream” media viewer numbers are declining.
If we all switch over to the Fox News channel then Global Warming will stop!
Ocean acidification: the “evil twin of global warming”. Anthony Watts copies-and-pastes a report by marine biologists from James Cook University’s ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies about ocean acidification due to CO2 emissions and its impact on marine life.
“Ocean conditions are already more extreme than those experienced by marine organisms and ecosystems for millions of years,” the researchers say in the latest issue of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE).
“This emphasises the urgent need to adopt policies that drastically reduce CO2 emissions.”
This is extrapolation to predict biological impact, not climate research. This needs proper supporting evidence before we consider it an issue or discard it (as Anthony’s commenters are enthusiastically doing).
“Climategate now in a Law and Order episode“. It starts with a skeptic being poisoned! I don’t think Anthony should blog after dark.
“Atlantic conveyor belt – still going strong and will be the day after tomorrow“. Anthony Watts hints that he now knows that what Steven Goddard presented as a discarded climate change prediction for the UK was really just a movie dramatization. The Gulf Stream, part of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, has not slowed down!
I think this is officially as close as Anthony has ever come to a retraction.
2010/03/31 Update: The whole fabricated accusation of failed predictions of a weakening of the AMOC is scrutinized skeptically over on The Way Things Break.
Yale to greens: “abandon climate change, focus on energy”. Anthony Watts has petty criticisms of the cover art for Al Gore’s new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. How dare Gore have a fabricated image of the Earth as seen from space? Earth to Anthony: every single useful image of the Earth from space has been manipulated for visual impact.
He also touts the ‘advice‘ from Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger of the right-wing Breakthrough Institute, presented here as a “green think tank” to climate change activists. ‘Greens’ should apparently stop “trying to link energy policy to climate science.” Um, the Global Warming controversy has been driven by the energy industry’s tooth and nail fight to protect their profits! Yes, “science has been harmed as a result” but it is by the dishonest denialist attacks, not by the evidence reported by climate scientists. Yesh.
“AMS/NWA sponsored survey of TV weathercasters: 63% Believe Global Warming is Mostly Natural“. 100% of “Tea Party” supporters don’t believe in Global Warming either. That must mean there isn’t any. Anthony Watts loves irrelevant surveys, like this one conducted by George Mason University on behalf of the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association. I note with amusement that only 53% of TV weathercasters trust other TV weathercasters!
The New York Times has an unfortunately credulous take on the survey, but Joe Romm at Climate Progress cuts to the heart of the matter.
Anthony, TV weathercasters are not scientists, let alone climatologists. You should know, just ponder your own background.
The survey concludes that TV weathercasters are seen as informal “science educators” (regardless of qualification) and that “79% of the respondents would like to be considered the “go to” person in a TV newsroom on a variety of science topics.” Again, regardless of relevant qualification.
So what’s the real takeaway from this survey? TV weathercasters are generally scientifically unqualified, but are eager to share their ignorance. I don’t know if I’d be announcing that too loudly.
“Vote for the best ‘political climate’ website“. I guess Anthony Watts’ endorsement of Andy Revkin’s Dot Earth blog in a Treehugger “Best of Green 2010” poll is proof that Revkin’s reputation has been destroyed. Andy’s been chasing hits by presenting groundless denialist arguments alongside scientific studies to encourage comment wars and Anthony loves getting equal, if undeserved, face time.
The scientific criticism of Revkin has flowed steadily and picked up pace when Revkin “left” the New York Times to run their Dot Earth website on a freelance basis. Here are some examples. Deep Climate. Real Climate. Climate Progress. Rabett Run. You get the picture.
“Climate Craziness of the Week: Global Warming Activist Freezes to Death in Antarctica“. That last sentence is a dead link. Anthony Watts fell for a lame hoax article on Eco Enquirer about an Antarctic tragedy but has since deleted the post. I have it here so you can wonder at Anthony’s powers of critical thinking.
From the Eco Enquirer, tragic news that I hope is not repeated by other activists.
Famed global warming activist James Schneider and a journalist friend were both found frozen to death on Saturday, about 90 miles from South Pole Station, by the pilot of a ski plane practicing emergency evacuation procedures.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing”, recounted the pilot, Jimmy Dolittle. “There were two snowmobiles with cargo sleds, a tent, and a bright orange rope that had been laid out on the ice, forming the words, ‘HELP-COLD’.”
One friend of Prof. Schneider told ecoEnquirer that he had been planning a trip to an ice sheet to film the devastation brought on by global warming. His wife, Linda, said that she had heard him discussing the trip with his environmental activist friends, but she assumed that he was talking about the Greenland ice sheet, a much smaller ice sheet than Antarctica.
“He kept talking about when they ‘get down to chili’, and I thought they were talking about the order in which they would consume their food supplies”, Mrs. Schneider recounted. “I had no idea they were talking about Chile, the country from which you usually fly or sail in order to reach Antarctica.”
Apparently, while all of Prof. Schneider’s friends were assuming that the July trek would be to Greenland, during Northern Hemisphere summer, his plans were actually to snowmobile to the South Pole – which, in July, is in the dead of winter.
Mr. Dolittle related how some people do not realize that, even if there has been warming in Antarctica, the average temperature at the South Pole in July still runs about 70 degrees F below zero. “Some people think that July is warm everywhere on Earth.”
“Quote of the week #32 – hockeying up a zinger“. Anthony Watts offers up a cherry-picked interview excerpt from climatologist Dr. Michael Mann (the full interview on The Morning Call is good reading):
[Anthony dropped this part: I would say that all good scientists are skeptics. Many who deny the existence of climate change I would not call skeptics, because their skepticism is one-sided.] “I would call them contrarians or, frankly in some cases, climate change deniers,” he said. “I’m a skeptic. When I see a scientific claim being made, I want to see it subject to scrutiny and validation.”
Scientists aren’t allowed to describe themselves as “skeptical!” That’s reserved for Anthony!
Instead of telling others to look in the mirror perhaps he should crack open a book (or a web page). Dictionary.com defines skeptic and offers this illuminating quote (italics mine):
Skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found. [Miguel de Unamuno, “Essays and Soliloquies,” 1924]
Sounds like the normal approach of scientists to me. And their “skepticism” has led to some entertaining debunking of statements made by Anthony and his associates.
What “skeptical” post by Anthony would be complete without a bit of Climategate innuendo and a suggestion to readers that they pester a journalist? Check.
Wott's Up With That? 