Silencing global warming critics

August 27th, 2010

Source: American Thinker

Russell Cook

The Warmists are at it again, attempting to manipulate media coverage of global warming, in a manner reminiscent of JournoList members attempting to downplay troublesome Obama stories in the 2008 election. The is not the first time for such media manipulation, either.
Now, a reader tip at Anthony Watt’s popular blog site seems to indicate the Union of Concerned Scientists has set up, instead of a network to coordinate talking points, a media alert request page that could end up being an intimidation system against certain journalists. At the UCS web site, we are instructed to “Monitor the print and broadcast media outlets in your area and alert us to misrepresentations about global warming”. Considering the multi-tens-of-thousands of people reading Watts’s blogs, I think his followers are likely to crash the UCS email system with alerts about overblown reports of man-caused global warming. Following the article, one hilarious comment by Accu-Weather’s Joe Bastardi suggests a counter-group called “The Union of VERY concerned scientists.” Read the rest of this entry »

Acid Rain Then, Global Warming Now — An All Too Familiar Pattern For Environmental Scares

August 26th, 2010

Source:  Lew Rockwell.com

The New York Times and Lies about ‘Acid Rain’

by William L. Anderson

As one who often reads the Newspaper of the Ruling Class, the New York Times, I tend not to be surprised when the “Newspaper of Record” distorts the record. Furthermore, one could do nothing but write comments refuting the various economic fallacies and outright distortions that accompany each edition of the Grey Lady.

However, in a recent editorial, the NYT managed to distort the record so much that I find it hard even to know how to answer, except to say that some of us have not lost our memories of what happened 30 years ago. Entitled “Acid Rain 30 Years On,” the editorial starts with the following statement:

Just over 30 years ago, a skeptical Daniel Patrick Moynihan persuaded his Senate colleagues to approve a major study to see whether a relatively unknown phenomenon called acid rain was worth worrying about. The study, completed in 1990, showed that pollution blowing eastward from coal-fired power plants was killing off aquatic life. One-quarter of the Adirondacks’ 3,000 lakes and streams had become too acidic to support fish life, or were headed that way. Read the rest of this entry »

Rear Mirror: The EPA vs. Ed Krug over the Acid Rain Scare

August 26th, 2010

Source:  SEPP

ACID TEST

by William Anderson


Published in Reason Magazine, January 1992

Although unpolluted by acid rain,
this clearwater stream in Australia
is highly acidic.

Some people don’t like what Edward Krug has to say about acid rain. That was apparent when he spoke at a seminar on the subject last April in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Krug, a soil scientist who had helped conduct a 10-year federal study of acid rain, spoke with some expertise. He told his audience that he and his fellow researchers on the National Acid Rain Precipitation Assessment Project had determined that acid rain was an environmental nuisance, not a catastrophe.

It was a message that environmentalists didn’t want to hear. One woman hissed at him, “You need to take a reality check.”

Unfortunately for Krug, she isn’t the only one who doesn’t like his ideas. Congress ignored NAPAP’s findings, and when Krug tried to point out that the federal government is forcing utilities to spend billions of dollars to solve a problem that doesn’t exist, a federal agency did everything in its power to keep the media from listening to him. Krug’s research has upset the plans of some of Washington’s most powerful bureaucrats, and they aren’t happy. Because of them, the 44-year-old Krug has experienced numerous reality checks. Read the rest of this entry »

Oxford Union Debate on Climate Catastrophe

August 25th, 2010

Source:  Climate Conservation Group

by Richard Treadgold

the Oxford Union building
The lovely old Oxford Union building. It’s nice to know that there are still places where reason and intellect roam free.
[SPPI Note:  The Oxford debate took place earlier this year, in May.]

Science 135, global warming scare 110

For what is believed to be the first time ever in England, an audience of university undergraduates has decisively rejected the notion that “global warming” is or could become a global crisis. The only previous defeat for climate extremism among an undergraduate audience was at St. Andrew’s University, Scotland, in the spring of 2009, when the climate extremists were defeated by three votes.

Last week, members of the historic Oxford Union Society, the world’s premier debating society, carried the motion “That this House would put economic growth before combating climate change” by 135 votes to 110. The debate was sponsored by the Science and Public Policy Institute, Washington DC. Read the rest of this entry »

Ocean Acidification Research

August 25th, 2010

Source:  CO2 Science

Subject Index Summary
Ocean Acidification (Effects on Marine Animals: Shellfish): Will the shells of shellfish dissolve away in a high-CO2 world of the future?

Journal Reviews
Some Facts About Corals and Calcification: … and how they may be impacted by the ongoing rise in the air’s CO2 concentration. Read the rest of this entry »

Climate Depot’s Presentation at Warmists’ Summit Met By Hostile Interrupting Moderator and Crowd; Call for Morano to Kill Himself!

August 23rd, 2010

Source:  Climatedepot

Global Warming Summit’s Warm Welcome: Morano told to drive car into garage with engine running and then close the doors

By Marc Morano

[SPPI Note: This is the same arrogant and hapless Joe Romm who claimed that global warming cause the collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis in August of 2007.  For other entries on Romm see here:  http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/commentaries/climate_mccarthyism.pdf

and here: http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/blogwatch/climate_inquisition.pdf

and here:  http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/commentaries/romms_fairy_tales.pdf ]

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[Also see: From King of the World to Chicken of the Sea: Director James Cameron challenges climate skeptics to debate and then bails out at last minute]

Note from Climate Depot’s Executive Editor Marc Morano:

My presentation at Aspen American Renewable Energy Day (AREDAY) summit on Sunday August 22, 2010 at 5:30 was met by a rude moderator and hostile audience. I was offered the 90 minute time slot to present the skeptical view of man-made climate change after Hollywood director James Cameron’s cowardly final cancellation of a pre-planned and agreed to global warming debate. See here: From King of the World to Chicken of the Sea: Director James Cameron Sets up Debate with Skeptics Then Flees! Cameron Ducks Climate Debate with Breitbart, Morano, & McElhinney Read the rest of this entry »

From King of the World to Chicken of the Sea: Director James Cameron challenges climate skeptics to debate and then bails out at last minute

August 23rd, 2010

Source: Climatedepot

Hide the Debate: Cameron ducks Climate Debate with Breitbart, Morano, & McElhinney

by Marc Morano

[SPPI Note: This is the same arrogant and hapless Joe Romm who claimed that global warming cause the collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis in August of 2007.  For other entries on Romm see here:  http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/commentaries/climate_mccarthyism.pdf

and here: http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/blogwatch/climate_inquisition.pdf

and here:  http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/commentaries/romms_fairy_tales.pdf ]

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ASPEN COLORADO: Hollywood director James Cameron challenged three high profile global warming skeptics to a public debate at a global warming and energy conference. But Cameron backed out of the debate at the last minute after environmentalists “came out of the woodwork” to warn him not to engage in a debate with skeptics because it was not in his best interest.

Cameron challenged Andrew Breitbart, Climate Depot’s Marc Morano and filmmaker Ann McElhinney of ‘Not Evil Just Wrong.’ The debate was already in the program for the Aspen American Renewable Energy Day (AREDAY) summit. The website program described the agreed to debate as “AREDAY Climate Change Debate: Reality or Fiction?” Read the rest of this entry »

An Inconvenient Provocateur

August 22nd, 2010

Source:  http://www.collide-a-scape.com/2010/04/23/an-inconvenient-provocateur/

by Keith Kloor

UPDATE: After finishing the Q & A, do check out the comment thread where Judith Curry is actively engaged with readers.

Last week, a single blog comment by Judith Curry, a climate scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, outraged the proprietors and readers of Real Climate. Curry had mentioned the IPCC and the term “corruption” in the same sentence. I then discussed the brewing firestorm here, and that triggered a spirited exchange in the comment thread, of which Curry was an active participant.

As this exchange was playing out, I sensed that Curry was expanding on her recent controversial critique of climate scientists, while also putting forth a contrary view of the two recent probes that have exonerated scientists of wrongdoing in the affair known as Climategate.  So I asked her if I could follow up with a few questions to clarify some of her recent statements. She immediately accepted and what follows is a short Q & A, conducted via email, and reproduced in its entirety. Read the rest of this entry »

Rearview: Curry On the credibility of climate research

August 22nd, 2010

Source:  Climate Audit

http://climateaudit.org/2009/11/22/curry-on-the-credibility-of-climate-research/

by Steve McIntyre

[SPPI Note: Blog comments following Curry's are worth a review.  Not everyone is buying the goods being peddled.]

Judy Curry writes in as follows:

Having been riveted for the last few days by posts in the blogosphere on the HADCRU hack and the increasing attention being given to this by the mainstream media, I would like to provide an “external but insider” assessment and perspective. My perspective is as a climate researcher that is not involved directly in any of the controversies and issues in the purloined HADCRU emails, but as one that is familiar with this research, the surrounding controversies, and many of the individuals who sent these emails. While the blogosphere has identified many emails that allegedly indicate malfeasance, clarifications especially from Gavin Schmidt have been very helpful in providing explanations and the appropriate context for these emails. However, even if the hacked emails from HADCRU end up to be much ado about nothing in the context of any actual misfeasance that impacts the climate data records, the damage to the public credibility of climate research is likely to be significant. In my opinion, there are two broader issues raised by these emails that are impeding the public credibility of climate research: lack of transparency in climate data, and “tribalism” in some segments of the climate research community that is impeding peer review and the assessment process. Read the rest of this entry »

Praise for Bob Carter’s Climate: the Counter Consensus

August 20th, 2010

In this gem of a book … Carter drives an Aussie road train through the red dust of deliberate obfuscation and misrepresentation that is the hallmark of IPCC reports and other climatic claptrap. This is an enthralling book, a sunrise of calm analysis and penetrating good sense – John Dyson (Amazon UK review).

Surely … one of the most important rigorously scientific, responsible and level-headed reviews of literature relevant to the whole [AGW] debate yet published … a pivotally important book – Christopher Cooper (Amazon UK review).

What an excellent book: clear and concise in every way. All of the various tricky subjects were covered and all reasonable questions asked and answered – John Wellock (Amazon UK review).

Just been reading … the new book by Bob Carter – and it’s a cracker. By the end, you’re left feeling … that the scientific case against AGW is so overwhelming that you wonder how anyone can still speak up for so discredited a theory without dying of embarrassment – James Delingpole (Telegraph.co.UK).

A well-written account of much of the deep corruption of our scientific inheritance which has been central to spread of this [AGW] fantasy – Ray Evans (Secretary, Lavoisier Society; Quadrant review).

Professor Carter has worked, taught and studied in this field [palaeoclimatology] for 40 years. It is refreshing to read a book from someone who has worked at the coalface – Wilson Fletcher (Amazon UK review).

Carter takes a scalpel to the so-called facts of ‘global warming’ that are churned out and unquestioningly accepted …. [his] book typifies the mission of the ‘Independent Minds” series, namely to replace political correctness and received wisdom with common sense and rational analysis – Philip Stott (The Clamour of the Times). Read the rest of this entry »