Warmist blogger Joe Romm's head explodes

Messy! But not before time, one would think -- if the extremely moderate statements from Watts below are so disturbing. Romm writes:

If you happened to be watching the PBS News Hour tonight, you probably thought the show had been hijacked by Fox News. At first, their climate segment seemed to be about Koch-funded former “skeptic” Richard Muller and his conversion to scientific reality.

But then PBS decided that the way to “balance” a former skeptic who merely confirmed what climate scientists have demonstrated repeatedly for decades was by quoting nonsense from Sen. James Inhofe and then giving an extended interview to former TV weatherman and current A-list disinformer Anthony Watts.

The video of the show itself isn’t online yet, but I’ll post it when it is. It should forever kill the absurd notion that false balance is dead — or that the News Hour has some sort of liberal bias. Not that this is news — see the CP post from May, “False Balance On Climate Change at PBS NewsHour.”

But you shouldn’t wait until then to strap on your head vise, since PBS has thoughtfully posted online an extended interview with the long-debunked Watts, headlined “Climate Change Skeptic Says Global Warming Crowd Oversells Its Message.”

Again, the actual “news” in the on-air segment was about how a Koch-funded skeptic, Muller, had in fact demonstrated that the global warming crowd has been underselling its message.

Given the staggering laziness of PBS’s “journalism” in this segment, it’s worth quoting what Muller actually wrote in the NY Times:

Our results show that the average temperature of the earth’s land has risen by two and a half degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, including an increase of one and a half degrees over the most recent 50 years. Moreover, it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases.

These findings are stronger than those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations group that defines the scientific and diplomatic consensus on global warming.

In short, a Koch-funded study has found that the IPCC “consensus” underestimated both the rate of surface warming and how much could be attributed to human emissions!

Now this underselling could have been the basis of an interesting story, but PBS decided to turn this into a pure he-said/she-said between “skeptics” and “believers,” as they label the two “sides” — destroying any possible chance of delivering actual scientific information to its audience.

Here is the video of the truly head-exploding interview with Watts:



Books could be written debunking Watts, but you’ll have to settle for – Wattergate: Tamino debunks “just plain wrong” Anthony Watts and Anthony Watts urges WattsUpWithThat readers to disrupt Forbes blog: “shout them down in the comments section.”

My inbox has already overflowed with emails from climate scientists and others stunned by PBS’s lack of judgment.

The News Hour should look hard at what it is doing here and remember the golden rule of climate science journalism: If you want to write a golden story on climate science, spend your time talking to actual climate scientists.

SOURCE (See the original for links)

(The mark of a real scientist is to have research reports published in the academic journals. Wikipedia lists none by Dr Romm. He is just a prolific popularizer of a political cause. So by his own criteria we should not be heeding him

So it is no surprise that he quotes not one scientific fact above. Things like funding are what preoccupy him. He is no scientist.

Joe Bastardi suggests that we should mail copies of the graphs below to Romm. He bets that they will send Romm nuts -- JR)









Biologist knows all about psychology


Minda Berbeco

Cripes! Why did I bother getting Ph.D. in psychology when I could just have had magic knowledge like the Warmist apparatchik below? In good Leftist projective style, what she says of others is true of herself: She "requires no research, no intuition, no special degrees" to back her assertions.

It's sadly typical of the level of "science" that one finds among Warmists. Appeals to authority is the modus operandi of most of them. And is their choice of authority pathetic! Weaselly figures like the ones revealed in Climategate. Miss Muffett writes:

One of the overlooked effects of climate change on people, though, is disillusionment. The reality is that climate change is here and man, that is depressing.

Now in my new job working for the National Center for Science Education, I get to hear all about climate change denial all day long. I like to believe I went through the 5 stages of denial when it came to my introduction the climate deniers’ literature: shock, annoyance, bargaining, disappointment, and eventually acceptance that they are insane.

In my job though we talk about “pillars of denial” (Why pillars? Because they hold up the denial argument – get it? It’s a metaphor!!!) These include things such as challenging the science, or the motives of the scientists, or accusing people of being ideologues. But these attempts at denial are becoming less relevant, as the public is becoming wise to this style of diverting the conversation. It’s just not hip anymore to be a climate denier.

But as a child of the 90’s, I know that there is nothing more hip then disillusionment. Disillusionment is the muse of every alternative rock song, it is why you had a crush on that super-lame barista for like 6 years , and why you now sometimes stare out of an airplane window and rethink all of your life choices.

Disillusionment is deep, it’s thoughtful, it’s all through literature and it is a clever new way to deny climate change. “Yeah, it’s here, man, but we are sooooo screwed” (long drag of cigarette, swig of whiskey) “Pass the steak.”

So, the question is, when there is every reason in the world to be disillusioned, how can you possibly find hope? And this is where your adult self needs to fight your 15-year-old self. Yeah, 15-year-old disillusioned you may have ditched school or dyed your hair purple or told off your folks – and when confronted you may have been like many other 15-year-olds who scoffed and said, “like, whatever man” (or your generation’s equivalent).

But you don’t get to do that anymore. Disillusionment is just another form of climate denial. It’s more insidious than other forms though, because it presents itself as more thoughtful and deep (people idealize the abusive alcoholic Bukowski for a reason). But I argue this is the laziest form of climate denial – it requires no research, no intuition, no special degrees or corporate sponsors and no attacks on researchers — it’s so boring. All you have to do is lay back and let the world turn.

And sure, you could live your life this way, but if I could call back my own disillusioned 15-year-old self to comment, she would roll her eyes at you, slouch down in her chair, take a long drag off of a Black Death Cigarette and scoff, “that is like, so lame.”

More HERE

Little Miss Muffett above might like to reflect that this blog features GRAPHS presenting actual climate facts. Shock! Notable that she presents none such. Maybe one day she will learn how to be a real scientist





Antarctic sea ice trends at record highs. Fears for shrinking southern ocean, right?

While stories of the Arctic record fall in sea-ice have been all over the news, all over the world, it’s almost as if the Southern Hemisphere didn’t exist. Right now, this week apparently, the sea ice is at or near record highs (bearing in mind that we’re still only talking 30 years of satellite records, but then, these are the same satellites lapping over the arctic, and if the records are longer there, I expect it’s only by an hour and a half).



Steve Goddard asks when the National Snow & Ice Data Centre ( NSIDC) will send out the press releases. They appear to be more concerned about the effects of the Antarctic “thinning” trend on penguins this week. Sunshine hours has graphed it in detail.

Cryosphere compares the relentless fall and rise of Antarctic ice here. Millions of square kilometers in staggering, dramatic melts every spring manage to return in staggering dramatic ice formations each and every year.



I expect that our non-hemispherist unbiased and diligent newspapers will be running with matching ones very soon. Based on news stories like this:

* Arctic ice may completely collapse within 4 years: scientist

* ‘Staggering’ Arctic ice loss smashes melt records

* Record Loss Of Arctic Ice May Trigger Extreme Weather

* Vanishing Arctic Ice Is the Planet’s White Flag of Surrender

I can see ones like this:

* Shock Antarctic sea ice growth shrinks Southern Ocean by 1 m Sq kilometers

* Staggering explosion of sea ice scares penguin

* The next ice-age approaches? Ominous warnings from Antarctica

* Sea ice strangles ice-bound continent

* Record Antarctic Sea Ice threatens whales: Mammals need to breathe says scientist.

* Antarctic current survives 25m years of climate change. Wiped out by man in 20 years.

* Antarctic ice will reach Argentina. Round-the-world Yacht Race “abandoned by 2050″

SOURCE




Warmists are good at prophecy

Pity they are always wrong. They are the Jehovah's Witnesses of science

One of the world’s leading ice experts has predicted the final collapse of Arctic sea ice in summer months within four years.

In what he calls a “global disaster” now unfolding in northern latitudes as the sea area that freezes and melts each year shrinks to its lowest extent ever recorded, Prof Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University calls for “urgent” consideration of new ideas to reduce global temperatures.

In an email to the Guardian he says: “Climate change is no longer something we can aim to do something about in a few decades’ time, and that we must not only urgently reduce CO2 emissions but must urgently examine other ways of slowing global warming, such as the various geo-engineering ideas that have been put forward.”

These include reflecting the sun’s rays back into space, making clouds whiter and seeding the ocean with minerals to absorb more CO2.

Wadhams has spent many years collecting ice thickness data from submarines passing below the arctic ocean. He predicted the imminent break-up of sea ice in summer months in 2007, when the previous lowest extent of 4.17 million square kilometres was set. This year, it has unexpectedly plunged a further 500,000 sq km to less than 3.5m sq km. “I have been predicting [the collapse of sea ice in summer months] for many years. The main cause is simply global warming: as the climate has warmed there has been less ice growth during the winter and more ice melt during the summer.

“At first this didn’t [get] noticed; the summer ice limits slowly shrank back, at a rate which suggested that the ice would last another 50 years or so. But in the end the summer melt overtook the winter growth such that the entire ice sheet melts or breaks up during the summer months.

“This collapse, I predicted would occur in 2015-16 at which time the summer Arctic (August to September) would become ice-free. The final collapse towards that state is now happening and will probably be complete by those dates”.

Wadhams says the implications are “terrible”. “The positives are increased possibility of Arctic transport, increased access to Arctic offshore oil and gas resources. The main negative is an acceleration of global warming.”

“As the sea ice retreats in summer the ocean warms up (to 7C in 2011) and this warms the seabed too. The continental shelves of the Arctic are composed of offshore permafrost, frozen sediment left over from the last ice age. As the water warms the permafrost melts and releases huge quantities of trapped methane, a very powerful greenhouse gas so this will give a big boost to global warming.”

SOURCE





Another U.S. Solar Manufacturer Shuts Down

After raising more than $100 million over the past seven years, GreenVolts, a California startup that makes concentrating photovoltaic systems, has closed its doors after a major investor abruptly withdrew financial support for the company.

“A sudden, and unexpected, change in direction from a major strategic investor has affected GreenVolts’ access to funding,” the company said Wednesday in a statement, referring to ABB, the Swiss power and automation giant. “The impact was at the last minute and so severe that GreenVolts cannot continue normal operation and has reduced its workforce to a small team to provide customer support and engage other options, including working with potential buyers of the system, technology and IP.”

News of GreenVolt’s closure was first reported by Greentech Media.

GreenVolts, based in Fremont, Calif., is the latest maker of advanced solar technology to fall on hard times as an industry shakeout continues. The startup’s concentrating photovoltaic systems use lens to focus sunlight on arrays of high efficiency solar cells. Such systems, which are designed to be deployed as ground-mounted solar power plants, can generate much as much as 40% more electricity than conventional solar panels like those found on residential rooftops.

But concentrating photovoltaic, or CPV, technology is expensive and as the cost of solar panels plunged 75% over the past three years companies like GreenVolts have found it increasingly difficult to compete. For instance, CPV competitor Amonix earlier this year shuttered its Nevada factory.

More HERE




Corruption among Australian Warmists

CSIRO is a major Australian research organization but it is always money-hungry so it has fervently embraced Warmism. They know where the money is. Sometimes, however, their ethical deficit shows:

TWO of three CSIRO employees who blew the whistle on alleged "criminal or civil breaches of the law" by the scientific organisation were later made redundant, it has been revealed.

But those officials who were the subject of the complaints remain employed, the CSIRO has confirmed.

The details have emerged after a group of former CSIRO employees began a campaign for a change in culture at the science agency, alleging mismanagement and bullying are rife.

Last Thursday, a parliamentary inquiry examining workplace bullying in Commonwealth agencies published the group's submission. It claims the group is aware of 60 cases involving top-flight scientists and other officials who were bullied or otherwise forced out of the organisation.

This list has names on it such as Maarten Stapper, a soil scientist allegedly pushed out because of his criticism of genetically modified crops, globally recognised oceanographer Trevor McDougall, and award-winning entomologist Sylwester Chyb, who has begun litigation against the CSIRO for misleading conduct and unlawful termination.

The CSIRO has declined to respond to the allegations, but the group says some of those forced out had tried to report misconduct or maladministration. Among the group's recommendations is improved protection for whistleblowers.

"Current whistleblower legislation does not adequately protect from persecution those making public interest declarations," the document says. "This is particularly true in circumstances in which it is hard to identify a direct link between a whistleblower complaint and subsequent, seemingly unrelated adverse action against the employee in his or her workplace."

The organisation is also grappling with a spike in the damages it has had to pay as a result of occupational health and safety claims made to the Commonwealth OH&S regulator and insurer, Comcare. The increased costs of the claims has meant that the premiums Comcare charges the CSIRO have nearly tripled from $1.9 million in 2011-12 to $4.9 million this financial year.

"The CSIRO has consistently achieved lower than average claim frequency and claim cost but has had an upward trend in the average cost of its claims," a Comcare spokesman, Russ Street, said.

At a budget estimates hearing in May, the Tasmanian senator David Bushby asked the CSIRO about its handling of whistleblower complaints and those who made them. In answers provided last month, the organisation confirmed two complaints were lodged in 2010 and one in 2008, all of which made serious allegations about unlawful activity.

But while the CSIRO did not retrench any of those against whom allegations were made, it did retrench the complainants.

"One CSIRO employee, who had lodged a whistleblower complaint on March 10, 2008, was made redundant on August 23, 2010, as there was an insufficient volume of current and projected work to sustain the position," the CSIRO said.

"A second employee, who lodged a whistleblower complaint on February 23, 2010, was made redundant on September 4, 2011 as CSIRO no longer required the job be performed by anyone because of changes in the operational requirements of CSIRO's enterprise."

A CSIRO spokesman, Huw Morgan, declined to describe the nature of the allegations made by the whistleblowers, saying it could help reveal their identities.

SOURCE

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