Climate change

Some UD readers seem upset that I quote Sarah Palin on Climategate. Just so the wine-and-cheese elite feel as welcome here as the unwashed masses, here’s Camille Paglia on Climategate before it was Climategate (commenting to someone named Hanson): Hanson: I too grew up in upstate New York. I am an environmental groundwater geologist (who almost majored in fine arts). Your take on the Al Gore/global warming pseudo-catastrophe was right on target. Anyone can read up on Holocene geology and see that climate changes are caused by polar wandering and magnetic reversals. It is entertaining, yet sad to read bloviage from Leonardo DiCaprio, who is so self-centered that he thinks the earth’s history and climate is a function of his Read More ›

From Sarah Palin’s Facebook page: Mr. President: Boycott Copenhagen; Investigate Your Climate Change “Experts” The president’s decision to attend the international climate conference in Copenhagen needs to be reconsidered in light of the unfolding Climategate scandal. The leaked e-mails involved in Climategate expose the unscientific behavior of leading climate scientists who deliberately destroyed records to block information requests, manipulated data to “hide the decline” in global temperatures, and conspired to silence the critics of man-made global warming. I support Senator James Inhofe’s call for a full investigation into this scandal. Because it involves many of the same personalities and entities behind the Copenhagen conference, Climategate calls into question many of the proposals being pushed there, including anything that would lead Read More ›

… then you know that the fraud is real: Ann Coulter at Townhall Jon Stewart on the Daily Show

“I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.” –Leo Tolstoy

Justin Roberti, for AccuWeather, advises in a media release (December 2, 2009),

Climategate Used to Settle ‘Vendetta,’ says Mann

State College, Pa. — 2 December 2009 — Michael Mann, Penn State University meteorology professor, said Climategate is an attack on man-made global warming scientists.

“I think it is unfortunate that some scientists out there are using this situation to settle personal scores, to settle a vendetta,” Mann said, in an exclusive interview with AccuWeather.com’s Katie Fehlinger.

Watch interview with Michael Mann

Mann said that the e-mail leak happened just in time for the Dec. 7, 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, where world leaders, including President Obama, hope to come to an agreement on a framework for future international climate change mitigation.

“It is not a coincidence… that this event happened in the weeks leading up to the summit in Copenhagen,” said Mann. “They’ve taken scientists’ words and phrases and quoted them out of context, completely misrepresenting what they were saying.”

We also learn that

Phil Jones, director of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) from which questionable global warming e-mails were leaked, temporarily stepped down from his position yesterday to allow for investigation to continue without disruption. Mann protected his work and the work of his peers as Penn State launched an investigation into what critics call a fabrication of global warming data.

I don’t think AccuWeather’s people get it.

No one is misrepresenting plans to manipulate journals and sideline peer reviewers. They said it themselves. Then there was  the suggestion one would destroy data rather than let other scientists see it, via the Freedom of Information Act. 

If that latter comment was just a joke, well, that guy is definitely not ready for his standup at Laff Riot Nite. So I wrote back to Roberti and said,

Read More ›

It is almost axiomatic in our culture that the pronouncements of Science are synonymous with Truth. This received wisdom is so prevalent that whenever media reports begin with the words “Scientists have found that…[fill in the blank]”, whatever follows is widely believed by the public to be unassailable fact. So revered is Science and so respected its methods, that the mere suggestion that something might be amiss is considered ignorance or heresy. And so the statements of Science are defended vigorously while the critics are dismissed as quacks and uninformed idiots. The prevailing attitude seems to be (to slightly bend the well-known quote from Richard Dawkins) “It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in the findings of Science [emphasis and edit mine], that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I’d rather not consider that).”

For those of us who have long been engaged in the ongoing Evolution/Intelligent Design debate, we know that Read More ›

I make no accusation, I am simply asking a question passed on to me by a reader. The reader copied this divulged e-mail on to me. Also, it is important for us if you can transfer the ADVANCE money on the personal accounts which we gave you earlier and the sum for one occasion transfer (for example, during one day) will not be more than 10,000 USD. Only in this case we can avoid big taxes and use money for our work as much as possible. Please, inform us what kind of documents and financial reports we must represent you and your administration for these money. Schemes to avoid taxes may be illegal in some jurisdictions, and I would welcome Read More ›