Discussion > The Moral and Intellectual Poverty of Climate Alarm
Jul 9, 2020 at 12:47 AM Phil Clarke
Monbiot has changed his mind, and now believes in Nuclear Power. Does he still believe in Mann's Hockey Stick?
golf charlie
I took on the 10 points. They are half-truths and don’t add up to a coherent case for anything.
Michael Tobis takes a 'deep dive into the form and substance of Michael Shellenberger’s promotion for his new book'
I think it fair to say he's not persuaded.
See also:
Shellenberger’s article promoting his new book “Apocalypse Never” includes a mix of accurate, misleading, and patently false statements. While it is useful to push back against claims that climate change will lead to the end of the world or human extinction, to do so by inaccurately downplaying real climate risks is deeply problematic and counterproductive.[…]
The article presents a mix of out-of-context facts and outright falsehoods to reach conclusions that are, collectively, fundamentally misleading. The author claims to reference specific sources, including “the IPCC, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), [and] the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).” However, the author’s claims are broadly unsupported by any of these authoritative bodies.
[…]
This is not a scientific paper. It is intended, I guess, to be an article for the general public. Unfortunately, it is neither. It does not have a logical structure that allows the reader to understand what he would like to address, aside from a very general and misleading idea that environmentalists and climate scientists have been alarmist in relation to climate change. He lists a series of eclectic environmental problems like the Sixth Mass Extinction, green energy, and climate disruption. And without any data nor any proof, he discredits the idea that those are human-caused, severe environmental problems. He just mentions loose ideas about why he is right and the rest of the scientists, environmentalists, and general public are wrong. Being objective, this is a really bad article. It will cause confusion among the public—perhaps that is his idea.
Oh dear.
Phil Clarke
Oh dear.
Jul 9, 2020 at 6:37 PM Phil Clarke
Has Michael Tobis peer reviewed Hockey Teamster sham science?
golf charlie
http://www.thegwpf.org/peter-ridd-joins-gwpfs-academic-advisory-council/
golf charlie
The reserves of climate alarm trash seem unlimited! Here are two examples just captured by Greenie Watch.
(1) 'Shameless alarmists spread climate change cancer horror story
Over the years I’ve become almost inured to the crazy claims various climate alarmists have made. They have tried to link almost every bad thing that happens in the world to climate change, from psychiatric disorders to violent crime, from the end of winter sports to reduced milk production, from hair loss to the loss of one’s sex drive. And no, in case you are wondering, I’m not making these examples up: you can find the articles yourselves by typing the terms into your favorite search engine.
None of these claims, nor any of the myriad other loony links alarmists have tried to establish between human fossil fuel use and bad outcomes, have any basis in facts or hard data. Now, adding insult to injury, an article in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, irresponsibly hyped by CNBC, is falsely claiming “[c]limate change has triggered more frequent weather disasters like hurricanes and wildfires, … lower[ing] cancer survival rate[s] and threaten[ing] prevention.”
This article shows, once again, alarmists truly have no shame when it comes to scaremongering and preying on the most vulnerable to increase their political power and funding.'
(2) 'Australia: Nothing to fear but climate fearmongers
The politics of fear is usually ascribed to the populist right, and disapprovingly so. Yet what is the contemporary global warming rhetoric and advocacy of the green left if not the politics of fear?
One of the green left’s secular saints, Al Gore, even opened his book The Assault on Reason by declaring: “Fear is the most powerful enemy of reason.” This, from a bloke who rose skywards in a cherry picker in An Inconvenient Truth to highlight predicted carbon dioxide increases, and then showed animations of Florida, San Francisco, The Netherlands, Shanghai, Bangladesh and Manhattan being swamped by oceans “if” Greenland and Antarctica “broke up and melted” before he talked about “a hundred million or more” refugees fleeing these rising oceans.
An assault on reason, indeed. Whether fear is the main driver, or ideology, or plain delusion, Gore was right to observe that rational debates are in short supply in the political arena.
Take the response of Greens leader Adam Bandt to the Eden-Monaro by-election. “The by-election did send a clear message to the government about acting on the climate crisis,” Bandt said this week on Sky News.
Given the Greens vote dropped by a third (from almost 9 per cent to less than 6 per cent) and Labor’s vote fell more than 3 per cent, while the Liberal vote climbed with the Coalition’s two-party-preferred share, you might think he meant that the result provided a ringing endorsement of current policies. But no; Bandt reckoned this result was a call for more climate action.'
See the link for the rest of each of the pieces.
John Shade
Oh dear.
Six scientists analysed the article and estimate its overall scientific credibility to be 'low'.
Six scientists can't be wrong.. Count them.
clipe
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/22/james-cook-university-wins-appeal-in-peter-ridd-unfair-dismissal-case
Phil Clarke
Jul 22, 2020 at 4:49 PM Phil Clarke
If JCU practice active discrimination, then it confirms why they get away with supporting so many lying Green Blob Scientists.
golf charlie
Jul 22, 2020 at 4:49 PM Phil Clarke
If JCU practice active discrimination, then it confirms why they get away with supporting so many lying Green Blob Scientists.
http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/ridd-appeal-jcu-spent-a-fortune-to-win-the-case-and-trash-its-own-reputation/
golf charlie
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/09/can-you-spot-duplicates-critics-say-these-photos-lionfish-point-fraud
"The lionfish study was done in 2012, when Lönnstedt was a student at James Cook University (JCU) in Townsville, Australia"
"But now the supposedly exonerating data have come under suspicion as well. In a report he sent to Chivers earlier this year and that Science has seen, former JCU marine scientist *Peter Ridd* wrote that in two instances, the same photo had been used twice in the collage. In each case, one of the photos was mirrored or its contrast or colors appeared to be altered."
golf charlie
I don't know if you caught BBC 4's Inside Science last week, it was about scientific fraud and they interviewed Elizabeth Bik, (segment starts about 4:15) who has been investigating imaging fraud, described in the programme as 'astonishing' in extent. It occurs in approximately 1 in 25 papers., amounting to tens of thousands of papers a year.
Note I am not excusing or condoning it, but it would be rather more surprising if it was not happening at JCU.
Not sure of the relevance to the Ridd court case. Indeed the case itself is not about what a lot of people seem to want it to be about, as the Judge made clear:
Some have thought that this trial was about freedom of speech and intellectual freedom. Others have thought that this trial was about the manner in which academics should conduct themselves. Some observers may have thought that this trial was about the use of non-offensive words when promulgating scientific ideas. Media reports have considered that this trial was about silencing persons with controversial or unpopular views.Though many of those issues were canvased and discussed throughout the hearing of this matter, this trial was about none of the above. Rather, this trial was purely and simply about the proper construction of a clause in an Enterprise Agreement.
- Judge Vasta.
And of course, Ridd's claims of substandard research have been responded to in the literature.
Phil Clarke
Ridd may yet appeal against that remarkably narrow judgement. Let us hope so.
Meanwhile, here is a summary of a polar bear story that nicely illustrates junk science at work in the name of climate alarmism: https://climaterealism.com/2020/07/newest-polar-bear-alarm-fails-laugh-test/
'As real-world evidence shows something unalarming – in this case, substantial growth in polar bear populations – climate alarmists go to their usual bag of tricks and conjure up dubious computer models, projections, and speculation to trick the general populace into believing global warming is causing a polar bear crisis.
Very dishonest, and very sad.'
John Shade
"And of course, Ridd's claims of substandard research have been responded to in the literature.
Jul 23, 2020 at 12:08 AM Phil Clarke"
And of course they are all trying to protect their selfish interests.....
"Support for improved quality control but misplaced criticism of GBR science. Reply to viewpoint “The need for a formalised system of Quality Control for environmental policy-science” by P. Larcombe and P. Ridd (Marine Pollution Bulletin 126: 449–461, 2018)"
Author links
Britta Schaffelke
Katharina Fabricius
Frederieke Kroona
Jon Brodie
Glenn De'ath
Roger Shaw
Diane Tartede
Michael Warne
Peter Thorburn
golf charlie
JCU rewards liars if they support Climste Science lies,
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/07/23/university-appeal-upheld-peter-ridd-loses-we-all-lose/
"The University never accepted that decision by the Federal Circuit Court, and they have never conceded that Terry Hughes was wrong to suggest all the corals were dead, when a documentary has since been made showing them to be alive. Further, they have never supported any calls for the coral growth data to be made public."
How can anyone trust any research with JCU involvement? Why should Taxpayers fund it, if it can't be trusted?
golf charlie
JCU handed out a PhD to Oona Lönnstedt
- Science Magazine look like they enjoy gnawing on JCU's fishy antics
fred
fred
Researcher leaves research. Paper retracted. World does not end.
Phil Clarke
Researcher leaves research. Paper retracted. World does not end.
Jul 25, 2020 at 10:28 AM Phil Clarke
Gergis papers have NOT been retracted.
Climate Science riddled with errors, does not deserve funding, and should be ignored by the world.
golf charlie
Jul 25, 2020 at 10:28 AM Phil Clarke
Climate Science continues to publish rubbish, and it is Peer Reviewed.
Why should anyone trust Peer Reviewed Climate Science?
golf charlie
The BBC does seem to have more than its fair share of climate alarm zealots handling eco matters! Maybe because it only uses the Guardian for its recruitment ads? Maybe because there is a high level commitment to this cause, for it is but one in the basic PR set for hard-leftists everywhere?
Anyhoo, a new piece praising solar power for giving heroin production a boost in Afghanistan plumbs new depths.:
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2020/07/27/what-has-justin-been-smoking/
As Paul Homewood comments. 'I have no doubt that the huge profits available from the opium trade quickly pay back the thousands of dollars spent on solar panels.'.
He also notes that the author of this fine piece of BBC degradation, claims to 'have seen evidence of climate change everywhere.', and remarks 'I await his evidence for such a preposterous statement.'
I wonder what the evidence might be? Snow melting on Kilimanjaro? Polar bears disappearing in the Arctic? Children who don't know what snow is in the UK? Permanent drought in Australia? The US ravaged by more and more hurricanes? Global food production going through the floor? It surely has to be something dramatic somewhere, as well as something or other 'everywhere' since the BBC guy thinks this climate change is the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced. The mild, gentle and generally beneficial warming we have been enjoying on and off since the Little Ice Age can't be what he means. Can it?
John Shade
I wonder what the evidence might be?
Jul 27, 2020 at 5:15 PM John Shade
There has never been so much greenery growing in arid desert before?
What else are the Chinese supposed to do with solar panels no one else wants?
golf charlie
gc
I wonder if the solar panels are sold and maybe even installed and tested by PLA folk in mufti?
There is precedent with the Soviet Russkies building stuff in Afghanistan pre-invasion...
tomo
Peter Ridd will take his appeal to the Australian High Court if he can raise the necessary for that. You can donate here
Some background here
John Shade
Jul 27, 2020 at 5:48 PM tomo
I don't think the Chinese gaze enviously at Afghanistan, but any route that could be used to pipe oil to a Chinese border without Green Blob protests from local populations would be welcome. China can build roads and pipelines to Chinese Construction and Environmental Regulations quite cheaply.
Afghanistan's drugs warlords would like better roads to get their harvests to markets, and if the Chinese have stockpiles of unwanted solar panels to green the desert, I am sure they will manage to come to some agreements.
golf charlie
"Only in the Bishop Hill evidence-denying alternate reality. Back on Planet Earth his 'arguments' have been comprehensively shredded."
Shredded? By a wind turbine?