Media enable denier spin, part one
A (sort of) cold January doesn’t mean climate stopped warming 10
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Posted 8:39 AM on 3 Mar 2008
by Joseph Romm -
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Joseph Romm is the editor of Climate Progress and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
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Delay And Deny Posted 3:07 am
03 Mar 2008
If you spent as much breath addressing the real concerns of Naturo-Genic Global Warmers, instead of calling us names, setting up straw men and ranting about "the media", maybe AGW could garner more support.
As it is, you simply lower the price on the Kool-Aid, hoping for more business.
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Tasermons Partner Posted 3:19 am
03 Mar 2008
And those real concerns would be...?
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apsmith Posted 4:54 am
03 Mar 2008
Jeff Huggins had a great comment over at DotEarth on this latest thread - I suggest everybody go read it (#31 - "He said, She said reporting and uncertainty" at http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/reconciling- ...
). The "burden of proof" on the "denier" side is apparently zero - they have only to sew doubt, they have to prove nothing at all, and whatever media attention they get furthers their cause no matter what caveats it may include. No such luck on the side of reality...
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Pangolin Posted 8:06 am
03 Mar 2008
Global Warming is real and is proceeding faster than expected. In fact much faster than the we had any reason to anticipate even five years ago. The WSJ hoped to treat the whole issue like an annoying tax of 1-2% of yearly GDP with the majority back-ended towards 2050. In other words, after we're dead.
With recent news on increased ice loss in the arctic ice pack, West Anarctica glaciers and Greenland that plan is going to be very short lived. The shift of the consensus in changing towards Jim Hansen's corner.
They just want time to collect that last bonus and bail before the masses know the ship is sinking.
Put the Carbon Back
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sunsetbeachguy Posted 11:55 am
03 Mar 2008
The headline is:
"Global Warming Denialists: We Suck at Math Also!"
Sunsetbeachguy
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John A Posted 4:45 pm
03 Mar 2008
I fully understand why spreaders of climate disinformation have hyped up a (sort-of) cold January as if it somehow provided scientific evidence to support their campaign to undermine the well-established scientific understanding of human-caused climate change.
Of course, it isn't possible for dedicated smear artists at Grist to actually truthfully articulate the arguments of their opponents. Its a toss-up whether they're either too stupid to work them out or they just enjoy malevolently erecting towering straw men that fall on the slightest breath of hot air for yet another easy win in front of their acolytes.
In this case, I don't recall a single commentator claiming that this past winter which was severe in the Northern Hemisphere was in itself evidence of anything.
In point of fact, the actual argument was pointing out that over the course of one calendar year, all four global temperature indices recorded large falls - the two most complete and accurate (the satellites) recording a cooling equal to the entire supposed rise during the 20th Century.
If the fall is natural (and we've yet to hear any squealing to the contrary) then that means that a) the rise is within the natural variability of climate and b) the climate models fail YET AGAIN to predict even the next year let alone pretend the next 50 or 100. Something is rotten in GCM-land.
So what to do? Gristmill drags out the most inaccurate, unaudited and frankly false reconstruction of the 20th Century (by the wretched Hansen, no less) to try and give "context" to this fall. Except of course, that the fall isn't being recorded in Hansen's data because Hansen keeps mysteriously fucking about with the data with mysterious positive and negative adjustments. Its not that the early 21st Century is getting warmer, its that the early 20th Century (with that troublesome 1930s warming that had nothing to do with greenhouse gases) keeps getting colder after the fact thanks to those mysterious adjustments.
You'd think that someone, somewhere would like to know why Hansen keeps screwing around with the data, but after all since Hansen only takes money from mysterious financial engineers like Soros and the charitable trusts controlled by the wives of Democratic candidates that Hansen then endorses, his hands are clean and his data is pure.
All you see from Gristmill is yet more Real Climate Change Denial. Nothing to see here - move along.
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Sam Wells Posted 12:33 am
04 Mar 2008
If you look at departure from climactic averages, the northern tier of the US has been cooler and the south warmed, the opposite of last year at this time. This is a reason why this year we're seeing more F3 and higher tornadoes - 2008 is already starting off with a record (although as noted by Dr. Jeff Masters, our ability to detect them is much better than in the past, a real confounder). Cold air against a plume of warm Gulf air and there you have it. Simple stuff.
Don't get bogged down with infinite details or you'll lose all meaning. Of course, being scientists, the details are what they love to study, such as micro-climate effects modeled with super-computers. But it makes no sense to say "Oops, getting colder in Grand Wazoo, Michigan, see I told ya Climate Change was a crock!"
Onward through the fog
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cce Posted 12:54 am
04 Mar 2008
You will find any number of people claiming that this past winter is evidence that the climate models are wrong.
The satellite analyses are, between themselves, contradictory, with rates of warming that differ by ~25%. The RSS analysis excludes virtually all of Antarctica and is therefore not "complete."
Look at JohnV's graph again.
Hansen didn't take money from Soros.
Hansen accepted an award 14 years after his first Congressional testimony from the widow of Republican John Heinz who supported Hansen and considered climate change an important issue.
Hansen endorsed John Kerry because there is no way he was going to endorse Bush.
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bfreewithrp Posted 2:35 am
04 Mar 2008
on to your friends. Thanks
Al Gore's Decree on Global Warming is Not Our Only Crisis
Our Energy Conservation Dilemma
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socialscientist Posted 4:57 am
04 Mar 2008
You seem smart. Could it be that the carbon-auto industry is influencing them?
We need to stop wondering and worrying. The natural science is clear. Let's not fuzz up the social science.
Call a spade and spade. The carbon-auto industry is controlling the goverment, the media, and the public discourse.
We need free public transit.
http://freepublictransit.org
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