BPSDB As discussed in the last post Denialapalooza aka the Heartland Denier Conference is in full swing.
The latest seepage from the Heartland Human Waste Treatment Facility? Climate change Deniers totally lose it and stop even pretending to be doing science.
Two thing that stand out for me are that, i) they have apparently abandoned the fiction that they are doing anything remotely resembling climate science, and at the same time, ii) they seem to have started believing their own stories. It’s going to be an ugly shock when they remember that they made it all up in the first place.
Climate Progress reports on how Richard Lindzen has stopped pretending his “science” has legitimacy (small wonder, see here) and is indulging in attempted character assassination of Wallace Broecker as well as the rest of his profession.
Whatever it takes to keep his oil industry funders happy I guess
At the same time, John Theon just starts babbling incoherently.
Some of you will recall Theon as the bureaucratic nobody who falsely claimed to have been James Hansen’s boss. A month or two ago he was getting his “Joe the Climate Scientist” moment of fame by slandering Hansen and climate science generally.
Apparently he had some resentment issues towards people who do good science, talk rationally about it, and get public acclaim for it.
So now Theon is saying that Hansen violated the Hatch Act by acting politically, and should be arrested and jailed. Wtf?
You’d think the Conference organizers would have gently led him away from the podium to sit down and have some water, and perhaps call some family members to come and take him home. Certainly it would have been the rational and compassionate thing to do.
Not the Denialosphere. For pure blithering idiocy this sinks to a new low of irrelevant stupidity, and they lapped it right up.
- Former Hansen Supervisor Calls for the Global Warming Alarmist’s Dismissal
- Charge: NASA Official Violates Hatch Act With Comments on Manmade Global Warming
You see, apparently Hansen endorsed John Kerry for President in 2004!
First, The Hatch Act is quite clear that such political activity is perfectly acceptable as long as it is not on company time (and here).
Further, IF Hansen had been doing it on NASA time, you can bet the virulently anti-climat science, anti-Hansen Bush regime would have used this excuse to get rid of Hansen long ago.
Of course the Deniers are saying it needs to be investigated – this new information has to be looked into!
But you see, here’s the kicker, actually the Denialosphere has been peeing it’s pants about this for years, and no carbon based life form with more neurons than a sponge gave a shit, for obvious and good reason.
Does anyone really imagine that the Rove/Cheney Cabal didn’t look for every angle to take down Hansen? That they somehow were unaware of his endorsement of Kerry? that they missed the barrage of idiot-mail and blogospam demanding Hansen be fired for it? Yeah, right … I believe that.
Second: wtf? I thought you children were pretending to be a climate science conference? I thought we were supposed to suspend disbelief while you acted as if you were talking about CO2, radiative forcing and stuff like that? you know, science … like real scientists do.
Doesn’t the descent into Hollywood tabloid gossip mongering as part of the actual conference proceedings sort of expose the lie? Rhetorical question, it does. Has it gotten so bad you aren’t even willing to try and maintain the fiction of doing science anymore? Rhetorical question, obviously it has.
It’s OK, most of us knew all along that it was just comic farce, it’s been pretty obvious.
Third: What do they do if they succeed? what happens if they successfully slander Hansen and the science is still there?
Apparently they have gotten so caught up in their irrelevant ad hominem attacks and phony conspiracy theories that they have started to believe it themselves. Not that they ever mention the actual science, but surely some of them are at least aware that it exists, no?
They had better hope this fails, because of course it was never about Hansen and his removal would change absolutely nothing. They have been claiming Hansen is the Dark Lord for so long that they will be exposed as lying shits (OK … more exposed) if he were removed.
UPDATE: Ack! Commenter Brian D reminds me of a point that I meant to make, which is it looks like FrankBi’s “Heartland take home message” poll correctly predicted that it would be “Fire Hansen now.” (I got it right 😉 )
Kevin Grandia also discusses the absence of any pretence of this being a climate science conference in Heartland Conference Speakers and Attendees still fighting the Cold War.
As he notes, many (most?) of the participants are attempting to argue away the facts of the science by talking about completely irrelevant and wholly fictitious conspiracies.
Of course many of them are really not so thick that they imagine that their paranoid giggle fest would make any difference to the science, but that’s not the point. As long as they can attract enough gullible followers they can continue to confuse the public about climate change.
Based on their unquestioning repetition of the obvious frauds it appears that the Denialosphere is rife with people who cannot distinguish between legitimate climate science and transparent, irrelevant delusions.
More Conference News
Sorry, nothing on JayLo, Paris or Hillary Duff (maybe they’re saving that for the closing ceremonies):
- The Heartland Institute and the Academy of Tobacco Studies talks about the credentials of a number of the prominent Deniers, ie before lying about climate they were paid to lie about tobacco;
- A roomful of cynics does a run down on some of the actual credentials of the star performers, such as they are;
- Commenter Steve Bloom draws our attention to posts by Denier Bob Carter being published in the “The Quadrant” (it figures). Kudos to Coby Beck for getting particular condemnation for his “A roomful of cynics” (above).
- PR Watch on the Heartland Conference: The Monkeys and Their Organ Grinders actually just points us to the following article, but a good tip is always worth acknowledging, so thanks Kevin;
- The Monkeys and Their Organ Grinders | Center for Media and Democracy discusses the fossil fuel and other funders of the Heartland Institue and many of it’s conference participants, funding that is NOT for research, but rather for PR;
- Climate Change Denial Watch – Heartland Institute focuses more on Denierism generally;
- Global Warming Deniers Meet in NYC – In Other News, The World is Flat wants to “actually applaud those few people that are brave enough to stand in the face of science and common sense and show their ignorance.”
- Move over Heartland, there’s a new kid on the denialist conference block
- Global Warming Deniers, Delayers Gather for Unreality Check
I guess the presence of Vaclav Klaus should have tipped us off that this years conference was going to be an even bigger joke than last year.
We give our consent every moment that we do not resist.
Denier “Challenge” aka Deathwatch Update: Day 138 … still no evidence.
IMAGE CREDITS
Eye Am Feeling Silly by Cayusa
Senator John Kerry by cliff1066
The fact that Vaclav Klaus is their Leading International Figure for the second year running does speak volumes.
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Looks like I’ll lose Frank Bi’s betting pool.
By the way, these particular attacks on Hansen are hilariously ironic, since Hansen calls himself “moderately conservative, middle of the road” and openly said he would have voted McCain 04 had he been on the ballot. How many of his attackers announce THAT gem?
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Addendum: he did endorse Kerry, more as the Not Bush candidate. Also, this interview (on an iPod, can’t copy URL. It’s from Seed) was before McCain 08 basically destroyed McCain 04 in a desperate appeal for Bush voters and the fringe.
How long more before the climate inactivists claim VICTORY!!! ?
Oh wait, they just did that. Alas, as a wise man once said, proclaiming victory is different from actually winning.
Brian D:
Don’t worry too much about that… my own prediction was “Fire James Hansen!”
Well, so there was indeed a call to fire Hansen, but now it seems the take-home message of the conference (if any) is more like “████ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ Václav Klaus █████ ███ █████████ █ ████████!” 🙂
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Obama is in office; The US EPA will start mandatory reporting of greenhouse gases in 2010; it only makes sense that their message will change. It has become more political. Inaction on their side has consequences now.
Regarding Hansen & the Hatch Act – the Hatch Act doesn’t matter. He used his title while promoting an illegal act. He could be fired for that.
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JCP:
What problem do you have with focusing on the science? Carbon dioxide molecules don’t care about any darn “message”.
So Theon explicitly says Hansen should be charged under the Hatch Act, and then when we point out that the Hatch Act allows what Hansen’s doing, suddenly it “doesn’t matter”. You guys need to make up your mind as to what crime Hansen’s supposedly guilty of.
Thanks. 🙂 It’s a character in Unicode: the HTML code will be █.
As I said, I’m not sure I agree…
(Oops. HTML code — make that an ampersand followed by “#9608;”.)
frankbi – Who is “you guys” and why am I included?
I haven’t written comments in the past (here or anywhere else) that would give any reason for that response.
If anything – call me skeptical (as a scientist) about most things.
I agree that the focus needs to be on the science & that the Hatch Act-Hansen link may not apply here.
If I used my name, title, and company to organize an unlawful protest, I would be fired.
Oh really.
Yet that’s not what you did. You’ve repeatedly insinuated without proof, now and before, that climate science is nothing but politics.
frankbi – Your link leads to a comment that demonstrates skepticism.
I do not deny that there is science involved in climate science; it is a little disheartening when some people forget that politics is involved as well.
In fact, it was Mike’s comments from that link that forced me to review certain aspects of the science. Now, when I comment on the other type of sites, I’m called an alarmist.
Mike – “Did he use his title? or did the media use it?”
I believe that it was on the flash video – but now that you have commented I will need to find the video again to confirm.
Mike – I was not correct about Hansen using his title.
The video states “Climate Scientist” & the endorsements links to his wiki page. Hansen did not use his title directly. However, by allowing the link to his wiki page…
All that I can truly state now is that I don’t have enough information to support my initial claim. With a private company, this would be enough to get fired. With a union company or a Government position, it is probably not.
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