BPSDB Some odd goings on in the climate change Denialosphere …
Curiouser and Curiouser
New Crock
A few smiles
Recent absence
Curiouser and Curiouser
On Jan 20th the Canada Free Press published an apology to Dr Andrew Weaver (text below & google cache) as was reported by various sites (eg here and here).
That apology has now disappeared. (see also updates below text of apology).
So what has happened? CFP changed their minds? Tim Ball filed a counter-suit? CFP lawyers found that the text of the apology left them open to even more serious action? Other?
If any one has heard anything I would be curious to know.
Text of CFP apology:
Retraction
Apology to Dr. Andrew Weaver
By Canada Free Press Thursday, January 20, 2011
On January 10, 2011, Canada Free Press began publishing on this website an article by Dr. Tim Ball entitled “Corruption of Climate Change Has Created 30 Lost Years” which contained untrue and disparaging statements about Dr. Andrew Weaver, who is a professor in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria, British Columbia.
Contrary to what was stated in Dr. Ball’s article, Dr. Weaver: (1) never announced he will not participate in the next IPCC; (2) never said that the IPCC chairman should resign; (3) never called for the IPCC’s approach to science to be overhauled; and (4) did not begin withdrawing from the IPCC in January 2010.
As a result of a nomination process that began in January, 2010, Dr. Weaver became a Lead Author for Chapter 12: “Long-term Climate Change: Projections, Commitments and Irreversibility” of the Working Group I contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC.” That work began in May, 2010. Dr. Ball’s article failed to mention these facts although they are publicly-available.
Dr. Tim Ball also wrongly suggested that Dr. Weaver tried to interfere with his presentation at the University of Victoria by having his students deter people from attending and heckling him during the talk. CFP accepts without reservation there is no basis for such allegations.
CFP also wishes to dissociate itself from any suggestion that Dr. Weaver “knows very little about climate science.” We entirely accept that he has a well-deserved international reputation as a climate scientist and that Dr. Ball’s attack on his credentials is unjustified.
CFP sincerely apologizes to Dr. Weaver and expresses regret for the embarrassment and distress caused by the unfounded allegations in the article by Dr. Ball.
Update: As per comments:
1) There is also the web citation cache for the text of the apology, although that is by no means permanent. (thanks to Frank and Bluegrue).
2) Apparently the disappearing DeSmog post that I originally reported had merely moved to here. Thanks to Frank for drawing that to my attention.
3) Bill W. draws our attention to an updated post at DeSmogBlog which is worth reading (and they provide a pdf copy of the suit):
” … Canada Free Press website, which has since apologized to Weaver for its numerous inaccuracies and stripped from its publicly available pages pretty much everything that Ball has ever written.”
but still doesn’t answer the question of why the apology has disappeared, nor why DeSmogBlog’s original post did as well.
New Crock
Peter Sinclair’s ongoing Climate Denial Crock of the Week contribution, this one covering the ice core evidence as it pertains particularly to Greenland and the Denier myth of a global Medieval Warm Period.
Added to the Climate Denial Crock of the Week collection.
A few smiles
🙂 Peter Sinclair has also posted the Funniest. Denier. Posting. Ever. He may well be right. The Denialosphere is populated by a lot of serious loonies (see the Dunce’s Corner for too many examples), but this one is pretty hard core.
🙂 Speaking of the Dunce’s Corner, The Policy Lass has The Climate Denier Dunce Cap, “… post solely for the purpose of collecting examples of these dunce moments, smears and lies.”
A lot of the standards, but a few real howlers that you may not have heard yet are turning up in the comments. No doubt some good candidates for The ten most infuriating climate change Denier scams.
🙂 The animated video I did mimicking Global Warming Panic Explained is getting about one quarter of it’s hits from searches, most of which I assume are actually looking for the original. One of the links to it is from a not entirely obscure Denier site who seem to have linked without checking, so I won’t mention who.
This proves mimicry works, so please repost it under the same title on your youtube account or anywhere else that you can. The more people who see the debunking rather than the original the better, and the more mimics there are the more likely that becomes.
Recent absence
As noted in Greenfyre, greenfyre, where have you been?, I returned from my unplanned sabbatical after giving up on hoping things would ever settle down again. They remain unsettled, and from time to time it intrudes on blog work.
Right now work on climate issues is interfering with work on climate issues. It seems there is too much to do … who knew?
We give our consent every moment that we do not resist.
Image Credits:
Alice par John Tenniel from Wikimedia Commons
Comment Policy
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It is worth knowing and abiding by whether you comment on this blog or not.
- The “Mostly” Open Thread” is for general climate discussion that is not relevant to a particular post. Spam and abuse rules still apply;
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- The “Dunce’s Corner” Comment Thread is for comments that think they can ignore site policy.
DeSmogBlog now has the answer to your “Curiouser” question:
“Andrew Weaver Sues Tim Ball for Libel” (http://www.desmogblog.com/weaver-sues-tim-ball-libel)
The DeSmogBlog post moved:
http://www.desmogblog.com/canadafreepress-apology-weaver
The post also has an addendum:
And here’s a really, really permanent WebCite cache of the apology:
http://www.webcitation.org/5vuFWzOy5
WebCite has a policy in place to remove pages, if asked to do so by the copyowner, stated in their FAQ:
So, keep watching that cite.
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Oh well, if CFP demands that WebCite remove their copies of the apology letter, there’s nothing much I can do. But meanwhile, there’s also mention of the letter on climate inactivist blogs…
— frank
By the way, greenfyre, there are two different DeSmogBlog posts being discussed here. The URL I gave is for the original blog post — it didn’t disappear, but the URL has changed. Bill W.’s URL is for a different, later post.
— frank
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I believe the original DeSmogBlog post about the CFP apologizing to Weaver included the word “grovels” in its headline; so presumably when they changed the headline, the url also changed.
“So what has happened? CFP changed their minds? Tim Ball filed a counter-suit? CFP lawyers found that the text of the apology left them open to even more serious action? Other?”
I’m guessing ‘other’…
that they would have issued the apology after receiving required notification by Weaver’s lawyer of a suit against Ball, in order to gain the legal benefits of statutory protections afforded publications when they issue such an apology; but that they wouldn’t want or need the apology to stick around to gain the statutory protection.
In other words, CFP almost certainly just issued this particular apology to minimizes the paper’s liability in the matter, and has nothing necessarily to do with any sincere apology to Weaver. It just stops the potential for the paper itself to be sued for large damages.
About the Funniest Denier Posting Ever, I’m quite sure that not even the inactivists can boast of having a gun-toting full professor with rippling muscles among their ranks. Lindzen is a somewhat stout guy with a bit of a beard, Inhofe is a grinch, and Monckton is practically a court jester (and the last two aren’t atmospheric scientists anyway).
— frank
CFP’s removing their retraction and Tim Ball’s articles makes the situation all the more ironic.
It is after all the “warmists” who are out to create a totalitatrian commie world [1] government, yet we have CFP pulling a “1984” by pretending that Winston Smith, aka Tim Ball, never existed. [2]
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My “warmist” comment was meant in the spirit of DenialDepot-style satire. Sorry.
The Scientist and the Journalist
— by Horatio Algeranon
The time has come,” the Scientist said,
“To talk of many things:
Of denial–and lies–and pseudo-science–
Of Koches–and Heartland flings–
And why the sea is getting hot…
And the climate canary sings.”
I would be more impressed by the video if I saw the full record of temperature changes presented, ie, going back 15,000 years.. [1]
I know the “climate” community has been caught cherry picking, bodging, and deleting, [2] so I am skeptical Of L Thompson right off.
Secondly. I would like any presentation be done with raw data being made available, all processing routines, smoothing functions used, for the entire record, right up until 2000. [3]
Anything less is an invitation to be accused of fraud. [4]
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