Climate change journalism: massacring the messengers

Shoot out at the “I’m OK” Corral

BPSDB Tom Yulsman at CEJ is not upset. Apparently people are criticising media coverage of climate issues, leading him to ask “Environmental journalists: Are we really that awful?”

At first he was upset with Anthony Watts, Brad Johnson and Joseph Romm, but now the list includes  Michael Tobis, Scott Mandia, Gavin Schmidt, Michael Mann, and Kevin Trenberth.

This began as a very different post, but then I read the materials more closely and it changed everything. Actually reading the material I intend to discuss is a nasty habit which ruins all of my best ideas; I really should stop doing that.

A day in Tombstone

At the Progress Saloon

1) Joseph Romm posted “And the 2010 Citizen Kane award for non-excellence in climate journalism goes to …“, an overview of quite a lot of really ghastly penny dreadfuls masquerading as irresponsible tabloids reporting on climate in 2010.

2) Brad Johnson of Think Progress comments on the piece, being critical of media generally, environmental journalists and climate scientists in particular. A bit over the top in some respects, but he makes some good points.

Down by the stables

3) Time Magazines’ Bryan Walsh did a piece Holiday Blizzard: More Signs of Global Warming discussing how snow storms were consistent with the science of climate change and in no way supported the Denier position.

4) Watts Earp(withthat) took exception to the Walsh (3) piece. He strongly objected to the “Preemptive straw man arguments” in Walsh’s “annual piece on global warming causing blizzards.”  Presumably what upset Watts most was that Walsh’s “preemptive straw man” anticipated Watts’ idiotic annual piece on blizzards proving there is no global warming.

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Snowmageddon, Déjà vu all over again

BPSDB Yes, Christmas is over, so it’s that time again.

Time for the Denialosphere to once more be shocked and amazed that it snows in winter. So like 3 year olds they are; naturally they have  seen snow and cold before, but they just don’t remember.

Both Potholer54 and Greenman3610 have new videos to explain how science said all along that we would still get snow and cold in winter, and why it can be even colder than in the past in some places.

BP oil spills and an end to snow

Potholer54’s video also takes on the ‘scientists claim oil spill disrupts Gulf stream’  claim, and the ‘they changed it from global warming to climate change’ nonsense (see also here).

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New Climate Change Denial Crock and other flotsam

Mimsy BPSDB

This one has to come with an audience advisory … DO NOT attempt to watch the first 30 seconds of this video if:

• your stomach is at all unsettled, and/or
• you are holding/drinking hot liquids, and/or
• you are standing, and/or
• there are any heavy objects at hand that you may reflexively fling in a desperate, instinctual attempt to protect yourself from terminal ignorance.

You have been warned!

Climate Change Denial Crock of the Week “A Natural By-Product of Nature“

Added to the Climate Denial Crock of the Week collection.

Flimsy

Speaking of CO2, this from a new, peer reviewed paper “Warming Power of CO2 and H2O: Correlations with Temperature Changes” being trumpeted at WhatsWrongWithWatts:

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*New* *Improved* Climate Skeptic List Fraud

BPSDB

What it isn’t:

What it is

Condensed overview (still painful though)

Too many Kooks spoil the …

—

Shredding the “climate consensus” myth: More Than 1000 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims – Challenge UN IPCC & Gore

WattsUpMyButt

Climate Despot has dropped  a “321-page ‘Consensus Buster’ Report” (bet that cow won a blue ribbon at the County Fair), or so Mark Morano claims.

What it isn’t:

• “new” It’s the same old Inhofe fraud (ie “700 Scientists …”) as before with some recycled silliness tacked on. None of it is anything we haven’t seen before;
• “improved” unless you consider repetition of ridiculous claims and irrelevant appeals to false authority an improvement;
• “Inhofe‘s” as before the real author is Mark ‘Wormtongue’ Morano;
• science; utterly absent is any trace of of actual science or any reference to it except in the most abstract and meaningless ways;
• a list it’s a collection of anecdotes, specious claims, contextless quotes and copy/pastes of various petitions and declarations;

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Poptart’s 450 climate change Denier lies

BPSDB The other day I posted “450 more lies from the climate change Deniers” and the response has been interesting.

This has given fodder for sharing some more examples and reasons why the list is total nonsense.

By sampling approximately one third of the references from “450 320 299 286 Peer-Reviewed Papers Supporting Skepticism of “Man-Made” Global Warming” I showed that, of the references I looked at, all were:

• • • not  peer reviewed, and/or
    • known to be false, and/or
    • irrelevant, and/or
    • Out of date (no longer relevant), and/or
    • not supportive of climate change Denial*

*(I use the appropriate term (Denier) with respect to what the author was struggling to say when he mis-used the word “skepticism“).

• • Pielke dumps (on) the list
  • Energy & Environment is peer reviewed
    
  • Some more struck from the list
  • Poptart and other Denier’s respond react say stuff
  • What did anyone expect?
    

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Deniers record high incoherence ratio increasing?

BPSDB The climate change Deniers make four attempts to refute the Meehl et al NCAR: Record high temperatures far outpace record lows study.

Four tries, four epic FAILS!

In reporting on the study which showed that “…daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade across the continental United States.” Wattsupmybutt spins it as Number of record highs beat record lows – if you believe the quality of data from the weather stations ie repeating the false claim that surface station temperature monitoring is unreliable

The Surface Station Meme

(and here).

Not to mention that ” … undergo a quality control process at the data center that looks for such potential problems as missing data as well as inconsistent readings caused by changes in thermometers, station locations, or other factors.”  Record Highs Far Outpace Record Lows Across U.S.

but fair enough, at least Watts is consistent.

NOT

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450 more lies from the climate change Deniers

BPSDB A week ago this “450 Peer-Reviewed Papers Supporting Skepticism of “Man-Made” Global Warming” appeared and I figured it was just a matter of days before it started making the rounds of the climate change Denialosphere.  Sure enough it has turned up at Wattsupmybutt so I guess it’s time to state the obvious, that it’s utter nonsense.

Let’s have a look at a sampling of these “450 Peer-Reviewed Papers.” The list includes:

UPDATE: Pielke pulls 21 papers off the list! “they’d better change that to 429 papers, as their list doesn’t represent what they think it does.”  Better Recheck That List (Hat Tip to Former Skeptic for the heads up)

NOT peer-reviwed

The following are NOT peer-reviewed Journals

Energy & Environment: 82 papers on the list

E&E is a sort of vanity press for the Deniers, cited by one Wag as “where bad science goes to die.”

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Watts to do if you’re not Mann enough?

BPSDBPerhaps I give climate change Denier Anthony Watts too little credit for craft and and deceit. His clumsy handling of the Sinclair video incident suggests definite ineptitude, yet I detect a certain cunning in how he  handles topics on his web site. He certainly seems to be an avid student of Sir Humphrey Appleby of Yes Minister fame when it comes to being dishonest.

One consistent tactic that I have noticed is that of making some outrageous claim in the title of a blog post, and then to say absolutely nothing related to it in the post itself. This is straight out of Appleby’s guide to deception:

‘I explained that we are calling the White Paper Open Government because you always dispose of the difficult bit in the title. It does less harm than in the statute books. It is the law of Inverse Relevance: the less you intend to do about something, the more you have to keep talking about it”

quoted in  Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Government of Canada

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Climate change Bytes and Blogs VI

McLean, de Frietas and Carter BPSDB

In the ongoing story of the ridiculous McLean, de Frietas and Carter paper that has been seized on by the climate change Denialosphere, James’ Empty Blog finds yet another error in the abomination, but the main point of his post is the more serious issue of Editorial standards at AGU journals and how this travesty ever got published in a respectable journal in the first place.

Understanding just what SOI and ENSO have to do with climate is pretty opaque to most people, so thanks to Dan’s Wild Wild Science Journal for Confused About El Nino- Taichiro Sakagami can fix that which led me to El Niño (ENSO) Animation V1.25, a good place to get a better understanding of the climate mechanisms underlying all of this fuss. That is the source of the video below. see the originals for higher quality animations and text.

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Act III Scene 1: But but (from the Watts)

BPSDBPrologue:

(the story so far) Peter Sinclair produced a video debunking the climate change Denier “surface station” fable. The main champion of that fable Anthony Watts filed a DMCA complaint and Youtube removed the video.

Kevin Grandia and DeSmogBlog checked with the lawyers, reposted it, and many blogs and Monbiot at the Guardian spread the word. From Watts and the Deniers we heard nothing, until now…

[Character notes: In his rebuttal/refutation/response it seems Watts would like to play at being Henry V, roused to rightous and Royal fury by a mock from some unworthy, but merciful in his Royal Majesty. What we actually get is decidedly more reminiscent of the rogue, coward and liar Bardolph.]

But enough, now your humble patience pray, Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play…

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Guardian covers Anthony Watts’ hypocrisy

Monbiot: Climate change deniers claim they’re censored. What hypocrites

BPSDBOne of the allegations made repeatedly by climate change deniers is that they are being censored. There’s just one problem with this claim: they have yet to produce a single valid example.

Monbiot’s latest column is worth spreading far and wide for two reasons:

1. to keep the Watts controversy more broadly known, and hence get more people to become aware of the entire  “Climate Denial Crock of the Week” series.
2. Monbiot uses this incident as a framing for shooting down yet another Denier meme, the fictional censorship of Deniers, while talking about the real suppression of climate science.

“On the other hand, there are hundreds of examples of direct attempts to censor climate scientists.”

So Tweet Stumble Digg Facebook Reddit etc asap …

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Watts that? it’s quiet … too quiet…

BPSDB

For those who were not aware of it, two days ago climate change Denier Anthony Watts filed a complaint causing the removal of from youtube of Peter Sinclair’s excellent video Whats up with Anthony Watts?. You can follow the developments from here if you wish.

The video was reposted and an informal campaign to spread the word took off.  The grassroots campaign to keep Peter Sinclair’s video public has had considerable success. As you can see, the search I just did yielded 29,000 hit. Of course  not all of them are related to this story, but from what I could tell a great many of them were.

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But, but (from the Watts)

BPSDB

So what what’s up with watts?

But but (from the Watts)

UPDATE: July 28th

Watts update: “Watts Up With Watts?” video checked for copyright, reposted

Climate Crock of the Week: What’s Up with Anthony Watts [take 2]

“The video has since been reviewed by a number of US copyright experts and (big surprise) there appears to be nothing that could be construed as anything but fair use.”

Thanks to Recycling Boys for alerting me to the fact that “it’s back”

How and for how long? I have no idea, although it’s k21desmog’s Channel. Watch it while you can just in case this goes bye bye too.

—-

Latest development on the Sinclair Watts “breakup” ;)- it’s spreading!

• Jules’ klimaatblog: The video Anthony Watts wanted to be censored
• Why are deniers afraid of debate? » Mind of Dan
• Anthony Watts’ abuse of the DMCA : Deltoid
• The video that Anthony Watts does not want you to see: The Climate Denial “Crock of the Week” « Climate Progress
  • Good companion piece Unscientific America, Part 1: From the moon-landing deniers to WattsUpWithThat
    
• Inconvenient reality strikes again The Cost of Energy
  

Some other blog reactions:

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Climate change Bytes and Blogs V

Watts Up With Watts? Error!

BPSDB Kevin Grandia recently profiled Peter Sinclair’s Climate Crock video “Watts up with Watts?” that I shared in Mixed Media; Kevin gave you a choice of Debunking Another Climate Change Crock: What’s Up with Anthony Watts? or [flame war edition].

The Watts Up With That readers are an “emotional” little gang of online trolls … the massive flame war that the video has provoked.

Trivial aside, I got a link to a repost that had obviously been babble fished such that the above read:

The Watts Up With That readers are an “emotional” lowercase association of online trolls that pay artefact likewise such instance on their safekeeping …. to wager the large burning struggle that the recording has provoked.

“Flame war” as “the large burning struggle”, I liked that.

The latest development: Global warming denier uses the DMCA to silence a critic

Well, the video must have been really on target — it stung Anthony Watts so badly that he initiated a DMCA “takedown” action and got the “Watts Up With Watts” video removed from youtube.com!

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Sun, Sun, Sun … here it comes – NOT

BPSDBLately we have been experiencing another rash of news from the “Dept of the Obvious Dept”, coupled with the other climate change Denier tactic of offering “New Improved Lipstick on a Dead Pig” (act now, operators are waiting!).

• “New! Improved!” Lipstick on a Dead Pig

• Dept of the Obvious Dept

.

• Collected Resource Links

• Sunspot Blindness

• An actual “New Study”

The “Dept of the Obvious Dept” (hereafter DoOD) tactic is just another variation of the Red Herring Fallacy.  In this case the tactic is to take some aspect of climate science that is fully accounted for in the science, well known to those even passingly familiar with the basics, and pretend that it is  i) news,  and ii) not accounted for in the science.

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Climate Change – Mixed Media

BPSDB

.

• The Bill
• Watts Up With Watts?
• Very disappointing
• State of the science 2009
• The Physics that we Know
• Climate Wars
• Global Warming Art
• Just for fun
• Dejas vu all over again

.

This 4 1/2 minute movie can seem a bit dry and pedantic at first, but trust me, you’re being set up. Watch it right through to the end. The send up of our Western lifestyle and moral callousness is done superbly.

from GERMANWATCH

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Death by fire and ice

One of the climate change Denier claims that keeps resurfacing is that more people die from cold than from heat, therefore warming is a good thing.

I am not sure who started this one, but there is little question Bjorn Lomborg popularized it (and here).

Recently this meme is turning up again thanks to a new posting at that font of climate wisdom The Cato Institute (also here and here) viz  “The Deadliest U.S. Natural Hazard: Extreme Cold” and another three posted at the equally reliable (so to speak) Watts Up With That?

All of them seem to a response to the recent Reuters piece saying heat was the biggest natural cause of death in the US, and all are authored by Indur Goklany.

Goklany is one of the Heartland Institute‘s “experts“, has work hosted by the Fraser Institute (also here and here), but darned if I can find where he currently hangs his hat. Even ExxonSecrets doesn’t seem to know.

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Fooled ’em once, trying twice … who’s the fool?

BPSDBAs promised yesterday James Inhofe released his list of  ‘650 climate skeptics‘ this morning, and it caused far less of a furor than the promise of it did. Small wonder, even for Inhofe it is pretty pathetic. In fairness this is done in Inhofe’s name, but undoubtely most of the work is actually that of Marc “Wormtongue” Morano.

Thankfully others have done the lion’s share of the work debunking it (OK, I spent half the day doing things others have done faster and better …. sigh), so I will confine myself  to noting the different types of frauds Inhofe uses to try and give a dead pig a complete make over.

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2008 will probably be 10th Hottest year on record

Will be Tenth Hottest on Record

BPSDB

• New and improved old memes
• New debunkings
• Arctic Update

New and improved old memes

2008 will probably be 10th Hottest year since 1880. Of course that is not how the Guardian reported it, they said “2008 will be coolest year of the decade“, but in this case those are the same thing.

Already the Deniers are spreading the “coolest of the decade” (ie ‘Climate change has ended‘) meme, a classic example of how the Deniers want you to look at the data, but not too closely.

Three things they do NOT want you to look at in this case:

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