The Denialist’s barrel has no bottom

More from 'The Telegraph'

BPSDBA few days ago Tim Lambert at Deltoid discussed Christopher Booker‘s latest contribution to climate ignorance as “Denialists scraping the bottom of the barrel”; little did he know.  

The Telegraph continues it’s war on reality, intelligence and science with “Global warming: Reasons why it might not actually exist.”

The piece is a farce and easily exposed as nonsense, but it reveals something interesting for our collective attempts to educate people about the reality of climate change, and a particular challenges we face in doing so.

The article starts by referring to Booker’s article which Deltoid debunked as nonsense. In that respect it is like the rest of Booker’s writings (see here and here).

Then it repeats the silly “temperatures falling” myth when it is well known that every new record high is followed by several cool years. That’s how it’s been happening for 50 years and no one expected it to be different this time, contrary to what the article claims.

Then it repeats the “it was hotter during the Medieval Warm Period” fable, which is both false (here, here, and here) and irrelevant.  Even if it had been warmer that tells us nothing about why it is getting warmer now.

Then it goes from hopelessly wrong to outright delusional, starting with misunderstanding the difference between ice extent and volume, and ignoring the source they pretend to quote.

Here is what Cryososphere Today actually shows about ice extent. And as for volume, “The 40Mb animation shows the recent dramatic loss of multiyear sea ice. ”

It was just over a week ago that Lambert said “Given that there is now no possible cherry pick that the denialists can now use to make it look like Arctic sea ice is increasing“, clearly underestimating The Telegraph.

Then we return to Booker as an authority wherein he attempts to cherry pick a few examples of i) glaciers melting for other reasons as well as climate change (he forgets to mention that last bit), and ii) a few glaciers growing, in an attempt to dispute that glaciers are melting.

Pretty much all of the worlds glaciers are in catastrophic decline as you can easily see.

and described here and here. Of course the handful of glaciers in the world that are growing are doing so because warmer air holds more moisture and as a consequence more snow is building up some glaciers in a few places.

If that desperate cherry picking were not bad enough the article concludes with “August was the fourth month this year when temperatures fell below their 30-year average, ie since satellite records began. November 2008 in the USA was only the 39th warmest”

August? Why August in a December article? and why report on November

Annual Season Theory Refuted

for the USA only? Could it have anything to do with ” Second Warmest October for Global Temperatures” and ” Global Temperature for November Fourth Warmest on Record” do you think?

They also neglected to mention that 2008 was the 10th hottest year ever recorded, and the hottest  La Nina-influenced year with no El Nino.

Which makes this the hottest decade in recorded history. I guess it slipped their mind.

Never mind the same old climate change Denier tactic of trying to present weather as climate.

It’s just one long piece of complete nonsense. Further more there are plenty of clues that it is misleading nonsense right in the article, like choosing temperatures for August and for the USA only.

Even so, the article proved to be popular on the news sharing site Digg.com, just as Booker’s articles consistently are.

The same seems to hold true for other compulsive deceivers like Andrew Bolt, John Stossel and John Coleman. In the same vein consider the popularity of videos like “The Swindle” or “Climate of Fear.”

Not that Deniers who try to pretend that they have science on their side (eg ClimateAudit or Christopher Monckton) don’t have their fans as well, but not the same broad popular appeal.

Booker, Bolt, Stossel and company

The fact is the Denier articles that seem to resonate most are actually the most simplistic. That they are transparent nonsense and only make a minimal pretense of being based on reality doesn’t matter to their  fans.

What they do is tell their lies with boldness and confidence. The most ridiculous claims are made with utter certainty. That seems to be what many people want; an assurance that everything is fine and nothing needs to change.

This desperate need for reassurance is known to every tinpot dictator and bunk faith healer. For those willing to tell any lie this need is a perfect opportunity for manipulating the public.

For those who want to inform the public truthfully this aspect of the psychology of denial presents a particular challenge.  Our message is that things are not alright and there is great uncertainty. How do we present that in a way that people are willing to hear it?

An implicit assumption in much of what we do is that people want to know the facts. It is probably more accurate to say that people want to believe that about themselves while being reassured that everything is alright just as it is.

That we need to bring our message forward in a positive and hopeful manner is trivially obvious.  Just how we do that without corrupting the truth is the challenge.

We give our consent every moment that we do not resist.

Denier “Challenge” aka Deathwatch Update: Day 81 … still no evidence.

IMAGE CREDITS

Outhouse Pershing/Prairie Gem Outhouse, Elk Falls, Kansas  by Cali2Okie

marathon relief by darkmatter

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