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| Science & Technology |
| Climategate: it's all unravelling now |
| 2009-12-03 |
| So many new developments: which story do we pick? Maybe best to summarise, instead. After all, it's not like you're going to find much of this reported in the MSM. 1. Australia's Senate rejects Emissions Trading Scheme for a second time. Or: so turkeys don't vote Christmas. Expect to see a lot more of this: politicians starting to become aware their party's position on AGW is completely out of kilter with the public mood and economic reality. Kevin Rudd's Emissions Trading Scheme -- what Andrew Bolt calls "a $114 billion green tax on everything" -- would have wreaked havoc on the coal-dependent Australian economy. That's why several opposition Liberal frontbenchers resigned rather than vote with the Government on ETS; why Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull lost his job; and why the Senate voted down the ETS. 2. Danes caught fiddling their carbon credits. (Hat tip: Philip Stott) Carbon trading is the Emperor's New Clothes of international finance. It was invented by none other than Ken Lay, whose Enron would currently be one of the prime beneficiaries in the global alternative energy market, if it hadn't been shown to be (nearly) as fraudulent as the current AGW scam. It is a licence to fleece, cheat and rob. Still, jolly embarrassing for the Danes to get caught red handed, what with their hosting a conference shortly in which the world's leaders will try, straight-faced, to persuade us that carbon emissions trading is the only viable way of defeating ManBearPig. 3. Hats off to The Daily Express -- the first British newspaper to make the AGW scam its front page story. The piece was inspired by another bravura performance by Professor Ian Plimer, the Aussie geologist who argues that climate change has been going on quite naturally, oblivious of human activity, for the last 4,567 million years. 4. BBC finally gets round to reporting -- sort of -- that Climatic Research Unit at University of East Anglia may have been up to no good. It's true that this report on their website is so hedged with special pleading for the temporarily suspended director Phil Jones the man might have written it himself. But on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning, I did hear the newsreader reporting it as more than just a routine theft story. Which is a start. 5. Legal actions ahoy! Over the next few weeks, one thing we can be absolutely certain of is concerted efforts by the rich, powerful and influential AGW lobby to squash the Climategate story. We've seen this already in the "nothing to see here" response of Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the jet-setting, troll-impersonating railway engineer who runs the IPCC and wants to stop ice being served with water in restaurants. This is why those of us who oppose his scheme to carbon-tax the global economy back to the dark ages must do everything in our power to bring the scandal to a wider audience. One way to do this is law suits. At Ian Plimer's lunch talk yesterday, Viscount Monckton talked of at least two in the offing -- both by scientists, one British, one Canadian, who intend to pursue the CRU for criminal fraud. Their case, quite simply, is that the scientists implicated in Climategate have gained funding and career advancement by twisting data, hiding evidence, and shutting out dissenters by corrupting the peer-review process. More news on this, as I hear it. Lord Monckton has written an indispensible summary of the Climategate revelations so far. 6. Watch out Green Dave! The Independent reports on the growing backlash within the party to Cameron's libtard-wooing greenery. Turning to the Independent for a balanced report on environmental matters is a bit like consulting Der Sturmer for a sensible, insightful view on the Jewish question. Still, for once, the house journal of eco-loonery seems to have got it right and the point made by Tory backbencher David Davis is well made: "The ferocious determination to impose hair-shirt policies on the public -- taxes on holiday flights, or covering our beautiful countryside with wind turbines that look like props from War of the Worlds -- is bound to cause a reaction in any democratic country." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #20 the Blood Eagle A distressing thought, Procopius2k. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-12-03 23:00 |
| #19 I don't expect to see a lot of "Gore Award™" aspirants in the future. Perhaps John Edwards, but that's it |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-12-03 22:38 |
| #18 ...maybe he found out that the Blood Eagle wasn't another spiffy award for him to pick up in Copenhagen. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-12-03 21:39 |
| #17 Grunter, maybe he found out that people were shelling out $1200+ not to meet him, but to challenge him. Or maybe to punch him in the nose. (Not that I am recommending that, of course, Fred.) |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2009-12-03 19:50 |
| #16 Al Gore just bailed out of Copenhagen. Can't imagine why. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2009-12-03 17:19 |
| #15 It'll help if we could drill (and dig) here - oh and fire up a few CO2 belching coal plants - and not a few Nuclear plants instead of waiting for a 'green' solution which they will never allow anyway. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-12-03 16:46 |
| #14 perhaps its all a farce, what isnt a farce is that we still need to stop buying oil from the insane muslims of the middle east thereby fueling their madness and ability to get at us. just a thought.... |
| Posted by: 746 2009-12-03 16:32 |
| #13 how easy it is to game the numbers. Oh my goodness yes, Alan. Not only that, but it is perilously easy for even honest investigators to find the answer they hoped for either by asking poor questions or by not probing deeply enough into the answers obtained from good ones. This is how good companies make costly business mistakes, which cost is an instant indication that one of the above has occurred. Basic research does not have the same kind of quick feedback mechanism, and must rely on reproducibility... which relies on the open sharing of raw data and methods, as we here all know. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-12-03 16:25 |
| #12 Phester, there are two similar sayings. I have heard one attributed to Twain and one to Will Rogers. Around my house it was figures don't lie, liars figure usually coupled with lies, damn lines and statistics. The first thing I learned in my intro to statistics course, lo these many years ago, was how easy it is to game the numbers. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2009-12-03 13:57 |
| #11 My Grandfather (RIP) used to say: "Figures don't lie, but liars sure can figure...." |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2009-12-03 13:02 |
| #10 Latest news: major lawsuit in the works against GISS, for refusing to turn over FOIA data. The deadline is now the end of December. Because the scientist behind the lawsuit sent in his FOIA request early, any destruction of data will be a criminal offense. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-12-03 08:36 |
| #9 I still expect this to get buried by the national news. It's not important like a male members' only golf club. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-12-03 07:09 |
| #8 I think this should be a classic, too. (Glaciers to melt in 2350, not 2035) I didn't read it until yesterday, however: That was a 1996 study, well before the cooling trend seemed to appear out of nowhere (the last ten years). Then I went to the original report, cited in the article, and found it was dated Moscow, October, 1991, and was about hydrology – the effect of runoff from melting glaciers. Somebody was cherry picking old, old data, taking it out of context, and mis-quoting it, to boot. Figures don’t lie, but clever people can abuse them. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2009-12-03 06:03 |
| #7 He's dead, Jim. |
| Posted by: Angleton9 2009-12-03 05:38 |
| #6 I can haz sooperpowers too! |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2009-12-03 02:26 |
| #5 Test SOCIALISM/socialism SOCIALISTS/socialists |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2009-12-03 02:25 |
| #4 Is it possible to write 's*ci*lism' in comments now or has JoeM developed superpowers? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2009-12-03 01:33 |
| #3 OOOOOOOPPPPPSSSIES, forgot JOY BEHAR Show > said FASCISTS + SOCIALISTS are not the same! And COMMIES + SOCIALISTS, COMMUNITARIANS, UNITARIANS, etc.??? D *** NG IT, we all know how THE SIMPSONS' "NED FLANDERS" FEELS ABOUT [religious] UNITARIANS, NOW DON'T WE? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-12-03 00:40 |
| #2 D *** NG IT, well clearly only eeveerrryyyyttthhhiiinnnnnggggg and aaaaannnnnnyyyttttthhhhiiiiinnngg in US-World Govt-Society needs SOCIALISM = GOVT. CONTROL + SUPER/HYPER REGULATION! The ARMY-POLICE RECCE STATE, NOT merely the NANNY STATE. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-12-03 00:35 |
| #1 The ferocious determination to impose hair-shirt policies on the public combined with the public losing what few shirts they have in the economic crisis may be the end of global warmism. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-12-03 00:34 |