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Tim Lambert's weblog
Tim Lambert (deltoidblog AT gmail.com) is a computer scientist at the University of New South Wales.
Category: Global Warming
Today is blog action day where bloggers are writing something about climate change. The post I was going to do isn't finished yet, but fortunately there is lots of interesting posts you can read.
I recommend Jim Prall on how to engage with those sceptical of taking action and Kate of ClimateSight on how to judge the credibility of information sources.
Posted by Tim Lambert at 2:42 AM • 25 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 11, 2009
Seriously. And then a gullible journalist named Michael Coren wrote it down and put it in the Winnipeg Sun. Ed Darrell has the details.
Posted by Tim Lambert at 1:07 AM • 165 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 9, 2009
Category: DDT
As part of its ongoing war on science, Quadrant Online as published a piece by J.F. Beck accusing Rachel Carson of constructing an elaborate tissue of exaggerations and lies.
In his piece Beck is only able to come up with two alleged lies by Carson. First, Beck claims that Carson said that DDT was the product of World War II weapons research:
Carson's suggestion notwithstanding, DDT was not a product of World War II weapons research, having been first synthesised in 1874.
But Beck is lying. Here is what Carson actually wrote about the development of DDT:
DDT (short for dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane) was first synthesized by a German Chemist in 1874, but its properties as an insecticide were not discovered until 1939. Almost immediately DDT was hailed as a means of stamping out insect-borne disease and winning the farmers' war against crop destroyers overnight. The discoverer, Paul Muller of Switzerland, won the Nobel Prize.
And Beck is well aware of what Carson actually wrote.
Posted by Tim Lambert at 2:12 PM • 41 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 8, 2009
Category: McIntyre
One of McIntyre's repeated complaints about Briffa was that he refused to release his data. For example, in his post Fresh Data on Briffa's Yamal #1:
A few days ago, I became aware that the long-sought Yamal measurement data url had materialized at Briffa's website - after many years of effort on my part and nearly 10 years after its original use in Briffa (2000).
I am very grateful to the editors of Phil Trans B (Roy Soc) - at long last, a journal editor stood up to CRU, requiring Briffa to archive supporting data.
This got turned into statements like this one, from Tom Fuller:
The data, which the scientists had refused to release for a decade, came to light when the Royal Society of London demanded they archive their findings before publishing their latest paper.
But now McIntyre has admitted that he had the data all along. The data wasn't Briffa's and back in 2006, Briffa referred McIntyre to the original source:
Steve these data were produced by Swedish and Russian colleagues - will pass on your message to them] cheers, Keith
When a reader asked him why he didn't just get the data from the original sources, McIntyre dropped a bombshell:
In response to your point that I wasn't "diligent enough" in pursuing the matter with the Russians, in fact, I already had a version of the data from the Russians, one that I'd had since 2004.
He had it all along and despite writing thousands and thousands of words about Yamal somehow somehow failed to mention this until now. Truly I am in awe of McIntyre's ability to make mountains out of molehills.
Posted by Tim Lambert at 3:22 AM • 228 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
October 3, 2009
Category: McIntyre • Roger Pielke Jr
Over the past few days we have had another outbreak of stories of how global warming has been totally disproved. For example, James Delingpole: the global warming industry is based on one MASSIVE lie
When finally McIntyre plotted in a much larger and more representative range of samples than used those used by Briffa - though from exactly the same area - the results he got were startlingly different.
The scary red line shooting upwards is the one Al Gore, Michael Mann, Keith Briffa and their climate-fear-promotion chums would like you to believe in. The black one, heading downwards, represents scientific reality.
Andrew Orlowski (This was linked and quoted in a Climate Audit post.)
In all there are 252 cores in the CRU Yamal data set, of which ten were alive 1990. All 12 cores selected show strong growth since the mid-19th century. The implication is clear: the dozen were cherry-picked.
The inescapable and powerful conclusion is that Mann-made warming is real, while man-made warming remains at best a theory, more likely a hypothesis.
It is indeed time leading scientists at the Climate Research Centre associated with the UK Met. Office explain how Mr McIntyre is in error or resign.
Posted by Tim Lambert at 7:15 AM • 264 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 27, 2009
Category: Bolt
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg sends birthday greetings to Andrew Bolt.
If you don't know why there are seven graphs, see here.
Posted by Tim Lambert at 3:12 AM • 26 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 24, 2009
Category: Open Thread
Time for a new Open Thread, where you can spit on the floor and call the cat a bastard.
Posted by Tim Lambert at 10:08 PM • 266 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 23, 2009
Category: Global Warming
John Mashey's Amazon review of Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming by James Hoggan.
Anti-Science and Who Does It
Anti-science (or agnotology), seeks to cover-up or obscure science considered inconvenient, or at least create doubt in the minds of public and decision-makers. It seeks to replace knowledge with ignorance, and has no resemblance to normal arguments within science, by scientists.Modern anti-science is most skilfully executed by a relatively small subset of lobbyists and PR agencies. Some of the most effective are actually "think tanks". They have public identities distinct from their (often-unidentified) funders, and can often be labeled "non-profit", thus avoiding the expense of taxes. They often seek funding in the same way as lobbyist/PR agencies, as is well-documented in the Tobacco Archives.
Such entities have played successful roles in activities like fending off tobacco regulation, fighting CFC regulation ("ozone hole"), fighting mercury regulation, etc. For some, their top priority has changed to obfuscating climate science. Anyone who can help keep children getting addicted to tobacco should find it easy to create confusion about climate.
So, if you wonder how and why so many people, especially in North America, are confused about the current state of climate science, this is an excellent introduction to the key players and tactics.
Posted by Tim Lambert at 4:15 AM • 110 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 22, 2009
Category:
The sky from my front yard this morning. More pictures.
Posted by Tim Lambert at 10:45 PM • 32 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 21, 2009
Category: politics
Tim Blair disputes Charles Johnson's estimate of the size of the September 12 rally. Johnson wrote:
Here's the Washington DC Metrorail service information for Saturday, September 12, 2009:
September 12, 2009: Metrorail: 437,624 Comparable Metrorail Ridership 1 Year Ago: 362,773
The difference between these two figures is -- 74,851.
Oddly enough, this almost exactly matches the unofficial estimate given by a Washington DC Fire Department spokesman, who estimated the crowd at 60,000 to 70,000 people.
Blair writes
comparing September 12, 2008, to September 12, 2009, won't yield reliable information - because the first date fell on a working day (Friday), while the second was a Saturday.
Which is is why the comparison was with Saturday September 13, 2008.
Blair quotes Mark Kelly of the Heritage Foundation:
For a fair comparison, we looked at the Saturday after Labor Day in 2008, which is when September 12 fell in 2009. On September 12, 2009, 437,624 rode metro rail. By comparison, on the Saturday after Labor Day in 2008, 202,528 rode. The difference is 235,096.
Kelly is comparing September 12, 2009 with September 6, 2009 instead of September 13. Why does this make such a difference?
Posted by Tim Lambert at 4:25 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
PZ Myers 11.19.2009
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Tim Lambert 11.12.2009
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