tlambert | June 13, 2009Gregg Easterbrook is no longer an expert at Brookings.
Via The Editors who has found yet another subject area that Easterbrook gets wrong:
Most importantly, this proves conclusively my theory that what we think of as "the Universe" is really just a rather over-broad comic novel called "Jackass of All Trades", wherein hilariously inept polymath Gregg Easterbrook - "the DiVinci of incompetence" - rises to the heights of the journalistic and public policy professions, only to be stopped by a deadly asteroid.
tlambert | June 12, 2009The plot "scientist has a crazy idea that no-one accepts but is proven right" has been used in movies from Ghostbusters to the Day After Tomorrow, but when it is satirised in Land of the Lost, S.T. Karnick decides:
My guess is that this aspect of the film was not intended as direct satire but instead simply reflects something the filmmakers picked up in the contemporary zeitgeist. However, its presence in the central story of the film and the bookend scenes-which are in very important places in the film, the beginning and end-gives it great prominence and suggests that skepticism toward such…
tlambert | June 11, 2009Seed Magazine has interviewed epidemiologist Barbara Eskanazi about her survey article on the effects of DDT on human health:
SEED: What kinds of long-term health problems can we expect?
BE: I don't really know. I can't predict, but I can say that if the studies that I read hold true we may see higher rates of diabetes; we may see higher rates of breast cancer; we may see higher rates of male infertility. We may see poor neurodevelopment in children. We may also see more spontaneous abortions. ...
SEED: How do we balance the malaria-fighting benefits of DDT with this information about long…
tlambert | June 10, 2009One of the claims that Ian Plimer likes to make is that as a geologist he takes time into account in a way that the IPCC does not, so it is worthwhile looking at what another geologist thinks of Plimer's error-filled book. Professor Malcolm Walter, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, concludes:
There is fallacious reasoning. Take this statement on page 87: 'If it is acknowledged that there have been rapid large climate changes before industrialisation, then human production of carbon dioxide cannot be the major driver for climate change.' This would only be true if carbon dioxide…
tlambert | June 9, 2009Paddy Manning worked at The Australian between 2004 and 2007, so has inside knowledge about their war on science:
Then on May 9, 2007, apparently at the urging of son James, Murdoch announced News Corp would go carbon neutral by 2010. ...
This put The Australian in a quandary. Mitchell's then 2IC, Michael Stutchbury, was still freely describing climate change as "bullshit" and joked after the announcement, "What would the Murdochs know?" (He is now the paper's economics editor.)
What did The Australian do? In late 2006 Matthew Warren, former PR for the NSW Minerals Council, was appointed -…
tlambert | June 6, 2009
Tim Blair, running the time-worn AGW denialist line "It's the sun" tells us
NASA discovers that the sun makes things warmer.
Blair's link goes to another denialist, Simon Scowl, who adds a dash of "Al Gore is fat" to the argument:
Wait. The Sun Can Make Thing... Warmer? I know, that doesn't sound right to me either. Whatchoo talkin' about, Science? ...
As Al Gore and other people who stand to make a lot of money from global warming scare tactics will tell you, "the science is settled." Unless you drive a hybrid, stumble around in the dark at night, and only eat things you find in your yard…
tlambert | June 5, 2009On Ockham's Razor, Kurt Lambeck, president of the Australian Academy of Science, reviews Ian Plimer's error-filled book.
If this had been written by an honours student, I would have failed it with the comment: You have obviously trawled through a lot of material but the critical analysis is missing. Supporting arguments and unsupported arguments in the literature are not distinguished or properly referenced, and you have left the impression that you have not developed an understanding of the processes involved. Rewrite!
I would then identify a number of specific issues which, while in…
tlambert | June 4, 2009The articles discussed in the Sydney Writer's Festival panel are now available on line:
Sharon Beder examines the global warming sceptics' bag of tricks.
David Spratt on why the climate catastrophe leaves no room for pragmatism
My article (on blogging about global warming). The posts discussed are on Michael Duffy and on Andrew Bolt.
tlambert | June 3, 2009Adam Sarvana of the Natural Resources News Service has written a detailed story on the career of Roger Bate:
Call major mainstream environmental groups and ask them for comment on Roger Bate. The reply is always: Who? Like most policy wonks at conservative think tanks, few have ever heard of him. That is why he wins. Anyone who wants to understand the policy battles that lie ahead in this country - not to mention those already past - should study his career carefully. This is true for Republicans looking for an antidote to President Obama, environmental advocates he has consistently outwitted…
tlambert | June 2, 2009Congratulations to Chris Mitchell, editor of The Australian who has won
an award from the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association for journalism that promotes their interests:
In congratulating Chris Mitchell, APPEA's Chief Executive Belinda Robinson observed that "over the past twelve months The Australian's in-depth coverage of a range of public policy issues affecting Australia's upstream oil and gas industry has been of a consistently high standard. The reporting has been thoughtful, balanced, analytical, well researched and a big effort was made to ensure that all…
tlambert | June 2, 2009
Remember when Tim Blair's commenters combined to take on a six year old boy? And lost. Now Blair and his commenters are taking on a Nobel Physics Prize winner. On physics.
US Energy Secretary Steven Chu, one of the world's greatest minds, believes painting roofs, roads and pavements white will help contain global warming. Reader Steve H. reviews the Chu plan:
According to a 2004 study by the U.S. Geophysical Union, all constructed so-called "impervious surfaces" (buildings, roads, parking lots, roofs, etc.) in the USA total a combined 112,610 km^2. Which is a bit less than the total area of…
tlambert | May 27, 2009John Quiggin categorizes those that reject climate science into Tribalists, Ideologists, Hacks and sufferers of Emeritus disease.
Speaking of hacks, Bob Burton has discovered some more about Pat Michaels funding:
[New Hope Environmental Services], which he wholly owns, describes itself as "an advocacy science consulting firm." These days, New Hope's main activities are publishing the firm's blog, World Climate Report, and helping anonymous clients to publicize "findings on climate change and scientific and social perspectives that may not otherwise appear in the popular literature or media."…
tlambert | May 25, 2009Jeff Sparrow has some pictures of the climate panel at the Sydney Writer's Festival. It was very popular and many people were turned away when the room filled. I'm afraid that there doesn't seem to be a recording available. David Spratt and Sharon Beder's talks were based on their articles in the latest issue of Overland, but I talked about something different.
I read out this blurb from Quadrant (link added by me)
Debate censored
When the Sydney [Left] Writers' Festival hold a phoney "forum" on climate change they ensure dissent is silenced by excluding Ian Plimer - writer of the best…
tlambert | May 25, 2009That's the sound Ben McNeil's point makes as it sails way over Andrew Bolt's head.
tlambert | May 24, 2009OK, Greig, you have your own thread. Please post all of your comments here. And everyone else, please post any responses to Greig here. The blog software does not allow me to move comments to another thread, so I will delete comments that don't obey these rules and it will be up to you to repost them.
tlambert | May 24, 2009The United Nations Environment Programme and the World Health Organization have announced new projects to test methods for fighting malaria with less use of DDT:
Ten projects, all part of the global programme "Demonstrating and Scaling-up of sustainable Alternatives to DDT in Vector Management", involving some 40 countries in Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and Central Asia are set to test non-chemical methods ranging from eliminating potential mosquito breeding sites and securing homes with mesh screens to deploying mosquito-repellent trees and fish that eat mosquito larvae.
The new…
tlambert | May 21, 2009On page 287 of his error-filled book Ian Plimer claims:
The Arctic was warmer than now between 1920 and 1940. This is
reflected in the sea ice and the local climate.[1473]"
[1473] Benestad, R.E. (2002) I. Hanssen-Bauer, T.E. Skaugen and E.J. Førland:
Associations between the sea-ice and the local climate on Svalbard,
met.no, Klima, 07/02.
I emailed R.E. Benestad to see if he felt that Plimer had accurately described his work. He replied:
The analysis we did was for the Svalbard islands, and for these, it is not true. Year 2006 was a record warm one by a significant margin. My report also…
tlambert | May 20, 2009Andrew Bolt is giving our little panel at the Sydney Writer's Festival some free publicity, describing it as "That baaing sound of writers debating" and as an "ABC-style "debate"". Which is odd, because he's on the ABC all the time and this panel is Bolt-free.
And while I was turning over the rocks at Bolt's blog I cam across this post, where he argues that because "polls show fewer men are excited by the issue (of climate change)", that this
further evidence, of course, that the great global warming scare is fundamentally irrational.
And then
Pick a woman, and you run a comparatively…