I got this regular press release from NOAA this morning announcing an upcoming press conference. Ho Hum…but wait, buried at the bottom of the copy is a little nugget that brings me some hope. I know many NOAA employees read WUWT. Maybe our collective exasperation at the way they portray their Earthly understanding finally made it up the food chain. – Anthony
MEDIA ADVISORY
NOAA to Issue 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook
NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center will release its initial seasonal outlook for the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season during a press conference in Miami. NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco will discuss the outlook with FEMA Deputy Administrator Rich Serino highlighting the critical need for storm preparedness. They will be joined by a diverse group of NOAA hurricane experts available for questions and interviews.
What: Press conference announcing NOAA’s 2010 Atlantic hurricane season outlook
When: Thursday, May 20, 11:00 am EDT
Where: NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory
4301 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, FL 33149
Todd Kimberlain, hurricane specialist with NOAA’s National Hurricane Center is available for onsite interviews in Spanish.
Media may also participate via conference call. Please call Susan Buchanan at the phoie number above to obtain the number and passcode.
Who:
- Dr. Jane Lubchenco, under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator
- Rich Serino, deputy administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency
This event will be conducted by Dr. Robert Atlas, director of NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. Other NOAA hurricane experts attending will be:
- Dr. Gerry Bell, NOAA’s lead hurricane seasonal forecaster
- Dr. Ed Rappaport, deputy director, NOAA’s National Hurricane Center
- Dr. Frank Marks, director, NOAA/AOML Hurricane Research Division
NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Visit us at http://www.noaa.gov or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/usnoaagov.
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Note the new wording in the slogan:
“NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment…”
That’s a significant change from the slogan we’ve all rolled our eyes at in the past which previously said:
NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth’s environment…
You can read that old slogan at the very bottom of this May 6th, 2010 press release here:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100506_spillsampling.html
Is NOAA finally admitting they in fact don’t “know it all” or is this just a fluke from a copy writer with a conscience? I look forward to the next NOAA press release.
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Perhaps they’ve finally woken up to the derision that the old slogan used to generate. It made them look like a bunch of arrogant fools. Say no more.
Funny how a couple of letters make such a huge difference.
I think they got hit with a flavor of the month management craze and had to come up with a “Mission Statement” That sort of crock is all the craze in the “ISO” Government is always way behind on these management craze thingies.
“According to ISO 9004, a mission statement explains why an organization exists. It defines its reason for being (its raison d’être).” http://www.praxiom.com/iso-definition.htm
You must be getting bored.
“Prediction” is easy. Accurate predictions, not so much.
Perhaps they are beginning to follow the advice of George Carlin: “Hey buddies the earth is OK it’s not going anywhere, WE DO, so pack your sh*s folks!”
Does error in prediction demonstrate a lack of understanding the environment?
They are located in Miamai? Maybe they can explain if Cuba is really gone as algore pic depicted or if the can still see it. maybe they can check on the counter rotating hurricane also before they go underwater.
Slowly but surly they are backing themselves out of the corner they had painted themselves into.
Or maybe they realized their “looking foolish” quotient would impact their ability to keep a snout in the taxpayer funded gravy boat.
NOAA has been trenberthed.
I feel bad about mocking the afflicted (so my mamma told me) but sometimes you have to call a spade a spade.
The “groupthink” psychology gets entrenched when someone like Hansen uses their position and strong, insistant personality to lead and drive the movement. People see the writing on the wall and resistance is futile.
It may still take a while, but no one likes to be ridiculed and someone will have to take the (early retirement) blame. Rubbing their faces in it should be done with class and subtlety. The high road is the best road to a happy ending.
On the “zealot percentage of total staff” scale, NOAA is not so bad. Yeah, I know there are egregious exceptions. Well, ain’t that life?
A useful change. Make it “NOAA’s mission is to seek to understand. . . ” and they’d get a thumbs-up from me.
“NOAA’s mission is to understand…the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun”
That is beautiful, very catchy! Mention the Earth’s geomagnetic field, and the connections between them all, and you’ve got a keeper.
To boldly go where no science has gone before–though they should have, God knows.
Hmm. Or even “NOAA’s mission is to seek a more perfect understanding. . . ”
That way they get the straddle that politicians so dearly love. On the one hand, they express some modesty and please the skeptics with an acknowledgement of not knowing everything.
On the other, they’ve got a broad wink in there that their understanding is already pretty darn good. . .just not “perfect”. And they get a little hommage to the US Constitution (and it’s “more perfect union” aspiration) too. Sweet!
So you NOAA employees reading this. . .send that one up the senior staff flagpole and see if anyone salutes. 🙂
Oh, and I, Geo, hereby relinquish all IP rights to NOAA re use of the above suggested tagline.
Well!!
Thats a sustainable approach! Co2 McCarthyism didn’t work!
“call Susan Buchanan at the phoie”
What is a “phoie”?
I always thought that should have been “NOAA seeks to understand…”
Either way, they don’t. But I give them credit for finally admitting it.
Most people didn’t believe them in the first place,
…..the rest of you spit the gum out
How about:
“NOAA’s mission is to understand , in order to possibly predict, changes in the Earth’s environment…”
I guess it’s a start, or maybe is it just a typo?
Predictions, are what got us into this mess.
Damn it, now that “more perfect” allusion I made upstream has me singing the preamble to the Constitution in my head.
If you’re an American over 40, you probably know what I mean. And I probably just did it to you too. 🙂
I sincerely doubt that Lubchenko has become less arrogant when it comes to AGW bias. It is far more likely that administration insiders were getting a lot of flack for the “eye roller” as you put it Anthony.
From: NOAA Knows.
To: No One Knows.
Brilliant!
and in keeping with the press release:
“NOAA to Issue 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook”
Here’s my prediction of their prediction.
May – 6,784 hurricanes
June – downgraded to 1,112 hurricanes
July – downgraded to 12
second half of July – downgraded to 10
August – downgraded to 8
Sept – downgraded to 7
October – downgraded to 5
November – announced how accurate they are
Why do they seek understanding for that which they already understand? Their “mission” is not to determine whether AGW exists, is or will be a problem, they already believe that. They aren’t skeptics.
“Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.”
This observation by the great Danish physicist, Niels Bohr, seems appropriate. In fact, he made a number of memorable statements which seem to relate to climate science perfectly.
“An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field”
“The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.”
“Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself it’s own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.”
“Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.”