From the “photo fraud on a large scale” department comes this exercise in bullshit (yes, that’s the right word, sorry if I offended your delicate senses) from some “artistic” greens as pointed out by Steve Goddard, and as pushed as some sort of significant event (to fake a satellite shot) over at Joe Romm’s blog. Here’s the ground level photo of the event:
I’ll have to hand it to him, McKibben was able to get a bunch of people to go out and stand in a ditch holding up blue cards and tarps for a photo op to fool a satellite, which is something I’d expect North Korea or Iraq to do.
But, McKibben, as usual with many “artists”, such as the Santa Fe Art Institute who provided the flash mob, is working in the abstract. He’s doing this to “save the planet”, so the ends justifies the means. Here’s the resulting satellite image of their event from Digital Globe, who they duped into donating (according to them) a half million dollars in satellite time:
I put the annotation on it to make sure you don’t get it confused with the “WUWT flash flood mob” that I staged from my spare bedroom this afternoon:
For all of McKibben’s manipulation of some weak minded people standing in a dry river bed holding up blue cards and tarps to fake out a satellite image, I’ll point out I can achieve the very same effect right here with Google Earth (35.660090° -106.016311°, rotated about 90° clockwise) and a paint program without wasting anyone’s time or emitting tons of CO2 to transport people to the event or having them respirate on-site.
From the Santa Fe Art Institute:
What? They are inviting 5000 people to drive from Santa Fe and park at the Mall? How does that fit it with reducing CO2? Oh wait, carpooling, yeah that’s the ticket. Over 1000 people actually showed up (so they say, an enterprising person could click the very top image and select the highest res photo and actually count people) out of the 5000 expected, so at least they succeeded in reduce that carbon footprint a bit.
Well, I daresay I came up with a nearly identical and artful result, and my carbon footprint was a mere fraction of what 350.org duped these 1000+ people into doing.
Then there’s this statement in the invitation:
Human-induced climate change is well-studied and documented and is a result, in large part, of burning of fossil fuels. Major impacts on human health in New Mexico have already been observed and, as warming progresses, they will likely increase. Some of the most profound changes are concerned with water, which is certainly scarce and precious here already. Because New Mexico relies heavily on snowpack for its snow-fed rivers, water stress will endanger ecosystems, economies, physical and mental health.
But, as Steve Goddard points out, that claim from these, plus the caption from Romm in the top photo is, well…BS. Goddard writes:
I worked one summer in the 1980s as a wilderness ranger in the mountains above Santa Fe and have some familiarity with the drainage. The river has been dammed above the city since 1881. There isn’t any water in the river bed because it all gets diverted to the city, Indian casinos and golf courses. National Geographic describes the problem.
Santa Fe suffers from chronic water extraction that leaves its bed a dry ditch for most of the year. “Everybody can agree that a healthy, flowing Santa Fe River is good for the community of Santa Fe,” Fahlund said.
“I think that the governor and the mayor are both solidly behind this, and I think that they are going to put some water back in the river. But it’s a matter of the timing and the permanence of that.”
The city’s growing water needs have drained the Santa Fe’s flow at the expense of dams and wells
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070418-ten-rivers.html
Santa Fe had their second snowiest winter in the forty year WRCC record last year, and five of the top ten years have been in the last decade.
All you have to do is look at Google Earth, just east and west of Santa Fe, to see where all the water from snowmelt ended up:
And as Steve Goddard suggests, this video from Penn and Teller pretty well sums up the premise of 350.org: [warning: adult language, f-bombs]
here’s part 2
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With global warming decreasing snow melt, Santa Fe is running out of water.
So it’s getting so warm that the snow won’t melt? ;->
Truth is not a requirement when you are saving the earth/ trees/water/bears/flowers/ anything at all . Truth is something that sceptics have to provide since they are anti all the above. Our ABC (Aus) has admitted it actively promotes the government line so as to receive a better outcome when seeking taxpayer funds. Truth is less important than keping the funds coming. Hey. That sounds like the climate scientists as well. OK only the non-sceptical climate scientists. The sceptical ones should not be funded or heard at all.
well, from where I’m looking there are no more than a few hundred folk on that demo! but of course, I can only comment on what I can see in the pic!
more smoke & mirrors in the pic for this article!
21 Nov: Guardian: Alok Jha: Global emissions of carbon dioxide drop 1.3%, say international scientistsGlobal Carbon Project says fall in 2009 due to economic crisis but level still second highest in human history
The results are part of the annual carbon budget update by the Global Carbon Project (GCP), an international group of climate scientists and analysts that collates emissions data to help policymakers…
Because the global financial crisis has mainly affected developed nations, this is where emissions dropped by the largest amounts: in the US by 6.9%, the UK by 8.6%, Germany by 7%, Japan by 11.8%, Russia by 8.4% and Australia by 0.4%.
In the emerging markets, however, there were big increases: China rose by 8%, India by 6.2% and South Korea by 1.4%.
“The 2009 drop in CO2 emissions is less than half that anticipated a year ago,” said Pierre Friedlingstein, a professor of mathematical modelling of climate systems at the University of Exeter. “This is because the drop in world GDP was less than anticipated and the carbon intensity of world GDP improved by only 0.7% in 2009, well below its long-term average of 1.7% per year.”…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/21/carbon-emissions-fall-report
Nice exposition. Anthony, may I suggest — monitor as much crazy activities and media releases by the warmers. The Cancun meeting of thousands of climate bureaucrats and climate rent-seekers is just 7 days away. The more idiotic but scary stories they can produce, the better for their “cause”.
While I believe your point is valid, that reservoir you point out is considerably below Santa Fe, down on the Rio Grande (which also is much smaller than it used to be, due to irrigation usage upstream). The reservoir where the Santa Fe river is dammed, is upstream from the city to the East, in the Sangre De Christo mountains.
You will also be hard pressed to find a city less friendly to science, so this comes as no surprise to me.
REPLY: Thanks, I’ve added the second reservoir to the post. – Anthony
Lies, lies and more lies these agw proponents are pretty pathetic.
What a bunch of whining wimps! What happened to the idea of adapting and managing water and other resources through natural cycles and long term changes. Instead these Santa Fe jerks drive to their local demonstration and reveal themselves as mindless twits.
Reminds me of the Arkansas River at Holcomb/Garden City/Dodge City. Just goes underground between Kendall / Larkin and doesn’t pop up until the East side of Dodge City ( around 100 miles). Funny thing was during the spring thaw with some melting snow, there was some water flowing one year. Two days later some were trying to fish it already.
Same case, lots of ag sprinkler systems in the area.
http://maps.google.com/maps?client=opera&rls=en&q=holcomb+ks+map&oe=utf-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Holcomb,+KS&gl=us&ei=csfpTJ7hPI21nge-lP2rDQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQ8gEwAA
Thanks Anthony, gotta love Penn & Teller!
Truth can be trumped by Trickery. that’s for sure.
The last few decades have amply demonstrated that this has happened.
It’ll be interesting to observe just how many will continue to experience the level of cognitive dissonance that keeps the delusion alive that Mankind is other than a bit-player in the future of this planet!
Incredible! Not what they are doing, but the fact that they can’t see how stupid they look doing it. “We’ll be out of water in five years” chanted by grade school children? And a rap song as a support vehicle?
Even a dumb politician isn’t going to bite on this charade. Unless, of course, he thinks he’ll gain more votes than he loses.
Perfect mix of propaganda, exploitation and indoctrination of kids.
It’s a bloody shame.
Steve Goddard and Anthony, thanks for posting this.
So, speaking of misinformation… and unintended results….
Has anybody noticed that they banned phosphates in dishwashing detergent?
A while back, they banned phosphates in laundry soap. It sounds like a good idea but…
I was at a science fair last year. One of the students was testing laundry grey water with different detergents to see which made plants grow better. To his alarm, they all died. All of them. I knew this student, he was serious and capable.
At least phosphate is a fertilizer for plants. It makes them grow. It seems the new alternative laundry soaps kills plants. Can anybody confirm this? Anybody use grey water on their garden?
Re – Lawrie Ayres says:
November 21, 2010 at 5:15 pm
If you still have it in written form, I’d love to have a copy of the ABC statement. sherro1 at optusnet dot com dot au. Tks.
What would be the polite way to tell the carbon credit lady you’re not going to pay?
I’ve seen the “river”. I’ve seen the dam and reservoir. I’ve hiked in the watershed. All is as Anthony describes. These people are only fooling themselves.
The invitation claims there are an additional 17 similar “art projects” and the satellite images of all 18 are to be used in Cancun beginning on November 29th. (Their web page claims a total of 20.)
What are the other sites and are they equally bogus?
Each should be examined before then to see what other nuttiness they are up to.
The worse of what these loons do is to brainwash our kids. What is going to happen when all these little climate zombies wake up – as many inevitably do – when they reach 30.
Do you think they might be a little angry? I certainly expect them to be.
“With global warming decreasing snow melt”
So global warming causes droughts AND decreasing snow melts now?
Reminds me of the Salt River in Phoenix. When it is dry it is called a river. When it has water it is called a flood.
http://www.fcd.maricopa.gov/Education/history.aspx
“which is something I’d expect North Korea or Iraq to do.”
Can you got 100 words without saying something incredibly stupid?
REPLY: The fact that I’ve irritated you enough to get angry pleases me immensely. – Anthony
Dropeed fire retardant up there, worked with a very panicky fire crew back in 1994
when they were worried about losing the water shed . Love that Sangre’ De Christo
country. This is Santa Fe, not surprising from what I hear about the local population.
Prefer Taos, myself…
Another place is Sedona, Az. Wait until you are just about to drop 3000 galllons of slimy
red mud and the Fire crew hollers over the raido “Break off Break!!!” “There’s these
naked women in a sweat lodge tryin’ to stop the fire by chanting!”
Ironically, the fire crew was White River Apaches, and the lodge contained middle
aged Anglo women and their “Guru.” The fire crew packed them all up and got them
out.Oh, and the Incident commander said-” Might’ve worked I know I took one look and was scared…”
Santa Fe NM is a high-altitude (7,500 ft) desert, which (like much of the southwest US) gets a pittance in annual precipitation (rain plus snowpack). For those of you in the east, that means much less than 20 inches/year. The Santa Fe “River” rarely flows at all – ever.
USGS did a study of groundwater-surface water just downstream along the Rio Grande in Albuquerque in 2001. Most groundwater in the whole basin is more than 10,000 years old (radiocarbon years). That is, the last time these aquifers were recharged was during the last Ice Age.
Think about that. All the climate variation/weather/whatever you want to call it over the last 10 millenia/2,500 human generations has been insufficient to add anything measurable to groundwater resources. Santa Fe and the southwest have been CHRONICALLY ARID for thousands and thousands of years.
No amount of blue-painted cardboard is going to change that.
The only path to more water per capita is . . . . . fewer people. Hmmmmm, sounds like Margaret Sanger, Paul Ehrlich, and John Holdren.
Scary, really really scary.
Embarrassingly stupid. Typical McKibben pap.