UPDATE: Pat Michaels responds, see below:
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Maybe it’s the summer weather, I dunno, but in the space of 4 days, we have three prominent figures in the global warming debate behaving badly.
First we have Al Gore, who paralleled climate skeptics with racists last Friday.
Then we had Pat Michaels, who made an unbelievably callous gaffe in a Forbes article saying
“It is doubtful that Irene will even cough up eight bodies,”
That’s not only callous, but disappointing coming from him. On the other hand he did correct it to read: “hopefully kill fewer than the eight people who died in Gloria,”, but I think he should issue an apology as well.
Then today we have Dr. James Hansen, scientist turned political activist, now with street cred x3, because he was arrested today for the third time.
I think we need cooler heads at the top of the climate food chain on both sides.
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UPDATE: Pat Michaels issued this statement and apology this afternoon via email to me:
While the text was in fact changed, the original was over the top. As anyone in this business knows, sometimes we don’t proof ourselves very well and say things that are hurtful, and that is not good and requires an apology to those unfairly hurt, which I offer sincerely. I will try to be more careful in the future, and I hope to have learned from this.
– Pat Michaels (via email)
It would be nice to see Mr. Gore (or anyone in the AGW camp for that matter) disavow his comparisons to racism.
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I often enjoy your well laid points, but to go ad hominem is hypocritical, yes? Also, I wouldn’t dare demean someone for protesting even if I disagree with the purpose of their protest. Address the actual issues without jumping on the Criminalize Protest & Speech when I disagree with it bandwagon, please. The squeeze is hard enough as it is.
Anthony : FWIW Pat Michaels responded to this on Steve Goddard’s blog :
http://www.real-science.com/uncategorized/romm-acknowledges-pat-michaels#
Make of it what you will…..
Scientists , activists and The Department of Energy behaving badly
The Department of Energy has allocated $508 million to 41 states for its Better Buildings Neighborhood Program and 600 jobs have been created or retained.
Read more:http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/29/seattle-green-jobs-program-gets-20m-creates-14-posts/
I can honestly say – those of us in my local Harley Davidson chapter ain’t gonna lose any sleep over that apple dumpling gang anytime soon.
Anthony, Pat posted on Steven’s blog….
He said that statement was in the draft, but not in the final copy. Looks like someone leaked the draft to make him look bad……….
It does not look like Pat is trying to hide anything, or that he has anything to apologize for………
I hope Pat doesn’t mind me posting it here, but here’s his post……
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Pmichaels 3 hours ago
The odd part here is that the forbes.com text does not include what Romm said it did. Here is what’s there:
A day later, the smart money is still riding a very Gloria-like track, but with a cyclone that will be weaker than projected (and hopefully kill fewer than the eight people who died in Gloria) though power outages east of where the center makes landfall (probably on Long Island) may be extensive.
Draft text did have the “cough up bodies statement”. I am wondering if somehow a draft was leaked onto the internet. I am having Forbes look into it as I write this.
Pat Michaels
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REPLY: Probably not a leak, but a simple glitch or confusion. When I post WUWT articles, I too have inadvertently posted a previous draft, sometimes due to being distracted by my kids or a phone call, and sometimes simply by having too many desktop browser windows open at once, editing one, then pressing publish on the other because I lost track of which window I was working in due to distractions. It happens. – Anthony
Hansen is demeaning his own protesting by hanging on to a day job at 70 that is obviously incompatible with his political activism. Does he need the salary, I wonder? Are NASA’s pensions so bad?
Did you see the actual quote from Pat Michaels?
“A day later, the smart money is still riding a very Gloria-like track, but with a cyclone that will be weaker than projected (and hopefully kill fewer than the eight people who died in Gloria) though power outages east of where the center makes landfall (probably on Long Island) may be extensive.”
He should apologize for hoping for less loss of life? Not sure I get your outrage here. The other quote was never actually published, anywhere. I checked. Although he did admit on Steve Goddards blog that it appeared in a draft before publication. He didnt need to do that IMHO. So he needs to apologize for remarks that were never published? Seems like a slippery slope there.
REPLY: Actually it does appear in this version on Yahoo news http://news.yahoo.com/real-hurricane-irene-renamed-hurricane-hype-021402485.html
– Anthony
This country has no future anyway, so does this petty stuff matter? Sometimes I wonder…
Nothing that Michaels has written is nearly as disgusting as Joe Romm’s shameless exultation that Michaels was wrong because the “death toll” was higher.
Can we have a moment of silence for the nine people who selflessly gave their lives so that Joe Romm can enjoy the smug feeling of being right?
Aka, SiliconJoe,
I don’t see how one can call telling the truth an ad hominem? Please enlighten me.
@Anthony.
We make jokes about the black death. So, I think you’re being a little sensitive about the Michaels article.
Perhaps it’s too soon, but, wasn’t someone on WUWT calling out Ron Paul for saying that we should be self-reliant like we were in 1900, and then telling people to google 1900 & hurricane to see something amusing? One of the Irene deaths was caused by a heart attack while hanging plywood. Another was caused by runnning off the road after hitting standing water. Both were unfortunate, but, it is a joke to call these hurricane-related deaths. I think that’s the kind of humor Michaels was going for… contempt for people overhyping the weather.
Jonathan: “Also, I wouldn’t dare demean someone for protesting even if I disagree with the purpose of their protest. ”
The big point here is that Hansen is so involved in the environmental movement that he doesn’t mind committing minor crimes (blocking sidewalks and affecting the safety of other citizens) and being arrested for them, just to make a point – yet, at the same time, demands that we pretend he’s impartial and honest when reporting scientific results which could completely contradict his closely-held political beliefs. While, at the same time, accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in “awards” for his political actions and comments in previous years.
re: Jonathan Silveus (@SiliconJon) says: August 29, 2011 at 2:49 pm
Where is the ad hom??
omnologos says:
August 29, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Hansen is demeaning his own protesting by hanging on to a day job at 70 that is obviously incompatible with his political activism. Does he need the salary, I wonder? Are NASA’s pensions so bad?
____________________________________________________________________________
What happens when the guy who replaces Hansen gets a good look at all of the “work” he has done with his temperature datasets. Hansen cannot retire. He would get more then a slap on the wrist for the fraud he has perpetuated.
Is it that people don’t understand that protest and redress is supposed to be lawful!! And those actions certainly are not something that should be allowed by a representative of the executive branch.
With all the doom and gloom, death and destruction being hyped with regards to this storm, Michaels made a pretty good call as to death issues. From the press it seemed there could be hundreds if not thousands. Call it callus if you will, but I stand behind Michaels.
The main land event was rain and some storm surge. Lots of inland rain at that. Typical at that as a storm looses its heat engine. Wind was basically a non-event as far as hurricanes go.
Anyway, where could the heat energy come from in a storm traveling north at approx 12 mph over the Gulf Stream flowing north at approx the same speed? Once the heat was removed from the water there should be a reduction of the available energy. This is likely why the storm extended so far north of the eye once it reached the Gulf Stream. It is also likely why it the eye collapsed so quickly. Do the modelers ever look at something from a common sense standpoint? They got the track dead-on. Did politics lead to a total miss as to intensity? If so, then being a yes man will have enormous consequences on their reputation, and rightfully so.
Mr. Michaels, it’s nor what you said, thought quite accurate, but whether it was said in a politically correct way. As a New Yorker might say, fuggedabowdit.
I really detest the mudslinging that is both described and amplified in this thread.
Thank you Mr. Michaels. The dialogue would be so much more reasonable if more people could fess up to their mistakes.
Before a grammer nazi gets me, I know that I have spelling errors (e.g. nor = not, thought = though, it = “delete”).
Bill Nye the anti-science guy was just on fox business freedom watch attempting to make excuses for Al the conman Gore’s racism idiocy…
These people have no shame…I am still waiting for the pathetic remains of NASA to fire his voodoo doctor self. I won’t hold my breath.
Hansen that is…my iPad is not the greatest typing instrument…lol
Before the grammer police get me, there are a couple of spelling errors in my above comment (i.e. callus = callous, it = “delete”, nor = not, thought = though).
Jonathan Silveus (@SiliconJon) says:
August 29, 2011 at 2:49 pm
“I often enjoy your well laid points, but to go ad hominem is hypocritical, yes? Also, I wouldn’t dare demean someone for protesting even if I disagree with the purpose of their protest. Address the actual issues without jumping on the Criminalize Protest & Speech when I disagree with it bandwagon, please. The squeeze is hard enough as it is.”
No, because Hansen is not merely an ordinary citizen. He is a major manager in our government’s climate science bureaucracy. He has incredible influence on climate policy. His testimony to Congress has proved very important since the 1980s. Because of these facts, he is expected to exhibit rational and balanced behavior. As Immanuel Kant would explain, Hansen has the duty to win the trust of the people that he serves in his official capacity. Yet here he is, once again, exhibiting extreme partisanship by breaking justified and useful laws for the purpose of pushing his CAGW agenda. Obama should fire him.
There’s another thing that bothers me. Ok, so, “cough up eight bodies” may be calloused. But, I’m wondering if the vernacular or the thought is what offends.
I don’t care how it is stated, the people engaged in the conversation about storms in general, and this storm in particular, compare the severity to the body count. Is it nice? Perhaps not. It is calloused, perhaps, but we all do it!!! So, Pat Michaels, without intention of the phrase being released to the public, used a phrase that some a$$hole takes offense to. We’re mad at Dr. Michaels because he didn’t dress the words up that met someone’s satisfaction? Me, I appreciate candor much more than any false nicety.
I’ll let everyone in on a secret. The people that seek to help victims use much more calloused terms and euphemisms.
As far as I’m concerned, Dr. Michaels owed no one an apology. If an apology is owed, it is for the people that somehow believe the life and death of the victims of this storm can be enhanced or diminished by any small amount of words. They can’t.
James
I thought Hansen looked sportier in the skirt ;o)