by Christopher Monckton of Brenchley
Those brave enough and open-minded enough to ask questions in the search for objective scientific truth about our influence on the climate rather than credulously swallowing and cloyingly parroting the socially-convenient, politically-expedient, financially-profitable party line will henceforth celebrate 7 January as Watts Up Day.
For it is today that Anthony’s outstanding blog welcomes its 100 millionth visitor: eight orders of denary magnitude. In the twinkling of an eye, Wattsupwiththat.com has become one of the most significant and influential news media on Earth. Rupert Murdoch, eat your heart out.
How has Anthony achieved this? First and foremost, by courageous persistence in the face of the barrage of venomous ad-hominem name-calling that is the sullen climate-extremists’ characteristically petulant – and increasingly desperate – way of treating those whose scientific and economic arguments even the IPCC-hugging hard-liners among them are beginning to suspect may be true.
To gather, edit, and publish several new postings daily; to illustrate each one with a suitable image; to recruit, manage, and motivate surely the best team of moderators on any blog; to keep a patient balance, maintain courtesy, and reject extremism even in the skeptical direction; to scour the web and the literature for facts and data and papers of interest; that is just part of what it takes to control the gentle giant that WattsUpWithThat has become.
And it is hard work, 24/7, 366 days a year. I do not suppose that the advertising revenue that Anthony now gets comes anywhere close to compensating him for the exhaustingly relentless grind that maintains the daily splendor of his exceptional blog.
Not long from now, when the absurd intellectual aberration among the world’s governing class that is “dangerous global warming” is a mere curiosity rather than a grave threat to the economic and political well-being of Man and a mortal menace to the democracy of the West, historians will write of their admiration for the small and gallant band who worked out the truth for themselves in the teeth of lavishly-funded hostility and quietly asserted it against all attempts to bully them into silence until it could no longer be denied.
Not the least among this platoon of heroes, outgunned but not outclassed, will be Anthony Watts, to whom the world has very good reason to be grateful. Long may he and his blog flourish. Let us hope that there will be no need for Anthony to keep at it until he notches up his ninth order of magnitude. Here’s to Anthony, his long-suffering family, and his hard-working team. Ad multos annos floreatis!
Well said, sir, and deserved congratulations to Anthony and the team!
Congrats Anthony! Well said Christopher.
WUWT, your Nobel Peace Prize is in the post.
Metaphorically in Monckton’s praise above, Let’s hope, literally, before long.
Agreed in Full!
Congrats Anthony and thanks!!!
I cant believe you even let Monckton visit the site.
REPLY: I can’t believe you don’t have the courage to put your name to your words. Oh, wait. – Anthony
Amen to that
The count seems stuck at 99,994,961
I assume that is because all of Anthony’s fans/readers are checking to see if the Million is done
Congrats Anthony and all the backroom folks
Three cheers, Viscount!
Well said, Lord Monckton!
Can I get an “Amen” to that?
Ha!
pesadia beat me to it!
And may I add, it’s not the quantity, but the quality!
Congrats Anthony!
I’m embarrassed to be this pedantic, but I count 9 orders of magnitude.
magnitudes are often expressed in powers of 10, and 100million is 10^8, but by this convention the unitary magnitude numbers 1..9 are in the region of 10^0. So don’t forget to count the ‘zeroth’ power of 10.
Congrats WUWT
Well said Lord Monckton and a wonderful achievement for you Anthony
Hear, hear. Now beware the hostile takeover bids!
Congratulations! Huzzah!
Thanks so much for educating all of us. I appreciate your work, your contributors, and just all I have learned.
Just out of interest, and so we all know when to chill the champagne, exactly how long wil lthat be?
Ancora Ancora, Bravo Anthony and thank you.
Congratulations Anthony! And thanks so much for your relentless pursuit of the truth. What a ride these last years!
99,998,625 views as of now.
Best,
J.
As their Lordships are wont to chant in agreement in the Upper House – “Yhear, yhear, yhear …”
Well done Anthony.
Three Cheers – Huzzah and Hooray!
Anthony – what you have achieved here is simply amazing. I am still waiting for big media to wake up to Climategate 1.0! It is no wonder they are dieing a slow, painful death.
And thank you Lord Monckton for your brilliant and eloquent words.
Help
I can’t print the screen using the PRTSC key.
Can anyone help?
Yeah, well…I’ve read about this Moncktonly guy and not only does he not have any scientific or mathematical expertise, evidently he’s not a real “Lord,” whatever that is.
Hahahaha! I can’t keep that up, it’s so ridiculous! He’s absolutely right, of course. Congrats Mr. Watts, with gratitude from a humble schoolteacher who is a better teacher of science because of this blog.
You were 100.10^6 times right to think what you think, and 100.10^6 times right to let it be known to everybody – even to those who scorn freedom of thought and the scientific method. Be at least thanked as much, you and all your contibutors, for your enthusiasm and hard work during those years.
99,999,962 as of 10:44 EST (1544 GMT) … by now, it’s rolled over into that tenth of a billion.
Well said.
Congrats Anthony, I have learned so much since I started checking your site everyday. No scientist here just a senior lady who didn’t believe in Gore’s hype. Thanks for tall the great work.
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Thomas Edison
Thanks for not shying away from that from which many have fled. We know that evil only triumphs when good men fail to act. You are a good man Mr Watts. All the best!
Great work, Anthony – it was your blog that was the ‘tipping point’ for me 🙂
99,999,962 views !!!
any second now ….
Servers are bogging down- LOL.
99,999,962
99,999,962 now
And now 100,004,397
Well said Christopher and many congratulations Antony!
Congradulations!
Well said M’lud. Bravo Anthony, for your firm (but always informative, and somehow also gentle) guidance along the path of reason and sanity, in this climate debate so much of which appears to be just “a tale … full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (Macbeth, Act V).
■100,004,397 views now. Wow!
Congratulations Anthony. If you had a cent for every hit, you would deserve every penny and you could really do things.
I like this: Jan 7th is now forever WUWT Day!
If it needs emphasising – here I go again:
the content of WUWT is what makes people come again and again, not to forget the debates.
And the fun posts.
And the reference pages.
Ever since I visited here, WUWT was and is for me like a private university.
Thanks for all that, anthony!
100,004,397 views at 16.04 GMT!
well done Anthony and all the mods too!!
A congratulatory Haiku:
100,000,000
Pedal the carbon cycle
That’s Watts Up With That
Political rant, done for self-glorification; I see this every day from Obama and the other presidential candidates now, I don’t like seeing it here too. It merely reminds us all that the “debate” is political, not scientific, and above all dogmatic, not truthseeking. This post is like turning the dirty sock, covered in climate alarmism, inside out, only to find it is just as repugnant on the other side (due to the dogmatic rhetoric of Monckton, in service to the lukewarm believers in the consensus greenhouse effect, which in fact simply does not exist).
There it is … 100,004,397 at 1102 EST (1602 GMT).
What … no fireworks?
And then there was a big jump
Blog Stats
100,004,397 views
Ah well….
WUWT
100,004,397 views
Thank you.
Congratulation!
meemoe_uk says:
January 7, 2012 at 7:28 am
I think you’re excessively pedantic. In engineering terms, orders of magnitude are generally from a ratio. E.g. a change of one order of magnitude is opens new possibilities, a change of three opens up whole new industries. Consider computer memory prices – from a dollar a byte for core memory when I got my start, to $75 for 16 kB for a TRS-80 (my first RAM purchase) to a couple GB on my current, system that needs to be upgraded, to the hundreds of GB on commercial systems.
At any rate, the order of magnitude is typically just the log¹⁰(some number) and log¹⁰(100,000,000) is 8.
Oh dang, can’t even read my own crib sheet. Let me see if this works.
At any rate, the order of magnitude is typically just the log₁₀(some number) and log₁₀(100,000,000) is 8.
That “small and gallant band” has, by my count, fewer than a dozen members among which Anthony Watts is a leader.
The TV weather people have reported record highs in the U.S. this past week, and forecast continuing record warmth. They also told of extreme cold in Alaska and Canada. Not once this past week have I heard a TV weather person mention global warming or climate change. They have reported the facts without the political hype so common in recent years. Anthony Watts must get much of the credit for that kind of widespread improvement.
Congrats Anthony, screenshots on their way!
Well said, Christopher – this is a brilliant web site and Anthony Watts is to be congratulated for his stalwart efforts
Still haven’t gotten the latest installment from Big Oil? The check must be in the mail.
In last 3 or so years I had 107k + hits at my graphs, 99% from WUWT, if it wasn’t for WUWT I may have not bothered.
Need I say more?
Thanks Anthony.
p.s. Hristos se rodio & Srecan Bozic to the all those who celebrate Xmas today, according to the old Julian calendar.
I am astounded by how much one man can do with brains, sweat, passion and perseverance. Well done, Anthony. You’ve entered that great pantheon.
Congratulations Anthony!!
Up to the next order of magnitude?!
I love this blog.
Here I find the facts and serious discussions of theories, methods and predictions.
When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is check out the articles on WUWT.
The reasonable, informed and polite discussions here are a good start of my day.
A dose of sanity serum before I step out into the world.
Thank you, Anthony.
And congratulations. You and your team of moderators and guests are doing a marvelous job.
You have done more for the truth, and for setting an example of intellectual honesty and scientific integrity, than all the Royal Societies and other official scientific bodies put together.
The world owes you a great debt, as it does to Steve McIntyre, Ross McKitrick and a handful of others who have kept calm and rigorous in the face of vitriolic personal attack and avalanches of shoddy orthodoxy.
Congratulations
Rodney Leach
Congrats^8!
Unfortunately Monckton is wrong when he says “historians will one day recognize…”
No, they won’t. Historians are stuck in the same cul-de-sac of mindless apriori theorizing as “scientists” and “journalists” and most other experts. Facts do not penetrate their armor. They may finally Memory-Hole the entire story, but they will NEVER explicitly acknowledge a victory for heretics.
And a huge thank you!
Poor Anthony, what immature reply, and to even talk about courage when you clearly don’t have any to stand up to the fact you associate yourself with Monckton.
Congratulations, and thank you for the blog. Without people like you the human kind would still be worshiping a rock for a god and be afraid of the shaman.
Thank you!!
Congratulations!
The world of science owes so much to so few. Demonstrating the daily assault on science by the AGW cabal has not yet been recognized but it definitely will be. Congrats to all involved and especially Anthony.
The good lord has said it all, more eloquently than I could manage.
Anthony along with several well known others will be remembered by history.
Recognition for this huge achievement is definitely due. If rational, objective science finally wins out in the long stuggle with the politically-correct & financially-motived CAGW crowd, it will be due in no small measure 2 the actions of, by, and on WUWT.
Cheers
Seriously?!? you deleted my comment Anthony??, talk about courage ay.
REPLY: All there, mods moved it to que for my attention. You might read this essay. I think you know what category you fall in (besides thread jacker) – Anthony
I for one hope this blog soon becomes unneccesary. As in, no longer necessary to expose the scam/fraud for what it is.
What more can I say?
Brilliant. Absolutely, brilliant!
Thanks for making my life better, Anthony.
Awesome.
Maybe the Newspapers might pick up on this ? Is there a PRESS RELEASE ?
Ian
We from EIKE Germany congratulate you and your (small) team organize and manage this very successful webpage. We learned and learn so much from the various articles and made them often (in german) available to our folks in all german speaking countries.
Many thanks for allowing us to use this splendid opportunity. Cheers and all the best for you Antony
My compliments to Anthony & crew. Plus, could we have asked for a better representative of the AGW side than the 5th commenter from the top, “major9985”, and his plea to censor Monckton.
Hide the decline, hide the critics. This has been their tactic since the late ’80s, and is one that will ultimately bring down their entire cause.
A reader for three years now and never commented till now. I too noticed the approaching milestone and want to offer my congratulations. I work in the Aerospace industry making rockets ( at Aerojet in Sacramento) and can attest that many if not most of my brillant engineering colleagues are skeptics of AGW caused only by CO2. And I have passed your site to many of my family, friends and colleagues. I love the science here. Best of luck Anthony. You’re the champ.
I am just a layman who could not believe the IPCC pronouncements of impending doom. I looked around for a more objective source and eventually hit on WUWT. Not a day have passed since without me looking at WUWT (if near a computer). My deep gratitude to Anthony Watts and his moderators for their steadfast work over the years. The hit success has certainly been earned.
I’m not so sure it is all that big of a deal.
Heck, I’m personally responsible for at least 30K of those views. 😉
That notwithstanding, Anthony you have provided a service to humanity that is in no small measure responsible for the light of truth shining on the darkness that is global warming and related cause celeb. For that , you should be commended regardless of any statistics.
Truly, I would have thought it would have been an order of magnitude higher already.
JohnWho said @ January 7, 2012 at 7:20 am
“Can I get an “Amen” to that?”
Can we have an awoman too?
Anthony, yer blood’s worth bottlin’ 🙂 [not forgetting the mods & contributors]
I know as I am sure everyone knows on this site, you being associated with Monckton is pathetic. You can see it in your response to my first comment, petty attack trying to hide from your humiliation. I am still waiting for you to show some courage in backing up your partnership with the “Monckton”. Why don’t you point out something that Monckton has stated which was right??, that would be a start.
REPLY: Hey, you are the one making the charges, why not point out something that is wrong, and M will be happy to defend it. So far all you are doing is whining while presenting no facts, while hiding behind the safety of anonymity, certainly not a mark of integrity.
See the comment above:
Russell C says:
January 7, 2012 at 9:49 am
My compliments to Anthony & crew. Plus, could we have asked for a better representative of the AGW side than the 5th commenter from the top, “major9985″, and his plea to censor Monckton.
Hide the decline, hide the critics. This has been their tactic since the late ’80s, and is one that will ultimately bring down their entire cause.
And if you don’t like this blog, don’t visit. I don’t have time to waste on haters without substance. – Anthony
Congratulations Anthony. Well deserved.
An apposite encomium, Your Lordship.
I am sure you know as does everyone else, Monckton has been debunked on every word he has uttered, I was hoping you would be able to point out a reason why you are associated with him, but as we all know that would not be possible on your part. Here is a compacted version of some of his mistakes/LIES http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=214_1316176509
To even suggest you don’t know the truth about Monckton shows that you are just like him, you can have all the friends you want Anthony, it does not make you right.
REPLY: ah, the agenda comes out now, you want to use WUWT as a springboard for your video. 913 views since Sept 13th, wow that’s having an impact.
So far you haven’t offered anything of substance. Just flame. Aidan would call you a “hater”.
– Anthony
Thanks, Lord Monckton, for your eloquent celebration of this milestone.
—————
polistra says:
January 7, 2012 at 8:29 am
Unfortunately Monckton is wrong when he says “historians will one day recognize…”
No, they won’t. Historians are stuck in the same cul-de-sac of mindless apriori theorizing as “scientists” and “journalists” and most other experts. Facts do not penetrate their armor. They may finally Memory-Hole the entire story, but they will NEVER explicitly acknowledge a victory for heretics.
——————-
I am a science historian and regular here, and I talk to other historians of science about this issue who are not in my immediate, ‘history of environmental sciences’ circle. Believe me, historians are taking note, and I know several who are quite skeptical. However, as historians of science suffer the same global-warming-related funding issues as scientists, due to the entrenchment of this meme in the upper echelons of academia, it will take a while for this to shake out. Thank God those who are intimately involved are recording and analyzing the events, like Andrew Montford and Stephen McIntyre, as the issues and permutations of the story are so huge and so intricate this will take a long time to master and accurately recount. Also, the story has not finished unfolding, and so those who do not have an ideological stake in this battle are reticent to start analyzing history prematurely. But believe me, within the next 20 years historians of science will be chowing down on the global warming controversy, since science controversies and episodes of ideologically-based pseudoscience are the meat and potatoes of my field. And since my field also likes to look at what social elements helped to construct or change scientific memes, the role of the Internet and the most influential blogs will also certainly be central to the analysis. WUWT has made history and will be recognized by history.
No one can govern the sun
No sun takes orders from no one
No one can command you: Be free!
No one can command you: Be thee!
No one can tell you the truth
No one can get yourself loose
No one can govern the moon
No one can undo a tune
Be no ones master, be no ones slave
Sing songs of love and stay
Each tree grows without a king
No king gives planets their swing
Love needs no master nor slave
Be love and be yourself brave
Be no ones master be no ones slave
Sing songs of love and stay
Demo-cracy is not to alienate, because it’s you.
V.
Well said Vigilantfish. As a graduate of a degree in History and Philosophy of science (Leeds) who is a bit to wrapped up in the action to maintain full objectivity, it’s good to see there are professionals within the discipline who are keeping a close eye on developments.
major9985 says:
………………
It is Ok for an ‘anonymous’ to criticise idea, policy, science, organisation etc.
It is cowardness to anonymously malign or even plain criticise a named individual, be it Lord Monckton, Anthony Watts or for that matter anyone else.
HOORAY!
JANUARY 7TH.
WATTS UP DAY!
Thank you Anthony and your team for an amazing effort.
BTW if I always read your blog but comment very rarely does that make me a lurker? – it sounds awful.
Congratulations also to Lord Monckton for taking so much heat – so eloquently,,,
No Anthony , you are wrong again. I only come to this website to debunk every word you say. I get linked to this site all the time from people that think you give them information that can help them debate, but like I am sure you know, its all soft gribble that can be debunked with a little skepticism.
[SNIP: If you really want your name posted, fine. Posting your e-mail address is not advised. Good luck with the debunking. -REP]
January 7th, shared with
•First U.S. Presidential Election
•First Train Station Opened
•Typewriter Patented
•WUWT Day
A wonderful idea. It’s all there: coal fire power, election power, keyboard power, and looking under white paint for the truth.
And the cult is still spouting that 97 per cent of climate scientists believe in AGW.
The numbers do speak for themselves, yet it is nice to have someone reinforce that significance.
Congratulations on a milestone, Anthony! Thanks for providing an interesting and mostly welcoming site for we “warmists” to really understand the skeptical side.
Congratulations, well done, and a huge thank you.
You guys are my heros, along with McIntyre, Montford, Tattersall, Spencer, McKitrick, Lindzen, etc. Not only for the science, but because of your polite and communicative manners.
Three cheers,
Robin
Many congratulations to Anthony, crew and commenters on this significant milestone.
I’ve learned a heck of a lot from this site and I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to all of you for that.
The quality of the commentary on this blog is superb (vigilantfish at 10:30, for example) and is the feature I tell be people to look for when visiting. The job of the moderators in making this possible is very much appreciated by all, I’m sure.
Long may the free and dissenting speech continue!
Zeke says:
January 7th, shared with……
And the greatest of them all, the original Christmas day, until that is, pope Gregory meddled with calendar, but many of us still celebrate Xmas today, the 7th of January.
When do we achieve 10^9 day?
Congrats zillions!
Plenty txs for being to ya all! 😀
Brgds from Sweden
/ThomasJ
[SNIP: It used to be there was some class at Harvard. Maybe we should just post your snark and then send an e-mail to your colleagues when each new comment appears. I’m sure they’ll be impressed. -REP]
M.A.Vukcevic says:
January 7, 2012 at 11:51 am
January 7th, shared with……
And the greatest of them all, the original Christmas day, until that is, pope Gregory meddled with calendar, but many of us still celebrate Xmas today, the 7th of January.
Even better! (: This cannot be by chance. We know that Arch Anthony is feared,
for he seeth through their hockey sticks.
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/titanthony_temp_scr.jpg
A friend of mine first sent me a link to this site when I took a job in the GHG mitigation area almost 4 years ago. I had been feeling there was something not exactly right with the “science” of global warming, particularly with temperature measurements. And the use of models to predict climate 100 years into the future when weather is too chaotic to reliably predict more than a week in advance also made me uneasy. Now I know why the prevailing “wisdom” did not ring true. This site was the first step on that journey.
Thanks, Anthony and moderators, you folks are terrific!
Well done to all!
And what really warms my heart is the warmist hate. Empty, cold and shoddy.Their hate, their hearts and their arguments.
Ta ta, Saturday night so off to the pub. Will have one for you!
Longtime lurker, first time poster. Without a doubt this site is a daily must visit. Congratulations to Anthony and his team. Way to put those petro-dollars to good use. (sarc)
Congratulations Anthony! You and your team deserve the success. This is one of the very few objective scientific sites that allow all viewpoints on the subject of climate change.
major9985 says:
January 7, 2012 at 8:46 am
ANTHONY Expose them. They deserve it the cowards.
Wow – a lot of wonderful “Thank yous” – and all deserved. Thanks Mr. Watts – you stepped up and did was at first, I’m sure, a thankless job. Yet, you never shied away, never faltered, always going forward. I hope vigilantfish is correct. You certainly deserve the credit, along with your merry band of moderators, posters and commenters. Well done.
Excellent work Anthony and thank you for saying so Lord Monckton. Let’s hope that 2012 is the year that the lid is blown off this insane AGW scam.
Well done Antony…I am stat 100,035,767! You have restored my faith in the search for truth in the AGW debate. Long may you continue to 10^9 and beyond ……….!
Congrats!!! Like everyone else I have learned much from all the threads and comments.
Thank you Anthony, mods and all the posters of comments. (even the trolls as we learn how to politely respond to their diatribes). 😉 This is one site that I visit at least once a day.
Exactamundo. And it is fitting that Anthony with his huge ego (not) is celebrating by taking the weekend off. That is a real megalomaniac the warmers have against them…
BTW, I looked up Lord Chris’ Latin phrase “Ad multos annos floreatis.”
“Ad multos annos” means essentially “may it for years” and “floreatis” means “prosper.”
I agree. May it for many years prosper.
But even better is that it’s main thrust be rendered obsolete by the undressing of and capitulation of the warmers, as happened with the other fiasco, acid rain.
Then Anthony can post on other interesting topics like Thorium, graphene, mining asteroids, and such wonderful new developments in the discovering world of real science. And perhaps get away from the 24/7 grind more than once in a while, no matter how much he is enjoying it.
We certainly enjoy his being a nexus for a sane world.
Congratulations for not giving into the carbon puffing steam roller that the CAGW crowd represents. I have been a visitor to your site for over 3 years now – someday I hope the major reason why it exists is well and truly put behind us all (the hypothesis that man made carbon is causing and will cause the world to warm in any significant way), and you move on to other things …
@Duncan 2:48 pm:
“Ta ta, Saturday night so off to the pub. Will have one for you!”
While reading this, I was toasting Anthony myself, with what I have determined to be the best American pub offering available, one called Breakfast Stout, from Founders in Grand Rapids, MI.
It is labeled as a “Double chocolate coffee oatmeal stout.”
I have not yet tried their Imperial Stout, but am told it is also worthy for toasts to great blogs.
R. Gates says:
January 7, 2012 at 11:32 am
The numbers do speak for themselves, yet it is nice to have someone reinforce that significance.
Congratulations on a milestone, Anthony! Thanks for providing an interesting and mostly welcoming site for we “warmists” to really understand the skeptical side.
You are often in the threads and usually taking heat (if you will pardon the pun) and I applaud your generosity of spirit for your positive words. A welcome contrast to someone else in this thread.
Thank you, Lord Monckton, for saying so well what so many of us think and feel. We are lucky to have Anthony and his team, and they are right to celebrate. It’s a privilege to visit here, listen, learn and sometimes add some little thing to the mix. It’s like the best running seminar –on everything– and the contributing authors (and the commenters!) are uniformly thoughtful, informative and articulate. They’re almost always highly professional and often funny. Even the (few) trolls seem better behaved here. Thanks again, Anthony and, as his Lordship put it so well, may you flourish for many years to come.
WUWT turned me from passive believer to utterly sceptical – everything Warmists produce must, as a matter of course, be heaped with shovel fulls of salt.
Historians will write about WUWT, Climate Audit and other fine blogs who resisted the multi-billion dollar wind, solar, government, green agendists and oil funded Warmist cargo cult, yes oil funded. I am proud to have been around and throw in my 2 cents worth once in a while.
Rant over. Good night. ;O)
Harry Dale Huffman – when you include albedo in your Venus-Earth comparison what do the results show? Perhaps if you ask Lord Monckton I’m sure he would love to critique it.
Congrats Anthony and Co.
The Blog is mightier than the bear.
Congratulations to Anthony, the wonderful mods and all the commentors and lurkers who made this possible. Great team effort.
But please get the Monck back, he forgot to do the 2nd part of his post. You know, the part where he works out with brilliant math as only he can the BLOGOSPHERIC SENSITIVITY of WUWT.
Hello to Anthony, Moderators and Lord Christopher,
I’m a lurker for the last several months after finding Jo Nova’s site and then a link to yours, and since then have spent many, many hours reading the reports, articles analyses and comments. I began to wonder about CAGW after reading Freeman Dyson’s concerns a while ago, and the amount I have since read staggers me, especially with how poorly the science has been performed and how badly the MSM has done in reporting it.
A hundred million views is incredible, but well deserved, and even more than the work regarding AGW, what impresses me more is the quality of the science, something I see less and less of in the general world.
I wish I could be a fraction as eloquent as Lord Monckton was above, but I’m not, so ‘ I dips me lid’.
And I think it might be apt to link to the very first comment here on WUWT way back on
November 18 2006 at 8:38am
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2006/11/17/welcome-to-watts-up-with-that/#comment-3
To celebrate, I am sending Anthony the price of a bottle of champagne (I think).
Personally I think Monckton is a right wing plonker, who should stay clear of politics, however, even plonkers get somethings right and he has hit the Bulls Eye with this one. As a classic Euro Lefty it drives me crazy that my own side has missed the truth on climate change, and the old right wing crew have it sussed. Ah well, we live and learn.
In response to brennan @ January 7, 2012 at 3:33 pm
We all came to our skeptical positions via different avenues. Mine was historical.
I knew well that the “climate”, and temperatures, had varied greatly over thousands of years, within the period of human historical record even, let alone the life of this planet – 4.5 billion years. Therefore, I consider the Warmistas (those who propose catastrophy from burning carbon fuels) to be just wrong because the tiny amount of temperature change they invoke is insignificant in the history of humanity, let alone the plant.
major9985 says:
January 7, 2012 at 10:24 am
I am sure you know as does everyone else, Monckton has been debunked on every word he has uttered, I was hoping you would be able to point out a reason why you are associated with him, but as we all know that would not be possible on your part. Here is a compacted version of some of his mistakes/LIES http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=214_1316176509
To even suggest you don’t know the truth about Monckton shows that you are just like him, you can have all the friends you want Anthony, it does not make you right.
REPLY: ah, the agenda comes out now, you want to use WUWT as a springboard for your video. 913 views since Sept 13th, wow that’s having an impact.
So far you haven’t offered anything of substance. Just flame. Aidan would call you a “hater”.
Gareth Phillips @ January 7, 2012 at 3:40 pm:
Perhaps you are the plonker and your EU worship is equaally screwed up.
Congratulations from Downunder. If I may be permitted to to borrow a famous phrase from that Brit. who recognised danger early and for a number of years was mocked for for his tenacity – never in the history of mankind has so much been owed by so many to so few.
Sorry, previous comment stuffed up due to laptop touch pad skills lacking,
Congrats Anthony, Well done and well appreciated by the multitudes.
Just wanted to say to the major, was the debunking of Christopher Monckton’s contributions done by the thousands of consenting “scientists” or some legitimate scientist?
I lost count ages ago but well done.
Robert of Ottawa says:
January 7, 2012 at 3:52 pm
Gareth Phillips @ January 7, 2012 at 3:40 pm:
Robert, I thought your response to Gareth was a bit harsh. His comment demonstrates that there are Climate Realists on both sides of the traditional political divide. Here in the States those of the liberal persuasion seem to be most vociferous in pushing the CAGW, but many Republicans/Conservatives are also true believers: Bush, McCain, Gingrich, Condoleeza Rice… to name just a few. CAGW is a political agenda, but it is more the agenda of elitist statists. Making it strictly a “left-right” issue is an exercise in what Marx would have called “false consciousness”. The elitists are intent on keeping all of us in line.
major9985 says:
January 7, 2012 at 8:46 am
“Poor Anthony, what immature reply, and to even talk about courage when you clearly don’t have any to stand up to the fact you associate yourself with Monckton.”
Monckton must have zapped you really hard on an occasion of one of your inanities – you’re one-tracked mind is causing you to dribble. It must have been an accident if he did because he is also an honorable man and would never engage in a duel of wits with an unarmed opponent. Whatever it is, don’t feel so bad, he also won the annual Oxford U debate on climate, I believe two years running, against powerful, prepared and purposeful opposition- particularly the second time around. He is a dangerous man to argue with if the outcome is critically important to you. You are one of the rare ones who seemes to exhibit an imperviousness to the wonderful education available to you at WUWT. It seems the best presenters for the CO2-is-global-warming side also come here – the likes of R. Gates and Joel Shore to choose two of the few dozen or so. They provide the kind of intelligent commentary that forces one to not be careless or slack in making the skeptic’s case (I mean here the serious skeptic who is interested in the truth, one that accepts that there has been recent warming but isn’t convinced by the offerings that it is largely due to manmade CO2 additions.) I wouldn’t come here if there wasn’t that kind of two way intellectual fertilization. Come on, get into the spirit of it – whatever side you are on- and offer something useful to the dialogue – you will be enriched for it.
Very well said Sir. My thoughts exactly.
“Watts Up day” – it has a certain ring to it…
Anthony – beer tokens of my appreciation are on the way…
Thank you Lord Monckton for your words.
And thank you, Anthony, for your actions.
With my warmest (no pun intended) regards.
Jim
Congratulations, Mr Watts. Keep up the good work.
Anthony and crew:
An amazing statistic, which should be ominous to the CAGW crowd. Let them sweat ;)))
Congrats!
I, too, lurk every day. I am a true layman (or woman) when it comes to any sort of science, but I never take anything at face value, I question everything (most probably why I did not do well at school in the 60s).
I only picked up on the climate chage ‘debate’ in 2007 when we in Oz we were told by the then PM, ‘KRudd’, that we were facing the ‘greatest moral challenge of our time’. I then went looking for information on global warming, found out about something labeled AGW and wound up at WUWT. Notwithstanding a lot of the technical stuff is over my head, I have learned heaps. Thank you and congratulations to you, Mr Watts, your contributors and bloggers.
Lord Monckton, I wish you could have seen my face as I watched you skydive into Durban. One of the most uplifting moments in this struggle.
Congratulations, Anthony, and Christopher Monckton, from a septuagenarian and long-time visitor from Australia. Lang may yer lums reek! I have seldom, if ever, posted on your site, but the quality and civility of your articles make for a recurring object lesson to those who demonise others who will not toe the IPCC line but instead know that CO2 is a trace atmospheric gas essential to life on planet Earth.
major9985 says:
January 7, 2012 at 7:17 am
I cant believe you even let Monckton visit the site.
So, major, how do you explain the fact that you visit a site that lets Monckton visit it?
In other words, you’ve just been defeated by your own standard of “intellectual snobbery”, which, sadly for you, is also one characteristic defining a member of a Cult…another characteristic being an [anti-scientific] denial of reality in favor of fetishes and phobias [Monckton and his words]. But on the bright side, major, having shown your ‘bravery’, they’ll probably take you back in anyway!
I’ve recommended this site to many people with the caveat that they should be careful–it can be so addictive it will change their lifestyle along with their perception of the world.
Lots of people waste their time playing video games, which I find unthinkable. I spend what free time I have trying to keep up with the fountain of knowledge this site has become (like trying to drink from a fully-open fire hose)!
Congrats to Mr. W, Lord M, and all the moderators and guest contributors!
(Posting of some of the most laughable troll comments I’ve seen in a long time is a testament to your effectiveness in destroying “The Cause”, “The Team”, general climate stupidity, and blatant propaganda–shame, shame on those people!)
I wonder how many visitors RealClimate has had.
Alice:
We are all in the real climate, so I would guess approx 7 Billion or so?
Congratilations from another Australian who visits your site virtually every day, for both its science and its civility. I too look forward to the day when it is clear that sceptical arguments can no longer be ignored, and become the basis for policy. Then, I am sure you will feel able to relax from the extraordinary workload your blogging must represent
“”””” Harry Dale Huffman says:
January 7, 2012 at 8:06 am
Political rant, done for self-glorification; I see this every day from Obama and the other presidential candidates now, I don’t like seeing it here too. It merely reminds us all that the “debate” is political, not scientific, and above all dogmatic, not truthseeking. This post is like turning the dirty sock, covered in climate alarmism, inside out, only to find it is just as repugnant on the other side (due to the dogmatic rhetoric of Monckton, in service to the lukewarm believers in the consensus greenhouse effect, which in fact simply does not exist). “”””
One of the best measures of success as a communications vehicle; one that needs ADVERTISERS to support it, is the nature of of the self selecting parties who choose to advertise with their sticker on YOUR bumper.
So for example, in looney lefty San Francisco; the hub of California Green Socialism; the most popular talk radio station is heavily conservative; actually by self choice entirely conservative.
So guess which talk radio station the powerful CTA chooses to advertise on; and they are just one of the many socialist causes which choose to spend their advertising dollar on the very station whose message they abhor. Every snake oil solar power company in the area, likewise chooses to advertise on a station that when on its own nickel, continues to spread the message of the folly of many so-called “green” free clean renewable energy companies; like Solyndra for example.
So look at who pays for advertising space on WUWT; it’s mostly the very people who disagree most vehemently with the message at WUWT.
They at least have the good sense to know when their message will fall by the wayside; so they don’t advertise on outlets that most support their cause; it’s RATINGS and readership that sells even stuff and nonsense; so the purveyors of hocus pokus choose to advertise with their own dollar at WUWT; I doubt that Anthony is knocking on THEIR doors, cup in hand.
if only Anthony had a penny for every….
Thank you very much Anthony for the great public service you have provided. You have succeeded in educating the public where the academics and journalists have failed: that the Earth’s climate is not simple and that it cannot be described by a simple fairy tale.
I am still trying to stop laughing after reading the good Major’s comments. I visualise him as being in a British Major’s full dress uniform above the belt, and wearing his undies and is barefoot below. He looks somewhat demented and is barking orders at a fire hydrant.
I also enjoy reading the troll’s comments. The techniques they use remind me of a rhetoric class I took ages ago. It would be great if a moderator versed in rhetoric would deconstruct their posts for the audience.
History is written by the victors. You sound like you assume we are going to lose.
One of my hobbies is history. I became a skeptic when they tried to erase the Medieval Warm Period.
As far as I can tell, you’re being quite unfair to historians. And yes, I do think Mr. Watts will go down in history.
Andrew, congratulations from ‘down under’, and many many thanks for your untiring, and informative input.
May I also take this oportunity to say thankyou to many folk who provide very worthwhile scholarly comments on many of the issues raised.
Thankyou to all.
@Vukcevic: Xrstos se Rodi!!
@otsar; my image is a odds with yours on the major; I see bunny slippers.
@ Lord Benchley; Well said, as always.
From down under, I too, ‘lurk’ as many call the activity however, I’d call it ‘enlightening’ as these recent years have shown.
But more to the point, we lurkers/posters would serve Anthony best if we hit the DONATE button and gave a $100 or whatever we each think this site gives us every day of every week of every year for now some 6 years.
Note for Anthony – instal that DONATE button and make it hover before our eyes – you deserve it!
The only thing I ‘hold against’ Lord Monckton is that he makes me dive for my dictionary on a regular basis and learn a new word!! Other than that, he really does a good job of clearing the fog the CAGW crow keep putting out. That’s probably why major9985 hates him. Falsehood hates the light of truth.
Let’s go for a record number of comments into the bargain.
Hearty congratulations, Anthony.
Congrats to you Anthony. As a N. Cal resident, I can’t tell you how much I enjoy WUWT. Thanks for all of your hard work, and the interesting content. As they often say in the local Pub, “You’re the Best
Russ Blake
Congratulations, Anthony. A brilliant achievement. My best wishes to you.
John Wright said @ January 7, 2012 at 8:58 pm
“Let’s go for a record number of comments into the bargain.
Hearty congratulations, Anthony.”
The Git used to frequent a ListServ that split from the Banyan Vines List having been accused of wasting bandwidth with pointless banter. We managed over 3,000 posts in 24 hours 🙂
Gareth Phillips said @ January 7, 2012 at 3:40 pm
“Personally I think Monckton is a right wing plonker…”
Personally, I think you are a plonker. I’m slightly left of centre and strongly libertarian. I wouldn’t dream of letting my politicz get in the way of appreciating The Good Lord’s wit, scholarship, rhetoric and mathematical abilities. Frankly, there are few who I can think of that would make a better companion at the dining table.
@meemoe_uk:
I think the point is that on achieving the 100,000,000th visit, there have been 8 orders of magnitude “accomplished”: 99,999,999 and we are now working on the 9th place. (We must be skeptics and not “climate scientists as we’re assuring precision on the order of a single digit out of a 10^8 number 😉
George Lawson said @ January 7, 2012 at 11:31 am
“And the cult is still spouting that 97 per cent of climate scientists believe in AGW.”
There you go, and I thought it was 97.310843% 😉
major9985
You object to Anthony “allowing” the good Lord here and then complain, falsely that your post was removed. I, along with others, suspect Monckton must have spanked you in debate/comment at some point and you come across as spiteful. You cannot even get the simple British law on his title past your blinkered mind. Your constant attempts to remove his nobility show you have not followed the story up to date!
Top right of this page is a small byline…..
“The world’s most viewed site on global warming and climate change”.
Do you not get the feeling your scam has been well and truly exposed by people prepared to be fair, open minded. I have read many articles here from the warmist side so do not come here with demands for people to be banned! Try using science here instead of snark!
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers…For he today that doubts with me, shall be my brother, be he ne’er so vile, this day shall gentle his position. And warmists, o’er the world, now silent, shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their theories cheap, whiles any speaks, that fought with us upon St. Anthony’s Day!
major9985 says:
“No Anthony , you are wrong again. I only come to this website to debunk every word you say.”
That’s odd, I’ve never even noticed a single post from you ! 🙂
thepompousgit says:
Frankly, there are few who I can think of that would make a better companion at the dining table.
While not seated at the same dining table, I had the pleasure of a few minutes conversation with Lord Monckton just after dinner in Chicago about 2 years back. Charming, pleasant, witty. Keeps you on your toes, yet would be just as comfortable sipping brandy I’d wager. My one regret from the experience was that it was way too short as the venue was wrapping up. Perhaps someday again I’ll have the pleasure of the encounter. Haven’t needed a dictionary yet (other than a Latin one 😉 but a few words have required a bit of a think to retrieve them… 😉
otsar says:
January 7, 2012 at 6:51 pm
I also enjoy reading the troll’s comments. The techniques they use remind me of a rhetoric class I took ages ago. It would be great if a moderator versed in rhetoric would deconstruct their posts for the audience.
When I first started a blog I was beset by Trolls. At first I tried the “let all speak all the time” rule, and was just overwhelmed with Trolls. Then I tried the “moderate each comment”. Took way too much time (how it is done here with so much more volume amazes….)
I finally settled on a kind of middle ground. Trolls go to a moderation queue and sit until I have time free to deal with them. THEN their comment goes into a “Carping Comments” posting, with a deconstruction of method and content. Plus rebuttal and commentary as needed. Usually each ‘new troll’ lasts about 1 or 2 sessions of that and then gives up… as it defeats their desire to “stir the pot”. Just realize that the graffiti ‘artist’ gets an emotional ‘hit’ out of having their ‘tag’ be ‘up’; they are cheated of that when it is critiqued in a time delayed classroom…
I’ll not be doing that here, though, as this is not my blog.
But, a comment:
Trolls can be a little bit amusing. They seem to think nobody is onto their game. Works on ‘stupid sites’. Doesn’t work at all on places full of folks with loads of degrees, like here.
They just look a bit sad and, dare I say it, pathetic. Trying so hard to do something that “matters”, but being capable mostly of trying to put “mental graffiti” in between folks with decent thoughts to share. I mostly feel embarrassed for them. Rather like a friend’s spoiled child who wishes they could play the piano like their more disciplined classmates, but can’t, so just shouts rude things during a recital- desperately trying for attention, even negative attention, to feel “validated”.
So here Lord Monckton gives a well written ‘Thanks and Best Wishes’ to Anthony. A class act like R. Gates has the social graces to say in essence ‘Congratulations, fair adversary, today we have a truce, tomorrow the battle begins again’…
What do those lacking in such graces do? Well, like chimps, they fling unpleasantries…. But don’t disparage them, it is all they are able to do. It does no good to tell the chimp it is only his own fingers being left smelly. Just step aside and let the “poo” go by.
OK, per the ‘minor major’9985:
major9985 says:
January 7, 2012 at 8:46 am
Poor Anthony, what immature reply, and to even talk about courage when you clearly don’t have any to stand up to the fact you associate yourself with Monckton.
This one is hardly a work of art. Basically just an attempt to generate an angry response via taunting. 3rd grade at most.
Anthony had pointed out that the poster has no courage and is hiding behind a false face. All true. The response is not to recognize that truth, nor to correct it, nor even to be embarrassed by it. No, the response is to cast an insult: “immature”. Now, an odd thing I’ve noticed. Folks tend to accuse others of what THEY are feeling or doing. So here we have someone who is behaving in a ‘tantrum’ sort of way. TRYING to pick a fight. TRYING to smear poo on a “congratulations card” to Anthony. Just who is being immature toward whom?
Then there is a badly worded attempt at a ‘twist/insult’. An attempt to “twist” their lack of courage of self into a failure of same on the other side. But the wording is so strained as to be hard to even read. Topping that, though, is that the “jab” is on the face of it farcical. That Anthony would not “stand up to the fact” that he associates with Monckton? Pardon, but didn’t Anthony just POST a Monckton posting on his site? Hardly running from the association. Heck, if asked, I’d suspect both chaps would state publicly they are rather happy to associate with each other.
There simply IS NO foundation for claiming lack of “courage” in an act that takes no courage at all. It is, in essence, an oxymoronic argument to make. I would stand by Lord Monckton in any field, at any time, with NO explanation of the need given to me whatsoever; simply because he is an honorable man. He can request my services in any capacity, and at any time. Period. Same thing for Anthony. Both honorable. Both honest. Both worthy. It takes no courage on MY part to say that. It just is. A simple fact of life. Some folks just deserve honorable allegiance. They earn it by their actions and words.
So how can you even make mention of “courage” in a context where honor is all that exists? Yes, I would be honored to be associated with either of them.
Right out the gate, the attempt at a goad or a smear just falls flat.
The only thing it can possibly be is an attempt to turn the thread from “Congratulations” to “defend Monckton”. Yet M’Lord needs no defending. Again the faulty reasoning turns sour…
So all we are left with are some negative words, flung with invective, with the faint odour of “poo” about them. Always very close to the name: major9985.
As there is no real semantic content to the sentences, just emotional loading and attempts to bait into a fight in furtherance of a thread hijack, IMHO, the best thing to do is just point out that it is a “Carping Comment” from someone still learning how to behave in polite company; and return to the festivities (upwind, if possible).
With that:
Thank you again, Anthony, for a great site and a well deserved recognition.
Thank you, M’Lord Monckton of Brenchley, for a great wit and sharp reasoning. Gentleman, scholar, and leader.
No argument from me. Well done Anthony!
Thanks for the eulogy, Brenchley old man. Give or take the occasional troll frothing at his mouth, I think most of us are looking forward to more of your engaging erudition over the course of Anthony’s next hundred million hits. In a world becoming daily more illiterate, your hyperliteracy shines the brighter.
And thanks for the education, Anthony. When all this is history, there really has to be an honorary doctorate somewhere for you for your dedication to good old unfashionable facts; you;ve more than earned one.
And mods, you are too kind … you really should have let “major” what’s-is-name publish his name and email. I’m sure lots of us would have enjoyed sending him links to WUWT articles … or writing little scripts to do so … 😀
Great to hear from you, Lord Monckton !
I am glad you survived the jump over Durban.
Noone could have persuaded me into jumping out of a plane, saved by someone elses packing-skills.
Very few individuals has done more for the sceptic camp than you, Lord Monckton.
I noticed a while back that you shifted your language? You sort of took the same arguments as the “warmers” use, and multiplied it by, say, 0.1, or something like that. Well, not quite the same, but you know what I mean.
I suspect you did that because you expected they might listen to you? 100% more than earlier?
Am I right?
I am sure you agree that at the moment it all comes down to Applied Physics. Which of the well known formulaes are correct to use when studying a certain real phenomenon. In my opinion that is the hardest part of physics.
One camp says it is all about radiation. The good old Arrhenius, back-radiation , and all that.
Another other camp says the athmosphere acts like an insulator against empty space, and heating is all due to a heat pump driven by gravitation and the sun.
And it goes on and on. It has been going on like this for quite a few years now. Since the eighties?
That is 30 years.
The scientific method urges for experiments. Nasif Nahle did one.
I think you should persuade some of the big organisations to repeat it, instead of using the “warmers argument” * 0.1.
What do you think? Lord Monckton persuades The British Meteorology Society to perform the ultimate backradiation experiment. (I am sure such a society exists).
The BBC to cover it. ( Just kidding. Ho ho! )
Jenn Oates says:
Yeah, well…I’ve read about this Moncktonly guy and not only does he not have any scientific or mathematical expertise, evidently he’s not a real “Lord,” whatever that is.
What you have been reading has been written by people who cannot refute his arguments and therefore resort to personal attacks instead. If you don’t know what a real lord is why do you claim that he is not one?
Monckton is certainly a real lord. However he cannot vote in the House of Lords because the laws regarding its membership were changed a few years ago. Nowadays most of the peers who are allowed to take part in the debates in the House of Lords are not people who have inherited titles. Instead they are people who have been given “life peerages” which cannot be inherited.
Some life peers deserve their titles; others are people who were given their titles by the government in power at the time because they can be relied on to do their party’s bidding. Therefore measures to “democratise” the House of Lords have, paradoxically, damaged its standing because the old lords tended to speak only on matters that they knew a lot about and they also tended to take an independent line regardless of any party allegiances they had. Many of the new ones are merely party hacks.
On the subject of Monckton’s scientific and mathematical expertise, although I studied mathematics for two years as a subsidiary subject as part of a chemistry degree, my knowledge of mathematics is not a patch on Monckton’s. Written qualifications do not make a person knowledgeable. Knowledge enables a person to gain qualifications but you can acquire expertise without studying for a qualification. If the idea of “lifelong education” has any meaning there must be lots of people who have acquired a fair measure expertise in various areas without gaining written qualifications after completing their formal education.
Congratulations to Anthony and his band of colleagues and helpers, and also to the many who have either directly contributed to or whose work has been reported on WUWT.
The uses of the Internet are still an evolving phenomena. WUWT, like many others hosted by keen students of climate issues is showing what a power for good that it can be in the right hands.
Onwards into history….
Congratulations, Anthony, for all your unpaid work.
What amazes me on this site – apart from the scientific discussions – is the courtesy and civility. So different to the circling-the-wagons mentality of The Team as exposed in their emails.
The Team come across as an incestuous group of scientists who, I think, must have been promoted too soon above their actual talents and abilities because they’d set their careers on fulfilling a government project: proving that the world needs to cut CO2 emmissions because of dangerous global warming.
That’s very bad science.
Their contempt for non-scientific people is extraordinary. They still think that people are incapable of thinking for themselves but are rather brainwashed by so-called shock jocks. They refuse to consider that many of us non-scientists, motivated by curiosity, try to understand the science of climate change and in doing so are amazed to discover that climate science is in its infancy! Mainly thanks to the WUWT team.
Don´t forget to inform Greenpeace its about views not dollars from Exxon.
Congratulations Anthony and family, moderators and posters.
Great job.
Well done Anthony and the WUWT team. We have a long way to go when we are populated by so many sheep/lemmings who can’t think outside of the box. It’s the effort you and your team put in that will surely turn the tide and win this war against tyranny.
Thanks WUWT !!
Anthony,
Congrats on your major acheivement. Calvin Coolidge must have had you in mind when he said…
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”
So I say thanks, and “press on”!
That being said, I do have a suggestion for a future post. Last week, I heard a quote on the radio from Stephen Hawking who stated that the real mystery of the universe is women. Perhaps you could explore that subject here. I’m sure the AGW debate will seem like childsplay in comparison to this new subject…
Who better than Lord Monckton to so eloquently heap such well deserved praise on Anthony and his merry band?
Oh, and if Lord Monckton isn’t a real Lord, why is he listed in DeBrett’s and Burke’s?
Shooting from the lip, are we? Had you read the second half of her very short post, you might have saved yourself the trouble:
How great it is that truth has such power.
We are blessed to have folks here who stand up for what they believe through a civil open debate, who graciously accept others and stand firm against the deceptive plan to enslave the ignorant with demonizing outrageous lies.
We are blessed and thank full for the enduring grace and high ground for which Anthony stands.
And thank you again Christoper for your incredible intellect you so cheerfully devote to exposing the lie.
Gary Krause
I guess that many, like me, just missed the 100,000,000 hit. Congratulations and best wishes to Anthony and the WUWT team.
Congratulations Anthony Watts and thanks to the many others that make this site informative, current, and accurate. I appreciate the efforts of the moderators and the commentators who keep the discussions respectful.
This is one of the most important policy issues to address. Trillions of dollars of tax payer dollars are at stake. The biofuel scam is one example of the consequence of policy based on propaganda and alarm-ism.
I would highly recommend Christopher Booker’s The Real Global Warming Disaster as an overview of this problem.
http://www.amazon.com/Real-Global-Warming-Disaster-Scientific/dp/1441110526
The Real Global Warming Disaster: Is the Obsession with “Climate Change” Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History?
http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/bioenergy/NewsReleases/Biodiesel%20Energy%20Balance_v2a.pdf
“Vast amounts of agricultural land are being diverted from crops for human consumption to biofuel The immediate consequence of this is a dramatic increase in the cost of basic food such as a 140% increase in the price of corn. Due to limited amounts of agricultural land vast regions of virgin forest are being cut down for biofuel production. The problems associate with this practice will become acute as all major Western governments have mandate a percentage of biofuel.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-04-14/biofuel-production-a-crime-against-humanity/2403402
“Biofuels ‘crime against humanity’
Massive production of biofuels is “a crime against humanity” because of its impact on global food prices, a UN official has told German radio. “Producing biofuels today is a crime against humanity,” UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food Jean Ziegler told Bayerischer Runfunk radio. Many observers have warned that using arable land to produce crops for biofuels has reduced surfaces available to grow food. Mr Ziegler called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to change its policies on agricultural subsidies and to stop supporting only programs aimed at debt reduction. He says agriculture should also be subsidised in regions where it ensures the survival of local populations. Meanwhile, in response to a call by the IMF and World Bank over the weekend to a food crisis that is stoking violence and political instability, German Foreign Minister Peer Steinbrueck gave his tacit backing.”
http://news.yahoo.com/prime-indonesian-jungle-cleared-palm-oil-065556710.html
“Prime Indonesian jungle to be cleared for palm oil
Their former hero recently gave a palm oil company a permit to develop land in one of the few places on earth where orangutans, tigers and bears still can be found living side-by-side — violating Indonesia’s new moratorium on concessions in primary forests and peatlands.”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725975,00.html
“The Clean Energy Scam
The U.S. quintupled its production of ethanol–ethyl alcohol, a fuel distilled from plant matter–in the past decade, and Washington has just mandated another fivefold increase in renewable fuels over the next decade. Europe has similarly aggressive biofuel mandates and subsidies, and Brazil’s filling stations no longer even offer plain gasoline. Worldwide investment in biofuels rose from $5 billion in 1995 to $38 billion in 2005 and is expected to top $100 billion by 2010, thanks to investors like Richard Branson and George Soros, GE and BP, Ford and Shell, Cargill and the Carlyle Group.”
“But several new studies show the biofuel boom is doing exactly the opposite of what its proponents intended: it’s dramatically accelerating global warming, imperiling the planet in the name of saving it. Corn ethanol, always environmentally suspect, turns out to be environmentally disastrous. Even cellulosic ethanol made from switchgrass, which has been promoted by eco-activists and eco-investors as well as by President Bush as the fuel of the future, looks less green than oil-derived gasoline.”
“Meanwhile, by diverting grain and oilseed crops from dinner plates to fuel tanks, biofuels are jacking up world food prices and endangering the hungry. The grain it takes to fill an SUV tank with ethanol could feed a person for a year. Harvests are being plucked to fuel our cars instead of ourselves. The U.N.’s World Food Program says it needs $500 million in additional funding and supplies, calling the rising costs for food nothing less than a global emergency. Soaring corn prices have sparked tortilla riots in Mexico City, and skyrocketing flour prices have destabilized Pakistan, which wasn’t exactly tranquil when flour was affordable.”
Congrats WUWT and Anthony!
As I said many times before:
More carbo0n disoxide is O(K~!
http://www.letterdash.com/HenryP/more-carbon-dioxide-is-ok-ok
Pompous git said to Gareth
Personally, I think you are a plonker. I’m slightly left of centre and strongly libertarian. I wouldn’t dream of letting my politicz get in the way of appreciating The Good Lord’s wit, scholarship, rhetoric and mathematical abilities.
Thanks you Pompous git for reading my post, sad that you did not read all of it. My point was that while I find Moncktons politics distasteful, I do not allow that opinion to interfere with how I see his work on Climate change, or my frustration that it is a far right wing politician who is doing this instead of someone from my side. It is perfectly feasible for someone to be witty, entertaining and a good scientist, while have questionable political beliefs.
Interestingly Pompous Git, you cannot be left leaning in your politics and a fan of Moncktons politics, it’s a bit like being in the Tea party and saying you are a fan of Obama and his policies. We also do not have libertarian politics as such in the UK, it means something quite different in the US from how we in the UK would understand it. Usually I try and keep my politics out of climate change science, which is why I still appreciate Moncktons science without worrying to much about his dodgy politics.
Finally I think pompous git is a terrible nom de plume. Why don’t you be brave and use your real name as Anthony encourages? and be honest about your politics? Don’t be ashamed of them whether left or right. At least you have a political belief, which is more than most people have these days.
What can I say that hasn’t already been said?
Congratulations Anthony and well done to all you mods. I can’t even begin to imagine the hard work you all put in. History will thank you.
Who better to give you your just desserts Anthony.
I hope that I will be around for the 200M hit.
A note of wariness, however. I tried to copy Chris Booker’s DT link, which did not work; it’s in the comments for Sunday’s edition, and fairly alarming.
Another note – I was in and out of the lounge this evening, and was amazed to see Cameron backing up his puppy dog’s credo re windmills on BBC’s Countryfile, and a few minutes later seeing them both leaving the venue, with Huhne in the rear; Cameron’s tail wagging?
Is there nobody in the UK political circle that can put young Dave right? Lord Lawson?
Gareth Phillips said @ January 8, 2012 at 9:12 am
“Thanks you Pompous git for reading my post, sad that you did not read all of it. My point was that while I find Moncktons politics distasteful, I do not allow that opinion to interfere with how I see his work on Climate change, or my frustration that it is a far right wing politician who is doing this instead of someone from my side. It is perfectly feasible for someone to be witty, entertaining and a good scientist, while have questionable political beliefs.
Interestingly Pompous Git, you cannot be left leaning in your politics and a fan of Moncktons politics, it’s a bit like being in the Tea party and saying you are a fan of Obama and his policies. We also do not have libertarian politics as such in the UK, it means something quite different in the US from how we in the UK would understand it. Usually I try and keep my politics out of climate change science, which is why I still appreciate Moncktons science without worrying to much about his dodgy politics.
Finally I think pompous git is a terrible nom de plume. Why don’t you be brave and use your real name as Anthony encourages? and be honest about your politics? Don’t be ashamed of them whether left or right. At least you have a political belief, which is more than most people have these days.”
Never said I was a fan of Monckton’s politicz. Determining my political position was a result of:
http://www.politicalcompass.org/index
I’m sorry you feel that you cannot be libertarian (believe in personal freedom) in UKLand. Makes me glad to have been one of the rats leaving the sinking ship in 1965.
I stole the nom de plume pompous git from Stuart Littlemore after budget cuts at the ABC made Stuart Littleless. Try clicking on “thepompousgit” at the head of my posts. It’s inserted automagically by WordPress whenever I visit a WordPress site. You could also try Googling “pompous git”. Google will tell you:
“Jonathan Sturm (alias The Pompous Git) lives at Franklin in the Huon Valley of Southern Tasmania,” and
“The Pompous Git’s Guide to Gardening, the Universe and Everything! By Jonathan Sturm, the author of Complete Guide to Organic Gardening.” and
“The Buzz – ABC Radio National …
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/…a-pompous-git/3634812
28 Jul 2002 – Jonathan Sturm says he’s the most famous pompous git on the web. His blog is unusual in that, although chockablock with his opinions, …”
and so on…
Anonymous coward? My arse… And I’m certainly not ashamed of believing very strongly in personal freedom. Or for being a pompous git for that matter.
Gareth Phillips said @ January 8, 2012 at 9:12 am
“Thanks you Pompous git for reading my post, sad that you did not read all of it. My point was that while I find Moncktons politics distasteful, I do not allow that opinion to interfere with how I see his work on Climate change, or my frustration that it is a far right wing politician who is doing this instead of someone from my side. It is perfectly feasible for someone to be witty, entertaining and a good scientist, while have questionable political beliefs.
Interestingly Pompous Git, you cannot be left leaning in your politics and a fan of Moncktons politics, it’s a bit like being in the Tea party and saying you are a fan of Obama and his policies. We also do not have libertarian politics as such in the UK, it means something quite different in the US from how we in the UK would understand it. Usually I try and keep my politics out of climate change science, which is why I still appreciate Moncktons science without worrying to much about his dodgy politics.
Finally I think pompous git is a terrible nom de plume. Why don’t you be brave and use your real name as Anthony encourages? and be honest about your politics? Don’t be ashamed of them whether left or right. At least you have a political belief, which is more than most people have these days.”
Never said I was a fan of Monckton’s politicz. Determining my political position was a result of:
http://www.politicalcompass.org/index
I’m sorry you feel that you cannot be libertarian (believe in personal freedom) in UKLand. Makes me glad to have been one of the rats leaving the sinking ship in 1965.
I stole the nom de plume pompous git from Stuart Littlemore after budget cuts at the ABC made Stuart Littleless. Try clicking on “thepompousgit” at the head of my posts. It’s inserted automagically by WordPress whenever I visit a WordPress site. You could also try Googling “pompous git”. Google will tell you:
“Jonathan Sturm (alias The Pompous Git) lives at Franklin in the Huon Valley of Southern Tasmania,” and
“The Pompous Git’s Guide to Gardening, the Universe and Everything! By Jonathan Sturm, the author of Complete Guide to Organic Gardening.” and
“The Buzz – ABC Radio National …
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/…a-pompous-git/3634812
28 Jul 2002 – Jonathan Sturm says he’s the most famous pompous git on the web. His blog is unusual in that, although chockablock with his opinions, …”
and so on…
Anonymous coward? My arse… And I’m certainly not ashamed of believing very strongly in personal freedom. Or being a pompous git.
vigilantfish says:
January 7, 2012 at 10:30 am
In school, history was one of my least favorite subjects, but when I discovered science history (I think in a book titled “The Microbe Hunters” and later Tolkien’s Middle Earth history I began to warm up to political history.)
I got my start in the computer field in what I call its “Golden Age”. It was a period where scientists and engineers had a lot of overlap – if engineers wanted to build a timesharing system, we had to discover some of the data structures and algorithms to make it possible.
Genetic engineering is in its golden age, but will have a much longer one.
I think 50 years from now people will look back and realize that this is climate science’s golden age, and I recommend to anyone who listens to remember everything that is going on now. Engineers aren’t involved, but science is discovering just what it is that drives climate and weather, and (as WUWT readers know) nothing is nearly as well settled as some people would have you believe.
20 years from now would be a good time to start making sense of the field’s history.
Well Done!
Annie.
Congratulations, Anthony.
It sure is amazing what happens when you side with Truth.
And it is somewhat comical what happens to those who don’t. Tragic, but also comical.
Well done, keep the flame burning!
C’Mon mods! Not even Wikipedia acknowledges “que” as a proper variant of “queue”:
Noun:queue (kyoo)
1. A line of people or vehicles waiting for something
…
>:(
Now, try going over that excellent list of references with the thought in mind, “CO2 increase is on balance extremely beneficial.”
If they weren’t so d*** expensive, the failed “mitigation” schemes would be worth celebrating because they achieve the opposite of their declared purpose.
___
Love reading (almost all of) Lord Monckton’s writings. But I think he should watch and ponder, many times, the classic M4GW video, “Now I’m A Denier!” The court jesters said with humour the plain truth that lukewarmists fear to utter.
E.M.Smith says:
January 8, 2012 at 12:33 am
I was going to say something about the minor but you well and truly lambasted him between you and the Viscount I would stand with you and Anthony any day, add Willis into the mix and you might even get me out of the house on a cold and snowy Idaho winter day. 🙂
I stand by what I said Anthony, [SNIP: That video has been linked to several times at WUWT, Monckton has already addressed it, and your comments here are libelous. -REP]
Hear Hear!
You completely edit my comment and then claim the videos I linked have been posted on this site several times. These videos are Potholers most resent and I have not been able to find them linked to this site. If you are going to make such claims, link me to one of these several post?? I have been asked by Anthony to point out something that is wrong with Monckton, you editing my comments and deleting my links is ridicules. If these videos have been linked here several times show me the comments that they were linked in so that I can reference people to them.
[REPLY: Do your own work and don’t bother linking to Potholer’s most “resent”. Develop some critical thinking skills. And I leave you with this: Mark 4: 3-9 Matthew 7: 15-19 -REP]
[SNIP: Policy. -REP]
[SNIP: You’ve already been told: your words backed up by YOUR evidence. Continuous repetition does not make something true and is cause for being snipped. If you want to regurgitate talking points, start your own blog. -REP]
You tell people not to visit the skeptical science website due to deletion, extension and amending of user comments, and undated post-publication revisions of article contents after significant user commenting. Hypocrites.
[REPLY: Our policy page is here. Your comments have not been altered, extended or amended and have not been deleted post-facto. Some of your comments have not been posted because they are insulting, repetitive and libelous. THIS is the last word on the matter. -REP]
Anthony,
Here’s to a belated congratulation. You obviously know what you’re doing.
Jim
A momentous event improved by the studious application of intellectual and literal virtuosity by Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. Bravo, sirs, bravo! Keep up the good work and please, someday, fact-check my little town’s weather station out in Blythe, CA.