I had planned to write about this, and specifically that Joe Romm’s blog “Climate Progress” appears to have died a quiet death of assimilation by the borg greens, saying:
We are now merging with ThinkProgress Green, and that means we’ll be adding two new regular bloggers, Jessica Goad, manager of research and outreach for CAP’s Public Lands Project, and Rebecca Leber, a ThinkProgress blogger and research assistant. They join Stephen, me, and all the regular Climate Progress contributors from the CAP energy team and blogging news room.
But Tom Fuller beat me to it in a guest post over at Jeff Condon’s place called Bookends and Separations. The assimilation of Climate Progress (which once had its own domain name) is just a symptom of a larger trend, and such assimilation must be a bitter pill for “Hero of the Environment″ Romm to swallow, as Fuller writes:
But people have pretty much stopped listening. They’ve even stopped writing. Joe Romm has folded his Climate Progress blog into the rubric of Think Progress’ larger efforts and now interns do much of his writing for him. Deltoid is down to one post a month, and it’s an open thread. Michael Tobis has fled Only In It For The Gold and is now writing at Planet 3–and complaining about a lack of traffic.
In a Republican primary with nine initial contestants, the amount of conversation about climate change was effectively zero. Over on the other side of the aisle, President Obama has almost abandoned the issue. The IPCC’s upcoming AR5 is, by all appearances, going to be much more subdued in its claims and much more reasonable as a result.
…
And this is the way it should be.
It’s the way it should be because climate change will return as an issue. Especially in America, where we love a second act to every story, anthropogenic climate change will return. Temperatures have plateaued at a high level and may even dip during this decade due to the muting effect of several natural cycles. But those cycles will end. And a new generation of scientists is readying itself to take up the argument again, untainted by the past disasters and mistakes of those currently sagging against the ropes.
The next generation of discussion may be calmer and more grounded in facts–looking at all the things humans do to influence climate and not just the CO2 we emit. It may not.
Read the whole post: Bookends and Separations.
==============================================================
Meanwhile, WUWT traffic remains strong:
A lower number is better, for example Google is #1. Note the traffic blip on Feb 14th of Peter Gleick’s “Fakegate” didn’t last for DeSmog blog, as I’ve previously reported. My competition can’t seem to get out of the >100,000 “we don’t bother to track them” zone. You can run your own comparisons here.
I can’t compare Climate Progress or Deltoid, since they are subdomains of larger blogging aggregators, but before CP lost its domain name we were beating the pants off it traffic rank wise. With one post a month, Deltoid can’t have much in the way of traffic.
UPDATE: in related news, the Orange County Register seems to agree (h/t to Climate Depot)
Global warming alarmism becoming much less alarming: ‘Maybe it’s the Cry Wolf syndrome. Maybe it’s just taking notice of reality. Maybe it’s only a fad that’s run its course’
On a related note.
Many of you have written to me expressing concern for Steve McIntyre because he hasn’t posted anything since March 20th. I called him Friday and spoke with his wife. He’s fine, but engaged in a work project outside of blogging and is focusing on it. I can’t say that I blame him. Blogging, especially climate blogging with so many technical details, is a huge time sink. My own business has suffered due to WUWT and I know Steve’s has. Where’s those big oil checks when we need it most?
The treehugger forums that moved to altenergyshift have also failed spectacularly
Anthony,
I’ve asked before but I’ll ask again: I would love if you could post any tips you have learned about how to write a successful blog. Clearly you know how, and clearly the greens need the lesson.
-Adam
REPLY: I doubt I could coalesce it. For me it just a continuation of my 25 years of being a broadcaster. – Anthony
The idea that the skeptics are a “well funded denier machine” is infuriating. So sick of reading warmists lies.
My mother, a mother of 8, used to say, “… you’ll get your reward in heaven.”
But on a serious note, your work is of great import, you are a touchstone, a weapons depot, of where we go to get the arguments & facts we each will use tomorrow as we, the Denier Foot Soldiers, fight the trench warfare.
Thanks for your dedication, intelligence & hard work.
“Temperatures have plateaued at a high level and may even dip during this decade due to the muting effect of several natural cycles. But those cycles will end. ”
Same thing you hear after every prophecy fizzles out. Always the hidden influence of a supernatural force that has chosen to mute its effects for the time being. You can’t see the force, and you can’t measure its reluctance, but the Chosen Ones have Secret Knowledge.
Rather sad, but it’s a highly enjoyable sadness.
Incidentally, cycles don’t end. That’s why they’re called cycles.
Anthony, Your site is very appreciated. The amount of science you can learn here, and not just climate science, is awesome.
I read some of the ad homs your site gets at places like the Huff & Puff and wonder if the idiots making the snarky comment ever even visited and read anything here.
David Ball, your father is an example of heavily funded skeptic: he has a pension! /sarc
Oh well they will get a little boost today because of this thread. Tomorrow back to the steady decline…
It’s so sad that you have had to make many sacrifices to keep the blog rolling when all sceptics are supposed to be part of MegaCorpDenialIncorporated.
As for Romm, it’s a pity that it had to happen to such a charming, reasonable fella. (sarc).
I don’t know it is because I am old and failing, or what but the “>? in this article seems backward….
never mind, I just wrked it out.
The downside of having very high site traffic, plus the fact that the alarmist blogs are failing, is the increase in trolls who have only heard the sanitized and censored side of the debate.
That’s OK, we can handle them. But it’s irritating reading some of the nonsense coming from those folks. On another thread a pal reviewed author commented that the troposphere was warming as predicted. I had to correct him. And that guy should know better. But he lives in a model world, and apparently believes only the models. Reality disagrees.
Anyway, the warmist crowd helps the numbers: more than 111 million unique hits, and counting. Also approaching a million reader comments; a more interesting metric. Maybe those Big Oil checks will start flowing after all.☺
I’ve learned more about cows on this blog than they learn about climate science on theirs.
And that’s all one needs to say.
The AGW crisis is not a climate crisis. The late 20th century warming is over. It will be interesting to hear the back pedalling as the planet cools due to the solar cycle 24 magnetic cycle change.
The AGW fear mongering is the true crisis. Massive deficit government spending on dot.com green scam projects is the true crisis. Reality is reailty. Greece will declare bankrupcy. Spain will follow.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,825490,00.html
Bankruptcies Have German Solar on the Ropes
The German solar industry is at a turning point. The bankruptcy of Q-Cells this week shows that the days of German solar cell production are numbered. Asian competitors took the lead years ago, and German government subsidies were part of the problem.
A String of Bankruptcies
In December 2011, two major solar companies slid into bankruptcy: Berlin-based Solon and Erlangen-based Solar Millennium. In the case of Solon, Indian firm Microsol acquired the core business; but of the company’s 1,000 employees, only 400 remain employed today. Solar Millennium’s bankruptcy came as a major blow to thousands of small investors who had lent the firm money.
In March 2012, Freiburg-based Scheuten Solar, the firm that presented what was the world’s largest solar module at the time eight years ago, declared bankruptcy. The same month, power plant producer Solarhybrid and the Frankfurt an der Oder-based Odersun, which had been prestige projects supported by political leaders in the eastern state of Brandenburg, also filed for insolvency proceedings. Other bankruptcies are likely to follow.
The worst hit in the German solar crisis are companies that made bad business decisions. Most of the companies effected failed to wean themselves from reliance on government subsidies. The companies had all been aware that the market was rapidly changing, but they reacted too late or too slowly. Solar subsidies had been a highly effective political means of promoting the environmentally friendly technology, but in a rapidly maturing market, they are quickly losing their impact.
And the problem isn’t the recent cuts to solar subsidies. The problem has been mismanagement across the industry in Germany.
TomRude, that is the extent of it. They are trying to crush his spirit as well as his pocketbook.
Immense pressures at the moment. People (both sides) should wonder why such a concerted effort to marginalize him.
My quick summary of what this means: before climategate (Nov, 2009), AGW-skeptics couldn’t get a story, much less a headline — dead-tree or online. But afterwords, much changed. A lot of effort went into message control, AGW CYA, occasional pushback or coverup denials, or diversions like “no problems to see.” Critics got noticed, even if the news stories were biased – especially in Great Britain, less so in North America.
Somehow, between the failure of COP-14 and later AGW-wacko events and Deniergate turned Fakegate (la affaire Gleick), and after the turn of House of Representatives to Republican control, AGW went on the back burner politically. In terms of science, there has been a turn to churnalism – repeating old phony ‘methods’ of weak analysis that get crowded out in the news by activist caterwauling about catastrophic weather.
Climategate 2.0 followed by Gleick in 2012 and the looming all political campaign in the US seems to have sucked out all the air and activism out of the room, as a lazy, brain-dead zombie trope of ‘Global Weirding’ in the MSM appears to be all that remains, until the forces of AGW-alarm regroup.
Meanwhile, a blogospheric restructuring seems to be taking place (as told above), reflecting a scientific collapse and parallel activist re-prioritization. Are you with me, folks?
I don’t follow Tom Fuller’s line here: “The IPCC’s upcoming AR5 is, by all appearances, going to be much more subdued in its claims and much more reasonable as a result.” REALLY? Based on exactly what evidence?
When our Prez visited Vermont a few weeks ago and gave a speech at UVM, it was too surreal to bear. He never really said anything, other than reciting a list of “things Vermonters want to hear” (to the cheering of several hundred invitation-only college students), “green energy!”, “renewable!”, “environment!”, and “scientific consensus!”. I had to turn off the radio, such was my disgust at having voted for the maroon in 2008.
The issue may have died on the national scene, but it’s alive and well on a local level when the pols think it will score them points. I may not vote this year, given that a win for the Dems is all but guaranteed in my state.
Our political system needs fixing, ever so much.
Adam said @ April 14, 2012 at 5:40 pm
1. Write clearly about what you are passionate about.
2. Identify key words and phrases used by people searching for what you have to tell them.
3. Get linked to by bloggers with as high a Google Rank as you can manage.
4. Write regular updates.
5. Pay close attention to comments your readers make; they will keep you on track.
There. That should get you started 🙂
I write from what I call a climate realist perspective — the emerging scientific view that on our current greenhouse gas emissions path we are poised to destroy the livability of the climate for centuries to come. The most important post that lays out that case is:
An Illustrated Guide to the Science of Global Warming Impacts: How We Know Inaction Is the Gravest Threat Humanity Faces
TOO FUNNY!
Anthony, you and those that write here on this site with you and Mr. McIntyre and a host of other scientist types that fight the battle for truth in science are gladiators for the environment , and we who come here to learn are so thankful for your efforts.
I write from what I call a climate realist perspective —
They have stolen earth’s modus operandi (climate change) and now they’ve stollen the term “climate realist”.
Is nothing off limits to these people?
As referred to above, much learning and insight comes from WUWT. Even the trolls are welcome; their snarky comments result in much science being fired back at them–us mortals learn much from the barrage…
Anthony, I have been a successful entrepreneur for decades. The time is right for you to grow. I am an interested investor, as passed on in emails.
Could the time ever be better to ingnite, and grow a business in this environment (no pun intended)?
REPLY: Haven’t seen an email from you, but then again I get hundreds a day…might want to send again – Anthony
Following the Daily Blog Traffic Report on and off over the last few years, I have never seen any of the warmist sites exceed WUWTs traffic. Seems the why is those rare peaks in their ratings coincides when almost everyone at WUWT goes to their site to view some cocky statement or action they have made. Seems with no WUWT, they would all completely flat-line.
Most Western governments (including Canada’s) are still “paying lip service” to the fraud of global warming, and spending billions in public money to subsidize worthless corn ethanol, and less-than-worthless grid-connected wind and solar power.
These scoundrels and imbeciles have wasted a trillion dollars, and counting.
When our money stops disappearing down the CAGW sewer, we will have achieved something.
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. “
Sir Winston Churchill, November 1942
“”””” Bennett says:
April 14, 2012 at 6:25 pm
When our Prez visited Vermont a few weeks ago and gave a speech at UVM, it was too surreal to bear. He never really said anything, other than reciting a list of “things Vermonters want to hear” (to the cheering of several hundred invitation-only college students), “green energy!”, “renewable!”, “environment!”, and “scientific consensus!”. I had to turn off the radio, such was my disgust at having voted for the maroon in 2008. ……………………. “””””
How many times have we heard THAT lament ?
What I wonder Bennett, is just what exactly did YOU think you were going to get for your 2008 vote.
Please, please, Bennett, do NOT vote in 2012; leave that responsibility to responsible adults.
As for YOUR state; I’ll pay some heed to their “Greenness” when your State votes to outlaw the vandalism to trees to satisfy the juvenile craving for sugar. The corn belt of the USA can make all the sweet stuff anybody needs; the quaint habit in your locale belongs in the history books, along with living in caves.
“.I have been a successful entrepreneur for decades. ”
Caveat Emptor
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/554479_10151492267140471_435917560470_23695707_2088229155_n.jpg
from hometown tragedy to international catastrophe, all the gloom you crave, 24/7.
you keep buying it and it will be delivered. handling fees and taxes apply.
Dave Dodd says:
“…their snarky comments result in much science being fired back at them–us mortals learn much from the barrage.”
Truth!
““The IPCC’s upcoming AR5 is, by all appearances, going to be much more subdued in its claims and much more reasonable as a result.” REALLY? Based on exactly what evidence?”
The ZOD is most;y public. The FOD, I can report, is way better than AR4. For the chapters I feel competent to comment on.
George E. Smith says: April 14, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Aw, George, cut Bennett some slack: he’s admitted his mistake. More importantly, however, don’t encourage them to cut back on the syrup supply. That stuff made with corn syrup and natural and artificial flavors and coloring just doesn’t cut it. Drill, Vermonters, Drill!
Off thread, but I can’t resist.
“Consensus, Titanic unsinkable…”
If anyone else has already posted, my deepest apologies.
TRE
@ George E. Smith
Wow, you really do take yourself seriously, don’t you?
Have a nice life, where ever you live, in total blessed haromony with your eigth of an acre.
b24clark says:
April 14, 2012 at 5:48 pm
My mother, a mother of 8, used to say, “… you’ll get your reward in heaven.”
__________________________
I’ve heard it with the ending……..”cause nobody gives a _____ here.”
LOL
@Robert E. Phelan
Thanks man, I appreciate the slack.
I’ve learned and grown since ’08, and frankly, McCain and what’s-her-name still seem like a bad option, but then so did Obama.
George E Smith 4/14 7:30 pm hey George lay off the maple syrup would you , I’ve been eating that stuff since I was a kid and the trees do fine because the harvesters don’t want to destroy the goose you know? I agree with Robert E Phelan at 7:47 drill baby drill!
Anthony, thanks for the update about Steve McIntyre. Good to hear that all is well there.
“Many of you have written to me expressing concern for Steve McIntyre because he hasn’t posted anything since March 20th.”
Are you sure Steve isn’t suffering the adverse psychological effects of fossil fuels?
See http://judithcurry.com/2012/04/13/psychological-effects-of-global-warming/
George E. Smith says: April 14, 2012 at 7:30 pm
“As for YOUR state; I’ll pay some heed to their “Greenness” when your State votes to outlaw the vandalism to trees to satisfy the juvenile craving for sugar. The corn belt of the USA can make all the sweet stuff anybody needs; the quaint habit in your locale belongs in the history books, along with living in caves.”
______________
Please George. Production of maple syrup is “vandalism to trees” and should be outlawed? And what about cruelty to corn?
George, we live in a world where millions of children die every year from contaminated drinking water and preventable diseases, where slavery is still practiced, where over a hundred million people were killed in the last century by Stalin, Hitler and Mao.
We are not doing much better this century. We are teetering on the edge of a global economic crisis, We are also shadow-boxing with forces that apparently seek to extinguish the few remaining democracies of the world through the fraud of global warming – and history tells us that these zealots could, in time, equal the monstrous excesses of their 20th Century predecessors.
P.S. On a brighter note, please give my fond regards to Tom Bombadil, the Ents and the Huorns.
I, for one, love Maple Syrup. It is one of the really good things in life. Keep it coming you guys!
Twenty minutes to go before the to-the-minute centennial of RMS Titanic’s introduction to sea-borne
reality vs. her “unsinkable” myth. Rest that great ship’s soul, with all aboard who perished that still night.
On this late evening c. AD 2112, circumspectors will look back in appalled chagrin at MS Global Warming’s headlong rush to meet the iceberg of her own creation. To such as those, we prefer the classic pirate sendoff: Damn their eyes!
Adam says:
April 14, 2012 at 5:40 pm
“Anthony,
I’ve asked before but I’ll ask again: I would love if you could post any tips you have learned about how to write a successful blog. Clearly you know how, and clearly the greens need the lesson.
-Adam
REPLY: I doubt I could coalesce it. For me it just a continuation of my 25 years of being a broadcaster. – Anthony”
Adam, Not difficult –
integrity, honesty, consistency, open mindedness, character and be willing to suffer the slings and arrows of those that do not have these characteristics.
OssQss says:
April 14, 2012 at 7:04 pm
Anthony, I have been a successful entrepreneur for decades. The time is right for you to grow. I am an interested investor, as passed on in emails.
—————-
A publication devoted to science to take the place of those propaganda outlets Nature, Scientific American, New Scientist, and the like, with Anthony at the helm looks good to me…a big market with all the moderators, commenters, readers and lurkers here for a start.
And a new generation of scientists is readying itself to take up the argument again, untainted by the past disasters and mistakes of those currently sagging against the ropes.
And stuck on the idea that models are a true mirror of reality. My neighbor’s kid goes to Rutgers and was unaware that you could take *direct* measurements of temperature and atmospheric composition by sending radiosondes ‘waaaay up in the sky…
“The next generation of discussion may be calmer and more grounded in facts–looking at all the things humans do to influence climate and not just the CO2 we emit. It may not.”
================================================================
It will not would be more appropriate. Here’s why….. http://suyts.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/education-why-were-at-the-point-we-are/
We’ve a dysfunctional ecucation system and no one is putting it right. We give lip service
to teaching the hard sciences, but we don’t monitor what and how they are being taught. There is no “critical thinking” class. And, our children are never taught to engage in such. They are taught what to think, not how. The ideological indoctrination of our children is manifested by idiotic subjects such as CAGW.
The question isn’t whether this topic will come up again or not, the question is, what’s the next one? Water is a prime suspect. Our children don’t seem to understand one can’t use all of it up. If the earth starts to significantly cool, you can bet your a$$ global cooling will raise it’s head again. Schnieder will be a visionary. Of course, by then, most of us will be dead or dying, incapable of relating the lessons learned.
The internet isn’t where the fight begins nor ends. It is just the medium we are allowed to carry on the fight. In the end, if we don’t move beyond these boundaries, it is a losing proposition. Teach your children well, they’ll have a much harder row.
Recycling. In this case, GIGO.
George E. Smith says: April 14, 2012 at 7:30 pm
That’s the wrong attitude George! If Bennett has learned his lesson, then we should be glad to have him vote against the current administration with their industry hating EPA, lack on respect for real science, and attempted intimidation of the Supreme Court.
And even if someone still want to vote for Obama — Don’t discourage them to not vote, iIt is still their right as citizens of the USA. Just try to convince them that they should vote differently this time! That’s all we can strive for.
About the amount of conversation about climate change being effectively zero.
I have my doubts that many CAGW beliefs have dramatically changed. More like realization has set in that with reckless spending they’ve essentially burned down our house and continue torching it, that is making spending talk difficult. That is bipartisan, btw.
OssQss says: April 14, 2012 at 7:04 pm
Anthony, I have been a successful entrepreneur for decades. The time is right for you to grow. I am an interested investor, as passed on in emails.
Could the time ever be better to ignite, and grow a business in this environment (no pun intended)?
__________________________
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/30/spencer-shows-compelling-evidence-of-uhi-in-crutem3-data/#comment-940075
Roy Spencer said:
“I would love to write this work up and submit it for publication, but I am growing weary of the IPCC gatekeepers killing my papers; the more damaging any conclusions are to the IPCC narrative, the less likely they are to be published. That’s the world we live in.”
___________________________
A proposed new procedure to publish scientific papers and conduct peer review:
Roy, you may recall that in early 2008 I asked Joe d’Aleo to published a paper for me on icecap.us and he kindly did so. I published all my data and calculations and my paper was critiqued in ClimateAudit.org by Willis and others. I believe this ad-hoc process constituted a far more rigorous peer review than the typical “pal review” that the hockey team and other global warming acolytes apply to their friends’ papers in the major journals.
Technology has made these journals and their review methods obsolete anyway. Why don’t you, or Anthony or Joe, etc. establish a website specifically for parties to publish their climate research papers and have them critiqued – the rules could be simple – publish your paper with all data and all supporting calculations. Anyone can critique your paper provided they mind their manners, dot their i’s and cross their t’s. No gates and no gatekeepers. I expect that you would soon leave these once-prestigious journals and their gatekeepers in the dust.
In the end, those with a good sense of humour tend to win. This blog is good fun. I’ve yet to come across an alarmist blog where fun is readily to be had. Such “humour” as there is tends to be mere mockery of those who disagree. I think Anthony has been successful because of his good humour, which has kept him sane and stopped him becoming embittered and twisted like the opposition–he’s retained his humanity.
…a cosy pack of fools. As if gravity was by consensus… LOL
polistra says:
“…Incidentally, cycles don’t end. That’s why they’re called cycles…”
Oh I don’t know about that. As a firefighter I saw plenty of cycles that aren’t going to be going anywhere after the accident.
[ 8<) Robt]
polistra says:
April 14, 2012 at 5:51 pm
Rather sad, but it’s a highly enjoyable sadness.
Incidentally, cycles don’t end. That’s why they’re called cycles.
Not to be pedantic, but I’m sure the implication was meant to be “the downward trends of those cycles will end” rather than simply declaring that the cycles themselves will end.
And the thing is, he’s probably right. In another 30-ish years, we could be looking once again at rising temps, and then all the wailing and bed-wetting from the alarmists will seriously amplify, and be bolstered by yet more draconian government taxes and regulations. A less likely outcome is that we go into another mini-ice age. The result of that would be more wailing and bed-wetting from the alarmists bolstered by yet more draconian government taxes and regulations, together with mass famine.
The important thing is we can’t just let this pass without undoing the fiscal damage that has been done. If this turns out to have been a load of hooey, we need to eliminate the subsidies, these “carbon footprint” regulations, and other fiscal penalties we have imposed on our economy. Reams of regulations will need to be rolled back.
Glad to hear that Steve McIntyre is OK. I know that blogging costs a lot of time and may go at the cost of family and bussiness. So, both to Steve and Anthony (and moderators), thanks for your time and please take some time for yourself and your bussiness, we still need you in good (including financial) health when necessary…
I agree the time is absolutely right to challenge the science journals that have degenerated into political advocates. However, I think it needs some serious thought about how to filter and distill contributions to make its jewels accessible to a wider audience than those with the time and interest to read everything submitted.
One possibility is to have two levels, which would mirror what is done in the traditional journal system. The immediate level contains everything. But then there is a separate “Review” series which periodically distills and summarises the progress in the field referencing the important contributions that have been made.
“scientific consensus!”. I had to turn off the radio, such was my disgust at having voted for the maroon in 2008
Black, coloured or moron ? Maroon that’s a horrible colour especially on a car. Difficult to polish. 🙂
Adam says:
Anthony,
I’ve asked before but I’ll ask again: I would love if you could post any tips you have learned about how to write a successful blog. Clearly you know how, and clearly the greens need the lesson.
===========================================================================
Here, I’ll get you started Anthony:
Some of it must be “getting it right.” Joe Romm doesn’t and his blog has folded. Anthony seems to take a lot of care here.
Some of it must be maintaining good manners—Anthony has probably been tempted many times but he’s kept his composure remarkably well and treats people, gently, as people first, last and always. That said, he’s not afraid to stamp on deserving toes when it’s needed.
Some of it must be maintaining his sense of humour and not keeping it on a chain — see his “Anthony the Terrorist” articles for amusing and humorous story telling.
Some of it is a wide spread of interests—all of which he keeps himself well informed on and up to date—to feature in the blog.
Some of it is courage:
– he found temperature recording sites which were below par and set about researching the rest, recording his findings and writing a paper about them, which was duly published. That takes determination and courage.
– he started the blog (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong here…) to help the climate warming cause. He soon discovered the boon-doggle and learnt the truth. He wasn’t afraid to change his stance, and did so, which takes courage.
Some of it is honesty. (See courage). He plays straight ball all the way with his readers. They keep coming back.
Some of it is not becoming dogmatic. He presents the facts, allows/encourages/leads debate, but doesn’t push a dogmatic position. His position is obvious but then that’s where the facts point.
Some of it is cultivating and building a good group of contributors—and that doesn’t “just happen” because they have to “get it right” too.
Some of it is finding the sites which provide the background data for his interests….
… and some of it is the crew of volunteer moderators. (Take a bow folks.)
That’s a start. Let’s crowd source the rest. 🙂
A quick glance at many of the alarmist blogs shows that their traffic has indeed dried. Many fewer posts and way fewer comments. Even the reliably bonkers commentariat the The Guardian seem to have faded back into well-deserved obscurity.
So where do the True Believers go nowadays to get their dose of alarmism and peer-reinforcement? Have they truly just given up in the blogosphere? Or have they just found another breeding ground?
Any ideas?
L. Alder,
Maybe the number of “True Believers” is dwindling?
Great to hear that Steve is OK. I visit his site at least once a day and was getting worried that something was up.
Keep up the good work folks!
Thanks, Anthony, for the site, and all the dedication and hours and opportunity-dollars you have put into it.
>> David Ball says:
April 14, 2012 at 5:42 pm
The idea that the skeptics are a “well funded denier machine” is infuriating. So sick of reading warmists lies. <<
There have been many blogs, books and articles that have let sunlight in on the anaerobic CAGW processes. One I hope to see yet is an ironic retelling of the whole story.
Ironies abound. Who cannot smile at COP15 Copenhagen 2009 – when the conference to finally nail down global warming was met with freezing weather and snow; when every stretch limo in Europe had to be driven to Denmark to ensure the community of UNO delegates could achieve consensus on their dangerous anthropogenic emissions; and at the theater of Obama's delayed arrival, entirely in vain because the PRC sent a junior representative who organized a separate meeting for BRICS and other countries, which (by accounts) did not invite the POTUS to sit in on it when he dropped by?
I look forward to Rio+20 in the hope that it can fulfill my expectations for irony – they are quite high.
Latimer Alder says:
April 15, 2012 at 2:19 am
“So where do the True Believers go nowadays to get their dose of alarmism and peer-reinforcement? Have they truly just given up in the blogosphere? Or have they just found another breeding ground?”
OWS/”American Spring”/class warfare/DailyKos. CAGW was a tool for many to bring down Western capitalism; now it is acceptable to attack Western capitalism directly and the scapegoat CAGW is redundant.
The trouble is that the policies that came out of “global warming er climate change” is being stealthily instituted into the towns and cities of the USA via ICLEI. Yes, your town’s planning board probably already has UN Agenda 21’s ‘smart growth’ and ‘sustainability’ in it and we are losing our property rights and our freedoms because of it. Your local planning board is not listening to what we are saying on these websites and blogs, they already have the going green policies in place. Check it out, is your town or city a member of ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives)? Even if your town is not a dues paying member your ‘general plan’ probably has these policies in place. On of the things we have to do is kick ICLEI out of our towns and cities. Easier said than done as most citizens are not even aware of what has been happening.
Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEHWsdimVO4 for a really entertaining and informative talk on the subject!!
Thanks for the update on Steve M. Vive le McIntyre! or something like that.
Friendly reminder, posted here due to some comments: A lot of people who visit Anthony’s blog (I’ve been a daily reader since 2007, iirc, I know I sent money to surfacestations when it was announced) aren’t from the US. When the comments (and sometimes the articles) delve into US specific politics you risk alienating a lot of people who otherwise hold the same views.
I’m Swedish. If you want my opinion on US politics you have two parties to the extreme right, with only minor differences to quibble about. We don’t see the same “conservatives against CAGW, liberals pro” as you do.
I’m an active Pirate Party member. A libertarian of the I-don’t-care-about-left-or-right-politics kind – see http://www.politicalcompass.org/analysis2 – and I support the Occupy Wall Street movement. I support Wikileaks, meritocracy and Openness as a general theme in all aspects of business (including how to do peer-reviewed research).
I realize this blog is hosted in the US by someone from the US, and that you’re currently (aren’t you always?) in some sort of election process. Just make sure the rhetoric helps instead of hurts, and that you at some point in the future manage to get away from your current two-party dictatorship: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma
(Yes, I’m assuming I’m not the only non-US visitor included in those WUWT traffic numbers 😉
Just a click away on your blog link to Climate Progress and I find scant pretense to science, it’s politics all the way….lots of KoolAid, both shaken and stirred. It could be frightening to learn that pro-oil outside groups spent $16 million on energy attack ads since January if you were unaware of how miniscule that amount is …. drop in the bucket…. compared to the amount spent on the ginned up hype the Rommulans deal in. WUWT’s mention will have prompted a sizable increase in traffic and their formatting appears sexier than formerly….some professional tricksters added to the bench, likely, and, of course, they’ll be paid, unlike WUWT volunteers.
I guess Climate and Progress just don’t go together.
“…Round 2 of the Great Game will need to be more heavily grounded in specific areas than was Round 1…”
______________
Might start with a grounding in reality.
Whatever happened to Romm’s “Permanent Drought”?
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/romms-permanent-drought/
Troed Sångberg says:
April 15, 2012 at 4:49 am
“I’m Swedish. If you want my opinion on US politics you have two parties to the extreme right, with only minor differences to quibble about.”
Hi Swedish pirate. I’m German. You’re extremely uninformed about the US parties.
I don’t think your party is libertarian. The German pirate party has by now not been able to formulate ANY economic policy in their party program. I think your international movement will undergo party purges and come out on the left.
Troed Sångberg says:
April 15, 2012 at 4:49 am
“I’m Swedish. If you want my opinion on US politics you have two parties to the extreme right, with only minor differences to quibble about.”
Or maybe I misunderstood you – and you ARE informed about the american parties. In which case, you have just self-identified as an EXTREME leftist… so maybe the extreme left has now just annexed the term “libertarian”, just like lesser leftists in the US had annexed the term “liberal” for them… One of the German pirates who managed to get himself elected into the Berlin city parliament runs around in a Keffiye all day long… Maybe we can say goodbye to the term “libertarian” now.
@polistra: ” You can’t see the force, and you can’t measure its reluctance, but the Chosen Ones have Secret Knowledge.”
Well said! I wonder, by the way, if it is really Secret Knowledge they have, or rather Secret Belief.
@Latimer
They’re just regrouping for an all out assault leading up to Rio+20.
Regarding the AR5, most seem to be missing the real purpose of it. The AR5 is supposed to be better at predicting regional scale climate events. Almost 2 years ago I pointed out an organization called CLIVAR (http://www.clivar.org/) set up specifically for that purpose.
One can imagine the press releases then, if per chance the alarmists were able to “predict” a drought or flood somewhere.
This scam is not dead, it’s not even dying. This scam is run by the UN, they will pursue it for a couple of generations if necessary.
There is and never will be a shortage of politicians looking for new ways to tax us. There is and never will be a shortage of wannabe planet savers.
The UN has had no difficulty convincing national leaders of this scam (with the noted exception of Czech President Claus). The ONLY difficulty for the UN is in extracting the taxes out of national governments.
Re CA and Mcintyre: Me thinks interested in all things climate is waning pretty rapidly includes both warmists and skeptics because no one is interested any more in flat temperatures and no change scenarios, lies and fraud which are also gettting so obvious and repetitive (see real-science Goddards site). On another note Bishop Hill blog no longer requests emails addresses for posting. Has WUWT considered this in the light of Gleick like activities by big brother? After all you need to to is check the posting BEFORE and then dismiss or approve
[Reply: Anthony has taken the middle road between complete unaccountability, and registering in order to be able to comment. It’s his site, and he has made a reasonable decision. ~dbs, mod.]
Smokey says: @ April 14, 2012 at 6:13 pm
“Anyway, the warmist crowd helps the numbers: more than 111 million unique hits, and counting. Also approaching a million reader comments; a more interesting metric. Maybe those Big Oil checks will start flowing after all.☺”
________________________
I Doubt it Smokey, since BIG OIL is funding the other side. I have always thought the paltry amount Exxon gave Heartland was so the warmists would have something to point to.
The Rockefellers are still part of Exxon but no longer in control.
Ain’t follow the money fun? And here we though they were supporting CAGW out of the goodness of their hearts and not as a money making scam.
No, this is quote of the week …
Genuine statement through current NASA employee …
“My son is a nuclear physicist with NASA and knows GHG theory is bogus and NASA distorts AGW data. BHO won’t allow Civil Servants to express skepticism. James Hanson is actual spokesman for NASA on GHG theory, picked by Al Gore and BHO”
This was said by a father to a contact I have who spoke personally with that father on April 13th.
@DirkH
Sorry, but calling me “extreme left” just proved my point 😉 See the link to the Political Compass. A recent study done on Swedish Pirate Party members place them squarely on the libertarian half, but all over the left-right one (myself I’m smack in the middle). The notion that all politics can be divided up into “left” and “right” is a faulty one, and the rhetoric about “liberals” I sometimes see here on WUWT doesn’t do its international readership any good. Many of us just don’t see a difference between D and R 😉
(I don’t want this to become a thread about politics. My point was that we should be able to talk about CAGW _without_ referring to US-specific left/right notions)
Troed Sångberg says …April 15, 2012 at 4:49 am:
“I’m Swedish. If you want my opinion on US politics you have two parties to the extreme right,”
***
Like you, I’ve been a daily reader here for years.
And apparently like you, I also have little use for the mindless “party think” we see from our US politcal animals, including media and a few too many voters … whether donkeys or elephants. Thus, independence of mind is vital when voting.
Unlike you, however, my opinion on US politics is that neither of our two parties lean right, much less “extreme right”. But then, that’s where your perspective – from afar – is of interest.
Many thanks for your refresh perspectives. Let’s hear some more.
James Lovelock :I think the sceptic bloggers should worry. It’s almost certain that you can’t put a trillion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere without something nasty happening. This is going to resolve itself and global heating is going to come back on stream and it’s these bloggers who are going to be made to look weird when it does.
More: http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/james-lovelock-perspectives-on-climate-science-and-the-blogosphere/
I respect James Lovelock as a great scientist and philosopher but that doesn’t mean that he is always correct in each of his pronouncements.
“What a maroon!” — http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/52/messages/630.html (Runyan-eqsue humor from B. Bunny.
It never fails but that libtard attempts to hold a public communication, radio, blogs, etc., always tend to topple into oblivion if they are based around something that can be fact checked or openly debated.
More evidence that the warmists opinion mongers are funded by the big money Soros types. They can’t stand up on their own. This funding is a concerted effort to impose Agenda 21 tyranny on the world. They no longer see a need for billions of people on this earth and are working to shrink that problem. Look it up.
Troed Sångberg says:
I’m Swedish. If you want my opinion on US politics you have two parties to the extreme right, with only minor differences to quibble about. We don’t see the same “conservatives against CAGW, liberals pro” as you do.
I think Troed’s viewpoint is based on a worldview that concedes that the politics of CAGW are correct and only the science of CAGW is at issue.
There was never any science behind CAGW once you got past the “just so” story (see Kipling) of “CO2 is a greenhouse gas, CO2 is increasing, temps are increasing, ergo CO2 caused the warming and it will continue until we all die” meme.
Many Americans and Brits (based on reading their blogs) tend to see CAGW as a political issue as much as a scientific issue. This is my view (although I don’t think Anthony or Steve M or most anti-CAGW bloggers approach it that way, perhaps wisely).
People like Anthony have won the scientific argument, amazingly enough, since he and his ilk are tiny Davids against all the power of the governmental and academic (same thing) science establishment.
However, I fear that that victory has done little or nothing to slow the progress of the cause of environmental socialism. Yes, constant repetition of “the end is near” from the CAGW establishment helped the sheeple accept (and even love) their new environmentalist masters but even though their “facts” are shown to be false, their goals have not changed and their plan to use CAGW to advance a socialist world governement that would eliminate personal and economic freedom (really, the same thing) is still ongoing (albeit in a quieter manner).
Since the CAGW campaign was never based on real science it cannot be defeated by showing that the science is faulty.
CAGW was, and still is, a political movement determined to turn power over to technocrats since “free markets are evil and are destroying the world.” The goal is to produce a “new environmental man” since the socialists failed to produce the “new socialist man” so spectacularly.
I think it is necessary to discredit the pseudo science of CAGW but it is not sufficient to elimate the threat that it is used to justify. The real issue is whether personal freedom (and the resulting free market) is too dangerous to allow. Must we, for our own good, be ruled by our “superiors” who will lead us back to a golden age where each gives according to their ability and takes according to their need or can the common man be allowed the freedom to make their own economic choices?
Troed Sångberg says:
April 15, 2012 at 6:42 am
“@DirkH
Sorry, but calling me “extreme left” just proved my point ;)”
You called the US parties extreme right, so obviously, relative to them, you are extreme left. Otherwise, they could not be to the extreme right from you. Simple logic.
“I don’t want this to become a thread about politics.”
I have no problem with it. A serious question. Is there ANY OFFICIAL statement from ANY of the global pirate parties about what economic policy they would desire?
Since arriving at this blog some while ago I have found it the best source of climate/weather science and information. Anthony is clearly a decent, honest and fair man. He has made changes to his lifestyle out of a genuine and realistic concern for the environment and energy
conservation which I doubt many of his critics could match. He has achieved tremendous success despite having an 85% sensory-neural hearing loss since his early teens.
Anthony has a business providing weather stations and custom weather monitoring solutions. Anyone interested in buying anything to do with the weather/climate should support Anthony and visit the Weather Shop:
http://www.weathershop.com/
WUWT readers can also, of course, donate to the very exciting Surfacestations.org project:
http://www.surfacestations.org/donate.htm
http://www.surfacestations.org/
In addition to Anthony there is a dedicated team of contributors and moderators who deserve our thanks and respect for all the very hard work that goes into this blog.
I believe that scientists must not be ashamed of finding that a hypothesis or theory is wrong; it prevents others from travelling down the wrong road and so helps scientific progress. Their work is just as important as the work of those who develop a new theory which appears to agree with experiment and observation but which may in time also be proved wrong by others.
To paraphrase Kipling:
If you can make one heap of all your findings
And risk it on experiment and observation,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never cease your creative motivation
You’ll be a scientist…
Perhaps there should also be a donation button just for this blog.
@GaryP
I’m not sure I follow, but personally I’m quite hard core scientifically minded and hold Popper dear. I consider CAGW to be an interesting hypothesis that has so far failed making verifiable predictions, and other hypotheses exist that do better. Thus I’m not of the opinion that neither the science nor the politics of CAGW is correct.
(On the contrary – being libertarian I’m as anti global political control structures you can possibly get)
@Pete
Thanks! I don’t post here that often, but I dislike the creation of a polarized environment where none is needed 🙂
@DirkH
The link I asked you to visit shows most US politicians as belonging in the top right quadrant of the political compass. Thus, by definition the middle ground in the rest of the world would be “left” of them. Conceding the authority to define what’s normal to the majority, it would be more correct to name both D and R as being “right”.
As to your question about what left-right policy a party that thinks the left-right axis is of less importance than the authoritarian-libertarian axis is I consider it moot. You might as well want to ask existing left-right parties where they are on the authoritarian-libertarian axis – and you’d be surprised at the answers!
(For those with a US worldview, you’ve got both big-state and small-state Republicans in the same party, while they would be considered very different if mapped onto the Political Compass)
Take the test and look through the analysis – it’s Sunday after all 🙂
http://www.politicalcompass.org/test
One explanation that would fit the decline in Warmista blog activity: the shills rewarded for activism are rewarded based on effectiveness. If they are viewed as ineffective, the funding dries up. What’s going to happen to RC when Fenton Communications decides not to renew the domain and stops paying the monthly hosting fees? Are these masters of using other people’s money going to dig deep into their own pockets?
Troed Sångberg says:
April 15, 2012 at 8:06 am
“As to your question about what left-right policy a party that thinks the left-right axis is of less importance than the authoritarian-libertarian axis is I consider it moot. You might as well want to ask existing left-right parties where they are on the authoritarian-libertarian axis – and you’d be surprised at the answers! ”
I was asking you for a link to ANY OFFICIAL statement by ANY of the pirate parties, and you have given me your answer. I thank you. It is the answer I expected.
Baa Humbug says:
….This scam is not dead, it’s not even dying. This scam is run by the UN, they will pursue it for a couple of generations if necessary….
_______________________________________
You are correct. The movers and shakers want a carbon tax and they will get it by hook or by crook. For example, the United Nations and the multi-national Ag corporations want to kill off independent farmers as part of the Agenda 21 “Sustainability” concept.
In the USA the push to regulate (and kill off) independent farmers started in 1940’s. SEE: History, HACCP and the Food Safety Con Job
It escalated in the 1990’s. SEE: 1993 to 2009 Timeline
Again the UN is intertwined in national politics:
HACCP
1960’s HACCP(Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system) is developed by Pillsbury.
1993 Published: International HACCP guidelines developed by the Codex Alimentarius, a joint Programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)and the World Health Organization (WHO). revised in 1997. http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/005/Y1579E/y1579e03.htm
On July 25, 1996 HACCP is implemented in the USA by the FDA without a Congressional law. “Under the HACCP rule, industry is responsible for assessing potential food safety hazards and systematically preventing and controlling those hazards. FSIS is responsible for verifying that establishments’ HACCP systems are working …” http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/Evolution_of_RBI_022007.pdf Food borne illness doubles in following years as FDA closes food testing labs.
1993 FAO prepares “the Global Strategy for the Management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources” ftp://ftp.fao.org/ag/cgrfa/cgrfa11/r11w9e.pdf
September 1995,Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program, and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, stated “Food is power. We use it to change behavior. Some may call that bribery. We do not apologize.” UN’s 4th World Conference on Women: Beijing, China. http://ngin.tripod.com/280702c.htm
1996 The Destruction of animals, Disposal procedures and Decontamination operation procedures is published http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/y0660e/Y0660E00.htm
2001 FAO Manual of procedures for disease eradication by stamping out http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/004/Y0660E/Y0660E00.HTM
In 2001 the UK suffers billions of pounds in losses as well as suicides as the FAO’s “disease eradication by stamping out” is put into practice. http://www.warmwell.com/footmoutheye.html
Now the gloves are off and the talk of “Global Governance” is out in the open.
http://www.un.org/documents/ga/conf166/ngo/950307140407.htm
[CIA FOIA PDF] National Intelligence Council & European Union Institute for Security Studies Report “Global Governance 2025: At a Critical Juncture”
WTO NEWS: Director General Lamy sees need for “right global governance” to meet global challenges
We lost the fight over who controls the money supply years ago especially since the signing of the so-called accord, in March of 1951… a particularly nasty bit of sleight-of-hand. We lost control of our food supply in 2010, and we are rapidly losing the fight over CO2 is a pollutant that must be taxed. I expect to see a “Carbon Tax” of some nature passed during the Lame Duck Session after the elections in November.
The Federal Reserve Act was passed December 23, 1913
The Food Safety Modernization Act was passed on Sunday night, December 19, 2010
Congress dearly loves to shaft Americans right before Christmas when we are not paying attention, so beware this coming December.
I too, am skeptical of CAGW demise. The need for “warm fuzzy” feelings is as great as ever. Modern people will continue to crave warm and fuzzy, and will pay ANY costs (your money) to feel they are contributing to the greater good (everyone warm and fuzzy). Reality has very little impact on such narcotic addiction. Junkies cannot be cured, but their addictions can be redirected. Just don’t hold your breath! GK
Ken Coffman , dpends on how is paying Fentons bills , after all they have honset commitment to ‘the cause’ as there are afterall a knife in the back for hire. So some one or something is pushing them to put so much of their time and effort into support it .
I suspect they’re too dense to understand this, but the only reason DeSmog traffic ticked up during the Peter Gleick, Fakegate affair was because the readers of WUWT and other skepic blogs wanted to check out what the apologists were saying.
If Anthony wanted to do a test, all he’d have to do is announce some shameless propaganda being posted over there (which he could truthfully do almost any day of the week), and then watch the numbers. 😉
There appears to be a long list of unsolvable scientific and policy problems for the extreme global warming supporters. It is quite amazing how long the manipulation of data and models to push an agenda has gone on.
It is quite amazing that the general public has supported the spending of billions of dollars on the green scams which were justified to “save the planet” from climate change. Hopefully reason and logic will eventually prevail.
Satellite data shows planetary cloud cover in the tropics increases or decreases to resist forcing changes (negative feedback). If the planet’s feedback response is negative a doubling of atmospheric CO2 will result in less than 1C with most of the warming at high latitudes. The lack of warming supports the negative feedback research.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/warrenmeyer/2012/02/09/understanding-the-global-warming-debate/
“The problem for global warming supporters is they actually need for past warming from CO2 to be higher than 0.7C. If the IPCC is correct that based on their high-feedback models we should expect to see 3C of warming per doubling of CO2, looking backwards this means we should already have seen about 1.5C of CO2-driven warming based on past CO2 increases. But no matter how uncertain our measurements, it’s clear we have seen nothing like this kind of temperature rise. Past warming has in fact been more consistent with low or even negative feedback assumptions.”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,662092,00.html
“Even though the temperature standstill probably has no effect on the long-term warming trend, it does raise doubts about the predictive value of climate models, and it is also a political issue. For months, climate change skeptics have been gloating over the findings on their Internet forums. This has prompted many a climatologist to treat the temperature data in public with a sense of shame, thereby damaging their own credibility.
“It cannot be denied that this is one of the hottest issues in the scientific community,” says Jochem Marotzke, director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. “We don’t really know why this stagnation is taking place at this point.”
Just a few weeks ago, Britain’s Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research added more fuel to the fire with its latest calculations of global average temperatures. According to the Hadley figures, the world grew warmer by 0.07 degrees Celsius from 1999 to 2008 and not by the 0.2 degrees Celsius assumed by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. And, say the British experts, when their figure is adjusted for two naturally occurring climate phenomena, El Niño and La Niña, the resulting temperature trend is reduced to 0.0 degrees Celsius — in other words, a standstill.”
The extreme AGW supporters appear to live in a fantasy world. The political solution to implement “the plan” is a new UN body with special powers that will “be capable of instilling a permanent crisis lasting decades, if not centuries.”
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/03/17/effective-world-government-will-still-be-needed-to-stave-off-climate-catastrophe/
“A policy article authored by several dozen scientists appeared online March 15 in Science to acknowledge this point: “Human societies must now change course and steer away from critical tipping points in the Earth system that might lead to rapid and irreversible change. This requires fundamental reorientation and restructuring of national and international institutions toward more effective Earth system governance and planetary stewardship.”….
…Among the proposals: a call to replace the largely ineffective U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development with a council that reports to the U.N. General Assembly, at attempt to better handle emerging issues related to water, climate, energy and food security. The report advocates a similar revamping of other international environmental institutions….
…Unfortunately, far more is needed. To be effective, a new set of institutions would have to be imbued with heavy-handed, transnational enforcement powers. There would have to be consideration of some way of embracing head-in-the-cloud answers to social problems that are usually dismissed by policymakers as academic naivete. In principle, species-wide alteration in basic human behaviors would be a sine qua non, but that kind of pronouncement also profoundly strains credibility in the chaos of the political sphere. Some of the things that would need to be contemplated: ….Would any institution be capable of instilling a permanent crisis mentality lasting decades, if not centuries? How do we create new institutions with enforcement powers way beyond the current mandate of the U.N.? Could we ensure against a malevolent dictator who might abuse the power of such organizations?
Meanwhile back in the real world:
“Germany’s Solar Industry Is In Trouble As Its Biggest Company Goes Bankrupt”
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-04-04/europe/31285529_1_q-cells-renewable-energy-solar-power-industry#ixzz1s8BRSpQk
Q-Cells, one of the biggest solar cell manufacturers in Germany and the world, has filed for bankruptcy, Spiegel Online reports. It’s the fourth German solar energy company to go bust in recent times.
Germany has been struggling with the decision to replace nuclear energy completely with renewable energy for a while. They are already struggling with a shortfall, which they have been forced to combat with exported nuclear energy in a seemingly counterproductive move.
Thank you to my fellow commentors who were able to flesh out my concerns about CAGW being the tool of the movement seeking totalitarian control of our lives rather than simply a controversy about climate science.
The battle over the facts of climate science is important but means little if the battle for individual liberty is lost.
So Joe Romm had his suitcase packed for him. Can’t think of a better candidate for being ignored by everyone. Now, how nice it would be if the same thing happened to James Hoggan and desmogblog. He’s almost as uncivil a cretin as Romm is.
The other bad news is that from all appearances the US economy is going to remain flat for a long time. Meaning that AGW is going to remain a backseat issue regardless of who’s in the administration. Speaking of which, maybe for the first time in its history, West Virginia WON’T vote Democrat. Then we will know that the worm has truly turned for the public.
So Big Joe’s collapse may be just part of an ongoing stream of rats bailing off the sinking ship, holed by the torpedo of public indifference. I’m sufficiently uncharitable enough to be captured by a vision of Joe up to his neck, clutching for a life preserver… and not finding one.
Robert E. Phelan and Bennet,
Yes, I’ve learned too. I’m voting a split ticket this time- 1/4 Ron Paul, 1/4 Mitt Romney, and 1/2 Barrack Obama. Oh wait, guess that means I have to vote Obama again because I prefer the lunacy of the greens (who I don’t think Obama is listening to very much, but needs to get re-elected) to the lunacy of Romney’s war hawks and tea party ideologues or Paul’s Austrian economists. There may be an internet presidential inauguration which will be worth considering. As Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” It looks like the CAGW crazyness is dying, not with a bang, but a wimper, and will continue to do so no matter who is elected.
Bennett says: @ April 14, 2012 at 8:01 pm
@Robert E. Phelan
Thanks man, I appreciate the slack.
I’ve learned and grown since ’08, and frankly, McCain and what’s-her-name still seem like a bad option, but then so did Obama.
_________________________
Wouldn’t it be nice to finally get to vote FOR someone for a change? It all seems like a dog and pony show for the masses while business as usual continues for those who are actually in power. Note how the unelected bureaucracy never seems to do anything but grow and regulations are pretty much “exempt” from the Constitutional right of a jury by your peers. Instead of English common law; you are free to do anything not specifically against the law; we are now rapidly approaching defacto Napoleonic law; everything is illegal unless specifically allowed by the state.
Bill Tuttle says: @ April 14, 2012 at 9:19 pm
…. My neighbor’s kid goes to Rutgers and was unaware that you could take *direct* measurements of temperature and atmospheric composition by sending radiosondes ‘waaaay up in the sky
________________________________
THAT is truly frightening.
Allan MacRae says: @ April 14, 2012 at 11:13 pm
A proposed new procedure to publish scientific papers and conduct peer review:…
Why don’t you, or Anthony or Joe, etc. establish a website specifically for parties to publish their climate research papers and have them critiqued – the rules could be simple – publish your paper with all data and all supporting calculations. Anyone can critique your paper provided they mind their manners, dot their i’s and cross their t’s. No gates and no gatekeepers. I expect that you would soon leave these once-prestigious journals and their gatekeepers in the dust.
___________________________________
I do not think it should be websites specifically for publishing papers but instead a category within the already established websites.
WUWT and others already have a large following and that should be taken advantage of. It also allows the websites to grow and mature over time.
Anthony, his mods and contributors do a great job and much appreciated. As for the issue of “a well funded denialist machine” I have to wonder thy Anthony uses WordPress. 😉
The scare will eventually dissapate and Anthony’s blog might get fewer visitors. 😉 I think that one reason for the great number of visitors is because AGWers, Greens, Media and politicians have waged a relentless campaign against the scientific method / observations and to stiffle voices that disagree. So we all went looking for different avenues to make our voices heared.
This over fed zombie is not dead yet and there are more battles ahead, but die it will. A slow death.
I wonder what their criteria are. Defending the safety of fracking? Some wishy-washy feel-good ads about how we’re all trying to conserve? I doubt there have been any oil-funded “attack” ads challenging the Climate Casandras.
J. Philip Peterson says: @ April 15, 2012 at 4:19 am
Check it out, is your town or city a member of ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives)….
Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEHWsdimVO4 for a really entertaining and informative talk on the subject!!
________________________________
Wow, that is the best analysis I have seen and it is great it is coming from a Democrat Activist. Now if she can wake up more of the democrats.
Jimbo says:
April 15, 2012 at 12:37 pm
“The scare will eventually dissapate and Anthony’s blog might get fewer visitors. 😉 I think that one reason for the great number of visitors is because AGWers, Greens, Media and politicians have waged a relentless campaign against the scientific method / observations and to stiffle voices that disagree. So we all went looking for different avenues to make our voices heared. ”
Well, that was what brought us here for sure. But WUWT has become the place to go to for realtime data. It’s sticky. Nobody will go back to MSM articles describing the terrible sea ice melt in endless comparisons (Manhattans per minute anyone?) when he knows where to get the graphs.
Also, you can count on our alarmist friends to switch to cooling alarmism anytime now.
Tom Harley says:
April 14, 2012 at 9:05 pm
OssQss says:
April 14, 2012 at 7:04 pm
Anthony, I have been a successful entrepreneur for decades. The time is right for you to grow. I am an interested investor, as passed on in emails.
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A publication devoted to science to take the place of those propaganda outlets Nature, Scientific American, New Scientist, and the like, with Anthony at the helm looks good to me…a big market with all the moderators, commenters, readers and lurkers here for a start.
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To put it another way, an investment in SCIENCE would be greatly appreciated. Just SCIENCE. Not politics, not grant/rent-seeking, not world-saving–just pure, simple, honest, open, transparent, reproducible/refutable SCIENCE.
You know, old school SCIENCE. What we all fell in love with, way back when, and mostly still are (us here).
Can the Zombie of CAGW survive without BRAAAAINS!
“Troed Sångberg says:
April 15, 2012 at 4:49 am
I’m Swedish. If you want my opinion on US politics you have two parties to the extreme right, with only minor differences to quibble about. We don’t see the same “conservatives against CAGW, liberals pro” as you do.
I’m an active Pirate Party member.”
When you see me commenting on Swedish politics you’ll know I’m strongly interested in your opinion on US politics. But don’t hold your breath (on either possibility).
I don’t know whether the phrase “Pirate Party” carries some seriousness in Sweden. From an American’s perspective, it sounds not much different from the “Clown Party”. But maybe it’s a translation issue.
“boston12gs says:”
blah, blah, blah . . .
In any case, I thought this was intended as a SCIENCE forum. Don’t we have enough to talk about without having to deal with a Swede’s questionably (to say the least) informed opinion of American political dynamics (one might ask just how far left one has to be in order to seriously perceive Obama as being “right-wing”)? More to the point, when was the last time on this forum an American posted a critique of the Swedish political system?
We are now merging with ThinkProgress Green, and that means we’ll be adding two new regular bloggers, Jessica Goad, manager of research and outreach for CAP’s Public Lands Project, and Rebecca Leber, a ThinkProgress blogger and research assistant. They join Stephen, me, and all the regular Climate Progress contributors from the CAP energy team and blogging news room.
Shouldn’t that be under “Quote of the Weak”…?
Gail Combs says:
April 15, 2012 at 12:09 pm
Bill Tuttle says: @ April 14, 2012 at 9:19 pm
…. My neighbor’s kid goes to Rutgers and was unaware that you could take *direct* measurements of temperature and atmospheric composition by sending radiosondes ‘waaaay up in the sky
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THAT is truly frightening.
It was a teaching opportunity. Got him enthused about model rocketry as a result, and I have the (since repaired) hole in my tool shed to prove it…
There are several aspects to this blog.
The science, which I enjoy unless it falls into a Leif Vukevic slanging match.
The updates on the global warming news, which is really why I come here. The redefinition of science as consensus is very worrying to me.
And then there’s the politics. That is parochial and of no interest to me. From the UK perspective both your parties are right wing. Yes, they are. Obamacare is not the NHS. And as a socialist I like the NHS. But that’s why I (usually) comment on politics on the Guardian website (a UK website) and leave you Yanks to your US politics.
@boston12gs
There’s no translation issue 😉 It’s no longer Sunday, but when you feel like reading:
“Europe’s youngest, boldest, and fastest growing political movement: the Pirate party.”
“In three years, they gained their first seat in the European parliament (they now have two) and became the largest party in Sweden for voters under 30. Since then they’ve gained political representation in Germany and swept large parts of Europe.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/22/rick-falkvinge-swedish-radical-web-freedoms
“In just four years the new arrival has overtaken the Green Party to become Germany’s third most popular political grouping, with 13 per cent support.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0412/1224314639181.html
That’s why you really need to get out from your two party deadlock in the US. There’s no room for change – real change.
(And to the topic of this blog – Pirates are technologically progressive, not repressive)
Bennet,
If you’re still around to read this, please vote. I don’t take it as a right or a privilege, but as a duty, for the whole project goes to hell if we don’t vote. Hell, that’s true even in Illinois, where my national candidates never stand a chance! And look where that’s gotten us :<
Troed Sångberg you need to ‘lighten up’ a little so maybe you could view my favorite youtube video:
and this next one is about how ‘UN agenda 21’ is being implemented locally in the USA:
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEHWsdimVO4 ]