UPDATE: Is is now totally unraveled. The person related to the culling license speaks out, see below.
I feel there will be more crow pie coming on the menu for David Appell and Nick Stokes.
Simon from Australian Climate Madness writes:
This is turning into the story that keeps on giving. After yesterday’s revelation that the one possible “threat” was actually an innocent discussion about culling kangaroos, now Legal Affairs editor Chris Merritt writes in The Weekend Australian:
Media Watch eyes climate scientist death threat claims
AFTER triggering a global news event with reports about death threats against climate scientists, the ABC and Fairfax Media are under investigation by Media Watch after a central plank supporting their reports was found to be non-existent.
Before the flaws in their reports were revealed, their versions of the truth had been picked up by Britain’s The Guardian and the scientific journal Nature.
The critical error in their reports, which has been revealed by The Australian, is that emails held by the Australian National University that were supposed to outline death threats against climate scientists have been independently assessed as containing no death threats.
Those emails were made public on Tuesday after a long Freedom of Information campaign by blogger Simon Turnill.
Full story here
============================================================
UPDATE: On the website “Catalaxy Files” and in comments on WUWT below, the person who is at the center of the alleged “death threat” months before the other emails, identifies himself. Link.
Read it from the beginning here: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2012/05/10/the-dog-ate-my-death-threats-with-garcinia cambogia-ii/
Here’s the comment left on WUWT:
I feel I can now throw some light on the matter. The document viewed as most “threatening” referred to an alleged Deliberation at the ANU about climate change in the Canberra region at which one person “made a death threat” (sic) by showing his gun licence and boasting about his skill as a sniper.. Only two people dropped out of the conference only one of those who did so attended the even meal. Me. I am certainly the one who is alleged to show someone their gun licence. That is not true while at the evening meal (of poor quality) comments moved to eating game meat and I was approached by the Commissioner for the Environment ACT, Dr Maxine Cooper who recognized me as someone involved in the kangaroo culling program in the ACT. She politely asked if she could sit at the vacant seat next to me and asked if I had past the recent licence test – not easy. I replied yes and showed her my current licence. I also impressed on any one interested the high standard of marksmanship necessary to allay any cruelty concerns. I might add that earlier in the day I had challenged two speakers to comment on a letter in the Canberra Times that claimed that temperatures had not increased in the Canberra area for decades. They were unable to do so, having not apparently checked the record despite the the “Deliberation” (conference) supposed to be about rising temperatures in the Canberra region. As all daytime conversations were recorded (we all signed waivers to allow this) this can easily be checked.
I note Readfearn has commented on the “death threat at the conference” in Crikey ,com. He got one thing right I did leave of my own accord. When meal had finished and a piss poor meal it was.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I posted this at ACM:
I want their ‘heads on spikes’ ! ABC, ANU, CT, et al.
Well, at least prominent full page newspaper corrections and apologies, and ABC to produce a 30-min documentary detailing their deceit and corrections.
Anyone not happy with the Guardian misreporting of climate issues should email the editors:
Readers’ Editor
They do read and take note, so stay polite and factual.
“Culling kangaroos” a death threat against scientist that promote Global Warming..er..Man Made Global Warm..er..CACW..er..Climate Change..er..Weather Wierding……, well, they DO jump around alot.
If the ANU scientists considered statements like this —
“We have had enough! Sometime in the future your days of leeching off the tax payers of Australia will end and you will be looking for work in the employment office where you might find a real job and contribute to society in a positive way.” My bolding. http://www.australianclimatemadness.com/2012/05/anu-death-threat-emails-released/
— as death threats, all I can say is [self-snip-snip-snippety-snip-snip-snip]
I would not be surprised if we see a similar result with the investigations in to issues at the UEA CRU. Another helping of whitewash please.
I feel I can now throw some light on the matter. The document viewed as most “threatening” referred to an alleged Deliberation at the ANU about climate change in the Canberra region at which one person “made a death threat” (sic) by showing his gun licence and boasting about his skill as a sniper.. Only two people dropped out of the conference only one of those who did so attended the even meal. Me. I am certainly the one who is alleged to show someone their gun licence. That is not true while at the evening meal (of poor quality) comments moved to eating game meat and I was approached by the Commissioner for the Environment ACT, Dr Maxine Cooper who recognized me as someone involved in the kangaroo culling program in the ACT. She politely asked if she could sit at the vacant seat next to me and asked if I had past the recent licence test – not easy. I replied yes and showed her my current licence. I also impressed on any one interested the high standard of marksmanship necessary to allay any cruelty concerns. I might add that earlier in the day I had challenged two speakers to comment on a letter in the Canberra Times that claimed that temperatures had not increased in the Canberra area for decades. They were unable to do so, having not apparently checked the record despite the the “Deliberation” (conference) supposed to be about rising temperatures in the Canberra region. As all daytime conversations were recorded (we all signed waivers to allow this) this can easily be checked.
I note Readfearn has commented on the “death threat at the conference” in Crikey ,com. He got one thing right I did leave of my own accord. When meal had finished and a piss poor meal it was.
And of course, every word about searing past/present/future CAGW dooms both global and down under ever uttered by those same “cry wolf” pseudo scientists are blinkin accurate… NOT!!!
Like Gleick, liars have problems that in their minds only their lies protect them from. Why lie about death threats? Just what problem are they trying to hide from (and keep from us). Could it be bad science? FOIs and transparency might uncover… what? Just what are they so scared of revealing that they’d invent a worldwide media frenzy about death threats.
Good science practices? Not likely
Excellent data keeping? Again, doubtful.
Superior or even average math? Oh yeah, lie their rears off to hide good math… Nope!
Solid research? Nah.
Avoiding poor assumptions in favor of disciplined objectivity? Somehow I doubt it.
It becomes a long list, just why would a group go to such lengths to paint questioners of science with bald lies?
The Catallaxy Files writes on these events.
The dog ate my death threats II
http://catallaxyfiles.com/page/2/
It seems that Goulburn (a country city council in the Australian Capital Territory [ACT]) and other ACT residents were invited to a 3 day workshop organised by the Australian National University’s [ANU] Centre for ‘Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance’. (report below).
The workshop participants attended a dinner (see p24 session 23 of report), where ……………….
After politely asking if she could sit next to me she asked me how I had gone in the recent licence test which is challenging. I told her I had topped it with a perfect score and showed her my current culling licence, not gun licence, to prove it. The conversation around the table then drifted around the benefits of eating game meat v the poor fare on offer. 🙂
http://catallaxyfiles.com/page/2/
Workshop report (aka Agenda 21 activities parading as academic ‘community’ & ‘engagement’ for policy and further grant proposals). Overview of workshop at p25-7 http://deliberativedemocracy.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/working_papers/CCPSPartReport.pdf
The Death Threats were averted by timely action on the part ImaVictim.
THe press are in the pockets of the alarmists.
So the “death threats” are as fictitious as rising temperatures/sea levels and shrinking polar caps/polar bear populations? Alternatively as well as farting dinosaurs, deaf fish and the risk of an alien invasion,
are some of the kangaroos being threatened with a cull actually climate scientists?
Bill Tuttle says:
May 11, 2012 at 10:31 pm
Oh! I always threaten them with one day having to earn their money so I’m guilty. But I understand their reasoning. The perspective must look like death from their pampered existence. No more free shindigs in Rio and Durban!
P. Solar:
At May 11, 2012 at 10:17 pm you write:
“Anyone not happy with the Guardian misreporting of climate issues should email the editors:
Readers’ Editor
They do read and take note, so stay polite and factual.”
You forgot the ‘/sarc’ after “They do read and take note”.
Richard
Jumping the Roo
Can’t help but note that the Dr Maxine Cooper who triggered the conversation about kangaroo culling which led to the “gun licence” comment was made ACT Government Auditor General recently. Like to think she would have an interest in accuracy and truth!
Interesting to compare the emails above with the real thing coming from demented CAGW supporters as reported by the UK Daily Telegraph –
“Police marksmen shot dead a lone gunman carrying a bomb who had taken three employees hostage at the headquarters of the Discovery Channel near Washington DC…The suspect, James Lee, 43, had previously served two weeks in jail after staging a protest against the channel’s supposed lack of commitment to protecting the environment. …. When Lee organised a protest outside the same building in February 2008, he issued a six-page set of demands to Discovery, saying the channel “must broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet….At his trial, he said he became committed to that cause after being laid off from his job in San Diego. He said he had been inspired by “Ishmael,” a novel by environmentalist Daniel Quinn and by former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”. A lengthy posting on Lee’s website said Discovery and its affiliates should stop “encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants…Instead, he said, the channel should broadcast “programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility.” “Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is,” reads the site. “Saving the Planet means saving what’s left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human population. That means stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies!” it says.
The Al Gore film was shown in many of our schools.
And this is just some of the propaganda that Australian children have had to face –
http://mises.org/daily/2997
and then we had the infamous 10:10 video
Yet again CAGW proponents expose themselves for the utter hypocrites they are!
Background to culling of kangaroos in the Australian Capital Territory
There are many more examples of the ACT government hypocrisy, blaming the kangaroos for their own planning mistakes. Four days after teh cull started, we now find out that the kangaroo numbers that were used to justify this cull were estimated by counting kangaroo poo! How unscientific is that?
http://www.kangaroo-protection-coalition.com/canberrakangaroocull.html
The Department of Defence says the cull is necessary to protect native grasslands and threatened species, and avoid starvation among the kangaroos.
The planned method of slaughter is to tranquillise the animals with the use of darts and then kill them with a lethal injection.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/canberras-kangaroo-cull-begins/2008/05/19/1211182694317.html
Sorry – missing links included for –
Marion says:
May 12, 2012 at 12:58 am
Interesting to compare the emails above with the real thing coming from demented CAGW supporters as reported by the UK Daily Telegraph –
“Police marksmen shot dead a lone gunman carrying a bomb who had taken three employees hostage at the headquarters of the Discovery Channel near Washington DC…The suspect, James Lee, 43, had previously served two weeks in jail after staging a protest against the channel’s supposed lack of commitment to protecting the environment. …. When Lee organised a protest outside the same building in February 2008, he issued a six-page set of demands to Discovery, saying the channel “must broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet….At his trial, he said he became committed to that cause after being laid off from his job in San Diego. He said he had been inspired by “Ishmael,” a novel by environmentalist Daniel Quinn and by former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”. A lengthy posting on Lee’s website said Discovery and its affiliates should stop “encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants…Instead, he said, the channel should broadcast “programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility.” “Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is,” reads the site. “Saving the Planet means saving what’s left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human population. That means stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies!” it says.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7976513/Gunman-shot-after-taking-hostages-at-Discovery-Channel-headquarters.html
The Al Gore film was shown in many of our schools.
And this is just some of the propaganda that Australian children have had to face –
http://mises.org/daily/2997
and then we had the infamous 10:10 video
Yet again CAGW proponents expose themselves for the utter hypocrites they are!
Flashback for Anthony re Dr. Maxine Cooper who, as just sayin’ says above, is now ACT Government Auditor General :
9 May 2009: Warwick Hughes: ACT (Canberra) Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment (Dr. Maxine Cooper) chides BoM re urbanization near Canberra Airport observations site
Anyway, the good Doctor (Cooper) asks the question, “How much do these developments affect the Bureau’s ability to keep using this site as a long-term reference station?”
Heavens above, if Dr Cooper is getting concerned about the Canberra AP site then the list of global sites that that Dr P. D. Jones and the Hadley Centre use to generate “global warming” trends for the IPCC should really give her cause to be alarmed.
And note, Canberra is on the Hadley Centre / Jones list…
COMMENT BELOW: The late great John Daly was onto Canberra Airport some years back. See this graph where he compares its record with Wagga airport: http://www.john-daly.com/stations/canberra.gif …
http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=218
This is exactly why there’s a growing “yeah whatever” feeling. Far to many chicken little predictions. What do they do to counter these…..issue even more chicken little predictions. It’s a vicious cycle and I’m loving it.
I just read all the comments under Nick Stokes’ blog on this topic (it took intestinal fortitude, gotta say). When called out on his pronouncements about these ‘death threats’, Stokes is amazingly agile at picking out one minor point of a challenging argument while completely ignoring the major points.
However, he seems to be of the view that all the evidence is not yet in. “Still, we haven’t heard from others at the dinner”, says Stokes. He also thinks that there may have been other email threats which were deleted by staff when they received them. Further, Stokes maintains,”in the face of what we have, to say there were no threats of harm requires proof.” This reversal of the onus of proof is reminiscent of Trenberth’s similar requirement.
Stokes is unable to see, or at least admit, that the story was hugely overblown by the Vice Chancellor of ANU, who was reported in the ABC thus, “Vice-chancellor Professor Ian Young says the scientists have received large numbers of emails, including death threats and abusive phone calls, threatening to attack the academics in the street if they continue their research.” Prof. Young then went on to call for “a logical public debate” on climate change.
Oh the hypocrisy!
just sayin’ says:
May 12, 2012 at 12:53 am
Can’t help but note that the Dr Maxine Cooper who triggered the conversation about kangaroo culling which led to the “gun licence” comment was made ACT Government Auditor General recently. Like to think she would have an interest in accuracy and truth!
_________________________
YEESH,
So the woman who set him up is now Government Auditor General?? Says a lot about the honest of government doesn’t it? That is almost as bad as having a tax cheat as the US Secretary of the Treasury.
I think you have overstepped the line here. Dr Cooper is a professional and capable Public Servant and I have he highest respect for her
“What’s that Skippy? The polar ice caps are melting and we’re all going to drown? And the climate is passing the point of no return?”
-h/t 1960s kids TV from Oz
Have to agree with John Coochey – As I read it, Dr Maxine Cooper was simply engaging in a conversation with John, which was no doubt overheard by others around the table. There is no evidence that Cooper relayed anything of the conversation to anyone. I would imagine some chicken-little ANU research assistant played chinese whispers with a few other like-feathered birds and the innocent conversation blew up into “He’s got a gun licence and is a marksman sniper AND A SKEPTIC – OMG!!!!”
“Vice-chancellor Professor Ian Young says the scientists have received large numbers of emails, including death threats
I wonder if Prof. Young knows that issuing death threats in the ACT is a criminal matter, punishible by up to 10 years in prison. If its the case that he knew that such threats had been issued to staff of his University, he was duty-bound to report the matter to the police. If such a report was not made, that omission might also be a matter in which the ACT police take an interest.
Wolf-crying can be a serious matter.