“It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity.” – WUWT commenter H.R.
Change of plans.
Below is the note we just sent out to our friends accoss the USA.
Dear Friends,
I think I screwed up.
Yesterday 350.org sent out an email, telling people that we were going to melt a big hunk of ice in the form of the word “Hoax?” in front of Capitol Hill. We asked for money for it, and also for relief efforts for victims of the heat wave. The idea was simple enough: if this epic heatwave gripping the nation has one small silver lining, it’s that its reminding people that global warming is very very real. And the response was strong — we raised the $5000 it would have taken to pull off the event, and far more than that for relief efforts.
But we also heard from old friends, especially in nearby West Virginia, who asked us not to do it. The sight of ice melting while they sweltered would be too hard to take; their region, they pointed out, is as hard hit as any in the country by the heat wave, and it would make people feel like their plight wasn’t being taken seriously. Bob Kincaid, at Coal River Mountain Watch, said: “Our work in Appalachia is hard enough as it is, since we must ever contend with the well-funded coal industry PR machine.” They’d use, he said, the sight of that melting ice to make people feel disrespected.
That makes sense to me.
It’s sometimes hard to balance what we should do in one place with what we should be doing around the globe. Climate denial in the U.S. has huge implications for, say, the two million people in Assam, India, currently flooded out of house and home — it’s really important to fight people who deny science and hold up needed action. But it’s not worth causing trouble to our friends in the process. And the people who fight mountaintop removal in Appalachia are some of our oldest friends; we’ve been, as it were, up and down the mountain with them. Movements only really work when they move together.
So: no ice melting on the mall this morning. We’re sending out whatever the reverse of a press release is called. The money we collected will all go for heat and drought relief, and we hope it will do some good. If you’d like your contribution back, let us know (and we’ll send a separate mailing to everyone who contributed to make sure they get that chance). It’s been a long, hot, tough week everywhere east of the Rockies; let’s hope the heat breaks soon.
Thanks,
Bill McKibben for 350.org
P.S. The note announcing this thing yesterday came from Jamie Henn, our communications director. But the idea was mine, not his. I’m a volunteer in this effort, and there are days when it definitely feels like you get what you pay for.
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Senator Inhofe released this statement this morning before the cancellation:
Inhofe Welcomes Global Warming Alarmists Back to Washington DC
Washington DC – Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, today welcomed 350.org, a group of global warming alarmists, to the National Mall where they will unveil a giant sculpture with the word “HOAX?” carved in ice. According to the group’s website, the event is in response to the igloo that Senator Inhofe’s family built during a snowstorm in Washington back in 2010, which they called “Al Gore’s New Home.”
“Let me be the first to welcome my global warming alarmist friends back to Washington,” Senator Inhofe said. “It’s been a long time: since the complete collapse of the global warming movement, many activists have been missing in action. Think about it, when was the last time anyone heard a Democrat talk about global warming in Congress? Remember, not a single global warming cap-and-trade bill has been debated on the Senate Floor since President Obama took office nearly four years ago, and Democrats have been in control of the Senate the whole time. In fact, the global warming campaign has failed so miserably that President Obama is now pretending to support oil an gas to gain votes for the election. One would think alarmists would be outraged that their leaders never mention global warming, but we’ve heard very little from them. Their loss of support in Washington is an inconvenient truth that often goes unnoticed.
“Back during the blizzards of 2010, my grandchildren had a lot of fun building an igloo outside the Library of Congress that they would call ‘Al Gore’s new home.’ That igloo was the comic relief needed for a public that had grown tired of every summer being used by alarmists as proof of man-made global warming. Today’s sculpture just goes to show that my friends on the left have not learned their lesson. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post warned them shortly after the igloo gained attention not to use weather as proof of man-made global warming. As Milbank wrote, ‘If the Washington snows persuade the greens to put away the slides of polar bears and pine beetles and to keep the focus on national security and jobs, it will have been worth the shoveling.’
“Clearly my global warming alarmist friends have not read my book, The Greatest Hoax. If they had, they would know that alarmism has failed every time, and will fail again and again. In fact, I have yet to find one objective person who has read The Greatest Hoax who doesn’t agree with me. Only a small percentage of meteorologists subscribe to man-made global warming and the American people are no longer buying it. The left has completely lost the debate almost as fast as that ice sculpture will melt on Saturday. But don’t expect Al Gore or President Obama to come out and help them drum up support. These activists are on their own.
“I wish I could have been there in person to join in the ice melting festivities, but 350.org put together this event when Congress is out of session and few elected officials will be in Washington. I do hope they enjoy their day in the sun as much as my family enjoyed our day in the snow.”
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I think other things also contributed:
1. The forecast showed the heat wave breaking, with a reduced high today of 103 from yesterdays 106, with cooler temperatures tomorrow and into next week.
2. The possibility that the image of HOAX? would actually backfire on them. It was a poorly conceived idea to start with.
3. As I mentioned yesterday, the sculpture may have lasted past sunset…into the cooler next day given it was to be 6’x12’ a darned big sculpture. The FAQs below was for a tabletop sized ice sculpture.
http://www.sculptediceworks.com/faqs.htm
A: An Ice Sculpture’s detail will last up to 6 hours indoors, such as a reception hall. For outdoor events, it depends on the temperature and placement of the ice sculpture. Sculptures typically melt about 1/4 of an inch per hour. It is especially important to keep sculptures out of direct sunlight.
The possibility the ice would not melt fast enough for a convincing photo-op loomed large. A 6×12 foot block of ice doesn’t melt in an hour, and we are dealing with “short attention span theatre” when it comes to photo ops. See the video below as they drone on.
4. The ice melt stunt has been done before, as WUWT readers discovered yesterday:
Real reason: “Even we realized how stupid the idea was.” But of course they can’t say it like that.
The scary thing is how fast they reached $5,000. Makes me think of that old Obi Wan quote: “Who’s the bigger fool, the fool, or the fool who follows?”
I know that Global Warming is a hoax, and don’t need ice to remind me, but what’s “climate denial”?
The money will go to heat and drought relief. At Bill’s house, in the backyard, in the form of sprinklers, Slip & Slides, and daiquiris.
All those who oppose coal may protest by not using coal fueled power generation to operate air conditioners.
I bet they are keeping the money.
It wasn’t a hoax, it was a scam.
Wouldn’t want to use the CO2 needed to refrigerate the ice in the first place.
350.org is very closely associated with the “10:10 campaign” folks who brought us the exploding children video:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/09/30/o-m-g-video-explodes-skeptical-kids-in-bloodbath/
I thought that everybody knew that “weather is not climate”
“It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity.”
Real Reason: They read the comments on WUWT and realized it would backfire especially if the weather cooled at the same time.
REPLY: Possible, I know McKibben reads WUWT. May have also been the possibility the ice would not melt fast enough for a convincing photo-op. 6×12 foot block of ice doesn’t melt in an hour, and we are dealing with “short attention span theatre” when it comes to photo ops. – Anthony
The small silver lining I see in their stated retraction is that they acknowledged that the heat was mainly a problem east of the Rockies. Up until now it has been very cool and wet in the Northwest. This coming Sunday it is predicted that we will hit 100 degrees in southeastern Washington State – the first time in 2 years. The norm during the summers here is at least several weeks of triple digits – and we never complain.
They keep using the term “climate denial”. Makes no sense – I mean, who denies climate?
They really should be saying something like “we need to fight positive feedback induced high CO2 temperature sensitivity imputed catastrophic climate disruption denial.” I could get behind that.
Climate denial is apparently what we do here at WUWT.
When it’s hot, we say “no it’s not. And when it’s cold, we say “no it’s not. Same thing for rain, etc.
Hoax? Or Scam? Sounds like the old bait and switch to me.
I’m afraid these people are the ones who are denying science, the earth hasn’t warmed in the last 12 to 15 years:
http://iceagenow.info/2012/07/met-office-warming-15-years/
And I’m insulted that they refer to me as somebody who denies climate. “Climate denial in the U.S.” What’s that?
Whoa. West Virginians are tough, scrappy folk. I don’t understand how the sight of melting ice would be that hard on their psyche. The sight of all the wasted energy it took to create the ice (and the concomitant release of CO2 it took to create the electricity that made the ice) would be much more annoying to me if I were an active 350.org supporter in WV.
To beat the heat, I’d go caving. Always cool there.
“Climate denial in the U.S. has huge implications for, say, the two million people in Assam, India, currently flooded out of house and home ”
Assam wouldn’t by any chance happen to be the country with the highest annual rainfall, would it?
http://www.webindia123.com/Assam/LAND/Climate.htm
“…The sight of ice melting while they sweltered would be too hard to take…”
What a great life they must have when the sight of an ice sculpture melting (viewed from their air-conditioned home and via PC screen, both likely powered by fossil fuels no less) is devastating.
I like the Ad below the post. I don’t know if everybody sees the same one or how long it will stay but the current one I see is for “Cheesemans Ecology Safaris”. This one is a cruise to Antartica with a picture of a penquin.
Anthony, do you plan these things?
350.org just had ANOTHER of their “Unibomber-Heartland” moments….shame…giant melting “HOAX” could have the double-entendre of the AGW HOAX melting. The unwashed masses are so easily distracted by conflicting imagery….maybe some deniers could photoshop a faux melt.
I don’t think I’d call going from 106F to 103F as “breaking a heat wave”. But it does appear that a pattern shift is coming next week and the east will get a break for a couple of days at least.
“Climate denial in the U.S. has huge implications for, say,
1) the two million people in Assam, India, currently flooded out of house and home — it’s really important to fight people who deny science and hold up needed action. But it’s not worth causing trouble to our friends in the process.
2) And the people who fight mountaintop removal in Appalachia are some of our oldest friends; we’ve been, as it were, up and down the mountain with them.
3) Movements only really work when they move together.”
Mckibben writes out the warmist-skeptic problem here. The skeptics argue against catastrophic feed-back mechanisms of water-vapour to a <1C degree rise of global temperatures from a doubling of atmospheric CO2 content. Warmists, as shown here by McKibben, conflate, combine and confuse the issue with their "movement" issues. The 2 million flooded out have nothing to do with the 0.6C rise in global temperatures, but he implies they are the victims of such. He adds his support for removal of mountaintops – aesthetic issue here as described, not pollution or loss of wildlife habitat – as somehow part of the anti-CO2 cause. And, of course, he identifies what they are doing as a "movement".
350.org is going to evolve back into a general environmental and, ultimately, anti-human, population control support group. I guarantee it. As the CO2 monster breaks its teeth, the snorting beast will retire to its cave except for sponsored nostalgia appearances. But the "movement" will live on. Billy will become a Gore and Suzuki stoolie, proud of his association and defense of the undefended.
This ice-block fiasco expresses the level of silliness that the uninhibited eco-green has descended to. His apology is a puff of hot air running around inside a paper bag.
We need more warmists like Billy.
WASHINGTON–On Saturday morning, 350.org will re-examine it’s plans to unveil a giant sculpture on the National Mall—the word “HOAX?” carved in ice. it will not last long, but organizers say that is the point.
See my updates to the story from Inhofe and the FAQs on sculpture melt rate…I think they didn’t want to risk having the thing last so long.
“it’s really important to fight people who deny science and hold up needed action. But it’s not worth causing trouble to our friends in the process. ”
———————————
Because we members of the “TEAM” know how important it is to feel good about everything.
What a low life jerk!
If he believed for an instant CAGW was the cause of “weather events” he would not allow someone’s hurt feeling stop him from single handedly “saving the world”.
Maybe Billy is like me and he doesn’t really believe it, either.
It’s really difficult to get volunteers and news crews out in
100+ F weather just to watch ice melt.
Pictures of ice melting with no crowd to watch is as entertaining
and informative as… well, watching paint dry or ice melt.
They “cancelled” before the embarassment became obvious.
What a fool McKibben’s turned out to be. I used to read him years back. Now he’s so far off the rails it depressess me. What a stupid, pointless, manipulative, childish stunt this was.
P.S.S. “Now we don’t have to pay for the ice, and the cool cash can go directly into our pockets. Makes sense to me.”
We are still waiting for summer to start in the UK . Only two days of back to back warmish weather up to yet the rest way below normal temps , incessantly dull and well above average rainfall, quite enough to float away any ice sculptures but perhaps not warm enough to melt it !!!! Crops are being ruined here as well as peoples holidays ,sporting events, festivals , shopping etc. Believe me guys this is definately not global warming , please stop reducing your CO2 output – we need all the warmth we can get over here .
So Bill McKibben cites Bob Kincaid, who had explained to Bill how hard it is already, having to contend with the “well-funded coal industry PR machine,” and that they would use this ice sculpture to make baby Jesus cwy.
So, pious Bill sees the light, sheds a crocodile tear for getting it wrong, and disingenuously offers the donations back, as if any donor would ever demand that. What a snake.
I’ve not read anything so obviously contrived and downright slimy since Gleick’s fakegate letter. And they thought the general public were stupid enough to fall for that as well.
How did they plan on sustainably manufacturing the ice?
I’m personally convinced that the skeptical cause would be much better off had the notion of a climate hoax never become common. The Piltdown Man was a hoax; evidence of a “missing link” was intentionally fabricated from a modern human skull and a primate jawbone and buried. The perpetrators of the hoax knew it was a fraud. In contrast, I have little doubt most of the scientists driving the IPCC to its preordained conclusions really believe it. At the most, a minority have doubts but believe to wait until the problems with the GCM conflicting with reality are resolved is to risk catastrophic loss of life. It’s so much easier to ignore evidence contrary to your beliefs than it is to intentionally fabricate evidence to support them and I think that’s what has been happening.
It isn’t a hoax, and it never was. Just groupthink science driving us off a cliff. Yelling “hoax!” just opens us up to ridicule as conspiracy nutcases, which, considering the demonizing of energy companies in general and the Kochs in particular, really should be left to the warmistas.
The forecast has changed even more than you said:
This morning, it was 105-106. Now, it’s down to 101 (at Weather.com), with a current temperature of 100. Of course, in the DC humidity, it’s still unbearable, but what’s with the overly-aggressive predictions?
(Actually, this is a great time for monitoring and testing our heat pump. Yeah, I’m a geek.)
R. Shearer says:
July 7, 2012 at 9:50 am
P.S.S. “Now we don’t have to pay for the ice, and the cool cash can go directly into our pockets. Makes sense to me.”
——-
Perhaps the ‘HOAX’ was the ice in the first place, and the money was the actual and only goal?
“The money we collected will all go for heat and drought relief”
—–
Does that mean they’re going to send a large block of ice to everybody?
I think he was afraid the local hospitals couldn’t handle the 5 extra heat strokes victims the crowd might produce.
Damn and I arranged to have temperatures crash from 40 C to 20 C overnight here in Toronto.
Seems like the real reason it didn’t happen is the $5000 was never raised. Maybe in the winter they can get a few bags of charcoal together and melt AGW in the snow.
Instead of wasting energy making and then melting a block of ice how about doing something more like wearing the flag on their arses and actually sending an important message about a very real problem that spells disaster for the country and burn the dollar in effigy to represent the runaway presses and waste like borrowing from China to pay cash for clunkers.
This would be torture to them, then.
http://bit.ly/MKkqc0
The sight of ice melting while they sweltered would be too hard to take;
Then this must seem like torture.
http://bit.ly/MKkqc0
What a shame, I was so looking forward to another idiotic display of gaia hugging, guess I’ll just have to lower my sights and enjoy some mountain top trimming West Virginia style. Can we get sone shaved ice to go with that ?
Someone should make an ice sculpture of Bill Mckibben’s head so we can watch him ‘Weep” as it slowly melts 😉
“we raised the $5000 it would have taken to pull off the event, and far more than that for relief efforts.
But we also heard from old friends, especially in nearby West Virginia, who asked us not to do it. The sight of ice melting while they sweltered would be too hard to take;”
Why would anybody go to the trouble of asking Mckibben not to do it because “The sight of ice melting would be too hard to take” What a ridiculous excuse for realising that he had made such a stupid blunder. Or was ir a blunder? After all it raised him $5,000, “and far more than that for relief efforts” I think Mckibben should publish details of exactly how much he raised and the charities to which he is wending the money for heat and flood relief. Only then will we understand his motives for embarking on this ridiculous exercise. If he doesn’t publish the details then we will know exactly why he did it.
An example of the huge implications for, say, the two million people in Assam, India would be if the enviro-whackpots really did have the power to deprive them of the energy they need.
What a hastily-constructed poor excuse for a retraction. Utterly lacking in conviction, and dripping with ill logic, lazy expression, and empty empathy. A lurching non-sequiter. Shall I continue? I think maybe, Anthony, that “weepy” has run its course. Bill’s tear ducts are drier than a Sonoran Gulch. Responding to the combination of collective snore and jeer that a little forethought may have anticipated, Billy folded up like a deck of tarot cards, patting a bunch of truly sodden East Indians on the back as a final, dismissive escape.
This is the same McKibben that while supporting agendas that are shutting down freedoms, said the heat wave was a sign of global warming that was denying people life liberty and the pursuit of happiness which by the way are the targets his draconian reforms are after.. After his comment on Irene being a sign of global warming, given the history of hurricanes on the east coast (ie 8 majors 1953-1960 SC north), it is hard to believe he has any true connection with realism. That alerted me to the him being deceptive ( either he knows about the history of hurricanes and then hides i), or ignorant. In either case, this and the little 4th of July proclamation shows a real disconnect from reality.
For him a simple reminder as he continues to push ideas that will shackle the freedoms we cherish
http://clivebest.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/overlayco2.png
4. Cannot recruit the mass of simpletons we need with a $5000 slowly melting block ice watch party,
Absolute sheep. Moronic sheep.
This has been done many times before to bring awareness to climate change. Here’s one involving 1,000 icemen.
(WARNING: disturbing images of ice melting!!!)
“The sight of ice melting while they sweltered would be too hard to take”
Really??? That doesn’t even make a lick of sense. Sounds like something conjured-up to cover the real reason for the cancellation. Possibly someone, with a little common sense, saw the folly in such a stunt. Remember when they protested the coal-fired plant after it snowed. Protesters, standing in snow, waving global warming signs is just fodder for ridicule, just like watching ice melt in 100 degree heat.
I think they were informed that Al Gore would visit the site. It probably wouldn’t have melted until Christmas then. It’s a pity, because this could have become the Mother of all Hoaxes.
Bill McKibben and acolytes,
Everyone makes mistakes but you all need to reflect carefully upon what this fiasco displays about your judgment and feeble contact with reality.
The beauty of a computer generated “AGW HOAX” ice block melting is that it conforms with the computer generated reality that the 350.orgs live in. The ‘needy’ are deprived of energy by Green Meanie policies….which they twist into caring. A digital ice block image would allow deniers to show this same level of Faux Compassion….if accompanied with the disclaimer…..”No actual ice was harmed in the production of this image”.
@Gunga Din says:
I like the Ad below the post. I don’t know if everybody sees the same one or how long it will stay but the current one I see is for “Cheesemans Ecology Safaris”.
+++++++++
Those ads are chosen by the advertiser. I asked a honcho at Google sitting next to me on the plane why it was that if I searched for and looked at bathroom taps using Google, I got ads for bathroom taps when I next read WUWT. He swore that Google does not keep track of what I search for, which I presume is truthful in the same way that people watch porn ‘for the acting’ and stock cars ‘for the racing’.
Basically you are shown what you previously searched for, thematically speaking. If you are non-responsive, they will cycle through things they think you might like then eventually revert to random ads. If it is interesting, click on it. It helps pay for this site overheads. If it is not interesting, click on it anyway to show Google that you are not cooperating predictably in their tracking exercises. Plus it messes with their monomaniacal minds.
“Climate
The climate of Assam is characterised by its extreme humidity. Its most distinguishing feature is the copious rainfall between March and May at a time when precipitation in upper India is at its minimum. Climatically the year may be divided into the cold season and the rainy. The cold weather lasts from October to February and the rest of the year is rainy. The southwest monsoon begin from middle of June. The neighbourhood of Cherapunji and Mawsynram are known to receive the highest rainfall in the world. It is concentrated in four months, June to September.”
http://www.webindia123.com/Assam/LAND/Climate.htm
Greg Goodknight says:
“The Piltdown Man was a hoax; evidence of a “missing link” was intentionally fabricated from a modern human skull and a primate jawbone and buried. The perpetrators of the hoax knew it was a fraud. In contrast, I have little doubt most of the scientists driving the IPCC to its preordained conclusions really believe it…. It’s so much easier to ignore evidence contrary to your beliefs than it is to intentionally fabricate evidence to support them and I think that’s what has been happening.”
I think the dishonesty of the Piltdown Man hoaxer is not so different from the dishonesty of Climate Movement activists like Peter Gleik. I don’t doubt that the Piltdown Man hoaxer truly believed that men and primates are descended from a common evolutionary ancestor. He just ginned up a little fake evidence to bolster the case for what he already knew was true… just as the Climate Movement activists forge documents, tamper with data, blackball skeptics, etc., to bolster the case for what they already know is true. They don’t even think of themselves as dishonest, they’re just using little deception in support of a greater truth.
The response of those duped by such deceptions is instructive, too. When a belief has been held for long time (or even for a short time, for less-than-careful thinkers), it settles into the mind, and becomes comfortable there, and is reluctant to leave. People who have been convinced of something by false evidence, if they have held that belief for a long time, rarely become unconvinced of it if the evidence is later shown to be false.
That’s why the Big Lie works so well.
How many people changed their opinions about evolution, in even the tiniest detail, when Piltdown Man was revealed to be a hoax? How many CAGW true believers are now doubters in the wake of the Climategate revelations, the Gleik scandal, etc.?
Precious few.
Do you want an even more unsettling example?
Willis Eschenbach is one of the most careful thinkers I know, and he knows beyond a doubt that Piers Corbyn can’t possibly predict earthquakes. So was I, until Piers made what I thought was a preposterous earthquake prediction (in a horribly garish newsletter)… just a few weeks before the 4th largest earthquake that the world has seen since 1900.
When I first read Piers’ prediction, I thought he was nuts. When he was vindicated, I was absolutely astounded.
But Willis remains unmoved.
The 4th largest and the 11th largest earthquakes in the last 112 years have both occurred in the 15 months since Piers forecast “significantly enhanced earthquake activity.” By every reasonable measure, earthquake activity is way up. By every reasonable measure, Piers is vindicated. But WIllis still just can’t bring himself to admit that Piers was right.
If even one of the most careful thinkers I know can’t be persuaded by overwhelming evidence, what chance does Truth have of ever winning out in this world?
So Ice melts in the sunshine and high temperatures. Wow, never thought o’ that. Is it the same process that makes ice melt in my Orange juice? or is that plain old global warming ?
So that’s $100 for the ice, $200 for the artist and $4700 for the carbon credits. Of course if they use a chain saw for carving the ice those figures will slightly change.
daveburton…
I said most, not all. Gleick had an obvious meltdown, in more ways than one. He also didn’t get away with it.
I suspect “cooler” heads prevailed here. Most likely many on the mailing list with a few ounces of PR sense tipped Bill&Co off to the possibility that the visual could be used to ridicule The Cause (just as the very concept is being ridiculed here and now). At best (for them) the Street would perceive the stunt’s message as: “How can global warming possibly be a hoax when it’s hot enough in D.C. in July to slowly melt ice?!” Even the choir would fail to find that sermon compelling.
At worst, they would be spitting the many-edged sceptic-word “hoax” into the wind. Come to think of it, they just did!
Now, what would be truly poetic would be to create a dry ice statue of Al Gore and place it in front of the Capitol to outgas as a sublimational message.
“The sight of ice melting while they sweltered would be too hard to take”?
I’m experiencing cognitive dissonance trying to understand that sentence.
Don @ 12:34, that was a brilliant and hilarious comment!
I don’t think the most sceptic person in the world could do a better job of parodying Bill McKibben and the ultra-greenies than he managed in that letter.
“The sight of ice melting while they sweltered would be too hard to take; their region, they pointed out, is as hard hit as any in the country by the heat wave, and it would make people feel like their plight wasn’t being taken seriously. ”
Scotty, we need more power.
Sorry, Captain, the B.S meter is off the scale.
Crispin in Waterloo says:
July 7, 2012 at 11:24 am
@Gunga Din says:
I like the Ad below the post. I don’t know if everybody sees the same one or how long it will stay but the current one I see is for “Cheesemans Ecology Safaris”.
+++++++++
Those ads are chosen by the advertiser. I asked a honcho at Google sitting next to me on the plane why it was that if I searched for and looked at bathroom taps using Google, I got ads for bathroom taps when I next read WUWT. He swore that Google does not keep track of what I search for, which I presume is truthful in the same way that people watch porn ‘for the acting’ and stock cars ‘for the racing’.
Basically you are shown what you previously searched for, thematically speaking. If you are non-responsive, they will cycle through things they think you might like then eventually revert to random ads. If it is interesting, click on it. It helps pay for this site overheads. If it is not interesting, click on it anyway to show Google that you are not cooperating predictably in their tracking exercises. Plus it messes with their monomaniacal minds.
=====================================================
Alas! The Cheeseman is gone. I must have been in the random cycle. I don’t remember ever searching for cheese or penquins. But if it helps Anthony and the site, I’ll scroll back up and click on the Ad. (Then remove the cookie it leaves behind.) The current Ad is for “SnorgTees”.
I’m disappointed with McKibben. The CAGW HOAX has already suffered a massive meltdown. Did he realize he was simply parodying himself and his movement?
A block of ice 6′ x 12′ by 1′ thick would have weighed 4100 lbs. How thick was his? He announces an action plan one day for the next day and cancels the next day at 5:18 am? Hummm … Lotsa quick donations?
I really will miss his melting ice HOAX.
PiperPaul says:
July 7, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Don @ 12:34, that was a brilliant and hilarious comment!
Happy to spread the joy, thanks! I don’t know if any people would get the joke, but the lawn would love it!
And in NW Europe, we are still freezing and drowning.
Why cannot these guys admit it – the jet streams have moved, that’s all. In NW Europe, that means the jetstreams are further south than usual, dragging cool moist conditions down from the NW Atlantic, and down much further south than usual for the summer. Hence Britain is drowning.
.
I wonder if this organization (350.org) also tries to raise money for those in need when the winter is really cold. i doubt it.
How about a 20 foot long 8 foot high (supported) arch that people could walk through and coold down. Make the arch completely out of blocks of dry ice (except for the mesha nd rods for support). Then put up a sign “Come Feel The Warming Effect Of Carbon Dioxide”, with all the mist and fog flowing from the thing (you would need a slow fan ad one end) it would be a good visual and the kids would love it. You could even add set of Carbon Dioxide concentration meters and themometers at the input fan end and throught the ‘tube’. It would be show that as the Carbon Dioxide concentration rose as you walked through the tube the themperature would go down!
Silly, and clearly not representitive of anything other than simple theromo-dynamics, but it would be engaging and it might make the news.
Where I am Dry Ice is about $50.00 per (approx) cubic foot so the arch tube would cost about $10,000.00 for the Carbon Dioxide, the supports could be rebar and the mesh could be metal cloth (tacked arc-welded together). All in all I expect you could pull the whole thing off for under $13,000.00. Set-up would take about 1 hour (10 people, including three welders) and tear-down about the same.
Not Sarc.
To Don: Be…[thinking] cause…dry ice…[thinking more] being frozen carbon dioxide…and heavier than air, would [yes!] settle on the grass! Well done again! One of my first design jobs was for a now-absorbed CO2 manufacturer.
McKibben received a directive from Collectivist Central. CAGW has exited stage left. Lights must now focus on sustainability, stage center. Extracting money from the most gullible to fund the pointless is not sustainable………….is it?
Heh. When ice does not melt in mid latitude summer, that’s called an ice age. Now, it would be scary indeed.
Whilst a lot of people are happy to stick the boot in, I think it is worth noting that McKibben has realised the mistake and withdrawn the campaign – so kudos to him.
Also when the 10:10 no pressure video appeared he also condemned it immediately and without reserve – the guy deserves some credit for that too.
I’m not a supporter of his by any means but some of the comments here seem a little over the top.
Just my opinion.
Hero Inhofe. For 20 years he’s been THE SINGLE SOLITARY UNIQUE politician who speaks the truth.
In the last election, a dozen Repooflican sissies momentarily sounded like they were joining him, but after the election they regressed to the Stalinist mean. And Inhofe still stands alone, still speaking the truth.
Probably realized that it was really really easy to misinterpret their message as. AGW is a HOAX that melts away in the heat of skepticism.
About the connection between 350.org and Rockefeller, 2011, written by a True Believer:
http://forestindustries.eu/content/rockefellers-1sky-unveils-new-350org-more-more-delusion
Morph says:
July 7, 2012 at 3:04 pm
“Whilst a lot of people are happy to stick the boot in, I think it is worth noting that McKibben has realised the mistake and withdrawn the campaign – so kudos to him. ”
Morph, he is a puppet.
The reason for the climb-down, in my mind’s eye, is there’s no plausible answers to raised questions.
Where did the ice come from?
How was it manufactured?
How was it carved?
How was it stored/transported?
Was C02 in dry ice form used in any way?
You can build an igloo today at Whistler as there is still 10 meters of snow on the ground.
clipe says:
July 7, 2012 at 4:07 pm
Edit
The reason for the climb-down, in my mind’s eye, is there’s no plausible answers to raised questions.
Where did the ice come from?
HowWas it manufactured?How was it carved?
How was it stored/transported?
Was C02 in dry ice form used in any way?
Gunga Din says:
July 7, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Alas! The Cheeseman is gone. I must have been in the random cycle. I don’t remember ever searching for cheese or penquins. But if it helps Anthony and the site, I’ll scroll back up and click on the Ad. (Then remove the cookie it leaves behind.) The current Ad is for “SnorgTees”.
—————
Thanks for the reminder.
OK, now that I have sent my ~ 10 year old balky XP machine to the scrap heap (after eviscerating it ), and replaced it with an overkill Windows 7 machine that is begging for excitement, I must ask: What does clicking on those ads do for Anthony ? ( be precise, please).
clipe says:
July 7, 2012 at 4:07 pm
How was it carved?
Maybe a question better left to Steve McIntyre. ☺
garymount says:
July 7, 2012 at 4:19 pm
You can build an igloo today at Whistler as there is still 10 meters of snow on the ground.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b331/kevster1346/wolframalpha-20120118164548020.jpg
u.k. (us) says:
July 7, 2012 at 4:46 pm
“I must ask: What does clicking on those ads do for Anthony ? ( be precise, please).”
As I recall the explanation Anthony gave when he first added GoogleAds to the site, he receives a small remuneration (very small, think pennies) every time a site visitor clicks on one of the ads. I don’t know, and I really don’t care, how much income Anthony derives from this but, whatever it is, he deserves it all and more for the incredible amount of time and work he devotes on all our behalves.
Actually, there was one problem – they would have driven up in a large refrigerated van. Down south, when one of these vans showed up after Hurricane Katrina, there were bags of ice in the back. A lot better use for ice.
I think it would have been better for them if they had used a large block of dry ice forming the letters AGW SCAM – it would have “melted” (sublimated) a lot faster. And seeing the words AGW SCAM going up in “smoke” would have been a priceless photo op.
Let’s see, Democrats from West Virginia are not even going to show up at their own convention in Charlotte (Not exactly Seattle). I’m sure I saw a video of a West Virginia Democrat shooting a hole in a copy of the ‘Cap and Rape’ document. I somehow question whether a state so dependent on selling coal for electricity is going to be too upset about a little bout of heat. Come to the Southwest you whinging little twits.
Ric Werme says:
July 7, 2012 at 9:34 am
But we also heard from old friends, especially in nearby West Virginia, who asked us not to do it. The sight of ice melting while they sweltered would be too hard to take;….
Whoa. West Virginians are tough, scrappy folk. I don’t understand how the sight of melting ice would be that hard on their psyche. The sight of all the wasted energy it took to create the ice (and the concomitant release of CO2 it took to create the electricity that made the ice) would be much more annoying to me if I were an active 350.org supporter in WV.
To beat the heat, I’d go caving. Always cool there.
____________________________________
I would go caving too, and I agree the West Virginians I met while caving would more than likely consider Bill McKibben and his buddies titched in the noggin’ Most have little use for the US government.
djaces says:
July 7, 2012 at 5:35 pm
u.k. (us) says:
July 7, 2012 at 4:46 pm
“I must ask: What does clicking on those ads do for Anthony ? ( be precise, please).”
As I recall the explanation Anthony gave when he first added GoogleAds to the site, he receives a small remuneration (very small, think pennies) every time a site visitor clicks on one of the ads. I don’t know, and I really don’t care, how much income Anthony derives from this but, whatever it is, he deserves it all and more for the incredible amount of time and work he devotes on all our behalves.
====================
I guess I’ll never get a straight answer, but now that I have the computing power to recklessly click on ads, I will.
Maybe others will do the same, which was the main objective of my comment.
All in all, I’m surprised that someone with Bill McKibben’s extensive science background would think that a block of ice, melting in the bright noonday sun, in July, could somehow be seen as a “sign” of CAGW.
Someone needs to write to him and tell him he wants his anonymous donations back.
For those that missed the fun, you can re-create this social experiment in your very own home – with these special, do-it-yourself message trays:
http://www.toxel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/icecubetrays19.jpg (Silicone Alphabet Letter Ice / Bake Tray Set).
To make your own Oscar winning movie, simply take the letters ARCTIC, and film them as they melt. Soon, everyone will be able to see an ice-free Arctic.
Available on Amazon for about 20 bucks. 350.org could have saved almost $4980 with this scheme.
I’m still scratching my head and trying to figure out the connection between a block of ice on the Mall in Washington and the hurt feelings of a few sweltering West Virginians. Were the promoters afraid their stunt might trigger an outbreak of “ice envy”?
clipe @4.46 pm
How was it carved?
Maybe a question better left to Steve McIntyre. ☺
Very very witty was that one clipe. .
I’m disappointed. I had visions of D.C. residents converging on his block of ice, chipping off chunks to take home and try to prevent their food from spoiling!
If there’s a bright side to the unfortunate storms, power outages, and heat, it may be that some people will give some thought to the substantial advantages we reap from the human activities which some people claim are “damaging the planet”.
Let’s see: They have the ice delivered. The press shows up. Some kids in Birkenstocks show up and stand there, transfixed at the sight of big hunks of ice slowwwwly melting. Drip. Drip. Drip. They stare at this spectacle for…well, seconds, until somebody says, “Hey, duuudes! Let’s go down and watch scum form on the reflecting pool!” They gaggle off. The press photog takes a couple of pictures of lonely Bill and his $5,000 worth of ice still slowwwwly melting. Drip. Drip. Drip. “Shut up!” Bill says.
You unfold the Washington Post the next morning. There, on the front page, in all its glory is, yes, a picture of a smear of pond scum that LOOKS JUST LIKE AL GORE! It’s a miwacle!
I think they should have gone with a table top sized “Hoax” ice sculpture under a slightly larger fake Stone Henge sized a la Spinal Tap… With dwarfs dancing around it of course.
O the balance… it gets hotter, sun tea become more popular, less gas and electricity is used to boil water — and then some idiot blows it all carving a block of ice into the word ‘HOAX’ and hits it with a blow torch because the press arrived early.
They collected money specifically for the ice sculpture. How are they allowed to reappropriate those specific funds for something else? They should be returned to the donors or else it should be investigated as fraud. If they’re allowed to use designated donations for “whatever” they think is suitable, they could be using their “Hoax?” money on hookers and blow.
As it is, “heat and drought relief” could be their next protest’s refreshment fund.
There’s a good chance that rationale for cancellation went far beyond the desire not to upset the “old friends” who truthfully didn’t give a hoot. This excuse was way beyond total lameness. Even the second graders rolled their eyes!
The real danger was that someone with a bit of science knowledge would figure out the CO2 “footprint” of the whole ice production process. Included would be the petrochemicals used to freeze the water in the first place, the same for producing the “dry ice” (yes, frozen CO2) that requires even more energy usage to get it down to 70F below, just to keep the original ice block frozen for the trip to DC.
Then, of course, the gas for the truck, air conditioning for the driver, and air conditioned busses, idling wastefully using even more petrochemicals) for the reporters, politicians wanting photo ops, and a few crying West Virginians (hired actors on Union scale) that made it down to the Capitol (and they used petrochemicals and released CO2 too, in their drive down to DC).
Of course, Senator Inhofe needed to emit zero CO2 to make his points, and by contrasting this fact, even the dimmest of wit would know how fraudulent the organizer’s were!!!
I am not sure what Clipe is showing, but if anyone doubts my claim of 10 meters of snow at whistler, here is the proof:
“Summer has finally arrived in the Lower Mainland — hopefully — but it’s still winter on top of Whistler Mountain.
At the top of the lifts, visitors can stroll along corridors created by snow walls up to 10 metres high.
“It’s because we had so much snow over the winter. And it probably won’t all melt throughout the summer, either,” said Lauren Everest of Whistler Blackcomb.”
http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Still+winter+Whistler+Mountain/6890186/story.html
It is a skeptical organization that should adopt the melting Hoax display as an annual event on June 23, the anniversary of the Hanson-Wirth 1988 Congressional Hearing, a true milestone of the greatest scientific and political hoax in human history.
The sculpture in addition to the big melting word “Hoax”, carries embedded in it non-melting letters and words depicting words now out of favor: CAGW, Global Warming, Tipping Point, Yamal, etc. Even include current words that are associated with the Hoax: IPCC, Climate Justice, AR4, AR5. The embedded words will be refracted as the sculpture melts making for an interesting temporal form of art and attracting greater attention to the piece.
Flank the sculpture with Images, statements and graphics from the hearing and the recent history depicting the failure of the predictions and claims.
There’s a good chance that rationale for cancellation went far beyond the desire not to upset the “old friends” who truthfully didn’t give a hoot. This excuse was way beyond total lameness. Even the second graders rolled their eyes!
The real danger was that someone with a bit of science knowledge would figure out the CO2 “footprint” of the whole ice production process. Included would be the petrochemicals used to freeze the water in the first place, the same for producing the “dry ice” (yes, frozen CO2) that requires even more energy usage to get it down to 70F below, just to keep the original ice block frozen for the trip to DC.
Then, of course, the gas for the truck, air conditioning for the driver, and air conditioned busses, idling wastefully using even more petrochemicals) for the reporters, politicians wanting photo ops, and a few crying West Virginians (hired actors on Union scale) that made it down to the Capitol (and they used petrochemicals and released CO2 too, in their drive down to DC).
Of course, Senator Inhofe needed to emit zero CO2 to make his points, and by contrasting this fact, even the dimmest of wit would know how fraudulent the organizer’s were!!!
I take it that West Virginians are not putting ice in their drinks during the heatwave because watching it melt is too distressing?
I am starting to think that Mr McKibben deserves compassion as well as satire.
Not to me – can anyone explain, or even give some clue, to the logic in this?
Watching Ice melt is really exciting, you know, like watching paint dry, really pulls in the crowds.
Possibly OT, if one of our American friends could explain to me:
What exactly is this business of removing mountaintops, in Appalachia or elsewhere? Does it pay well? It does sound rather epic to me, the sort of career move I might like to make.
Sen. Inhofe has to realize that there is no need for cap and trade since our Undocumented Worker-in-Chief had the EPA make it happen any how.
THe EPA has gone even further and is busy, with the help of the FDA seeking to take over all vitamins and nutrients as if they are drugs (think of all of that testing, time, and money, and the resulting high price for vitamins), is killing the energy sector and the farming sector. Perfectly Marxist goals.
If they make vitamins too expensive to put in foods and daily tabs, they will have a less healthy population and a greater need for ObamacareTax.
Oscar Bajner says:
July 8, 2012 at 5:03 am “. . . career move . . .”
It is called mining and has been “epic” since the discovery of salt, or copper, or lead, or silver. And coal too! If you mean “move” in the sense of location, then try Alberta, North Dakota, or Western Australia. Coal in this region has seen good and bad times. One resident author:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_M._Caudill
The Appalachians are noted for the export of good mountain music and musicians, so if that’s your thing, check it out:
So the real hoax was in saying they would use the money to put up a sculpture.
“If you’d like your contribution back, let us know”
Question. Why do those that donated need to act to get their money back? Refunds should be automatic. Why not simply refund the money?
Almost makes it look like the true “motivation” was the money. The heat wave was the “opportunity”. The press release was the “means”. Having obtained the money, this latest announcement is the “getaway”.
Shows how low moral standard have sunk in Washington DC that this is not seen as a crime. In a city where taxpayers are fleeced of trillions, $5000 must seem like chump change.
Even the EPA knows the facts.
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/images/indicator_downloads/heat-waves-download1.png
Granted, ice sculptures last a while, or people would not order them for hours long events.
But… do they really think that melting ice in Washington, in July, would be impressive ?
Fred pointed out a telling bit about Bill McKibben. He thinks nothing at all of keeping the money that was earmarked for the project, Donors to the project now need to pursue him to refund what he should be refunding automatically unless instructed to do otherwise.
That’s how sadly bent Bill’s ethics are.
u.k. (us) says:
July 7, 2012 at 4:46 pm
“I must ask: What does clicking on those ads do for Anthony ? ( be precise, please).”
djaces says:
July 7, 2012 at 5:35 pm
As I recall the explanation Anthony gave when he first added GoogleAds to the site, he receives a small remuneration (very small, think pennies) every time a site visitor clicks on one of the ads. I don’t know, and I really don’t care, how much income Anthony derives from this but, whatever it is, he deserves it all and more for the incredible amount of time and work he devotes on all our behalves.
====================
I guess I’ll never get a straight answer, but now that I have the computing power to recklessly click on ads, I will.
Maybe others will do the same, which was the main objective of my comment.
=============================================================
Sorry I can’t explain what I don’t know the details of myself. The best I know is what djaces said. But I do trust that Anthony wouldn’t have them unless they helped keep the site going. (Unless WordPress didn’t give him a choice.)
steveta_uk says:
July 8, 2012 at 12:57 am
They’d use, he said, the sight of that melting ice to make people feel disrespected.
That makes sense to me.
Not to me – can anyone explain, or even give some clue, to the logic in this?
================================================================
I’ll be glad to explain the logic of it. Just let me check something first before I show how they think ………………..(I go to the medicine cabinet)……………………….Sorry. We’re out of aspirin so I better not continue.
Hi: Senator “I” from “O” is an “AH”, so all the FOX news hounds who listen to “things” like him, can just sit in their six figure AC’ed homes and “whatever”. They are all bought and paid for… nothing new, and I myself would not have based my ice action on their pool of dirty “crude”. They will have their day in the sun, hopefully without “cloth” or water…
…..Bill
You got that one right.
Now that I think of it, maybe there’s a relation between AGW and ADHD. (That sounds like an idea for a grant proposal.)
daveburton
Is your conclusion that Piers Corbyn has “hot hands” ?
(Incidentally, I recall 2 recent years where he said that a cold December would continue through February – one contested by Joe Bastardi – and it didn’t pan out.)
Having had the dubious pleasure of listening to a talk by McKibben given to a group of scienitists who are Christians. His ‘science’ was junk his ‘theology’ junkier still. His style? A classic ‘TV evangelist’. And here we have the classic TV evangelist trick of getting money out of the gullible. I note he makes no suggestion that they’ll get their money back. Don’t his followers ever read Mark Twain?
McKibben and science????
His background is not “science” of any variety, it is journalism of a lightweight eco-freak variety.
Most of what Bill McKikbben imagines he knows about “science” he learned as a gossip columnist (i’m being facetious) for the New Yorker in the 1980s when he edited their “Talk of the Town” section.
[Wikipedia excerpt on McKibben]:
“As an undergraduate at Harvard University, he was president of The Harvard Crimson newspaper. Immediately graduating with a degree in journalism he joined The New Yorker as a staff writer and wrote much of the Talk of the Town column from 1982 to early 1987. He quit the magazine when its longtime editor William Shawn was forced out of his job, and soon moved to the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York.”
… and from his own website bio, the only claim to anything about “science” in his background his own take in the trendy books he writes meditating on nature and society:
http://www.billmckibben.com/bio.html
One last one on McKibben’s “approach” to science. This is from his own website now reflecting back upon an undergraduate essay 30 years ago which he says still guides his approach (emphasis added):
http://www.billmckibben.com/bill-mckibben-reader-excerpt.html
rw, I don’t know anything about Piers’ hands, but the one and only prediction of his that I’ve ever paid attention to was an outlandish earthquake prediction — which proved to be incredibly accurate. I only noticed it because it was so over-the-top. It seemed utterly preposterous to me that a meteorologist would claim to be able to predict earthquakes.
I don’t know whether he’s very smart or very lucky (or both). But his prediction was absolutely right.
Or, they didn’t raise enough money to cover the cost of the sculpture.
Or, someone dropped it.
Or, they mis-spelled “HOAX”.
I guess they thought anyone stupid enough to invest money in a giant HOAX made from ice was fair game!
Or they realized the difficult-to-sculpt question mark would melt to the point of being unreadable (or easy to misread) relatively quickly leaving HOAX (or even “HOAX!” or “HOAX.”) standing by itself for some time. If so, it’s a pity they caught that ahead of time. 🙂