The rise of the peccatogenesists

An interesting new word came up this week on Twitter thanks to Hillary Rosner.

peccatogenic_tweet

It would seem to be a derivative of the word pecadillo:

peccadillo

I think this is the perfect word to describe many of the disingenuous activists like Al Gore, Joe Romm, Brad Johnson, Mayor Bloomberg, and Bill McKibben who see “human caused bad weather” in every cloud, and try mightily to make others believe the same.

To an extent, they are successful, just as others are able to fool people into crusades to find bigfoot, scan the skies for aliens, or take cover from imagined chemicals raining from the sky in ordinary jet exhaust contrails.

The peccatogenesists want us to believe that our supposed “misconduct” against Gaia, such as emitting to much CO2 over an imaginary “safe” level of 350 parts per million, or failing to care enough about an imaginary temperature target of 2°C which climatologist Phil Jones says was plucked out of thin air is the cause of bad weather.

Now, per that belief, any weather event that can somehow remotely be linked to global warming is used as a propaganda tool by the peccatogenesists, except of course, when that event doesn’t, in which case it’s “just weather”. For example, thousands of new record lows get nary a mention, but when there are a string of record highs, it’s just another example of  human caused DOOM even though it can be shown later that its just another weather pattern.

And then there’s severe weather. Yesterday, the great Al Gore declared that his views are being hindered by scientists. Politico reports:

Former Vice President Al Gore lamented today that scientists “will not let us link record-breaking” tornadoes in Oklahoma and elsewhere to climate change because of inadequate record keeping on the twisters.

Oh, the horror! It reminds me of the terrible mistreatment James Hansen claimed he got at the hands of NASA during the Bush era when they wouldn’t let him make unfounded claims.

Of course, some politicians like NYC Mayor Gloomberg Bloomberg don’t let pesky science or mathematics get in the way of a crusade, and embrace peccatogenics as a vehicle for hope and change:

The bad weather patterns should kick in as early as 2020, according to the findings released on Monday.

In that year, the city will see an average temperature of 57 degrees — up from the current 54 — and 10% more rainfall.

That rainfall will come with an alarming, nearly 1-foot rise in the already high sea level — which will likely increase the city’s flood risk.

Adding to the danger will be the amount of the rainy days.

Gosh, rainy days are dangerous?  I can’t wait for NOAA to come up with a bulletin type for that. Cue the invention of the urban safety umbrella. Wuebbles gone wild would like that I think.

Of course theses claims of Hell and High Water Fire and Brimstone appear just like an old time country preacher sermon, followed by the obligatory collection plate to fleece the flock. Michael Bloomberg, in his best preaching style, only asked for $20 billion at the end of his sermon yesterday. Surely, that’s a small price to pay for dissing Gaia.

Problem is, like most peccatogenic claims, when you examine them for detail, they fall apart just as easily as the latest bigfoot or UFO sighting. Anybody with basic math skills can see Bloomberg’s claim 1 foot of sea level rise will be lucky to be 1 inch at the present rate.

The reality about the supposed human induced bad weather is that if we are to believe the claims of “consensus” put forth by Oreskes, Cook, Nuccitelli, and other social activists, then the consensus is that there’s no way to connect global warming and severe weather. Some examples of the consensus that severe weather is not attributable to climate change include:

Nature editorial dashes alarmist hopes of linking extreme weather events to global warming:

Better models are needed before exceptional events can be reliably linked to global warming.

IPCC Special Report on Extreme Events and Disasters:

FAQ 3.1 Is the Climate Becoming More Extreme? […]None of the above instruments has yet been developed sufficiently as to allow us to confidently answer the question posed here. Thus we are restricted to questions about whether specific extremes are becoming more or less common, and our confidence in the answers to such questions, including the direction and magnitude of changes in specific extremes, depends on the type of extreme, as well as on the region and season, linked with the level of understanding of the underlying processes and the reliability of their simulation in models.

But, as Gore says, “it’s those pesky scientists” that are preventing the linkage.

I blame technology for the appearance that the weather is getting worse. See: Why it seems that severe weather is “getting worse” when the data shows otherwise – a historical perspective

With this essay, “peccatogenic” is now in the climate vocabulary. Go forth and multiply it whenever you get the opportunity. And, keep that handy Dr. Roger Pielke Jr. bullshit button at the ready.

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June 13, 2013 7:29 am

peccatum, Latin for “sin”

H.R.
June 13, 2013 7:34 am

Al is a peccar-head? I can see that.

Gary
June 13, 2013 7:37 am

And those who breed the Chicken Littles are called peccatogeneticists?

June 13, 2013 7:38 am

Bloomberg seems to think he can scare the rest (non NY) population with horror stories about rain, sea level rise, and hurricanes. [snip -over the top]

June 13, 2013 7:41 am

I can think of another word starting with “p-e-c” that sums up Mayor Bloomberg. My mom would not approve.

phlogiston
June 13, 2013 7:44 am

Agnus Dei
Qui tollis peccata mundi
“Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world”
Could be rendered as:
Deus AGWus
Qui taxes peccata mundi…

DirkH
June 13, 2013 7:45 am

A shorter word is statist. As they all yearn for an absolute state that will solve the imaginary problems by the power of expropriation.

GoneWithTheWind
June 13, 2013 7:46 am

It is bad enough that they see human causes for natural events. But what is worse is like the superstitious peoples of the past they want to commit human sacrifice to appease the gods of CO2. These people are not just some harmless nutcases with strange ideas. They are dangerous. Dangerous to our lives our freedoms and our future. They are an oxymoron in that they are the modern evolution of luddites.

Doug UK
June 13, 2013 7:47 am

whatever you want to call them – they are a dream to work on for the Proctologists ……….

Barry Cullen
June 13, 2013 7:48 am

Anthony, your selection of the first 2 of your 3 examples of nonsense is based on ignorance of the evidence, both pro and con, on your part. Chemtrails, there is no evidence. This is the first time in the many years I have been following WUWT that I have experienced your closed mindedness. Sad!
BC

Frank K.
June 13, 2013 7:58 am

“Former Vice President Al Gore lamented today that scientists “will not let us link record-breaking” tornadoes in Oklahoma and elsewhere to climate change because of inadequate record keeping on the twisters.”
Clearly, Al has never, ever hear of the tri-state tornado:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Tornado
“The Great Tri-State Tornado of Wednesday, March 18, 1925, is the deadliest tornado in U.S. history. Inflicting 695 fatalities,[2] the tornado killed more than twice as many as the second deadliest, the 1840 Great Natchez Tornado. The continuous ≥219 mile (≥352 km) track left by the tornado was the longest ever recorded in the world as it crossed from southeastern Missouri, through southern Illinois, then into southwestern Indiana. Although not officially rated by NOAA, it is recognized by most experts (such as Tom Grazulis) as an F5 tornado, the maximum damage rating issued on the Fujita scale.”
Remember, according to the peccatogenesists, NO record-breaking severe weather EVER occurred prior to the year of their birth. In fact, never, ever in the history of the earth, and certainly never ever before doppler radar. And, of course, we can’t trust the writings and reports of our ancestors since they weren’t trained NOAA spotters, and likely exaggerated the intensity of the storms… \sarc

Nylo
June 13, 2013 8:01 am

So we need to change AGW to PGW?

June 13, 2013 8:03 am

Why spend a five dollar word on two bit snake oil salesmen?

Terry
June 13, 2013 8:17 am
June 13, 2013 8:27 am

I have never objected to being snipped prior to now. I object!!! All I wrote was the truth. Most of the non NY population could care less what happens to NY.

June 13, 2013 8:29 am

Since when is WUWT PC. What a shame if that is true.

June 13, 2013 8:36 am

Usually when I comment in a way that I feel might be snipped I include the words “Anthony” or “moderators” to give them a heads up to check this. I have no wish to sully the most wonderful website on the earth. Yes I will push the envelope, but I in no way felt this comment required alerting the mods. I am perplexed. Yes, I speak directly, more directly then Anthony might sometimes want, but that is me. I have made manful strides in my comments here to avoid tampering with the wonder that is WUWT. I bite my keyboard many times. Just not this time.

johnmarshall
June 13, 2013 8:39 am

My word for Gore is not one I wish to have here. (tw-t may cover it but there is your choice of vowel to fit).

Dave Wendt
June 13, 2013 8:54 am

“Better models are needed before exceptional events can be reliably linked to global warming.”
“FAQ 3.1 Is the Climate Becoming More Extreme? […]None of the above instruments has yet been developed sufficiently as to allow us to confidently answer the question posed here. Thus we are restricted to questions about whether specific extremes are becoming more or less common, and our confidence in the answers to such questions, including the direction and magnitude of changes in specific extremes, depends on the type of extreme, as well as on the region and season, linked with the level of understanding of the underlying processes and the reliability of their simulation in models.”
You may notice in these quotes that, although they reluctantly admit that there is no evidence that recent changes in the climate have led to more extreme weather events and “questions about whether specific extremes are becoming more or less common” have almost universally been answered with “less”, they really in their heart of hearts WANT the answer to be “more”.
If they can just get some more money to build better instruments, better models, and edit those “inconvenient” answers, they are confident they can finally come up with the proper response they have been seeking, no matter what the actual evidence has to say on the matter. It’s such a lovely way to do science.

Power Grab
June 13, 2013 9:03 am

Re being worried over environmental threats to NYC:
As a 4th generation resident of “fly-over country”, I always figured that the enormous economic infrastructure that was built up over the centuries in NYC and the rest of the Eastern seaboard ended up there because TPTB (the folks with all the resources and money) wanted it there. The northeast is less prone to hurricanes, tornadoes, killer heat waves, and severe earthquakes than the rest of the continent.
The timing of the mayor’s hand-waving makes me think he just wants to re-direct the attention of the media away from the places where weather really happens (drought over the western half the country, tornado outbreaks and flooding in the midwest and now the northern part of the midwest) to his neck of the woods. I’m guessing he wants people who are making donations to charity to think first of NYC?
What is it they say about publicity? It doesn’t really matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right? In other words, he wants “a piece of the action”.

June 13, 2013 9:04 am

Ego-centric arguments, such as AGW, are belief based, not science.

T-Bird
June 13, 2013 9:04 am

“JohnWho says: Why spend a five dollar word on two bit snake oil salesmen?”
Especially since it doesn’t mean what she thinks it means. It would simply mean “sin causing.” An “ist” would then be someone who favors causing sin, I guess. Nice try, but be careful or it could become another crowning illiteracy like “homophobe.”
And if I can be forgiven for saying a word in favor of the Fire and Brimstone preacher, contributions to his collection plate are a voluntary exercise. Taxes aren’t.

DirkH
June 13, 2013 9:07 am

Barry Cullen says:
June 13, 2013 at 7:48 am
“Anthony, your selection of the first 2 of your 3 examples of nonsense is based on ignorance of the evidence, both pro and con, on your part.”
Which 2 out of 3 examples? Anthony cites many more. How did you count? What do you mean? The clipboard is your friend.
stan stendera says:
June 13, 2013 at 8:29 am
“Since when is WUWT PC. What a shame if that is true.”
What are you talking about? Disappointed that Anthony doesn’t believe in Bigfoot?

OldWeirdHarold
June 13, 2013 9:09 am

See also: oikophobia.

commieBob
June 13, 2013 9:10 am

There is another description: Moral Entrepreneurs who are people and groups who try to create moral panics. At some point they’re just in it for the money but they still manage to convince the people that they have the moral high ground.
I would say, that taken as a whole, these people and organizations are a net drag on society.
Whether they are called ‘peccatogenesists’ or ‘moral entrepreneurs’ it is important that the public comes to attach the name to them and learns to see them for what they are.

June 13, 2013 9:12 am

Thanks, Anthony; Keep up the good work!

June 13, 2013 9:12 am

I am happy you posted my last comment. I would be even happier if you restored my original comment. Or maybe it’s in the abyss.
[Reply: not found in the Spam folder. We always recommend saving your comment until you see it posted. WordPress is not perfect. — mod.]

OldWeirdHarold
June 13, 2013 9:12 am

Golden
June 13, 2013 9:23 am

The interesting thing is the peccatogenesists that dole out the peccatogenic theatre on others are themselves pachyderms impervious to any belief that any of it applies to them.

Jimbo
June 13, 2013 9:29 am

It’s nothing to do with extreme weather. It’s about shutting down the fossil fuel industry for some and getting lots of money for others. Greenpeace et. al. shut down. Bloomberg & Gore NY cash help and Gore more and more money the more he lies. Has the World ever created such a fibber?

Lou
June 13, 2013 9:31 am

Had to laugh at bigfoot. Thought it was all BS till I stumbled onto something that caught my attention a couple years ago. You probably will have to read The Locals by Thom Powell to understand the whole thing… and look at it differently. I was just ignorant of being ignorant because I never looked into it. Sometimes, I forget that I rely too much on scientists to “officially” prove that they exist.

Joseph Bastardi
June 13, 2013 9:32 am

How about Climatic ambulance chasers, or perhaps parasitic climatic ambulance chasers since their ideas are sucking the life out of our country with no return except to themselves where they are being gorged by grants and funding, as more and more people cant find jobs, gave up looking for them and have to go to the government for help and they simply make up lies about what is causing it, since we have seen all this before.
Interesting. The hardworking people that pay taxes to help others, also are forced to fund the very parasitic climatic ambulance chasers that are helping to lead to an increased burden that must be paid for. Since the definition of parasite is this:
a person who receives support, advantage, or the like, from another or others without giving any useful or proper return, as one who lives on the hospitality of others.
I dont think this is name calling as much as it is an accurate description of what is going on here

RockyRoad
June 13, 2013 9:35 am

Al Gore, Joe Romm, Brad Johnson, Mayor Bloomberg, and Bill McKibben are all afflicted with peccadosis–and even the best mouth wash won’t rid a person of that malady (although it might be a good start).
(“Peccadosis” is my new word–I just made it up; I can’t find it anywhere else.)
If they continue unabated, Al Gore, Joe Romm, Brad Johnson, Mayor Bloomberg, and Bill McKibben will all have bad cases of peccaditis.
(Peccaditis is another new term of mine–and I believe it’s aptly applied in the above sentence.)

June 13, 2013 9:40 am

On a roll this morning.
To the mods: I wrote ( I’m slightly paraphrasing ) “Most non NY residents could care less if NY slid into the abyss.”
For Dirk H.: What are you talking about??? I never mentioned Bigfoot and could care less what AW thinks about them. Do you have any clue what PC (political correctness) means?

June 13, 2013 9:42 am

But the New York Times said “climate is dominated by natural variability”. Mayor Bloomberg should read the Times for up to the date climate news. 😉

June 13, 2013 9:45 am

Pedadillatitotagenic
Caused by extremely small sins, like breaking wind silently during a sermon..

June 13, 2013 9:47 am

After more thought? Ha, me think?? My comment was: “What Bloomburg does not realize is that most non NY residents could care less if NY slid into the abyss.
Moderator???????

June 13, 2013 9:54 am

“How about Climatic ambulance chasers, or perhaps parasitic climatic ambulance chasers since their ideas are sucking the life out of our country with no return except to themselves where they are being gorged by grants and funding …”
Exactly so. All we see are activists and so called “scientists” who are making a good living promoting the scare story that the industrial revolution is bad for us. But then they go and live the high life style off the money they make from fraud. It is really way past time to hold them accountable to the real-world data and not the tales spun out of their desire to grow rich off of the irrational fears of the commoners.

June 13, 2013 9:54 am

Foe johnmarshall above: Try an a????

Bob
June 13, 2013 9:56 am

Chemtrails? Big Foot? Come on, guys. Your peccadilloes give you away.

June 13, 2013 10:07 am

For Dirk H. YOU groove on that idiot “Barry Cullen”. I suspect you missed where I was coming from on PC. Even the most intelligent have a brain fart once in a while.

Barry Cullen
June 13, 2013 10:12 am

@DirkH
“To an extent, they are successful, just as others are able to fool people into crusades to find bigfoot, scan the skies for aliens, or take cover from imagined chemicals raining from the sky in ordinary jet exhaust contrails.” – AW
I only count 3.
What do you mean by “the clipboard is your friend”?
BC

June 13, 2013 10:30 am

Another good word of the day: coprophagic. Insert/append right before ‘climate alarmist’.☺

June 13, 2013 10:41 am

@ dbstealey.
The comment of the YEAR. Hands Down, No Contest. WOW. I wish I could come up with something half as good!!!!

Duster
June 13, 2013 10:43 am

This is not a new view of things. The very same reasoning is inherent in such myths as the Genesis flood, similar myths from Greek and Roman sources, and just about any other “mea maxima culpa” myth from anywhere on the planet. If humans are responsible for things going to heck in a hand basket, then humans can, by living right, put things right. There’s no structural difference between the CAGW prophecy and the prophecies of global doom from religious sources.

Zeke
June 13, 2013 10:53 am

“To an extent, they are successful, just as others are able to fool people into crusades to find bigfoot, scan the skies for aliens, or take cover from imagined chemicals raining from the sky in ordinary jet exhaust contrails.” ~WUWT
That is not so harmless. In my experience, if you examine the message of the jet contrail haarpies, it is also highly associated with other messages of doom about everyday life. I can understand a personal phobia – my own mother went on a raw food diet to avoid “processed foods,” so I am inclined to feel indulgent towards fads and phobias as a part of life – but all the rest of the messaging associated with contrails is intent on clouding every aspect of the blessings of modern life with fear and doubt. Fear the airplanes that bring your parcel from ebay, and has enabled travel to take mere hours instead of weeks. Fear the food you eat. Fear the water. Fear cows. Fear sheep. Fear milk, fear eggs, fear hens. Fear possessing too much. Fear oil. Fear cars. Fear coal. Fear mining. Fear wheat. It is not harmless. It is irrational activism against reason and all advancements which lift human life from a primitive, low estate.

george e. smith
June 13, 2013 11:09 am

Well in California, that would be “peccadeeyo.”

u.k(us)
June 13, 2013 11:10 am

Barry Cullen says:
June 13, 2013 at 7:48 am
Anthony, your selection of the first 2 of your 3 examples of nonsense is based on ignorance of the evidence, both pro and con, on your part. Chemtrails, there is no evidence. This is the first time in the many years I have been following WUWT that I have experienced your closed mindedness. Sad!
BC
==========================
Start your own blog, you can talk about it all day long.
From what I infer, you’ll get lots of traffic.

June 13, 2013 11:13 am

… from imagined chemicals raining from the sky in ordinary jet exhaust contrails.

Loving how the minds of some conjure up the usually-banished look-alike from the the above-bolded ‘fully board-approved ‘ term … must be that human/quality the ‘power of suggestion’ working to the fourth power …
.

Gary Hladik
June 13, 2013 12:13 pm

omnologos says (June 13, 2013 at 7:29 am): ‘peccatum, Latin for “sin”’
Hmmm. I thought it was Latin for “tinfoil hat”. 🙂

Zeke
June 13, 2013 12:23 pm

“…scan the skies for aliens, or take cover from imagined chemicals raining from the sky in ordinary jet exhaust contrails.” ~WUWT
But I saw it on the History Channel!

Mike Hebb
June 13, 2013 12:31 pm

Bloombergs predictions need to be preserved as candidates for the “Climate Fail” file along with quite a few others. Unlike many this one has a due date and not that far in the future.

Jimbo
June 13, 2013 12:39 pm

Al Gore tells us to listen to what the science has to say………..except when it’s inconvenient for him.
Can anyone take seriously a Warmist who sold his TV company to an oil funded broadcaster? Can anyone take seriously someone who has 2 HUGE houses and is ‘worried’ about co2? Can anyone take seriously someone who used to shred and sell tobacco then compares sceptics to the tobacco lobby? Can anyone take seriously someone who has bailed out of alternative energy stocks? I can’t. Everything Al Gore touches turns dull and leaden to his touch.

Lars P.
June 13, 2013 1:17 pm

GoneWithTheWind says:
June 13, 2013 at 7:46 am
It is bad enough that they see human causes for natural events. But what is worse is like the superstitious peoples of the past they want to commit human sacrifice to appease the gods of CO2. These people are not just some harmless nutcases with strange ideas. They are dangerous. Dangerous to our lives our freedoms and our future. They are an oxymoron in that they are the modern evolution of luddites.
Well, yes, the peccatogeners themselves have all kind of wet dreams how to punish sinners: like exploding (where is that 10:10 link when you need it) – Donna is the saviour!:
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2012/05/04/keeping-the-no-pressure-video-alive/
or simply burning ones house down:
http://suyts.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/climate-nutters-encourage-children-to-be-little-arsonists/

kadaka (KD Knoebel)
June 13, 2013 1:20 pm

From Jimbo on June 13, 2013 at 12:39 pm:

Everything Al Gore touches turns dull and leaden to his touch.

Ah, so that’s why he needs the massage therapist to release his chakra.

June 13, 2013 1:30 pm

“…scan the skies for aliens, or take cover from imagined chemicals raining from the sky in ordinary jet exhaust contrails.” ~WUWT

================================================================
Maybe the aliens are responsible for the dreaded dihydrogen monoxide raining from the sky in ordinary jet exhaust contrails?

June 13, 2013 1:58 pm

Barry Cullen says June 13, 2013 at 7:48 am:
Anthony, your selection of the first 2 of your 3 examples of nonsense is based on ignorance of the evidence …

You have evidence? Grainy “110” format photographs from a (nearly) inebriated camping trip in the NW? For either one (BF or aliens)?
I’m sitting over here laughing know full well the shenanigans friends of mine ‘pulled-off’ in the not so distant past in fostering U FO reports via strategically launched Helium balloons and such, to the point where newspaper reports appeared in the local press the next day …
.

catweazle666
June 13, 2013 2:13 pm

Rebadged “Original Sin”.

Zeke
June 13, 2013 2:30 pm

Gunga Din says:
June 13, 2013 at 1:30 pm “Maybe the aliens are responsible for the dreaded dihydrogen monoxide raining from the sky in ordinary jet exhaust contrails?”
Speaking of “dihydrogen monoxide raining from the sky” – “What the heck is in our water supply?”

Gary Pearse
June 13, 2013 2:50 pm

Duster says:
June 13, 2013 at 10:43 am
“The very same reasoning is inherent in such myths as the Genesis flood…..”
The Flood may well have had some post Ice Age basis – the sea has risen 120m or so- perfect for a folktale to be carried on. Certainly a lot of cities of those days were indundated.Of course, that it was caused by man’s sins would make it a myth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_archeology_in_the_Gulf_of_Khambhat
The Gulf of Khambhat offshore India has an ancient city on both sides of a inundated river channel 20 kilometres off shore and in 40 m (130 feet) of water. Pieces of wood found dated at 9500 years ago, so by then, a thousand years or so after the end of the ice age the water had risen by about 50 m or so. With a sizable city some 20km out into the modern sea, one can imagine that thousands of cities and villages had similarly disappeared. Yeah, this is the kind of thing that legends are made of.

June 13, 2013 2:50 pm

Zeke says June 13, 2013 at 2:30 pm

Speaking of “dihydrogen monoxide raining from the sky” – “What the heck is in our water supply?”

Perhaps a little too much ‘sun’ there Zeke (said tongue in cheek)?
I’ve got to say, you’re giving us the ‘full spectrum’ today … lol …
.

phlogiston
June 13, 2013 2:57 pm

Barry Cullen says:
June 13, 2013 at 7:48 am
Anthony, your selection of the first 2 of your 3 examples of nonsense is based on ignorance of the evidence, both pro and con, on your part. Chemtrails, there is no evidence. This is the first time in the many years I have been following WUWT that I have experienced your closed mindedness. Sad!
BC

You are the only one mentioning chemtrails. You make no sense – if someone has a closed mind or any other clear trait, you notice it pretty quickly, you dont need to spend “many years” studying hundreds of statements till you notice it. But hey – what are sense and logic? Only out-dated, Judeo-Christian and politically suspect relics limited to right-wing reactionary blogs like WUWT (which you happen to be trolling just now). It only takes 2 seconds – not years – to see that you have a very closed and a very tiny mind.

Massimo PORZIO
June 13, 2013 3:03 pm

@Zeke.
Mybe that Gunga Din refers to this web site:
http://www.dhmo.org
Read with attention especially the FAQ and note that they never lies, they just omit to say some details to make the life’s most-important-chemical compound a danger.
It’ s the way rhetoric could be useful to confound the minds of the crowds.
It’s a hoax of course.
Have a nice day,
Massimo

June 13, 2013 3:03 pm

Barry Cullen says June 13, 2013 at 7:48 am
Anthony, your selection of the first 2 of your 3 examples …

Could have been the elusive “Texas Skunk Ape” I suppose:
http://www.cryptomundo.com/bigfoot-report/east-texas-bigfoot-photos/
.

Barry Elledge
June 13, 2013 3:29 pm

I’ve long thought it suggestive that in America the progressive movement began in New England, the land settled by Puritans. Is the tendency to utopianism genetic? The Congregational Church in time lost interest in a traditional god, but the great-grandchildren of the Pilgrims retain a sharp eye for evil and a deep need to reform or restrain the sinners.
So the progressives gave us prohibition and the income tax, either of which would seem sufficient punishment by itself for our societal sins. But apparently Western civilization itself is the original sin, and no punishment is sufficient if it allows the US to continue to prosper.
Cutting off their energy supply is a wonderful tool for suppressing sinners: Even the most indifferent of them will be forced to feel the pain. And as an added instructional device, our progressive overseers get to erect windmills taller than church steeples to blight the horizon and whine incessant reminders.

phlogiston
June 13, 2013 3:54 pm

Gary Pearse says:
June 13, 2013 at 2:50 pm
Duster says:
June 13, 2013 at 10:43 am
“The very same reasoning is inherent in such myths as the Genesis flood…..”
The Flood may well have had some post Ice Age basis – the sea has risen 120m or so- perfect for a folktale to be carried on. Certainly a lot of cities of those days were indundated.Of course, that it was caused by man’s sins would make it a myth.
Flood-myths are not the only religious legacy of the Holocene inception. Norse mythology associates the gods (note small g) with ice, c.f. Jotunheim the ice-hall residence of the gods. The norse paradigm is the gods in retreat and man eventually triumphant over the gods in the prophesied future Ragnarok denouement. Witnessing the dramatic ice-retreat 12000 years ago possibly gave rise to this narrative. This hubris – norse mythological prose laced with contempt for gods and predicted eventual defeat of gods by man – lies at the heart of the north european “western” mindset with its arrogant and exaggerated position of humanity.
Problem is – Jotunheim is about to make a come-back, and we’re going to be put in our place. Sell.

Unite Against Greenfleecing
June 13, 2013 4:30 pm

Word o’week: greenfleecers. “Green collar criminals attributing disasters, including… bad weather and famine, to human misconduct” (sex, gambling, dancing etc) with the sole purpose of public at large extortion.

June 13, 2013 4:38 pm

phlogiston says:
June 13, 2013 at 3:54 pm

Problem is – Jotunheim is about to make a come-back, and we’re going to be put in our place. Sell.

To whom?
The market is going to be ‘flooded’ …
(apologies offered beforehand on the attempted paronomasia)
.

Txomin
June 13, 2013 5:31 pm

Well, it is not that God has no reason to punish us. It is that God is, by all rational accounts, missing in action.

John Trigge (in Oz)
June 13, 2013 6:22 pm

Include the Oz PM as someone with a strong belief that WE are the sole cause of whatever weather occurs. From http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/julia-gillard-and-arnold-schwarzenegger-call-for-action-on-climate-change/story-e6freabc-1226662774742:

We know that these record levels of carbon pollution are directly responsible for a rapidly changing climate. We know that climate change is already having harmful effects on our environment and on the economy. And we know the time for action to address these challenges is now.
California and Australia have a lot in common climate change threatens our fragile environments and aggravates serious bushfires, droughts and floods, which put our important agricultural industries at risk.

Many thanks for sending Arnie over to us – he’s a gem.

Bart
June 13, 2013 6:29 pm

phlogiston says:
June 13, 2013 at 7:44 am
Love it! So apropos.

June 13, 2013 6:41 pm

Txomin says June 13, 2013 at 5:31 pm
Well, it is not that God has no reason to punish us. It is that God is, by all rational accounts, missing in action.

In a necessarily constrained experiment (all experiments are constrained at some point or level, in scope or dimension or budget!) on the corporeal level, I suppose that is one conclusion.
Part of man’s nature (that part which longs for something quite beyond himself) would belie other ‘planes’ of, can I call it “consciousness” or awareness, and on which plane(s) would also seek to disagree with that one, lone, conclusion.
.

Gary Hladik
June 13, 2013 8:50 pm

Zeke says (June 13, 2013 at 2:30 pm): [snip]
Priceless video! Thanks! The woman who made it is definitely qualified to be a UN climate delegate!
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/06/13/u-n-delegate-a-cold-summer-proves-global-warming/

Zeke
June 13, 2013 9:47 pm

You are welcome. She is clearly upset about so many rainbows appearing in increasing frequency and intensity in the last 20 years. Maybe I do need to wake up to all of these rainbows. (:

John Trigge (in Oz)
June 13, 2013 10:06 pm

Zeke says:
June 13, 2013 at 2:30 pm
Didn’t watch this previously but Gary Hladik’s comment made me go back to it.
Unfortunately, these people also vote.

June 13, 2013 10:47 pm

Frank K. says:
June 13, 2013 at 7:58 am
“Former Vice President Al Gore lamented today that scientists “will not let us link record-breaking” tornadoes in Oklahoma and elsewhere to climate change because of inadequate record keeping on the twisters.”
Clearly, Al has never, ever hear of the tri-state tornado:
____________________________________________________
… Or, of the great Galveston hurricane.

Published on Apr 21, 2012
On September 8, 1900, the deadliest hurricane in US history made landfall at Galveston, Texas. Winds reached a speed of 145 miles per hour, killing between 6,000 and 12,000 individuals out of Galveston’s population of 37,000. On September 24, Thomas A. Edison sent a film crew to Galveston to record the aftermath of the storm, and part of that film is what you’re seeing here. The song, “Wasn’t that a Mighty Storm,” was written sometime later. The lyrics mention a seawall, but Galveston didn’t build a seawall until after the 1900 hurricane, and whoever wrote the song didn’t know that. It was first recorded by John Lomax in 1934 at Darrington State Farm, a prison near Sandy point, Texas, sung by “Sin-Killer” Griffin who claimed authorship. A new, more powerful arrangement was created in the 1960s by Eric Von Schmidt, who gave the song to Tom Rush.

Strange, that for a young man coming of age in the ’60’s, Gore never paid attention to Tom Rush’s “Galveston Flood”. There are powerful, if inconvenient, lessons to be learned from folk songs.

Jan Smit
June 14, 2013 1:25 am

When the peccant peccary’s peccadillos finally caught up with him, he exclaimed “peccavi, I am but a peccable pig!”. Alas such heartfelt penitence cannot be expected of our opulent overlords and their grasping groupies…

Frank K.
June 14, 2013 5:31 am

Bill Parsons says:
June 13, 2013 at 10:47 pm
Yes – there are MANY examples of record-breaking weather events of the past, NONE of which can be attributed to climate change (at least by sane, rational people). When someone says “Katrina”, I say “Camille”…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Camille
“Camille and unofficially the Labor Day Hurricane were the only Atlantic hurricanes to exhibit recorded sustained wind speeds of at least 190 miles per hour (310 km/h) until Allen joined them in 1980, and remains the only confirmed Atlantic hurricane in recorded history to make landfall with wind speeds at or above such a level.

Take Off Your Shoes & Feel the Global Warming
June 14, 2013 6:31 am

Sorry if anyone has picked this up before but typo in “against Gaia, such as emitting to much CO2 over an imaginary…” Should be “too”

Annie
June 14, 2013 7:28 am

Gunga Din @ 1:30 pm:
Hilarious…thank you for a good laugh!

Annie
June 14, 2013 7:33 am

Peccatogenesists…brilliant term for those who want us to feel guilty and sinful for our existence, to their own ends.

June 14, 2013 9:29 am

“Repent for the end is near”
I saw an interesting TV program about the “Black Plague”.
In it, the Jews of Europe were made the scapegoats for the disease and were summarily killed as God’s retribution. Poland’s King was more sensible and gave refuge to any Jews escaping this.

Tim Clark
June 14, 2013 12:59 pm

Reading the diatribes of gaia followers makes me want to consume Ipecac.

Lars P.
June 14, 2013 1:05 pm

Gary Pearse says:
June 13, 2013 at 2:50 pm
The Flood may well have had some post Ice Age basis – the sea has risen 120m or so- perfect for a folktale to be carried on. Certainly a lot of cities of those days were indundated.Of course, that it was caused by man’s sins would make it a myth.
A better case might be the Black Sea which was flooded some 7600 years ago, with water from the Mediterranean Sea according to Ryan and Pitman:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_theory

June 14, 2013 1:15 pm

Tim Clark says:
June 14, 2013 at 12:59 pm
Reading the diatribes of gaia followers makes me want to consume Ipecac.

===========================================================================
But they are the who swallowed what the IPeCaC has to say.
(I think Monkton coined “IPeCaC”.)

June 14, 2013 1:30 pm

Zeke says:
June 13, 2013 at 9:47 pm
You are welcome. She is clearly upset about so many rainbows appearing in increasing frequency and intensity in the last 20 years. Maybe I do need to wake up to all of these rainbows. (:

==========================================================================
As an EPA licensed water and waste-water treatment professional I can only say, “OH NO! She’s on to us!”

June 14, 2013 1:31 pm

PS It must be the Fluoride!

June 14, 2013 1:43 pm

Bill Parsons says:
June 13, 2013 at 10:47 pm
Frank K. says:
June 13, 2013 at 7:58 am
“Former Vice President Al Gore lamented today that scientists “will not let us link record-breaking” tornadoes in Oklahoma and elsewhere to climate change because of inadequate record keeping on the twisters.”
Clearly, Al has never, ever hear of the tri-state tornado:

=================================================================
I’m afraid this is all Al Gore hears.

SAGWH
June 14, 2013 3:53 pm

Peccawhateveryacallem’s …………i.e… Cataclysminoids

wallyj
June 14, 2013 6:05 pm

WRT to the impending ‘chemtrail’ disaster.
A good friend of mine was very concerned about these. She thought it would be a good idea for me to watch a documentary on the subject before I scoffed at her foolishness, Sure why not?
It was about 20 minutes into the documentary when something caught my skeptical mind. The name of the guy who made the documentary and the author of the articles that backed up the theories was the same. Gee,what are the chances of that?

June 15, 2013 7:00 am

wallyj says June 14, 2013 at 6:05 pm
WRT to the impending …
It was about 20 minutes into the documentary when something caught my skeptical mind. The name of the guy who made the documentary and the author of the articles that backed up the theories was the same. Gee,what are the chances of that?

It says you apparently can be fairly consistent in self-referential/referenced material (unless perhaps affected by Dissociative Identity Disorder), however, it may be a supreme case of (self) delusion too as when one believes one’s own marketing ‘hype’, sorta like the climate science community and the present ‘fad’ they have latched onto with such single-mindedness and ferocity …
.

derfel cadarn
June 16, 2013 12:43 pm

This carbon dioxide hysteria is insane, there is NO logical progression to disaster inferred by it. The greatest expansion of life on this planet, and from all available knowledge at present the universe, occurred when and most likely because of CO2 levels many times higher then those at present.
Has the human species developed such hubris to think that we are the ultimate top of the evolutionary progression ? Those kinds of thoughts will be proven to be erroneous, To think that nature will allow us to remain unchanged is a sure plan for extinction. Adapt or die. If nature wants or requires CO2 in excess it will provide its own whether we like it or survive is our choice to adapt to.