As a skeptic of AGW, I and many of my peers are often subjected to scrutiny and accusations of being in the employ of “big oil”. It’s a standard line used by warmists, almost as effective at denigration as playing the race card in an argument that has nothing to do with race.
“Oh, don’t pay any attention to him, he (insert one) /works for/is paid by/is supporting/is a shill for/ big oil” is how it usually goes when warmists want to shut down a conversation.
On Twitter this weekend, a bit of sparring by Andrew Neil of the Spectator and the BBC led to one simple question by Dana Nuccitelli:
Yes, I was kind of curious also. Thanks for bringing up the question. But just as soon as the question started getting asked, we have this followup from Dana:
Stop fishing? That’s funny. Why wouldn’t he want his co-workers to know he’s got this plum gig over at the Guardian, that bastion of all things green, where he writes about the evils (and silver linings) of carbon emissions?
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/jun/11/climate-change-carbon-emissions-iea-silver-lining
His bio at the Guardian is rather sparse, listing him only as an “environmental scientist and risk assessor”: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/dana-nuccitelli
Since that bio is a bit slim, how about this one from his Linked in page:
Source: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dana-nuccitelli/7/a44/661
And who is Tetra Tech?
Source: http://www.tetratech.com/markets/oil-a-gas.html
It reads:
“We support oil and gas exploration and production, gathering pipelines, transmission pipelines, compressor/pumping stations, processing facilities, refineries, storage facilities (above ground and below ground), and rail, truck, and marine terminal import and export facilities.”
This revelation about Dana working for a company that supports “big oil” in the form of oil and gas exploration and production may very well revoke Dana’s “green card”.
And ironically, Tetra Tech is big in mining too, for those that want to talk trash about Steve McIntyre’s work in the mining industry.
Welcome to the Streisand effect, Dana.
As a follow up to this primer, you can read Andrew Neil’s essay on the issue here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23405202
Addendum: If Dana wants to argue that the reason he works for this company that supports oil and gas exploration and production, is that he believes that such things can be done in an “environmentally friendly” way while managing the risk, so that we can continue to use oil and gas in the face of the risks he talks about, I would certainly be OK with that. – Anthony
UPDATE: his response? Fingers in ears: la la la la la!
Hilarious! On the heels of our angry nobody at NatGeo. The facade crumbleth.
Just as an aside, I notice that the image chosen for that Guardianenvironment article is another of those lying, into the sun, shots that makes pretty while clouds of condensing water vapour look like thick black dirty smut.
Oh this is going to be fun, especially as Andrew Neil has felt the full force of disapproval for deviating from “the consensus” and isn’t one to back down…
Thanks, Anthony. So Dana is paid by big oil. How comical!!!
The two mugshots they’ve chosen for Guardianenvironment make them look like a stand-up comedy doulbe act. Probably not far from the truth.
I have often wondered if the most overt climate shrillists were actually BIG OIL or BIG GAS or BIG COAL or BIG MINING covert agents, instructed to so badly mangle the arguments for carbon (sic) taxes that the public would eventually ignore the problem completely.
If you think about it, there are great advantages for ‘big oil’ and especially ‘big gas’ to make things difficult for ‘big coal’.
Already we have the World Bank refusing to fund new coal fired power stations.
And I think they can see, and we can all see, that demand for gas and oil is not going to vanish in the near future – their medium term prospects are still really very good.
Big Oil, in the personae of ExxonMobil, Shell and BP give a great deal of money to alarmist organizations – but none, so far as I know, to skeptics. Talk about lying, hypocrisy and effrontery, to claim that skeptics are in the pay of Big Oil. I’m certainly not, and I’d be very surprised if anyone else who posts here is.
From the BBC link:
“At the Sunday Politics we are also used to public figures who try to change the metric when the one they’ve put their faith in does not behave as expected. We try not to let that happen.”
This is why, to me, the BBC can still justify the licence fee. On serious shows they’re still capable of serious reporting. Sadly, with something like 50 channels of populist carp available even on Freeview, the audience for this part of their output is woefully small!
Hmmm – Benzene – CO2?, Benzene – CO2? does any body know an environmental scientist who can tell me which one is poisionous, i think we’re gonna regulate CO2, but what do I know I’m not an expert.
Maybe Dana is just infiltrating…sabotage from within, lol.
Just to add a little coal to the fire (bad pun intended), Tetra Tech is also a publicly-traded company. So they’re part of Wall Street as well.
Lots of villains as bedfellows for Dana.
It is good to see Andrew Neil is aware that the “heat is going into the deep oceans” argument is flimsy as it must be measured in “hundredth of a degree C”. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/02/25/ocean-temperature-and-heat-content/
Too funny. I wouldn’t be too surprised if he’d be a full-time climate campaigner soon, what with conflict of interest with his employer’s business.
Tut, tut – very naughty!
When someone makes a big deal about the employment of an opponent, they have already lost the argument.
Whether or not CO2 is bad or good should be determined by the facts, not personalities.
By the way, benzene, when exposed to water, air, and sunlight breaks down rather quickly. It is not a long term contaminate. The question on benzene should be addressed to an Industrial Hygienist.
Dana is obviously schizophrenic. His Dr. Jekyll personality (Dana has no phd even though he thinks he is qualified to slander those that do), works in oil and gas. His self inflicted guilt concerning his sins working in O&G, brings out the delusional Mr. Hyde who works for SkS.
Dana, see your Doctor. He can prescribe Lithium for what ails you!
REPLY: I think that is way off base. I don’t see that at all, and you are wrong to suggest it. I nearly snipped this. I simply see Dana and others in his peer group as having a simple case of “noble cause corruption”. They feel they are doing a noble service to mankind, and that end justifies any means. That’s not a mental illness, but a self rationalized attitude. – Anthony
Imagine such a probing interview five years ago. Unthinkable.
This is an accolade to Anthony Watts, Steve McIntyre and the rest of the skeptical community pushing to get this scandal exposed and to the likes of Judith Curry working for a return to truthful, objective science.
Big thanks to all investing their time and energy.
That’s the second time I’ve hit moderation in a short comment using our host’s name. Is his name on a black list here?
REPLY: No not a black list, a flag to hold it for moderation so somebody looks at it. Sometimes people address me directly in comments with requests, questions, or needs, and this help me see them. Previously, when all comments were moderated, other moderators would bring them to my attention. – Anthony
Anthony, certainly there are many with “noble cause corruption”. and they do certainly “feel they are doing a noble service to mankind”, but do they also work in O&G?
You know what? I actually respect Nucitelli a whole lot more than I used to after finding that out. You know why? It means that in the real world of real jobs, he knows – absolutely knows, on what side his bread is buttered.
It means that all his fru-fru writing in the Guardian and other places is just him milking some spending money out of the chumps willing to believe any fantasy gibberish he wants to spin, and thanks to his real job he knows how to throw enough jargon in to keep the fish biting.
And he knows it. Hey, if people were willing to pay you good money to write childish, badly plotted fairytales in your spare time, wouldn’t you take it while you could get it?
Read Andrew Neil’s response….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23405202
“As a skeptic of AGW, I and many of my peers are often subjected to scrutiny and accusations of being in the employ of “big oil”. It’s a standard line used by warmists, almost as effective at denigration as playing the race card in an argument that has nothing to do with race.”
Or almost as effective as accusing every scientist who thinks AGW is a problem as being on the government’s payroll, or living off grants that require them to conform to the “consensus” view (of which there are many in the archives of this site).
Ad hominem (or ad funding’em) attacks are equally uncompelling from both sides.
O Oh… This gonna hurt!
It gets better…
“As pioneers in arctic engineering and other services in the North, Tetra Tech and its subsidiaries have a proven reputation for successful northern development. Tetra Tech provides world-class consulting and construction services to owners of infrastructure in transportation, mining, energy, and community infrastructure in the Circumpolar Region. – See more at:
http://www.tetratech.com/services/arctic-engineering.html#sthash.SHoqkpM2.dpuf
I assume that Nuccitelli wasn’t born working for these O&Gers. So he must have applied for a job there.
Wonder how he reconciled his high moral principles and sanctimonious stance on mere mortals with doing so? Did he face sleepless nights and a battle with his conscience? How great was his inner turmoil?
Perhaps you could offer him a guest piece to explain, Anthony? I’m sure we’d be delighted to know.
“Tetra Tech has long focused on helping our clients address water, natural resources, environment, infrastructure and, more recently, renewable energy needs. We lead and support programs that minimize our collective impacts on the environment—through the solutions we provide for our clients; through our procurement and subcontracting practices; and by the processes we use within the company to promote sustainable practices, reduce costs, and minimize environmental impacts.”
http://www.tetratech.com/about/sustainability.html
Translation: The more rules and regulation there are, the more money our company can charge to help you navigate through the minefield of the environmental bureaucracy.
So Dana is in the employ of Big Oil. This one is good for a bookmark!
For an individual who knows so little about so much (as he has repeatedly demonstrated by his blogging and tweeting), Mr. Nuccitelli has no hesitation in broadcasting his ignorance while being extraordinarily disrespectful to people who have far greater expertise than him (e.g. Richard Tol, Roy Spencer, etc.)
There’s a word for individuals who carry with them a highly inflated but wholly undeserved sense of self worth.
Big always gets in bed with regulators. The reason is regulators rarely fix anything, they simply raise barriers to entry in the industry they are “regulating”. To the incumbents, it is quite a cozy relationship.
For instance, say I wanted to get into the oil refining business. Sorry, it’s impossible because you can’t build a refinery these days. However, you can maintain and update existing ones.
It’s great to see it illustrated so deliciously. Thanks, Anthony.
“Tetra Tech’s 11,000 square-foot expansion at its offices in Calgary, Alberta, enhances employee comfort and productivity …”
“Tetra Tech cyclists in Vancouver, British Columbia … ”
Offshoring jobs!
I note he has no Wikipedia entry
REPLY: verified.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=Dana+Nuccitelli&title=Special%3ASearch
– Anthony
I can see that Dana working for a company that does work for the oil and gas industry is a bit hypocritical but Tetra Tech is a pretty large player and imagine they do quite a bit of work for green energy companies that do solar and wind projects as well. I think some additional investigation would be required to find out if Dana’s specialty at TT is working on these green energy projects. That wouldn’t be hypocritical but it sure would mean his job is dependent on the green energy subsidies continuing. Obviously just conjecture but interesting conjecture I believe.
I’d be curious to understand if Dana was hired by Tetra Tech because of his high profile enviromentalism, to somehow give them cover (“don’t mention TT, Dana works there”), or if he is operating as a green without his employer’s knowledge. I know my employer would take a dim view of me working against our customers’ best interests.
Having read the drivel in his Guardian article, which is typical of just about any Guardian article on climate – in other words, any relationship with reality is purely co-incidental. Anyhow, Andrew Neil has a reputation for researching his stuff well, is very believable and any errors on his part would be of a negligible nature.
Noble cause corruption?
This syndrome definitely does exist, but I am not sure it is relevant here – when you are muddled/muddled up with the likes of both the Guardian and John Cook, it is difficult to believe you could possibly have pure motives – unless peddling scary BS is defined as a pure motive.
In this case the obvious tarnish is provided by the Big Oil connection, which is hilarious.
I am sure I can just hear the stamp of self-righteous, angry, little feet.
So Dana makes his living getting paid by deniers.
http://joannenova.com.au/2013/07/the-start-of-the-end-mainstream-press-says-politicians-go-cold-on-global-warming/
“From: The Times July 23, 2013 12:00AM, Reprinted in The Australian”
Via Google news
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/politicians-go-cold-as-global-warming-debate-loses-spark/story-fnb64oi6-1226683380244
They say the Daleks are back in the next Dr Who series at the BBC. “Malfunction….does not compute!” (imagine mechanical voice).
What happened that Andrew Neil was even permitted to publish his defence, or run the original programme? The defenders of the faith at the 28gate must have succumbed to heat exhaustion.
I read somewhere that Dana is involved in environmental clean-up for TT. No bad thing, if true.
Bob Johnston says:
July 22, 2013 at 11:01 am
“I can see that Dana working for a company that does work for the oil and gas industry is a bit hypocritical but Tetra Tech is a pretty large player and imagine they do quite a bit of work for green energy companies that do solar and wind projects as well.”
You are right
http://www.tetratech.com/markets/energy.html
…BUT; it has never disturbed Naomi Oreskes that, for instance BP used to have a solar power division (and funded the CRU) – the accusation was always, you deniers muse be paid by Big Oil, therefore you are corrupt and your arguments don’t count.
Can we have Naomi Oreskes’ opinion about Dana Nuccitelli?
Meanwhile, one hopes, the “green” solar panels at Anthony’s home are continuing to pay for themselves in this Summer weather? Ah, the irony. Bask in it.
Dana Nuccitelli is taking the ‘evil oil money’ and getting reamed for eco-hypocrisy?
Drill! Baby Drill!,/i>
Oil and gas should be recognized for the environmental positives each has made.
Fossil fuels, including coal, saved the world from a hell of horse manure as the world transitioned from horse and mule power into the steam-power age.
But, coal burning was sooty and the smoke was full of lung irritants and created smog. Clean-burning heating oil and even cleaner-burning natural gas cleaned up the smoggy skies.
Clean-burning gasoline and diesel almost entirely replaced horse-drawn vehicles and the staggering mountains of manure.
Oil and gas have literally saved the planet from horrible pollution.
And to the nuclear nuts who will undoubtedly jump in and claim that nuclear power should replace all other forms of power, show me a safe, practical, and economic nuclear-powered car, truck, train, airplane, power plant, or heavy industrial plant.
Disclosure: I am a proud and happy second-generation member of the oil, gas, refining and petrochemical industries.
Tetra Tech Company Facts
Employees: 14,000
Revenue: $2.7 billion (FY 2012)
NASDAQ Symbol: TTEK
Corporate Office: 3475 East Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107; (626) 351-4664
Geographic reach: 350 offices worldwide
Tetra Tech will do anything for money. They likely don’t care that one division makes money by mining and oil exploration while another division makes money by contracts from superfund cleanup. Even if leftists in California try to ban fossil fuels, Tetra Tech will make money exploiting contracts to execute the banning of fossil fuels in California.
It’s not surpising that a large company would pay someone to promote one division over another division within the same company.
“We support oil and gas exploration and production, gathering pipelines, transmission pipelines, … etc, etc … and export facilities.”
Tetra Tech is in the business of gathering things. Sorta’ like Warren Buffett.
He also goes on Al Jazeera TV (formerly Current TV) & said their good because they don’t have “fake balance.” I think that’s the phrase he likes to use. I have no idea if Al Jazeera TV can survive on their ad revenue. Can’t find solid evidence if Al Jazeera TV receives any government (Qatar) money. I would guess they have to. Wiki says “much of its funding comes from the Qatar government.”
Another mug that screams for a Hawaiian-punch.
Hey, how about a Hawaiian-punch?
Sure!
Poommph
http://www.tetratech.com/markets/midstream.html
Noble cause corruption?
Sorry Andrew, but you cut these people too much slack.
They are not well meaning, but over idealist people. They are the latter day equivalent of the Bolshevics and Maoists. The evil which they will cause is the evil that they intend to cause.
Maybe Dana isn’t involved in oil/gas support. He might instead be involved with supporting sulfuric acid plants or uranium mining. Or maybe one of the other open pit mines his company supports which the greens like to trash.
who cares who pays him? I really don’t. If he is truthful and accurate, that is all we should care about, trusting the art, not the artist. So the pursuit of the truth as far as what is going on is what we should be after. I get accused of this krap all the time, but the only money we make is based on the merits of our ideas competing against other excellent meteorologists in the private sector, and yes in the government which is funded by the taxpayer. So the crucible is who is right and who is wrong. This whole demonization is a distraction.
If Dana or the man in the moon were right, then they are right and the data should back him up. What is important is that there is evidence that he is not right and in fact, its going the opposite way. Whether who is paying him gets involved in his thought process, I try to avoid. What I can tell is that in what many of us who refuse to bow down in this fight are that way because of what we needed to know to get an up in what we do, not because we want to be in some big fight where we are isolated demonized and destroyed. I want to win on the merits of my ideas, and I try to treat my opponents that way. That being said, I am not going to watch them make statements that reveal either ignorance of fact, or deceptive tactics if they know it. But as far as who pays him, if he was right, who cares
If snapping your fingers and eating cheeto’s made for cheaper energy, I am for it, cause someone still needs to know if the winter is cold or warm in Chicago. The fact is that those of us doing this know that the key to research and APPLICATION IN REAL WORLD SITUATIONS is knowing what really happened and why, not making up stories about the past and applying them to the future. In the end, its reality, not virtual reality, that carries the day
I was getting ready to ask the question, Do we know what his actual position in the company is? Until I saw the comment from:
Billy Liar says:
July 22, 2013 at 11:31 am
but what if he’s just someone’s adminitrative assistant?????? MOre like a PR person maybe, would seem to meld well with his blog career.
Just saying
Tetra Tech is a huge company. I worked for them 10 years ago. Our division primarily did environmental work for the EPA but also for other federal agencies, such as NOAA, & the USACOE. I personally did a lot of work in hazardous waste incineration – permitting, testing, & oversight. Incineration is a vital technology for waste disposal. I also happen to think it needs to be highly regulated d/t risks & dangers it presents. Anyway, as Anthony discovered, they appear to be into oil & gas, big time. Interesting but not surprising.
Sorry to be ungentlemanly, but Ed Davey is a complete arse…and even he knows it.
Billy Liar says:
I read somewhere that Dana is involved in environmental clean-up for TT. No bad thing, if true.
Greenwash more likely. Most big (and less big) companies have someone on the books to present the company’s pollution as an act of environment concern. At best the aim is to pollute as much as possible whilst staying a hair’s breadth within the law. Often it’s pure spin.
Didn’t we know this years ago? He even signs off science papers as Tetra Tech.
David Cameron has a new PR guru in Lynton Crosby and has changed tack on several issues to great popular effect. Could it be that Crosby suggested the “windmill hating” Conservative side of the governing coalition gave the BBC permission to cut the “windmill loving” Liberal side of the coalition off at the knees? Andrew Neil is a very clever man and high ranker at the BBC, I believe he makes politicians squirm for fun, a sort of hobby.
Nuccitelli decontaminates military sites – be interesting to find out if Tetra Tech builds military sites 😉
Maybe we need to start pointing out that Big Environment has just as much a monetary vested interest in the the results of their research too. How the hell else will they they be able to scare the bejuesus out of people and get them to send in their contributions. Without a crisis and a corporate villain to joust with, no one would send a dime. What also is not mentioned, is the political agenda of the environmental left. They are socialist with the goal of bringing down the capitalist free economy. In many cases these organizations receive large sums of money from countries like Russia and China. While the connection is not direct, usually looking a 5 or more pass through organizations. The money is there to support an economic war. I used to work in the nuclear power field and would volunteer my time to advocate. I saw reports that showed that the anti-nuclear groups were connected back to the soviets through a chain of organizations used to launder money to them. These groups started out as the anti-war groups, progressed to the anti-nuclear groups and are now the big environmental organizations who support the AGW position and other anti-growth positions.
It’s interesting that the Guardian causes so much excitement. Its paid for circulation is now below 200,000, it’s losing money at a huge rate and the online version is also. Hard to see how it can survive. Unfortunately, it still exerts influence as part of the BBC general left wing media bias prevalent in the UK.
Cheers
Paul
BBC back pedalling already. The plateau is completely okay. We are all going to die after all.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23409404
Poor Dana, king of the roost one minute,feather duster the next.
Never spar with Andrew Neil, BIg hitter… see the interview with Ed Davey
This revelation about Dana working for a company that supports “big oil” in the form of oil and gas exploration and production may very well revoke Dana’s “green card”
Not necessarily – according to the Beeb, oil & mining are behind a reduction in de-forestation in the Congo: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23382526
I wonder how much of that “commercial agriculture” was growing crops to convert to fuel?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23409404
This is a good one back pedalling has really begun
“Professor Rowan Sutton, of Reading University, said computer simulations or models of possible future climate scenarios often show periods of ten years with no warming trend – some even show pauses of 20-25 years.”
And another….Ooops
And Professor Stephen Belcher, head of the Met Office Hadley Centre, said observations and models showed that on average there were – or would be – two pauses in warming every century.
I asked why this had not come up in earlier presentations. No one really had an answer, except to say that this “message” about pauses had not been communicated widely.
I have to defend Dana here, its better to work with oil and gas to ensure its done the best way possible than simply standing around protesting its evil like Hansen! Its also possible he doesnt have much to do with it within his business, though management there may still see it as a coflict or interested or un-professional regardless. We dont like lies about us working for oil shills etc… so lets not do it to others
What!!?? a 2 faced hypocrite warmist alarmist? No, it can’t be true.
/sarc
He has to make a living, but he is honest enough to spout what he believes in, knowing, presumably, that his employers won’t like it. A brave man.
I take it desmogblog will be opening a file on him soon.
Clearly this is something that the public, investors in Tetra and their clients, should be writing to the chairman of Tetra to inquire about. Why should their clients trust a company which employees an individual who is actively working against them? Aside form the extremely bad decision making quality that this hiring decision reflects, who knows what subversive actions Dana engages in passively or actively to undermine his company’s client’s business. This would certainly give me pause for long thought about whether engaging their services is a good decision. As an investor I would have to question the leadership of the current chairman.
Man this is sweet! He has introduced his SkS style of moderation and had many long time commenting sceptics banned. I have found myself on pre mod for the first time, which makes it virtually impossible to engage in any meaningful discussion. This guy hates free speech and is an arrogant buffoon.
Cue another CiF blog defending his rank, fossil fuelled hypocrisy that has been exposed, and cue his SkS style moderation so only his and his sock puppets` voices will be heard.
I bet he wishes he never wrote this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/jul/19/climate-change-contrarian-wretched-week?INTCMP=SRCH
I hope this revelation will be the cure for this irksome tick.
l see they are already trying to use this heatwave we have been having in the UK as some sort of proof that the warming has not stalled. lf we have a spell of cool weather during August, l bet they won’t be so quick to try and claim that as proof that the warming has stalled. 🙂
Rabinsky says:
July 22, 2013 at 1:22 pm (Edit)
———————————————
That’s fine but the real point is that he uses the allegation that “deniers” receive money from big “fossil” to dispute what they say. He cannot say that and take their money at the same time. Best he just fesses up and admits that the money trail is irrelevant in this debate. That would at least remove a forest of undergrowth we need to hack through every time we make a point.
Nuccitelli is suffering from a clear cut case of conflicting interests.
He should resign from one or preferably both jobs.
The most important thing in all of this to me is that someone at the BBC, of all organisations, would actually write such a fair and objective assessment. I am almost too stunned to know which I am more impressed with: the analytical approach of the response or the someone having the balls to stand up to the howling of the usual green mafia.
Another irony is that most environmental consulting firms have spent the last 10 yrs promoting AGW and trying to drum-up business…whether it deals with rising water levels affecting bridge heights or wastewater treatment plant discharge elevations, changes in rainfall affecting water resources (we have an “impending war on water” in the coming decades, allegedly), increased intensity of storm events wreaking havoc on sewer systems, minimizing GHG emissions from municipal utilities, etc.
So Dana is qualified to be employed to blog about it and write papers on climate change, but he’s not qualified to do it in his own workplace – nor does his employer apparently promote his alleged capabilities when it comes to business development. Priceless.
I know Andrew Neil’s programme doesn’t exactly pull in the punters, but it does restore a little faith in the BBC that they are prepared to allow sceptic heresies to be spoken at all. Andrew Neil’s reply to criticisms is excellent (though why should he have had to make it?) This Dana bloke sounds like a prize specimen.
markx says:
July 22, 2013 at 9:36 am
If you think about it, there are great advantages for ‘big oil’ and especially ‘big gas’ to make things difficult for ‘big coal’…..
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Read: Enron, joined by BP, invented the global warming industry. I know because I was in the room….
Does anyone have a Tetra Tech application form handy? I have no moral integrity and don’t mind who I sub for money. I must be their perfect employee.
Andrew Neil:
“As pointed out above some scientists (and Mr Nuccitelli) believe that global warming…”
I love this particular little dig at Nutter.
Dana is an expert on precisely nothing if my only encounter with him is a measure. He ridiculed Prof Bamber’s research on glaciers and said his statement on the relevance of the man-measured glaciers was “rubbish”….. He should live in a shed , marked “tool shed”.
Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK) Investor Alert: Lawsuit Alleges False and Misleading Statements
http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/tetra-tech-inc-nasdaqttek-investor-alert-lawsuit-alleges-false-and-misleading-statements-275417.htm
I wonder if they will tell us next that their models sometimes show a 15 year plateau followed by a substatial decrease of temperature.
Andrew Neill has always been a figure of fun in the UK. Google Andrew Neill Brillo.
Hmmmmmmmm I wonder if Tetra Tech is involved at all in “Fracking”?
Wouldn’t that just be delicious?
No more “big oil” funding shots from this one ……. no sir.
Perhaps Nuccitelli is so far up the moral high ground that he is suffering from oxygen starvation.
===================================================================
I admit that I’m not up on what some of the names of those promoting CAGW and what they have said in attempts to discredit those who point out “its going the opposite way” by claiming they are in the pay of “Big Oil”. Maybe Dana has never made such an accusation.
If he has, then he’s open to having a little fun poked at him with this just as Al Gore opened himself up in his sale to of Current TV.
But you are dead right in saying that what he says should not be dismissed simply because of who pays him.
“They” make that mistake. “We” shouldn’t emulate it.
It’s just like Pachauri who some years back established a residual oil extraction technology company called Glorioil (name now changed) to help big oil companies extract those last remaining remnants of oil. As for Dana he is a hypocrite. I hope someone on WUWT with a Guardian commenting account point this fact out to him on his next watermelon posting.
Climate alarmists are in the business of perpetuating the myth of sceptics ‘being in the pay of Big Oil’ although not one of them is ever prepared to offer up definitive proof to back up such ill-founded claims. CAGW evangelists subscribe to the view that if you repeat a lie often enough eventually people who know no better will simply believe it…until proof is no longer required or sought. And this is where we are, as sceptics, in the face of such sustained propaganda – warmist agitators openly lie on national television (and in print) about imaginary ‘funding’ by those evil fossil fuel corporations to CAGW dissidents and nobody seems remotely interested in holding such baseless accusations up to examination, least of all the hopelessly compromised, completely ineffective mainstream media – which by now appears to have divested itself of any last vestige of journalistic integrity.
But, really, what else did we expect? Propagating baseless, damaging rumours against one’s critics in order to undermine their legitimacy is one of the oldest tricks in the book, as anyone familiar with a history of the 20th century’s long list of indoctrinaire dictators can testify.
In terms of fossil-fuel funding for warmists, this pales into insignificance alongside the Sierra Club’s antics a year or two back. They not only took $26m from the major shale gas company, Chesapeake, to campaign against coal, they then turned around and reneged: hypocritical and unprincipled.
The rabbit hole is indeed deep: One of comic book artist John Cook’s co-authors on SkepticalScience.com works for a nuclear weapons design company that now also gets three hundred million dollar grants for green energy. RealClimate.org was established by the PR firm that was behind both the silicone breast implant scare that bankrupted Dow Corning and the autism/vaccine scare. DeSmogBlog.com is financed by a $125 million online gambling convicted money launderer who then sold solar cells.
Margaret Hardman says:
July 22, 2013 at 3:12 pm
Andrew Neill has always been a figure of fun in the UK. Google Andrew Neill Brillo.
I did just that. Do you have a problem with Scots?
http://www.newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-opinion/5839-why-does-andrew-neil-inspire-such-visceral-loathing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Neil
The oil and gas industry has many green shills within their ranks effectively working against their own interests. Remember the Shell Oil ads from a few years ago where a Nuccitelli type is berating his Shell executive Dad for his company’s sins against the environment. I guess the industry is so lucrative that even saboteurs are welcome employees.
But he rides a small oil bike remember.
…ah Dana *is* the now better known SkepticalScience co-author I exposed about this a year ago, after his bio there sent me digging:
“dana1981
Dana Nuccitelli is an environmental scientist at a private environmental consulting firm in the Sacramento, California area. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in astrophysics from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Master’s Degree in physics from the University of California at Davis. He has been researching climate science, economics, and solutions as a hobby since 2006, and has contributed to Skeptical Science since September, 2010. He also blogs at The Guardian. Follow him on Twitter.”
I originally posted about it in this thread:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/15/quote-of-the-week-collapse/#comment-681144
Dana ant Tetra Tech appeared on WUWT before via a commenter.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/03/05/a-junk-scientists-misguided-crusade-against-the-keystone-xl-pipeline/#comment-1239776
Furthermore, we have this:
Shale he or not? I hope Dana has made his opposition to dirty shale oil known to his Big Oil paymaster.
Why, was it not obvious for some time it was the evil oil & gas industry which lurked behind the CO₂ scare? They only want to kill coal, which is cheaper, but emits twice as much CO₂ for the same energy output as hydrocarbons. Once that goal is attained, they can raise their prices at will. At least until their first victim, nuclear energy, resurrects.
You can ask Tetra Tech what they think of Dana’s activities here – http://www.tetratech.com/about/contact-us.html
Just as I predicted earlier this year. I knew it and WUWT needs to cover this horseshit. I knew and said to get ready for new model runs pushing the time scale required from 15 years to 20, 25 or more years to buy themselves more time. Well here it finally is! All you need do is press enter and voila, 25 years. Get ready for 30 years or more if this also fails. Sheesh!
Thanks to commenters upstream.
What a hypocrite – Nuccitellis angst over big oil is just venting his frustration at a job he hates.
And I just laugh..
My last contract was paid out of the climate trough 🙂
I’ll take their money, but I won’t take their agenda.
I’d love to know what Scooter’s employers think of his crusade against their best interests.
Joseph Bastardi says:
July 22, 2013 at 12:06 pm
“who cares who pays him?”
Not to minimize the extreme importance of real science in evaluating Climate Science’s ostensibly scientific methods and claims, but “beating them at their own game” by applying their own rules to their own practices and standards is also fair game, especially when “mainstream” Climate Science’s whole operation so far is basically a gigantic Propaganda Machine,. aimed at manipulating perceptions and actions via tactics solely involving devious forms of thought control.
Sorry, I know this sounds somewhat ad-hom, but must we be subjected to a photo of Dana’s unfortunately ugly face each time a story appears about him? I mean, that is one unnecessary face. Enough already. Sheesh.
Seriously guys, we shouldn’t stoop to the same level as alarmists. Stop playing the man (as they keep saying). For all we know, Dana may actually be in there helping to ensure the environmental impact of TT’s clients is as small as possible (which I’m sure we will all agree is a good thing compared to open industrial scale desctruction of the environment).
At worst, Dana is a hypocrit. But in all honesty, who here hasn’t been a hypocrit at some point in their lives? Right now I’m an athiest working for a Jew and a Muslim for the Uniting Church in Australia (Christian). Yes, I’m a hypocrit, but that does not (equally) make me wrong or the church wrong.
Keep to the science:
– Models do not model reality
– Humidity does not reflect high positive feedbacks
– Deep sea measurements are patchy to non-existent
Instead of asking Dana why he works for Big Oil whilst campaigning against them, ask Dana why negative phases of ENSO/solar/PDO are causing the current plateu, but the positive phases of the same cycles can’t cause warming from 1980-2000.
“Who cares who pays him? I really don’t. If he is truthful and accurate, that is all we should care about, trusting the art, not the artist. So the pursuit of the truth as far as what is going on is what we should be after.” — Joseph Bastardi, July 22, 2013 at 12:06pm
I fully agree—at least that’s the way it should be.
But with great respect (because I know who you are, even though I’m British), that’s beside the point here, because the subject is not the art in this case but quite specifically the behaviour of the artist.
Given the unfortunate, heavily politicised environment in which this now consequently highly distorted debate on the science is taking place, it was he himself—no doubt to his regret now—who exacerbated this distortion and thereby helped to escalate it.
That’s the ugly reality here, one he brought on himself. One can choose to ignore it but it’s too much to expect others to do so, and in my view, given what’s at stake, it’s unwise too.
I’d like to be able to stand back from it, as I have tried to do for most of my life with politicking of any kind, but I can’t, not any longer.
It’s really not about who pays him but the HYPOCRISY. Dana regularly lets out ad homs about fossil fuel shills. Why should we tolerate this? This is not about polite discussion anymore, it is guerrilla warfare. I say that sometimes you have to fight fire with fire (and evidence).
Reblogged this on Anthropogenic Global Alarmism and commented:
Dana’s “green card” revoked. LOL
@chris y
I have also thought on more than one occasion that catastrophists are too ignorant, juvenile, and incompetent to be for real. This could be the actual big oil conspiracy, right under everyone’s noses.
wws says:
July 22, 2013 at 10:25 am
No.
I have a conscience.
Big Oil stands to gain big times from carbon taxes and carbon credits. It is coal and the poor that will suffer. As coal is phased out, oil companies can raise prices even further because there will be no alternative. As a bonus, they can get carbon credits for pumping CO2 into oil wells to enhance recovery.
Anyone that claims skeptics are in the pay of big oil is likely trying to hide their own involvement.
You don’t get it. The AGW hypesters *own* the public square. They barely tolerate skeptics simply because they are not sure just how to get rid of us. Think of Gleick’s experience: he was *rewarded* for being a common slimy crook by the AGW hypesters.
I wouldn’t be real keen hiring Tetra to help me with a new oil project – they might assign Nuccitelli to help me with my environmental application.
I would have what I think are reasonable concerns that Nuccitelli might not put my interests first, given his very public concern about the “damage” done by fossil fuels. I would also wonder how many other Tetra employees share his radical green views.
Many commenters seem to be missing the point. “Big Carbon” ’employs’ people like TetraTech for ‘protection’, in much the same way as the owner of a strip club ’employs’ for protection the large gentlemen who visit him with outstretched hands and some well-chosen comments about how nice the place is looking, and what a shame it would be if any of it got broken. TetraTech has two sides to its business – 1. manufacture the threat – 2. sell the protection. DN’s job is presumably to attend to the former.
@Margaret hardman
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Not sure what point you are trying to make. Private Eye magazine makes a figure of fun of all public figures, even the most ‘sacred’. If PE isn’t taking the p**s you’ve not arrived.
Let’s remind ourselves of Dana’s Amazon ‘book review’ of Montford’s Hockey stick Illusion
When challenged in the comments he opined
Tells me everything I need to know about this guy.
Joseph Bastardi
Quite right.
It may be fun to pick on the likes of Dana, but inn the end the data is the data.
Anthony: I know you suffer a lot of slings and arrows, and this is really fun, but it low brows thw whole discussion. No need to go down to their level. (Pigs like it)
Seems to me that Tetra Tech is simply following in the footsteps of Shell and BP. Whenever you go to the seat of EU power in Brussels you are confronted by huge posters from these companies encouraging EU officials to bung them lots of EU funding for sourcing “green energy”. Dana is merely part of their crusade – a useful stooge.
Fact is, as BP have found out, sourcing energy in the form of oil is difficult, dangerous and costly. So much easier to source windpower and solar energy when the purse strings are held by some dim-witted government minister with billions at his disposal and pressure to spend it on local companies. Things haven’t changed much since the days of royalty. They petition the rulers to extract taxes from the poor to funnel it towards them, so much easier than competing in the open market for the people’s wealth. Practically the entirety of Western economies seem to be heading this way since the Chinese entered the fray – so much easier to get the government to squeeze cash out of the people and force them to spend it on healthcare, defence and of course clean energy, rather than compete with the Chinese. Nobody seems to know where the people are going to get the money from in the first place, however – looks like the government is set on simply printing it.
Dana Nuccitelli’s Tetra Tech missed the contract for the Keystone XL pipeline by a nose length see this US Senate report page 11 and 12: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Keystone%20Final%20Report%20020912.pdf
The man has a good choice of companies to work for: Tetra does fossil fuels AND green energy . Equally Dana Jekyll gets paid by Big Oil, while Dana Hyde gets payed by the Green Guardian.
A full blooded response from Nuccitelli: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/jul/23/climate-change-andrew-neil-bbc-errors-take2
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/jul/23/climate-change-andrew-neil-bbc-errors-take2
It would be intersing to have informed comments about this article.
Julian,
I’m guessing but maybe your second link was intended to be to Andrew Neil’s blog:
Global warming: Andrew Pendleton and James Delingpole.
ferd berple says:
July 22, 2013 at 6:05 pm
“Big Oil stands to gain big times from carbon taxes and carbon credits. It is coal and the poor that will suffer. As coal is phased out, oil companies can raise prices even further because there will be no alternative. As a bonus, they can get carbon credits for pumping CO2 into oil wells to enhance recovery.”
Oil is one of the commodities where the TBTF banks now have a near monopoly over the commodity trade. Coal is undermining their attempts at gaining complete control over energy prices – too many miners in all continents. Coal is also more difficult to warehouse. Warehousing is important so you can create artificial scarcity.
CO2AGW climate science is a play by the TBTF banks to get into a position where they can blackmail any country.
Brings to mind a certain statement about: “drag[ging] a dollar bill through a trailer park and see what you come up with …” * only this time it’s more (like) in the “field” of “climate trolling” LOL
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(*Owed initially to James “Chester” Carville.)
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Beg to differ; this post brings forward heretofore unknown facts and underlines outright hypocrisy and perhaps even provides the insight (background and understanding) for more than just a touch of exhibited “projection” …
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Probably not in this lifetime; the climate mafioso protect their own, verily, it is a racket.
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‘Plausible deniability’ owed to being a halfwit; were he to actually posses any competency he would shrink away under the cover of dark for the works he’s penned …
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That doesn’t make you a hypocrite. If you excoriated them for their beliefs and then went to synagogue/mosque/church with them, that might make you one. Yours is a business relationship (presumably), and not a spiritual one. The latter would make you a hypocrite.
This is where it really counts; what does the board (board of directors), the company president (on down) think of his activities. Maybe he has an archangel (high up) in the company overlooking, protecting him?
Then there is the perspective of the shareholders. Certainly at first glance his activities look to place him at odds with, and diametrically opposed to the goals of the company, but then, maybe he interfaces with the US EPA (pure speculation on my part now) hence his usefulness as a ‘Gang Green’ member.
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‘The Guardian’ itself, which, on its own could not survive in the news market as it has so few readers, gets hefty donations from – BAE Systems: the big weapons manufacturer! (according to research by ‘Private Eye’)
Clipe
July 22, 2013 at 3:49 pm
Margaret Hardman says:
July 22, 2013 at 3:12 pm
Andrew Neill has always been a figure of fun in the UK. Google Andrew Neill Brillo.
I did just that. Do you have a problem with Scots?
Nope, just with idiots.
In general every green warmist scumbag either takes a pay check or parasites from big oil and big business.
All teeth and no bite Nutjob has found a way to combine the two.
Andrew Neil’s reply was awesome!! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23405202
Could be. Big Oil knows AGW is a) nonsense & b) unworkable. So it rides the gravy train as far as it will go, secure in the knowledge that the Invisible Hand and other inexorable economic forces will leave fossil fuels securely dominant at the end of it all.
Here is the real reason for the climate change BS. Anytime a new economy industrializes, they pollute and it takes time and money to clean up emissions. The big plan is to de-industrialize the US and move it to China as they have been. Problem is, in places like China and India, they can barely breath. So what they want is to tax the Americans to clean up the air in China.
Why don’t they need industry here in the US? Because they are planning to exploit the oil and gas in the US. I worked in the oil industry in the 70’s and 80’s. They were very open about their plan to use up the rest of the worlds oil and then sell ours for a lot.
We drilled well after well, hit oil and then plugged it. There is more oil in places like North Dakota and Colorado than in the middle east. There is enough oil under Dove Island to power the US for 200 years. We can get 300 MPG any time we want. THERE IS NO OIL SHORTAGE PERIOD!
The US exports our sweet crude and imports middle eastern oil so we can claim we have a strategic interest in the middle east to protect Israel. It is all a ruse.
Dana, I would call you a hypocrite only if you have criticised others for being funded by Big Oil. Have you?
The Green Knight Rises