Outed by FOIA – EPA strategy memo reveals deep flaws in the integrity of the agency, and lack of integrity of the press

Attorney Chris Horner writes in with this bombshell which shows how “evangelism” has replaced factual analysis at the EPA, which is helped along by a compliant mass media. See the attached document obtained via FOIA.

His take on it includes:

* Obtained from the ongoing “Richard Windsor” FOIA, precisely as FOIA intended this allows the American public to see what bureaucrats and, in this case, ideological activists in government say among themselves and their pressure group allies, helping us keep a proper perspective about what these same activists tell the public.

* What this memo shows is the recognition that EPA needed to move its global warming campaign away from the failed global model of discredited Big Green pressure groups and their icons, that it has proved “consistently — an unpersuasive argument to make.” In it we see the birth of the breathtakingly disingenuous “shift from making this about the polar caps [to] about our neighbor with respiratory illness…”.

It also shows the conviction that if they yell “clean air” and “children” enough they, the media and the green groups will get their way.

SPECIFICS:

Notable points consistent with what critics of this evangelism have been saying include:

– the analogy to religion and faith-based pursuit of the “mission” — “a monumental effort driven by a positive motivation” — to reach the “unchurched”, which framing they recognized “will undoubtedly raise some eyebrows internally”.

– the same is true of the candor with which the memo acknowledges Obama’s EPA would wrap [fill in the blank] agenda item in poll-tested rhetoric, to “use various hooks” — “children” naturally among their headline list, as in “highlighting the children’s health dimension to all of our major initiatives” — to try and “create a causal link” between the incoming appointees’ “mission” and the actual concerns of those impacted by the missionaries.<

[See “shift from making this about the polar caps [to] about our neighbor with respiratory illness…”] Sure enough, with the rollout of Obama’s GHG rules in June we saw the remarkable pivot after which the “global warming” agenda was suddenly, somehow in fact about “clean air” and children struggling to breathe; the American Lung Association stood in for the old faithful alarmist groups which have squandered most of their credibility in recent years, to host the president’s announcement. Observers may have scratched their heads about that; this provides the genesis.

Elsewhere the memo acknowledges the campaign, revealed further in many other “Richard Windsor” emails, of trying to rebrand a global warming movement that is so obviously a child of affluent whites to an issue of race and “EJ” or “social justice”.

Possibly most refreshing is the acknowledgement of EPA’s symbiotic relationship with a “cadre of reporters” who EPA expects to demand an agenda — according to EPA, just like pressure groups — to which demands EPA will respond.


March 09 EPA Strategy Memo to LPJ (PDF obtained via FOIA)

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spetzer86
January 26, 2015 7:29 am

That’d be an interesting FOI to open up to the public. A nice crowd review could be done pretty quickly.

badger777
Reply to  spetzer86
January 26, 2015 7:52 am

???? It is open to the public, now.

spetzer86
Reply to  badger777
January 26, 2015 8:43 am

I see the link to the specific memo, but it there a link to the entire FOI?

Tucci78
January 26, 2015 7:31 am

How otherwise, with “environmental protection” per the priorities of progtards like our Community-Organizer-in-Chief?
And is there anyone reading here yet fixated upon the scientific aspects of the perpetually preposterous bogosity of “man-made global warming” – er, “climate change” – when factual reality has friggin’ NEVER had a thing to do with the leftards’ bastardly purposes for foisting this fraud?
It’s political, and where it’s not political, it’s religious with a nominally secular discoloration.

Reply to  Tucci78
January 26, 2015 11:13 am

Just imagine what digital learning mandates and videogaming in the classroom from GlassLab will do to the typical students’ ‘understanding’ of science. They will get used to being embedded in a virtual reality that shows these models to be true.
Anytime you read the word ‘framing’ or a mention of ‘lenses’, someone is trying to control what gets perceived and what gets ignored in how we interpret daily life.
On the religious aspect, many of the leading pushers of the K-12 agenda are also heavily involved with New Age philosophies and practices and pushing Holos Consciousness (the Club of Budapest new term created with the Dalai Lama, Integral Theory (Robert Kegan, Ken Wilber), Transpersonal Psychology (Peter Senge), and others. Check out the Garrison Institute for more confessions on this nexus.

Anonymous Coward
Reply to  Robin
January 26, 2015 2:53 pm

I’m not sure why I’m posting as a reply to you, however:
First – I used to work in government. The word ‘mission’ is a typical government word for ‘what this office or group is doing’. The word mission is used because of the military connection to the governmental office. So, I definitely am not surprised nor alarmed by that particular word in any particular government document. However, I would say that the paragraph specifically targeted at ‘Climate Change’ is alarming. Mostly because it doesn’t include any references to science or data or even models. The paragraph is simply ‘fluff’ meant to serve as a ‘call to arms’ — again a military term but appropriate for any government office to use for any mission of that office.
Second, to Robin:
Digital learning doesn’t need to be about advocacy of climate change nor about blind trust of the models. I don’t disagree that advocacy and blind trust of authority will be a component of EPA led digital learning about the climate. However, it is no less destructive to subvert young minds through pen, paper, and general classroom advocacy and indoctrination. I, for one, would hope that digital learning reach the classroom at a young age… however, the digital learning should show the power of scientific data analysis using observational data along with simple modeling and comparison of the two. Of course, this is highly unlikely because such useful and powerful analysis will be deemed beyond the intellect of the standard student… And so, digital learning will be all about TV learning… i.e. consumption of someone else’s ideas, ideals, and analysis through hyped video and moving musical scores…
But – it doesn’t need to be that way.

January 26, 2015 7:36 am

I hate bombast from wherever it comes. Only important point is about climate change “in the abstract” recognized as “unpersuasive”. Finally a consensus.

Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 7:42 am

Rebranding something accurately so people understand the issues better. They should be ashamed of themselves..

Steve Oregon
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 7:54 am

Mendaciously misrepresenting the issues in order to give people and policy makers false impressions is worse than shameful. Especially when it is done by government institutions with the tax payers money.

mpainter
Reply to  Steve Oregon
January 26, 2015 10:19 am

It is a review of possible propaganda strategies. In today’s context of the politicization of science, it is a political strategy.

Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 8:06 am

Except there is no accuracy. But then you have yet to learn that.

Crispin in Waterloo
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 8:13 am

Sir Harry
Are you defending “Richard” and the EPA?
Do you agree that it is necessary to turn environmental protection into a religion, or quasi-religion in order for the ordinary folk to understand it, or failing that, to act ‘correctly’ anyway?
I find that elitist. If science communicators cannot explain something truthfully in a coherent manner, then it is not real as far as the pubic is concerned. Appeals to authority are not working anymore as the ‘authorities’ continue to discredit themselves with hollow assertions they have gnostic knowledge inaccessible to the scientific semi-literates. That’s the problem with education. If you educate the masses they understand when they are being conned.
The EPA once did great things and had integrity.

Severian
Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo
January 26, 2015 10:17 am

The EPA once did great things? Remember that one of their early “accomplishments” (or Great Thing) was to ban DDT based on no supporting science. The EPA administrative judge even said that the evidence didn’t support the complaints against DDT and the ban, but that he felt it important to ban it anyway. EPA has been almost nothing but a front for radical anti-capitalist Greens ever since it was created.

Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo
January 26, 2015 10:43 am

Crispin:
“The EPA once did great things and had integrity” ?????
I worked as a consultant to industry to 25 years dealing with EPA in every program, and I don’t know to what you are referring. Some of the early progress was good in terms of open discharges to air and water, but by the time of the `1976 regulations and statutes, it has been a knock-down-dragged-out fight over every little thing.

Mark
Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo
January 26, 2015 8:35 pm

Not just almost, Severian. The EPA’s entire purpose is to bureaucratically wrest liberty from the people that fund it. The same is true of any of the departments given to the executive branch by the legislative. This has never occurred by accident.
Mark

commieBob
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 8:29 am

“Rebranding something accurately so people understand the issues better.”
Is that what they’re doing? Kindly explain to me how that is so.

Jimbo
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 8:33 am

Rebranding was necessary when they realised global warming was at a standstill and people continued to put it near the bottom of their concerns. It’s hard to persuade Americans in the NE when they are about to get slammed with that “thing of the past” – again.
Updates: Up to 3 feet of snow expected in paralyzing Northeast blizzard

sleepingbear dunes
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 8:48 am

No Harry, it is about scaring people and appealing to emotions. More hysterics, little science. It is all too obvious.

Sir Harry Flashman
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 8:57 am

If you don’t believe the science of AGW – which is true of pretty much everyone here except lonely old me – it might look nefarious in a ham-handed kind of way. If you do, it’s just common sense to communicate the issues in a way that people can relate to.
For example, if I’m a weather forecaster and a hurricane is coming in, I’ll tell you how low the pressure is going to be, but more importantly, I’m going to emphasize the things you really need to know – when it’s coming, how fast are the winds, and how much rain there’s going to be. If you believe that there’s a real danger, it’s important to tell people exactly how that danger is going to impact them, not to gloss over and cover up so as not to upset anyone.
I get that you don’t agree this is necessary, because you don’t recognize an underlying risk. I’m just pointing out why this is just good communication.
I had to google Richard Windsor, and the issue kind of escapes me since no evident harm has been done.

kim
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 9:19 am

There seems to be a lot that escapes you, Sir.
=============

sleepingbear dunes
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 10:01 am

Harry
There is a distinct difference between the science of AGW and true science. If there is one perspective that joins the regular commenters here, it is they understand that difference.

Sir Harry Flashman
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 12:01 pm

Time will tell.

badger777
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 10:06 am

@Sir Harry Flashman, your name kind of sounds like a UK failed empire pedophile, any coincidence?
no I don’t think this looks nefarious in a ham handed kind of way….I think using my tax money to promote failed theories on climate with propaganda and lies is not just ham handed, it is criminal.
“no harm” from the head of the EPA, pretending to be someone else in, and promoting lies? Well there is a harm, the harm is that a government official in a high level of power being paid on the sweat of my brow committed a Federal crime and no charges were filed. That is a huge problem

Curious George
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 10:26 am

The science of AGW has so far produced a plenty of failed predictions and a scary 100-year outlook. I will be more willing to trust it when I see a reliable 100-day weather forecast. Even 100 hours seem to be too long for a reliable forecast – other than “tomorrow will be pretty much like today”. They totally disregard this time-proven forecasting method.

Harry Passfield
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 10:49 am

@Harry Flashman: When you start out saying: “If you don’t believe the science of AGW “ it tells me that you see it (AGW) as a religion.
But then, when you go on to use the over-egged analogy of whether a weather forecaster should tell the truth about a low pressure area on its way, or lie to the viewers, I think you need to pause: If the weather forecaster had not seen any bad weather for the last 18 years and decided that there was not much chance of any in the near future, would he be covering up if he was to tell the viewers that there was not much to worry about? Or would you prefer that he scare the cr@p out of them so as to push his own belief system? (Not to mention, keep his job, salary and pension?)

Alx
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 12:12 pm

I hope your not being paid to come up with this stuff.
The proper analogy is if a weatherman warns of a hurricane hitting Florida at some time in or around the year 2055 give or take 10-20 years. And today people should do what with this warning?
Apparently the absurdity escapes you.

Paul Courtney
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 12:32 pm

Harry, if you really believed in the Science of AGW, you’d be asking why precious resources dedicated to saving the planet from human co2 are being wasted on unrelated stuff, and you’d believe the science so you’d know very well it’s unrelated. If you really believed….

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 1:16 pm

Harry Passfield
January 26, 2015 at 10:49 am
@Harry Flashman: When you start out saying: “If you don’t believe the science of AGW “ it tells me that you see it (AGW) as a religion.

I disagree. Simply believing something doesn’t mean you see it as a religion. Believing something without evidence is faith, believing something with evidence means you’re convinced enough by the evidence to believe the results.

george e. smith
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 3:05 pm

Well Sir Harry (what are you a “Sir” of ??), the “Science of Climate” and of global warming if and when it occurs, and of Anthropogenic ( $3 word for “man made”) global warming, if that occurs, is simply Physics, and probably Biology too.
Some say Chemistry as well, but Chemistry is simply Applied Physics, and Biology is simply Applied Chemistry; so it all comes down to Physics in the end; which not surprisingly is simply the formal study of the Real Universe.
And some of us have spent well over half of a century studying that, as well as putting it to good use making money for paying customers.
But it seems that the majority of what passes for “Climate research”, and that includes AGW, is actually “Statistics” which is a well understood branch of mathematics; but is not ANY part of Physics. Well lots of branches of mathematics ARE indeed useful tools of Physics. Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus, Differential Equations, would be a good starting list of useful tools of mathematics for the study of Physics.
Statistics, on the other hand, is only marginally useful, since physical systems never respond to statistical computations of system behavior. Physical systems never store up a lot of values of variables or parameters, and then for some reason decide to act on some statistical prestidigitation of those values. The Physical system responds instantly to the current value of each and every single variable or parameter in the system, and it never waits for something else to happen.
So maybe, just because you don’t understand something, doesn’t mean that everybody else doesn’t understand it either.
As for me, I’ve forgotten MOST of what I once understood very well.
But we are all ears to listen to YOUR dissertations on your “science of AGW” since you evidently are the only expert on that subject.
G

Antonia
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 4:31 pm

And that horrible language – The “proactive mission” is our way to tag each EPA regulatory action with a forward-looking message that speaks to the bottom line. – meaningless cliche after meanigless cliche. Only bureaucrats churn out such garbage.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 4:33 pm

Sir Harry Flashman wrote:

If you don’t believe the science of AGW – which is true of pretty much everyone here except lonely old me…

Well, you might be able to add me to the list of AGW believers by responding sensibly to this:

The Git learnt his basic climatology from TR Oke’s Boundary Layer Climates (among other texts). Oke has not been updated to reflect CAGW. Nor, to the best of The Git’s knowledge is there a tertiary level text comparable to Oke [that includes CAGW]. Until a warmist directs me to such, The Git will continue to accept The Received View, i.e climatology as it is taught at the tertiary level.

Mind you, I’m not holding my breath 😉

xyzzy11
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 4:37 pm

@SHF
I don’t know about the other WUWT denizens, but I have yet to see ANY convincing “science of AWG”. Perhaps you can enlighten me (us)?

Sir Harry Flashman
Reply to  xyzzy11
January 26, 2015 5:00 pm

I guess I’d start by scanning the websites of the 34 national, and 5 international academies of science, as well as the several dozen academies or institutions for chemistry, physics, geology, earth science, agriculture, meteorology, oceanography, biology, engineering and health that have issued public statements endorsing AGW. Or you could consult with the ones that have issued statements denying it, except there aren’t any.
Those conspirators really got to everyone.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 5:40 pm

…the 34 national, and 5 international academies of science…&etc.
ZZZzzz-z-z-z-z-Z-z-Z-Z-Z-z-z-z…
Some folks are just clueless about human nature. They don’t understand how easy it is to buy opinions.
It’s easy peasy, all it takes is money.

Sir Harry Flashman
Reply to  dbstealey
January 26, 2015 5:43 pm

How do I know yours hasn’t been bought? Or Watt’s? Seriously, wouldn’t a couple of guys on the internet be easier to buy than tens of thousands of scientists?

David Socrates
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 5:46 pm

Dbstealey

Who bought Heartland?

Sir Harry Flashman
Reply to  David Socrates
January 26, 2015 5:51 pm

ooh! ooh! ask me! ask me!

xyzzy11
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 5:53 pm

Sir Harry Flashman January 26, 2015 at 5:00 pm
I guess I’d start by scanning the websites of the 34 national, and 5 international academies of science, as well as the several dozen academies or institutions for chemistry, physics, geology, earth science, agriculture, meteorology, oceanography, biology, engineering and health that have issued public statements endorsing AGW. Or you could consult with the ones that have issued statements denying it, except there aren’t any.
Those conspirators really got to everyone.

yeah – they say, not prove that they endorse AGW. Several are re-evaluating their positions as a result of membership complaints. Mostly, they cite the model results in support of their position, not empirical data. One that I am most familiar with (CSIRO – I used to work there), is clearly no longer a scientific organization, merely a political one. The empirical data are saying something completely different. Still waiting for that definitive proof

Sir Harry Flashman
Reply to  xyzzy11
January 26, 2015 5:56 pm

Don’t be ridiculous. Any proof offered will just be dismissed as in error or part of the conspiracy. This site is basically a flat earth cult. You can ban me now.

Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 27, 2015 12:53 pm

This is not an alarmist site. You do not get banned for being an idiot, only for attacking others and side tracking the discussion. You can try to get banned that way, but you do not seem to grasp that concept very well.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 6:08 pm

Sir Harry Flashman
This may surprise you, but I didn’t pass my exams by

… scanning the websites of the 34 national, and 5 international academies of science, as well as the several dozen academies or institutions for chemistry, physics, geology, earth science, agriculture, meteorology, oceanography, biology, engineering and health that have issued public statements endorsing AGW.

One is required to use the assigned text. For example, the assigned text for Geology I was required to use is still in use; I lent it to one of my son’s friends this year. It’s The Changing Earth: Exploring Geology and Evolution, James S. Monroe & Reed Wicander. It has but one passing reference to some believing that CO2 plays a major role in climate. A very great portion of that text is about climate.
Now, why don’t you address the question instead of throwing out a red herring? Oke addresses the physics of boundary layer climates. Name an authoritative text that addresses the physics of CAGW, or explain why, after more than thirty years, such a text has yet to be written.

David Socrates
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 6:27 pm

Mr Pompous Gil

The reason you cannot find an authoritative text on CAGW is because there is no such thing as “CAGW” in the realm of science. Your use of “CAGW” is restricted to a specific group of people with a specific set of beliefs.
..
Try using “AGW” instead of “CAGW” and you will be more successful.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 6:39 pm

SHF says:
…the science of AGW…
Kindly explain the ‘science’.
Begin with a measurement of AGW.
All science uses measurements. Where are the measurements quantifying AGW?
Also, I flatly reject all the endless appeals to what are corrupted authorities. The would be legitimate if they listed the names of each of their dues-paying members, and how they voted.
Got names? We have the names of tens of thousands of skeptics, so…
…got names?
Didn’t think so.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 6:44 pm

The illiterate David Socrates writes:

Mr Pompous Gil

The reason you cannot find an authoritative text on CAGW is because there is no such thing as “CAGW” in the realm of science. Your use of “CAGW” is restricted to a specific group of people with a specific set of beliefs.
..
Try using “AGW” instead of “CAGW” and you will be more successful.

Why don’t you name the text? So far I have been referred to exactly one book in twelve months of asking this question. It wasn’t a university text book. It didn’t address AGW, or CAGW from a physics perspective. It merely contained opinions. I already know what your opinion is. Either explain why Oke hasn’t been updated to include your AGW as such texts usually are, or why such a book has evidently not been written.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 6:51 pm

Meant to include an example. Back in the late 60s I was an undergraduate physics student. The required text was Resnick and Halliday’s Physics. From the wiki-bloody-pedia:

Fundamentals of Physics is a calculus-based physics textbook by David Halliday, Robert Resnick, and Jearl Walker.[1] The textbook is currently in its tenth edition (published 2013) and is published in a five-volume set. The current version is a revised version of the original textbook Physics by Halliday and Resnick, first published in 1960. It is widely used in colleges as part of the undergraduate physics courses, and has been well known to science and engineering students for decades as “the gold standard” of freshman-level physics texts. In 2002, the American Physical Society named the work the most outstanding introductory physics text of the 20th century.

Oke’s Boundary Layer Climates is “the gold standard” in climatology.

David Socrates
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 7:02 pm

I apologize Mr Pompous

I was under the impression you thought CAGW was an actual part of the science. I forgot that you don’t have a clue that the “C” is not a part of the science.

Now if you wish to view a few authoritative texst on AGW, here are a few suggestions…
..
http://www.amazon.com/Climate-Change-Science-Synthesis-Physical/dp/9400757565
http://www.cambridge.org/features/climatechange/textbooks.htm
http://www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/online/climateinfo/textbook.html

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 7:08 pm

David Socrates wrote:

… there is no such thing as “CAGW” in the realm of science. Your use of “CAGW” is restricted to a specific group of people with a specific set of beliefs.

Like the following:

The denial of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming is the latest right-wing front in its attack on climate science. Science deniers have set up a fall back strategy

http://theenergycollective.com/charlesbarton/68505/can-anthropogenic-global-warming-be-non-catastrophic
So my unabashed admiration for Oke makes me a “science denier”? Asking for an authoritative text is also denialism I suppose. How detached from reality can you get?

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 7:10 pm

I was under the impression you thought CAGW was an actual part of the science.
What ‘science’?
Post a measurement, then we can start from there.
No measurements; no science. A book doesn’t make something ‘science’. There are books on Astrology and Scientology, too. They aren’t science.
No measurements = only conjectures = opinions.
Post a scientific measurement quantifying AGW… or post your opinion.
Big difference.

David Socrates
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 7:13 pm

as you requested.
.
citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.131.3867

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 7:20 pm

Don’t bother to learn how to link. Who would read it, anyway?
If there were real measurements of AGW, they would be trumpeted 24/7/365.
There are no empirical measurements quantifying the specific fraction of AGW, out of total global warming. If anyone could produce any such measurements, and those measurements withstood falsification, they would certainly win the next Nobel Prize.
AGW is a conjecture; nothing more.

David Socrates
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 7:28 pm

You asked, I responded

Next?

Reply to  David Socrates
January 27, 2015 1:00 pm

Your response was a non sequitur.
next.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 7:31 pm

Mr Socrates
First of all, thanks. You are the first to respond with actual tertiary-level texts. However, The first volume you reference appears to be co-written by John Cook, psychologist of considerable infamy.

Psychologist José Duarte writes: The Cook et al. (2013) 97% paper included a bunch of psychology studies, marketing papers, and surveys of the general public as scientific endorsement of anthropogenic climate change.
Let’s go ahead and walk through that sentence again. The Cook et al 97% paper included a bunch of psychology studies, marketing papers, and surveys of the general public as scientific endorsement of anthropogenic climate change. I only spent ten minutes with their database — there will be more such papers for those who search. I’m not willing to spend a lot of time with their data, for reasons I detail further down.
This paper is vacated, as a scientific product, given that it included psychology papers, and also given that it twice lied about its method (claiming not to count social science papers, and claiming to use independent raters), and the professed cheating by the raters. It was essentially voided by its invalid method of using partisan and unqualified political activists to subjectively rate climate science abstracts on the issue on which their activism centers — a stunning and unprecedented method. I’m awaiting word on retraction from the journal, but I think we already know that this paper is vacated. It doesn’t represent knowledge of the consensus.

Doesn’t inspire me to blow more than a hundred bucks! The second looks more promising, but it’s still expensive at $US89 for 180 days’ rental. I will have to think about it. Frankly the idea of renting a book doesn’t appeal. Usually I purchase second-hand, academic book prices being what they are.

David Socrates
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 7:34 pm

Obviously from the statement you have made, it is clear you have not been involved with college level textbooks in at least a decade and maybe more. Things have changed since the last time you purchased a textbook for a class.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 7:38 pm

Sox the Clueless says:
Who bought Heartland?
I have contributed to Heartland, like plenty of other folks. We like the fact that Heartland punches far above its weight, and that is so different from buying professional organizations that I won’t bother trying to explain it to someone who can’t understand the difference.
Once again: where is the list of names of the dues-paying members of the APS, and dozens of similar organizations, and where are their vote tallies? For that matter, where are their votes?? At least 97% of dues-payers are never asked their opinions. They belong so they can network, and to keep up with their chosen field.
Climate alarmism is kept on life support with big money — big GOVERNMENT money. Billions of dollars every year, is forcibly confiscated from unwilling taxpayers to keep the HOAX alive..
Since it is a waste of time trying to explain the facts of life to climate alarmists here, why bother?

David Socrates
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 7:43 pm

“I have contributed to Heartland,”

OK

” how easy it is to buy opinions.”

Got it.

Now we know why Heartland is such a wing-nut organization.

Reply to  David Socrates
January 27, 2015 1:40 pm

Because you contributed to it? Sorry, it does not work that way. You get to pay the money, but keep the nuts to yourself.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 7:44 pm

dbstealey
Socrates was attempting to link to a page listing cites for this vaguely interesting paper:
https://www.eumetsat.int/cs/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dDocName=pdf_conf_p50_s9_01_harries_v&allowInterrupt=1&noSaveAs=1&RevisionSelectionMethod=LatestReleased

Changing spectral signatures in CH4, CO2, and H2O are observed, with the
difference signal in the CO2 matching well between observations and modelled spectra. The methane
signal is deeper for the observed difference spectrum than the modelled difference spectrum, but this
is likely due to incorrect methane concentrations or temperature profiles from 1970.

Emphasis mine.

David Socrates
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 7:50 pm

Thank you very much Mr Pompous GIl
..
Mr dbstealey has a very hard time operating his computer. He continually asks for direct empirical evidence, and always seems to have a problem with it when it is presented to him.

Reply to  David Socrates
January 27, 2015 1:42 pm

Um, no. YOu have not provided any yet. Lying is not a correct debate tactic.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 7:57 pm

David Socrates
You presume too much. My question is how do you reference what you no longer have access to? I have been purchasing tertiary-level academic texts for 45 years and this is the first time I have been confronted by rental. I usually get into the Co-op Bookstore at UTas a couple of times a year when they have a sale. I still receive a discount being a lifetime member. I do not recall ever seeing any signs saying: “these texts are for rental only”. My son’s friends have never mentioned such when borrowing off me to undertake courses I have taken in the past.
Ah well. I guess I’ll just have to attend O-week and check out the bookstore (and PYGs) then. It’s only a couple of weeks away.

David Socrates
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 8:08 pm

Mr Pompous Gil
..
If you would take the time to give it some serious thought, the idea of renting textbooks is a very clever workaround for the exorbitant prices asked for published works. You may be in a different position than a student that needs the book for a class, in that you want to acquire the book for reasons that differ from that of the student. Most students welcome a method of reducing the outlays they must make for required textbooks in the program they have registered for.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 8:13 pm

David Socrates wrote:

Thank you very much Mr Pompous GIl
..
Mr dbstealey has a very hard time operating his computer. He continually asks for direct empirical evidence, and always seems to have a problem with it when it is presented to him.

And you can’t spell Git. And as I have noted many times over the last decade, “global” warming seems to have entirely evaded southern Tasmania. My French beans are later than usual. Good thing I grow scarlet runner beans; they prefer the cooler weather.
Current temperature (3 pm) 17°C. Long term average 23.4°C. How alarming is that?

David Socrates
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 8:23 pm

I am so sorry Mr Git, could you please forgive the fact that in my old age, my eyesight isn’t what it used to be, and with the small font on my screen, it is common for me to mistake a “t” for an “l”

Now with regard to the weather you are experiencing, be thankful, as you might be aware, I happen to be in the middle of what the media has classified as a “historic” weather event. I anxiously await the failure of my elecrical supply as high winds and heavy snow is inundating the area at this very moment. I look forward to dressing up and shoveling out from the expected 2 to 3 feet of snow now falling from the sky.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 8:31 pm

David Socrates
Oke is $US58 new in the US. Second hand $US1 from the UK plus shipping to Australia $6.58. Doesn’t sound more expensive to me.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 11:20 pm

David Socrates
Have been unable to locate anyone wanting to discuss the content of Our Changing Climate. Such issues as how one accesses any equations after the rental expires. It seems to be the case that you must copy out relevant sections by hand since it’s copy-protected. No copy and pasting, no printing and no way to add glosses. Not particularly useful when you can’t remember an equation you forgot to transcribe.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 11:54 pm

David Socrates
In all, I decided to wait until there’s an affordable book on paper or Kindle Edition. In the meantime, I have plenty of warmist science to amuse me. Like George Monbiot’s Heat and Paul Brown’s Global Warming.

Already scientists believe that the temperature has risen between 0.3°C and 0.6°C (32.5–33.1°F) since the nineteenth century… Even so, global mean surface temperatures increase at a rate between 0.15°C and 0.33°C (32.3 and 32.6°F) per decade.

323–326°F increase since the nineteenth century? It’s definitely hotter than we thought, Neddy. Hope you survive the storm. You’re definitely not going to freeze to death in those temperatures 😉
Quote is from Global Warming, Paul Brown, Blandford (1996) p69 in the chapter called Science.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 26, 2015 11:58 pm

FlashHarry … time has already begun to tell the story, no catastrophic warming for over 18 years, no models even close to reality. Where’s the “hot spot”, where’s the heat hiding, where’s the influence of CO2 … ?

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 27, 2015 1:14 am

Old socks says:
…could you please forgive the fact that in my old age, my eyesight isn’t what it used to be, and with the small font on my screen, it is common for me to mistake a “t” for an “l”
Well, I forgive him for being old. But not for lying: the ‘t’ and the ‘l’ are far apart — and he has spelled your name right plenty of times before. Further, he snivels and complains like a girl whenever he thinks he has been insulted. I have the remedy, but I don’t thibnk he wants to see it.
Git, mr soxie is nothing but a site pest. He contributes nothing worthwhile here, he just runs interference. Worst of all, he is consistently wrong.
Slippery as an eel, too. He never posts any AGW measurements, Never posts the names of his mythical “consensus”. But, nitpick? There is no better nitpicker around. You had best not mispell a word, or ms sox will reprimand you! That takes the place of having any credible facts.
Once again: Planet Earth is telling us there is no problem, but the alarmist clique says there is a BIG problem. Which one is telling the truth?
One of them is either lying or misrepresenting. My guess is the fact-free ms sox. He has a history of that.

Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 27, 2015 1:45 am


At least he managed to come up with two titles where none have before. I gave up looking for myself some time ago and I’m surprised I hadn’t found these. Perhaps my Gurgle-fu was slipping. That said, for fairly obvious reasons I can’t trust Cook. And on reflection I’m deeply suspicious of an eBook that I can’t retain. What happens when you want to compare editions? Do they plan to slip edits in when nobody’s looking? I’m a little saddened really. There’s always Science of Doom I suppose. He makes me think! He used to post here a lot before he started his own blog.

Duster
Reply to  sleepingbear dunes
January 27, 2015 11:38 am

SHF, what science? That is the entire reason this site and ones like it exist. No one here questions that CO2 does not absorb LWIR. What is questioned is whether that property has any significantly measureable climatic effect. The available temperature data has been massaged to the point that local trends in the raw measurements are reversed. The reality that each new “correction” to these data sets increments purported warming and those adjustments are not discussed nor are methodological justifications given. That is not science. Even theology does a better job or arguing out the fine points of angels dancing on pinheads.

Alx
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 12:03 pm

There are many people due to ignorance do not understand the difference between propaganda and accountable accuracy. Based on your comments I do not know if you are one of those people or are instead those supporting more propaganda and labeling it accurate. At any rate I cannot read your mind and do not know your motives, so I’ll just clarify, propaganda is not interested in accuracy.

Stephen Richards
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 1:56 pm

You are a silly man.

Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 2:09 pm

Oh. You mean like re-branding “Global Warming” as “Climate Change” hoping that the people won’t notice just how wrong the Hansenites and Mannequins are?
(Not to mention that the inhumane “War on Coal” has absolutely NO justification.)

Louis
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 3:30 pm

How is more accurate to convince the public that a reduction in CO2 from present levels is going to make our air cleaner or more breathable? I suppose you could argue that making the planet less green would reduce pollen and help allergy sufferers. But then you’d have to explain how being anti-green makes you “green.”

Reply to  Louis
January 26, 2015 6:55 pm

Louis,
We breathe CO2. Our boy was a submariner in the U.S. Navy. If 5,000 ppm didn’t hurt him, why are you worried about 400 ppm? Or has the ‘carbon’ scare colonized your mind, like it has colonized the minds of the other alarmists here?
Next: CO2 doesn’t make the air any less “breathable”. If you believe otherwise, explain. But if you can’t give a credible explanation, then that point goes to skeptics — who have won every logical/scientific point in the entire debate.
Finally, the added CO2 is measurably GREENING the planet. That makes you and your fellow climate alarmists “anti-green”, no?
Yes.
Game, set and match.

Ali Bertarian
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 11:22 pm

Fair enough, that is what community organizers and political sheepherders do.
But what about this part: “EPA’s symbiotic relationship with a ‘[cadre of reporters’ who EPA expects to demand an agenda — according to EPA, just like pressure groups — to which demands EPA will respond.” Is that the job of “reporters”?

Mary Kay Barton
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 27, 2015 9:27 am

Sir Harry Flashman – there is NOTHING that is “accurate” about the EPA’s “rebranding” campaign.
So let’s “rebrand” Obama’s whole “green” ($$$) campaign more accurately so people really do “understand the issues better.” A good motto could be: “Throw our money into the wind, and reap the whirlwind.” The title of Chris Horner’s good book, “Power Grab,” also sums it up nicely.
Let’s be clear — ‘Green’ means MONEY, and lots of it – U.S. taxpayer & ratepayer money.
Obama himself forewarned, “My energy policies will cause electricity rates to necessarily skyrocket” (hurting the poor the most), and will “fundamentally transform the country” – ultimately transferring $Tens of Billions of dollars of American taxpayers and ratepayers money into the pockets of Obama’s uber-rich, connected crony pals (ie: Obama’s Jobs Czar, GE’s Jeffrey Immelt, Invenergy’s Michael Polski, etc…).
And for what???
All for unreliable ‘renewables,’ like wind – the energy of which is too diffuse to ever provide modern power, and the sprawling footprints and massive bird-chopping blades of which, are DESTROYING THE VERY ENVIRONMENT ‘GREEN’ ($$$) THIEVES CLAIM THEY WISH TO SAVE! Despicable!
GE’s Shepard’s Flat Wind Factory cost taxpayers $16.3 MILLION dollars per ‘job created’ – exorbitantly expensive jobs for a product which is neither “reliable,” nor “efficient” – two professed requirements of the “sustainability” movement. Studies from those long-invested in ‘renewables’ show 2 – 4 jobs LOST in the rest of the economy as a result, largely due to those “necessarily skyrocketing” electricity rates.
As Warren Buffett recently admitted, “We get tax credits if we build lots of windfarms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.”
Ever appreciative for the handouts, Ukrainian Michael Polsky – the owner of Invenergy, rewarded President Obama by holding a $35,000 a plate fundraiser at his mansion in Chicago.
President Obama is so committed to Big Wind that he’s even legalized 30-Year EAGLE KILL Permits – solely for the wind industry.
There you have it – Corporate Cronyism in all its glory, with bird murder as their crowning glory.
President Obama claims he wants to “close corporate loopholes,” while his policies (i.e.: the Wind PTC – aka: Pork-To-Cronies) continue to funnel many $Billions of taxpayer dollars to his wealthy corporate insiders – all while the unconscionable debt we are leaving for our children and grandchildren continues to mount.
So I agree Sir Harry Flashman – Let’s re-brand the issue “ACCURATELY” so people can actually understand what’s really going on.
Industrial Wind Needs Blowback (Siemens ad campaign targeting U.S. taxpayers):
http://www.masterresource.org/2014/08/siemens-ad-us-taxpayers/
The Green Corruption Files: Big Wind Energy Subsidies: A Hurricane of Carnage, Cronyism and Corruption:
http://greencorruption.blogspot.com/2013/01/big-wind-energy-subsidies-hurricane-of.html#.VMfEL3ZsqUc
$Trillions Spent, ZERO CO2 abated:
http://euanmearns.com/the-failure-of-green-energy-policies/
Wind Turbines Are Climate-Change Scarecrows:
http://www.nationalreview.com/nro-energy/364885/wind-turbines-are-climate-change-scarecrows-robert-bryce
US windfarms kill 10-20 times more than previously thought:
http://savetheeaglesinternational.org/new/us-windfarms-kill-10-20-times-more-than-previously-thought.html
U.S. Wind Turbines KILL 600,000 – 900,000 Bats a Year:
http://www.isciencetimes.com/articles/6286/20131108/wind-turbines-kill-600000-bats-birds-every-year.htm
Bye-Bye Birdie:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/386394/bye-bye-birdie-jillian-kay-melchior
It’s Rarely About the Environment Anymore:
http://townhall.com/columnists/pauldriessen/2014/10/25/its-rarely-about-the-environment-anymore-n1909581/page/full
http://www.WiseEnergy.org

Duster
Reply to  Mary Kay Barton
January 27, 2015 11:42 am

“President Obama is so committed to Big Wind ”
Oh, come on. No politician in history has ever NOT been committed to big wind. What we need is a means of converting political hot air in energy.

Mary Kay Barton
Reply to  Mary Kay Barton
January 27, 2015 11:58 am

@Duster – “What we need is a means of converting political hot air in energy.” ~ Now that would be great!
There are some politicians who have spoken out against the wind fraud – though they are few and far between. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Ten), is a long-time critic of wind; and in the house, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan), has – on more than one occasion, introduced a bill that would repeal all energy tax credits.
What is most annoying is the guys who call themselves “Conservatives” (ie: Steve King) who continually push for more Corporate Welfare for Big Wind. King is NO Conservative, that’s for sure!

TRM
January 26, 2015 7:56 am

When science becomes “rebranding” you know you’ve left reality.

Crispin in Waterloo
Reply to  TRM
January 26, 2015 8:14 am

TRM that was excellent and pithy.

JohnD
Reply to  TRM
January 26, 2015 12:15 pm

… or you know you’re in the Left’s reality…

Mary Kay Barton
Reply to  TRM
January 27, 2015 12:09 pm

Perfectly said @TRM. Since the EPA (& all of Big Govt) are in the business of “rebranding,” it seems reality is just an annoyance to them.

January 26, 2015 7:59 am

We must begin to create a causal link between the worries of Americans and the proactive mission we’re pursuing

At least they acknowledge their agenda is not linked to the worries of Americans.
And I note that they think that causal links can be created.
That is only true of socially constructed issues. Physical realities have physical causes.
It is interesting that the EPA doesn’t believe in the physical reality of AGW.

Reply to  M Courtney
January 26, 2015 8:02 am

It is interesting that the EPA doesn’t believe in the physical reality of AGW.

It really is kind of amusing watching them flail about like Seventh Day Adventists did after the Great Disappointment (Christ failed to come as they had predicted).

Harold
Reply to  tarran
January 26, 2015 9:06 am

The Great Pumpkin failed to appear because the pumpkin patch wasn’t sincere enough.
This time, with FEELING.

Alx
Reply to  M Courtney
January 26, 2015 1:10 pm

…note that they think that causal links can be created.

First rule of marketing, create a need, whether the need is necessary is irrelevant. once the need is placed sell your exclusive ability to fulfill the need. In the case of the EPA they are selling a worry. People have plenty of worries already and need a little more evidence than an unending stream of colorful graphs to add AGW to their worry list.
When I lived in Connecticut as a kid, the Connecticut river was polluted. Did not need any scientists to model it, show graphs, or explain the problem. No one wanted to go near the river, never mind use it for any kind of recreational activity. The point being the poor condition of the river was tangible, it could be seen and smelled. Due to that people responded, no one had to sell them, it was a demand, clean-up the river. Steps were taken, and a few decades later it is a great place for boating and fishing and river property values shot upward. In this case the government did work effectively with industry on the behalf of the public.
That the EPA instead chooses to not only make up imaginary problems, but to create real ones where none existed before is a textbook example of an incompetent organization driven by hubris and ideology.

H.R.
Reply to  Alx
January 26, 2015 2:03 pm

Alx sez:

That the EPA instead chooses to not only make up imaginary problems, but to create real ones where none existed before is a textbook example of an incompetent organization driven by hubris and ideology.

Nah. It’s just typical of any bureaucracy; expand your mission, expand your budget, expand your headcount, expand your power, and never mind the havoc or cost.
Oh wait! You’re right. Every bureaucracy winds up as an incompetent organization driven by hubris and ideology. Why should the EPA be any different? Name one TLA (Three-Letter Agency) that is not bloated, not over reaching its mission, is decreasing its headcount and budget as its original goals are accomplished, and not making a mess of things with rules that have unintended consequences.
(Theme from Jeopardy) Give up?
By just about any measure, the EPA has accomplished its original task. We have clean air, clean water, and not a lot of contaminated sites left to clean up. The EPA only needs a maintenance team in place to enforce the rules that got us this far. But n-o-o-o-o-o… it is a Bureaucracy and it is doing what all bureaucracies do.
(Now if we only had a Congress that would do its job of oversight and set the EPA right about where it needs to be. Wake me up, somebody. I’m dreaming.)

January 26, 2015 8:01 am

This is kind of weak tea. It’s a document proposing a strategy for a PR campaign.
That’s not malfeasance. Anyone who has read Bernay’s Propaganda will recognize that government officials have been crafting these sorts of PR campaigns since the 1920’s.
It’s like outing the head of the EPA for kissing babies.

highflight56433
Reply to  tarran
January 26, 2015 8:07 am

What ever the EPA is up to, I disagree with. 🙂 Using my money for their agency corruption, lies and falsehoods. They are useless.

Reply to  tarran
January 26, 2015 8:16 am

tarran, the Nazi Party propaganda in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler’s leadership of Germany was very effective for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi policies, including the pursuit of total war and the extermination of millions of people in the Holocaust, not to mention the massive loss of life (some estimate 60+ million) up to and during WWII. Their are great similarities between that propaganda machine and the current administration’s, particularly the EPA’s. I’m having real difficulty relating that to kissing babies.

badger777
Reply to  milwaukeebob
January 26, 2015 10:14 am

Yo Milwaukeebob, how is that global warming working out for ya? LOL check out this Milwaukee Polar Plunge into lake michigan on Jan 1
http://nukeprofessional.blogspot.com/2015/01/polar-vortek-plunge-proof-that-global.html

Reply to  milwaukeebob
January 26, 2015 11:52 am

Their are great similarities between that propaganda machine and the current administration’s, particularly the EPA’s.

That’s no accident. It seems that Goebbels was a fan of Bernay’s works – the story I heard is that the anti-semitic propaganda campaign was based on the ideas contained within Bernay’s paper Crystallizing Public Opinion. In the U.S. in the meantime, Bernays was working with a tobacco industry marketing group to persuade women to take up cigarette smoking – their plan ended up associating cigarettes with women’s rights, and smoking went from being unfeminine and filthy to being a social signal that one was liberated.
Really, everyone should read Propaganda. It’s pretty eye opening stuff. It’s considered the seminal work of the public relations industry. To me it’s about as shocking as the use of typewriters. Sure the Nazis used typewriters, to devastating effect, But that doesn’t mean the appearance of a typewriter makes on evil.
PR is PR. And any idea that the state can be prevented from engaging in PR is doomed to failure. There is no way to separate ‘good’ PR (“don’t break the law”) from ‘bad’ PR.

Hymen Mingesky
Reply to  milwaukeebob
January 26, 2015 1:55 pm

Nazi propaganda was garbage. Brutish and without subtlety. American and British propaganda has always been superior. British propaganda superiority in WWI is why Hitler was so obsessed with propaganda in his rise to power.

An Inquirer
Reply to  tarran
January 26, 2015 10:22 am

My tax dollars should not be used for a PR campaign. If private organizations want to do a PR campaign, that is their choice of what to do with their money. But my tax dollars should be used for objective science, not to advance a political issue through PR campaigns.

Reply to  An Inquirer
January 26, 2015 2:23 pm

The EPA when it started was about implementing actual science into the real world. (If you dump this sh*t into the creek, you won’t want to drink it downstream.)
Now it’s about promoting that 2+2=5 because “the powers that be” are betting on 5.

Harry Passfield
Reply to  tarran
January 26, 2015 10:56 am

tarran:

It’s like outing the head of the EPA for kissing babies.

Does the head of the EPA need to garner votes? I thought it was a political appointment, not a democratic election. The EPA does not need PR: it’s role is to carry out a set of duties without bias, fear or favour. As I see it, it has failed on all three.

Harry Passfield
Reply to  Harry Passfield
January 26, 2015 11:16 am

“Its role” – Duh.

Reply to  Harry Passfield
January 26, 2015 1:42 pm

Quite. If I thought that the EPA was a political organisation I wouldn’t have commented as I’m not a US citizen.
I only thought it was fair game because it is the working out of policy – not the justification for policy.

Reply to  tarran
January 26, 2015 11:10 am

Nice, a red herring AND a strawman. Nice try.

rakman
Reply to  tarran
January 26, 2015 5:30 pm

How about “lethal” (EPA’s reason for testing) testing on children?
http://junkscience.com/2015/01/23/epa-banned-child-testing-but-not-until-after-it-sprayed-diesel-exhaust-up-the-noses-of-10-year-olds/comment-page-1/#comment-341359
And at least one “participant” in the adult tests died of a heart attack.
What kind of a sick bureaucracy would do this? And what sick head of the Executive branch would allow it to happen?

January 26, 2015 8:01 am

Should not ALL of us immediately send a note/letter and the FOI/EPA memo to our local media? Demand they write an article. Sure, a lot of them are in the pockets of the environmentalists/socialists and that is why a lot of print press is going out of business and viewership is falling on the MSM TV news shows. If you fail to tell the truth long enough, most humans who pay attention are smart enough to realize they are being lied to. Maybe if we bombard them with facts a few local ones will wake up and get off their lazy butts and actually do some real journalism, instead of just regurgitating the BS the Associated Press puts out. It’s worth a try. I’m writing my letter right now. Hey, if you do it, be sure to include that 2014 (was) The Most Dishonest Year on Record. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/01/20/2014-the-most-dishonest-year-on-record/

Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 8:04 am

The insane rage generated on this site by the most mundane things is both bewildering and hilarious.

highflight56433
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 8:13 am

Actually, folks here are pretty clear thinking. As for rage, yes, there should be some rage for how our government (USA) is hosing the general tax payer; hardly mundane, nor confusing, nor funny. Cheers! …bloody Mary’s for breakfast….

Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 8:16 am

Please recall that the “Richard Windsor” e-mail account was itself a violation of government rules; and, thus, hardly “mundane”.
Your “insane rage” monitor is currently set to very high sensitivity.

PiperPaul
Reply to  firetoice2014
January 26, 2015 8:37 am

Overly-emotional people just interpret things differently. Everything is more intense to them, including the perception of danger.

Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 8:16 am

The EPA took high estimates from an unproven theory and treated them as empirical facts to justify the endangerment finding. Outrage would be the appropriate response.

Reply to  gyan1
January 26, 2015 8:30 am

…but that “outrage” would hardly be “insane rage”.

Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 8:29 am

Troll alert.

mwh
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 8:34 am

For somebody so totally capable of getting his own ‘knickers in a twist’ thats quite a statement!

Sir Harry Flashman
Reply to  mwh
January 26, 2015 8:48 am

My knickers are in no way knotted, and are in fact freshly laundered.

D.J. Hawkins
Reply to  mwh
January 26, 2015 10:14 am

Good until next month, eh, Sir Harry?

Reply to  mwh
January 26, 2015 11:14 am

harry, you might want to check your panties… you are full of it. Troll.

Joel
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 8:57 am

Isn’t that what you’re here for? Trip trap back under your bridge, troll.

exSSNcrew
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 12:56 pm

Government agents will use firearms to enforce their destructive and scientifically unsupported laws, so some passion is understandable.

Alx
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 1:15 pm

One thinking that by acting in a condescending way, people would view them more intelligent and informed, is what is insane or better put, a character defect.

Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 2:18 pm

I find the inane posting of one who posts as “Sir Harry Flashman” on this site to be both pathetic and hilarious.

Sir Harry Flashman
Reply to  JohnWho
January 26, 2015 4:19 pm

Thanks, it’s folks like you that keep me going.

jl
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 6:10 pm

The insane rage generated on alarmist sites at “deniers” is both bewildering and hilarious.

Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 7:01 pm

Your “insane rage” applies to the alarmist cult posting here, not to rational skeptics.

Just an engineer
Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 27, 2015 7:46 am

No, that would videos from the likes of the 10:10 group, and most normal people would find them disgusting.

Reply to  Sir Harry Flashman
January 27, 2015 9:29 am

“Sir Harry Flashman
January 26, 2015 at 4:19 pm
Thanks, it’s folks like you that keep me going.”
It is mutual: your comedic interludes give many of us a daily smile.

January 26, 2015 8:13 am

I admire Chris Horner and his diligence. I do find his writiing style and organization of material a bit too messy reading to get the full impact.

mpainter
Reply to  Gary Pearse
January 26, 2015 9:01 am

It’s intentional, Gary; designed to give hints without saying anything substantial, attorneyspeak style.

Louis
Reply to  Gary Pearse
January 26, 2015 3:47 pm

Yes, I wish he would provide complete quotes instead of fragments so we can see the full context and draw our own conclusions. Can the emails not be released to the public for some reason?

Reply to  Louis
January 26, 2015 7:05 pm

Louis:
Which emails? The Climategate I, II, and III emails?
Those are online, along with the Harry_Read_me file. They are easy to find. You should read them if you [believe] for an instant that catastrophic AGW scare is anything other than government propaganda.

Reply to  Louis
January 27, 2015 12:13 am

db … the emails referred to are those FOIA from the EPA with specific emphasis on the “Richard Windsor” collection regarding clandestine communications within the EPA to subvert proper science.

Michael C. Roberts
January 26, 2015 8:23 am

All current, self-described MSM investigative reporters that claim to be impartial must report this revelation to the “churched” – those common folk that have been repeatedly and for many a year been led astray by the same media outlets and reporters that have religiously (pun very much intended) “reported” (read: regurgitated the spew so forcefully fed them by the EPA in their copious Media Releases over the years) – that first-world humans have degraded the atmosphere by our mere act of living a modern life. Shameful, disingenuous, self-serving..any other descriptors? I need my Thesaurus…but I wonder if there will in fact be a trumpeting of many articles and talking-head types on the tube, telling us that in fact the former con-spiracy theorists were right all along…it was all via the “master plan”? Just..wow. The tentacles of this plan are pervasive, invasive, far-reaching. Common core, carbon (black soot? Or the gas CO2?) Which is it, Ms. And Mr. MSM reporter? Do you actually know the difference but are complicit with this whole diversion from the truth? Or – which of you will step up, and actually report the truth?? When this whole CAGW issue runs it’s course, and those vanquished by the reality and truth of what has been going on lie in the dustbin of history, will you be counted amongst the shining stars of truth and justice??? Well?? We are waiting for the report..

Alan Robertson
Reply to  Michael C. Roberts
January 26, 2015 9:24 am

“All current, self-described MSM investigative reporters that claim to be impartial…”
—————————-
Does such a person exist?

Tucci78
Reply to  Alan Robertson
January 26, 2015 9:58 am

In response to Michael C. Roberts mention of “All current, self-described MSM investigative reporters that claim to be impartial…” at 9:24 AM we see Alan Robertson asking:

Does such a person exist?

Tsk. The ” reporters” of the MSM – or, as I like to call it, “The Democrat Party Audiovisual Club” – all CLAIM to be “impartial.”
That’s the operative word here: “claim.”
Some of ’em – having been raised, educated, and experienced in a hermetically sealed environment of left-“Liberal” bigotry – might even believe that “impartiality” claim. Heck, for all they know (and they don’t know much, do they?) they’re right down the middle of the road.

TheLastDemocrat
Reply to  Michael C. Roberts
January 26, 2015 9:54 am

Are the media complicit?
We already know the answer. Leading MSM members have been exposed twice of collaboratively developing favorable coverage of President Obama and coverage of the left’s agenda.
First, there was “JournoList.” Then there was “Gamechanger Salon.”
Google each of these terms to learn that, yes, the media do work together and consult each other.

Michael C. Roberts
Reply to  Michael C. Roberts
January 26, 2015 1:13 pm

Okay all of you MSM “sciencey” reporters…here’s your big challenge (chance?) to ask the hard questions:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/2015%20Press%20Releases!OpenView
Get in there, and lay open the issues to the questions that will reveal the truth.
I dare you.
MCR

Sam Pyeatte
January 26, 2015 8:26 am

It is so obvious all the AGW junk is only a political agenda to strengthen governmental power over the masses. Their ultimate dream is Agenda 21.

mwh
January 26, 2015 8:26 am

The EPA memo is an absolute disgrace – nothing more nothing less. To advocate emotional blackmail – polar bears, children and the sick as a start and to completely avoid the actual main concerns of the man in the street and to stick to their own agenda of air pollution (notice no mention of CO2 but implied by association) is just plain wrong and totally misguided. In the short term this may get some purchase on the public but in the long run can only end in shame that such desperately low tactics are now being recommended by a national organisation purporting to protect the public.
I wish they would get a grip and return to impartiality. These organisations have no place in sensationalising and hysteria

Tucci78
Reply to  mwh
January 26, 2015 9:46 am

At 8:26 AM on 26 January, mwh posted:

The EPA memo is an absolute disgrace – nothing more nothing less. To advocate emotional blackmail – polar bears, children and the sick as a start and to completely avoid the actual main concerns of the man in the street and to stick to their own agenda of air pollution (notice no mention of CO2 but implied by association) is just plain wrong and totally misguided. In the short term this may get some purchase on the public but in the long run can only end in shame that such desperately low tactics are now being recommended by a national organisation purporting to protect the public.
I wish they would get a grip and return to impartiality. These organisations have no place in sensationalising and hysteria

Has the EPA ever been interested in “impartiality” im the sense that their policies, regulations, and ukases have been predicated on anything other than “emotional blackmail”?
We’re not dealing with people whose interests are served by the dispassionately honest expression of factually supported environmental assessments, but actually left-leaning authoritarians drunk on power and their quest for more of it.
It’s political, and has damn-all to do with the sciences, except as a seeming of scientific validity – a “science-yness,” maybe? – serves these bastids’ purposes. The EPA is – as it ever was – the “long con” on the government payroll.

January 26, 2015 8:27 am

Are there other “Richard Windsor” emails available, or is this the only one?

Reg Nelson
Reply to  J. Philip Peterson
January 26, 2015 8:39 am

As I recall, they released over a thousand of them. But the ones they released were mostly google alert emails for various keywords in news articles. The rest were withheld, and in typical fashion, just like with the Holder investigation, they said, “We have given you a thousand emails what more do you want?”

Monroe
January 26, 2015 8:41 am

The thing is no longer the thing, it’s what is said about the thing.

hunter
January 26, 2015 8:44 am

We need a GK Chesterton badly. He warned about this sort of governemnt corruption a great deal

Spartan79
Reply to  hunter
January 26, 2015 10:06 am

Likewise H. L. Mencken …
” … the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence glamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblin, most of them imaginary.”

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Spartan79
January 26, 2015 2:00 pm

Just need more people with all consonant initials.

Spartan79
Reply to  hunter
January 26, 2015 10:09 am

glamorous = clamorous. Danged incorrect.

Spartan79
Reply to  hunter
January 26, 2015 10:11 am

Incorrect = autocorrect, and I’m done posting comments on mobile devices.

Boulder Skeptic
Reply to  Spartan79
January 26, 2015 11:09 am

Or, maybe you could actually read the little screen and do a modicum of proofing before hitting the send button?

Crispin in Waterloo
Reply to  Spartan79
January 26, 2015 11:51 am

Get a BlackBerry

clipe
Reply to  Spartan79
January 26, 2015 3:03 pm

Crispin in Waterloo
January 26, 2015 at 11:51 am

Get a BlackBerry

That would be Waterloo, Ontario then?

January 26, 2015 8:45 am

Was the document (“non-paper.doc”) apparently attached to the original email also included in the FOIA request? Essentially the memo we see is a summary of the document, which we don’t:

This document is intended to initiate our broader conversation on strategic communications. It contains thinking on this issue that is certainly open to further discussion and feedback. Hopefully our conversation will elicit ideas and thoughts on the above concepts. Above all, our discussion should lead to a prospective calendar that tracks many of the pending regulatory actions.

So this was a non-email to a non-person (Richard Windsor) to circulate a non-document for non-public discussions by EPA personnel directly pertaining to regulatory actions that by law must be open to oversight. They appear to be using the term “strategic communications” rather that the more generally understood “propaganda”.

Crispin in Waterloo
January 26, 2015 8:46 am

I just finished reading the original article. It contains the seeds of the Global alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC) which is an initiative by Hillary started in 2010 when she was still Secretary, which is being directed (it seems) from within the EPA. The memo precedes and fits exactly with what happened in 2010. It is certainly EPA-compliant in its objectives. Interestingly the WHO statements about air quality, latest release is 12 Nov 2014, are directly in line with the approach given in the FOIA document. There is a Berkeley connection involved.
Methinks there is much more than meets the eye here. Getting an internal EPA program started seems to have spilled over into getting external funding coopted to support the same initiative (IAQ and children’s health, now including women’s health) via the mechanism of promoting clean stoves for 1/2 the world’s population that still cooks with solid fuels (wood coal & dung). Banning all three is one of the objectives (Hillary, 20-21 Nov 2014, NYC).
It is hard to argue against reducing the impact of bad combustion because it is so obviously bad. That’s the selling point. Polar bears, which are extremely dangerous and not endangered where there is no hunting, are more difficult to sell.
It is clear from the FOIA article that the massaging of public opinion precedes the survey of public opinion. Then, having shaped public opinion on various matters, the EPA claims it is duty-bound to respond to their ‘legitimate concerns’ or just ‘their concerns’. Interesting, That is right up there with the EPA paying NGO’s to sue the EPA so the court will order them to act where they have otherwise little justification to do so. It’s a cute trick and I would never have thought of it. You gotta admire bureaucratic inventiveness.
Anyway, follow the money, and follow other people’s money as it is applied to the problem-du-jour in service of larger agendas about which we are to remain in the dark.

Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo
January 26, 2015 10:04 am

Crispin, you’re absolutely right. “creation” of the need/problem (enemy) where there is none is the first step. In corporate marketing the phrase is – “Create the need, then fill it.” And in the corp. world it’s to sell a product/service, thereby keeping or creating jobs that produces MORE economic flow. In the world of government it’s all about “justifying” jobs that produce little if any additional economic flow. An integral part of both is acquiring someones money. We know how it’s done in the Corp. world and you correctly defined how in Gov. Of course the more “altruistic” sounding (“Save the children”, “Save the environment”, “Save the Polar Bears”, etc.) you can make “stealing” someones money legally, the less likely the “public” is going to look back and say, “Hey, you never actually saved the ______, you used the money for something else – like saving your job!” That happens in both worlds. One of the reasons why I do not much like Coke anymore, with their whole Polar Bear BS marketing.

Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo
January 26, 2015 6:21 pm

Any bastard tries depriving me of my woodburning cookstove is in for an unpleasant surprise. The Git planted all those trees 30+ years ago for the express purpose of space & water heating as well as cooking!

Reply to  The Pompous Git
January 26, 2015 6:22 pm

Damn! Forgot to close the italics before “of”. How dare some American try to dictate what a Tasmanian can and can’t do!

Lance Wallace
January 26, 2015 9:01 am

Didn’t take long (8 months) for the writer of the memo, Mr. Brooks-LaSure, to leave the ship.
http://cenvironment.blogspot.com/2010/08/epa-loses-giant-mr-m-allyn-brooks.html

January 26, 2015 9:04 am

SHF: A lot of “science” is not science at all but a belief driven by someone – using selection bias, cherry picking and deep sixing information that doesn’t conform. The “science” may be accepted for years and dissenting views subverted, dissenters barred from the community and teaching privileges removed.
This is about heart disease and how a bombastic personality and money has given us bad information if you listen, you will see many parallels to the discussion on climate science today. Confirmation bias, cherry picking, and selection of of only data that confirms your beliefs is rampant.
http://www.cbc.ca/player/AudioMobile/The%2BCurrent/ID/2650068469/
It’s 25 minutes and well worth a listen just from the perspective of reviewing scientific literature and finding out how it ends up getting directed in a particular direction with belief and egocentric people, and many parallel agendas. Many similarities to climate science today though this is about “eating healthy”. Worth a listen just on its own.
Finished my bacon and eggs, time to go ride in the snow and check the wolf and cougar tracks I saw yesterday. All the best to you SHF. 🙂

Sir Harry Flashman
Reply to  Wayne Delbeke
January 26, 2015 9:15 am

Thanks Wayne, I will have a listen. Appreciate the civility.

Newsel
Reply to  Wayne Delbeke
January 27, 2015 5:00 am

Link is no longer working….

Duster
Reply to  Wayne Delbeke
January 27, 2015 12:20 pm

As regards public health, the entire pattern of what we see in “climate policy” began there (in Public Health). To this day publications that dissent from the consensus “view” that fat is bad, cholesterol levels are meaningful, and salt is a poison, are “debunked” by extraordinarily weak reasoning, and their authors are targeted by personal attack rather than reasoned refutation supported by data. As recently as 1994 an assistant deputy secretary for health attempted to prevent the publication of the results of a government funded study, because the results, while not outright contradicting standing recommendations regarding fat consumption, demonstrated that the “protective” effect was so trivial as to be indiscernible to the individual. Like climate policy, health policy is guided by “precautionary principles” not framed by string results and best practices, but by weak correlations and “what if they are right” reasoning.

Zeke
Reply to  Duster
January 27, 2015 1:53 pm

The Anthropocene Age scientific paradigm rests on the idea that if any chemical can be found to be harmful in very high dosages in a lab rat, then it must be reduced to zero exposure in the environment. This extends to 10,000 chemicals now in use by people in any process to grow food or make things. See Edith Efron’s book, The Apocalyptics.
As Duster has pointed out, this same paradigm has its application in nutrition as well.The end result is that nutrients that the body needs to function properly are now being strictly controlled, and even eliminated from the food supply under the guise of the “public good,” or “public health.” Salt is one example, but B12 is the most important since it only comes from animal products.
salt ref: http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20140402/cdc-salt-guidelines-too-low-for-good-health-study-suggests
Now for those who do not appreciate that this is a scientific paradigm shift brought about during the 60’s by the Cannabis Generation, I want to ask you not to overlook so easily the tremendous amounts of labor, study, and research that it takes to undo all of the bad ideas, paradigms, and destructive movements that have been taught to the following generations by the Boomers. Please, at least acknowledge this labor the rest of us have had to exert in straightening ourselves out after being totally and thoroughly miseducated by the Boomers in science, history, nutrition, occult horse manure, sex-and-drug cultural campaigns, population control, anti-agriculture activism, vegetarianist activism, anti-middle-class activism, and all manner of hatreds, schemes, and betrayals against all of the English speaking countries. The same science that convicts a benign or beneficial pesticide, herbicide, or fungicide has now fingered co2 from power generation and travel, methane from cows, nitrous oxide from crops, and cfcs from refrigerants. It has also accused the very essential nutritional needs of your body – and those of domesticated animals – as unsustainable and bad for you!
As you see, AGW is only a subcomponent of the Anthropocene Age paradigm. This scientific paradigm produces thousands of studies whose sole purpose is to convict the slightest molecular presence of harming health or of disrupting the environment.

Man Bearpig
January 26, 2015 9:15 am

This is probably worth a mention here, and maybe an article – anyone could write a better article that I can.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/green-party/11356354/Drugs-brothels-al-Qaeda-and-the-Beyonce-tax-the-Green-Party-plan-for-Britain.html
If anyone has a cup near their mouth, put it on a flat surface at least a foot out of reach, also put any sharp objects back in the drawer before continuing.

Britain will leave NATO, end the special relationship with the US, and unilaterally abandon nuclear weapons. A standing army, navy and airforce is “unnecessary”. Bases will be turned into nature reserves and the arms industry “converted” to producing windturbines.

and then of course …

Merely being a member of al-Qaeda, the IRA and other currently proscribed terrorist groups will no longer be a criminal offence under Green plans, and instead a Green Government should seek to “address desperate motivations that lie behind many atrocities labelled ‘terrorist’,” the policy book states.

D.J. Hawkins
Reply to  Man Bearpig
January 26, 2015 10:22 am

So when people start stuffing IED’s under the cars of Green officials, it’s nice to know they’ll be “address[ing] desperate motivations” instead of looking for the perps.

Reply to  Man Bearpig
January 26, 2015 10:59 am

Talk about “rebranding”. Terrorism is “desperate motivation”

Twobob
January 26, 2015 9:18 am

The really upsetting Consequence of the EPA is that They do think its true.

Louis
Reply to  Twobob
January 26, 2015 4:03 pm

No, they don’t think its true. they just think the ends justify the lies just as Jonathan Gruber thought Obamacare was worth lying to the public to get it passed. EPA officials, like Gruber, know their lies are not true. They simply believe the “cause” justifies the deception. There are climate-gate emails that show a similar attitude among some climate scientists.

Ralph Kramden
January 26, 2015 9:20 am

Now that conservatives control both houses of congress? I would think the EPA’s budget would take a pretty big hit.

Chris4692
Reply to  Ralph Kramden
January 26, 2015 9:49 am

Conservatives don’t control Congress, Republicans do. Not the same thing.

Rick K
Reply to  Chris4692
January 26, 2015 10:11 am

+1

D.J. Hawkins
Reply to  Chris4692
January 26, 2015 10:23 am

X100

Mac the Knife
Reply to  Chris4692
January 26, 2015 12:04 pm

Just so.
We can change that in the next election cycle, if everyone will get involved right now with their local conservative groups and work to get conservatives elected and RINOs rejected!
If you fail to do that, we could end up with Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney as our 2016 RINOSAUR candidate….. and Hillary “What Does It Matter?!” Clinton or Elizabeth “Fauxcahontas” Warren as our next Dear Leader!

Reply to  Chris4692
January 27, 2015 12:17 am

I read that Donald Trump is getting interested in 2016. Wouldn’t that be great … Trump to Barry, “You the weakest link, you’re fired !”

Reply to  Chris4692
January 27, 2015 9:31 am

Just as it wasn’t the Progressives controlling Congress, it was the Democrats.

more soylent green!
January 26, 2015 9:26 am

Each and every time I see the word “justice” proceeded by an adjective such as “economic” or “social” or “racial” (that is, “social justice,” “economic justice,” or “racial justice”) I immediately recognize that I’m dealing with hucksters, statists, neo-Marxists and others of similar ilk who have no interest in actual justice.

imoira
Reply to  more soylent green!
January 26, 2015 9:41 am

more solyent green:
I feel my blood boil whenever justice is preceded by an adjective because I too realize what’s up. A relatively new one is “climate”. Climate justice. ???!!
That reminds me. I saw a notice recently for an international studies seminar called, “Doing business in the climate economy”.

Reply to  more soylent green!
January 26, 2015 11:04 am

So true. The only real “justice” would be for every household on Earth to have cheap electricity and clean running water. How many homes could have been “justified” with 100 billion dollars?

Reply to  more soylent green!
January 26, 2015 2:33 pm

😎
“Selective Fairness”.

kim
January 26, 2015 9:29 am

The real problem with this change of strategy is that the children of the world who most suffer from air quality are the third world poor, the dung slappers, the stick gatherers. Raising the price of energy worsens that.
The EPA’s attempt at misdirection is just plain evil.
====================

TheLastDemocrat
Reply to  kim
January 26, 2015 9:59 am

The mercy of the wicked is cruel.
(Google for attribution.)

Crispin in Waterloo
Reply to  kim
January 26, 2015 11:57 am

It could also be described as Energy Imperialism.

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