Senate hearing today: John Christy, Judy Curry, Will Happer, and Mark Steyn

Roy Spencer passed on a note about this, and I figured I should post here before the event because there will be live video. And Mark Steyn.

Roy understates:

Ted Cruz’s climate change hearing (today at 3 pm EST) should be interesting. Witnesses on our side include my sidekick John Christy, Judy Curry, Will Happer, and (drum roll) Mark Steyn. I expect a few zingers.

He also notes live video will be available, see www.commerce.senate.gov for details, I don’t see them yet.

Here: http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings

Excerpts from http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060029040:

Cruz tees up panel on warming after taunting Obama

Hannah Northey, E&E reporter

Published: Monday, December 7, 2015

After poking fun at President Obama’s call for action at climate talks in Paris last week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a GOP presidential candidate, is scheduled to convene a hearing on the effect of money and politics on climate research.

The senator last week accused Obama of mistakenly focusing on the threat of emissions over terrorism (ClimateWire, Dec. 2). “Instead of focusing on the perceived threat to national security of the SUV in your driveway, President Obama should be standing up and leading to defeat radical Islamic terrorism,” Cruz said during an interview in the Capitol. “But he refuses to confront the very real threats facing America today.”

The hearing will feature a number of climate doubters, including John Christy, a climate scientist at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, who disputes the consensus on human-induced climate change; Judith Curry, a climatologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology; and William Happer, a professor of physics at Princeton University.

Also testifying will be Mark Steyn, the Canadian National Review writer and author of “Climate Change: The Facts” who told attendees at the Heartland Institute’s International Conference on Climate Change this summer that his claim to fame is calling fraudulent the well-known “hockey stick” theory that Michael Mann — a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University — has developed.

The lone call for action to thwart the effects of climate change will likely come from the Democratic minority’s witness, Rear Adm. David Titley, formerly of the Naval Oceanography Operations Command, who recently joined Sherri Goodman, President Clinton’s deputy undersecretary of Defense, in calling on politicians to stop politicking on the issue of global warming (Greenwire, June 10).

Titley has predicted that as more Arctic ice melts, nations may want to revise the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, especially with regard to fish stocks moving north due to rising ocean temperatures. If that happens, he has said, nations like China could potentially file claims on Arctic resources while the United States would be left out of the negotiation process (E&E Daily, Oct. 1).

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Greg Woods
December 8, 2015 6:25 am

‘Climate doubter’? Does anyone doubt the existence of climate?

Reply to  Greg Woods
December 8, 2015 6:53 am

Well, that would still a more reasonable position to take than to flat out deny its existence. /sarc

rogerknights
Reply to  Greg Woods
December 8, 2015 7:24 am

That’s the term recommended in the new AP style guide.

simple-touriste
Reply to  Greg Woods
December 8, 2015 8:24 am

I doubt the existence of a well defined concept “climate”.

Richard G.
Reply to  simple-touriste
December 10, 2015 6:35 pm

Will you accept for starters the U.S. Government as a source for information on the ‘concept’?
Please note the ‘concept’ of climate ZONES or regions. There is no single global climate.
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy
BUILDING AMERICA BEST PRACTICES SERIES
VOLUME 7.3
Guide to Determining
Climate Regions by County
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
August 2015
http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/10/f27/ba_climate_region_guide_7.3.pdf
Additional information on international climatic zones can be found in
ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007 Normative Appendix B – Building Envelope
Climate Criteria.

Reply to  Greg Woods
December 8, 2015 8:34 am

Too funny for words…

The hearing will feature a number of climate doubters, including John Christy, a climate scientist at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, who disputes the consensus on human-induced climate change; Judith Curry, a climatologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology…

A “climate scientist” and a “climatologist” who supposedly doubt the climate… LOL!

spock2009
Reply to  Greg Woods
December 8, 2015 9:32 am

Exactly Greg. That’s a terrible choice of words which plays right into the alarmists’ hands.
Climate doubter? What could the author be thinking?

Manfred
Reply to  spock2009
December 8, 2015 11:28 am

Hannah Northey, E&E reporter uses ‘climate’ as a truncated version of ‘climate change’™, a term formally defined by the UN….http://tinyurl.com/fiddletheweather
This UN confabulated political term is deliberate in both its confusion and misdirection. It was designed to be, rather like the UN’s use of ‘civil society’™ implying civilized society, which of course it is not or either.
It may not be too far away when the necessity for pretense ceases and they simply drop ‘climate’ and ‘change’ from any discussion and state, ‘UN’ in their place. It works very well and rarely interferes in any way with the meaning. Actually, I find it usually clarifying matters quite nicely.

Janice Moore
Reply to  spock2009
December 8, 2015 5:27 pm

One small but important correction to your fine post, mighty Manfred:
… ‘climate’ as a truncated version of ‘{human caused} climate change’™, … .”

george e. smith
Reply to  Greg Woods
December 8, 2015 10:02 am

It explains why Saratoga is colder now, than Sunnyvale was 150 years ago, and they are maybe ten miles apart. (Si Valley geography).
g

Reply to  george e. smith
December 8, 2015 10:17 am

But then again, Saratoga and Los Gatos often have the warmest temperatures in the South Bay. The micro-climates here gives one an appreciation for how naturally variable the climate can be.

george e. smith
Reply to  george e. smith
December 8, 2015 11:54 am

I could have sworn that I didn’t say anything about temperature.
I think I said Saratoga is colder than Sunnyvale. And likely still was 150 years ago.
Nothing to do with temperature.
Anomalies are anomalous.
g

Just an enngineer
Reply to  george e. smith
December 9, 2015 3:16 pm

“Anomalies are anomalous”
except in meteorology where it is defined as
Anomalies denote the departure of an element from its long-period average value for the location concerned, and since the temperature is rarely exactly the average value it’s almost always an anomaly!
😉

goldminor
Reply to  teapartygeezer
December 9, 2015 1:23 pm

Thanks, that is the correct link.

December 8, 2015 6:27 am

“The hearing will feature a number of climate doubters…”
I doubt that they doubt that the planet has a climate.
Titley sounds a little tipsy, but at least he didn’t claim that the Ocean’s would boil over.
Well, he hasn’t yet, anyway.

Dawtgtomis
Reply to  JohnWho
December 8, 2015 7:36 am

Titley is at least a century premature with his concerns, given the paleoclimatic evidence of a coming cooling period. If the globe ever actually warms enough to open up the arctic ocean to exploitation, the bigger question is, what will have become of what was once the greatest nation on the planet?

george e. smith
Reply to  Dawtgtomis
December 8, 2015 10:05 am

The way that Obummer is handling National Defence, there might not be any USA left, to have any interest in Arctic fish stocks.
g

rtj1211
Reply to  Dawtgtomis
December 8, 2015 10:09 am

More likely, will human beings have been eliminated by robots, courtesy of emotionally stunted engineering idiots who actually thought they could create intelligent robots without them taking over??

Auto
Reply to  Dawtgtomis
December 8, 2015 11:33 am

Dawg,
I don’t think you mean the U.S.S.R. – at over 8,000,000 square miles, far bigger than any two other great nations – do you?
Auto
Mods –
– note the /sarc tag I now deploy, to avoid doubt, any doubt.
Any doubt whatsoever.

December 8, 2015 6:31 am

So, it will be a few folks talking actual science and common sense versus one person promoting gloom and doom fear mongering.
Wonder which one the MSM will proclaim “won” the debate?

Alan Robertson
Reply to  JohnWho
December 8, 2015 7:48 am

Do you suppose that this affair will even merit a mention in the MSM? How about NPR or PBS?

December 8, 2015 6:34 am

“Also testifying will be Mark Steyn, the Canadian National Review writer and author of “Climate Change: The Facts”…”
Gee, I wonder if Steyn knew he wrote that along with “A Disgrace to the Profession”?

Reply to  JohnWho
December 8, 2015 6:59 am

JohnWho (exactly). When one is trying to save the Nile Crocodile, naturally it’ll be ignorantly trying to bite your leg off. A big surprise would be in store for the 40,000 useful fools, er..I mean delegates, pushing to foreclose on civilization and put in charge the elitist marxbrothers, if they were to be successful. Johnny, the Kumbaya forever result you and the 40k designer-brained nice but disillusioned facilitators are trying to achieve would be a worse nightmare for ordinary folk than in the USSR. I’m assuming you won’t be one of the elites.

rogerknights
Reply to  JohnWho
December 8, 2015 7:26 am

The journalist who composed that garbled the facts; Steyn is a contributor to that anthology, not its author or editor.

Reply to  rogerknights
December 8, 2015 9:21 am

Yes, but facts and accuracy don’t matter. That appears to be about the accepted level of quality in journalism these days, at least in “climate science” and environmental journalism.

Chipmonk
December 8, 2015 6:38 am

Let’s see if the scientists can find a way to clearly communicate to this A.D.D. society.

H.R.
Reply to  Chipmonk
December 8, 2015 1:22 pm

No problem, Chipm… Look! Squirrel!

Don Perry
Reply to  H.R.
December 8, 2015 6:50 pm

Just read the .pdf file of his presentation. He holds no punches back and there is not a bit of comedy in it. It’s one of the most scathing indictments of everyone involved in the climate scam, including the committee to whom he is testifying. He’s covered all the bases.

Bruce Cobb
December 8, 2015 6:46 am

I predict Titley will be like a fish out of water.

TYoke
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
December 8, 2015 4:25 pm

It would be great if this warmist got the proper response to his concern that “politicians stop politicking on the issue of global warming”.
The right response is that if politicians stop politicking there will BE no issue. Global warming is PURE politics, top to bottom.

Gary
December 8, 2015 6:47 am

I hope Steyn tones it down and gives a serious explanation of the legal intimidation that’s going on rather than putting on a comedy show. This isn’t a podcast or a radio talk show; it’s supposed to be a venue for serious examinations of fact.

Reply to  Gary
December 8, 2015 7:02 am

Stein doesn’t need much advice about anything. He is magic on his feet. He won’t disappoint.

Jim G1
December 8, 2015 6:50 am

I wonder why they only have one pro-agw idiot on the program.

Gloateus Maximus
Reply to  Jim G1
December 8, 2015 6:55 am

Dems know better than to expose their racket to an interrogator as brilliant as Cruz. By fielding an admiral, they hope to win some sympathy, if not mercy from the GOP-dominated panel.

Michael Darby
Reply to  Gloateus Maximus
December 8, 2015 7:03 am

(Note: “Michael Darby” is the latest fake screen name for ‘David Socrates’, ‘Brian G Valentine’, ‘Buster Brown’, ‘Joel D. Jackson’, ‘beckleybud’, ‘Edward Richardson’, ‘H Grouse’, and about twenty others. The same person is also an identity thief who has stolen legitimate commenters’ names. All the time and effort he spent on writing 300 comments under the fake “BusterBrown” name, many of them quite long, are wasted because I am deleting them wholesale. ~mod.)

Gloateus Maximus
Reply to  Gloateus Maximus
December 8, 2015 7:50 am

Michael,
No. Why would any sane person ask such an absurd question?
Don’t take my word for Cruz’ brilliance. Ask his Harvard Law professors. Dershowitz said he was the most brilliant student he had ever met there. Or look at how brilliant his campaign strategy and execution have been. He’ll have a hard time overcoming the Liberal Eastern Establishment RINOs, but so far it’s hard to fault his performance on the trail from a strategic or tactical standpoint.

BFL
Reply to  Gloateus Maximus
December 8, 2015 8:39 am

No better example then the CNBC debate kickback by Cruz:

Michael Darby
Reply to  Gloateus Maximus
December 8, 2015 9:10 am

(Note: “Michael Darby” is the latest fake screen name for ‘David Socrates’, ‘Brian G Valentine’, ‘Buster Brown’, ‘Joel D. Jackson’, ‘beckleybud’, ‘Edward Richardson’, ‘H Grouse’, and about twenty others. The same person is also an identity thief who has stolen legitimate commenters’ names. All the time and effort he spent on writing 300 comments under the fake “BusterBrown” name, many of them quite long, are wasted because I am deleting them wholesale. ~mod.)

Stephen Rasey
Reply to  Gloateus Maximus
December 8, 2015 10:27 am

I am a fan of Ted Cruz. But I too think he choose poorly by reading “Green Eggs” in the filibuster. A much better choice in Presidential power struggles would be “Yertle, the Turtle”.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/28843/10-stories-behind-dr-seuss-stories

Gloateus Maximus
Reply to  Gloateus Maximus
December 8, 2015 1:37 pm

His filibuster didn’t fail.
It achieved his strategic goal of becoming the leader of senators opposed to the business as usual, go along to get along RINO leadership in Congress.

Ron
Reply to  Jim G1
December 8, 2015 6:57 am

The rest are all in Paris!

Jim G1
Reply to  Ron
December 8, 2015 7:08 am

I forgot.

Dawtgtomis
Reply to  Ron
December 8, 2015 7:51 am

Is there any info available on what this Paris venued grab for global control and wealth redistribution is costing the taxpayers?

Reply to  Jim G1
December 8, 2015 12:08 pm

The pro (wrong prefix or word) CAGW folks declined to speak or ignored the requests.
Odd, they couldn’t wait to ‘testify’ when Boxer, Mikulski or Waxman held climate hearings.
But I don’t think any of the CAGW faithful are anxious to repeat the Sierra Club’s President’s ‘Aaron Mair’ testimony.
Apparently they are disgusted that Representative Cruz refused appeals to authority or emotion and instead demanded hard proof.

Gloateus Maximus
Reply to  ATheoK
December 8, 2015 1:35 pm

Cruz is a senator, not a representative.
He could have been even more devastating in that exchange, but ought to be better prepared now.

Reply to  Gloateus Maximus
December 8, 2015 3:24 pm

You are correct. I obviously wasn’t paying attention while typing.
For my part, “The Teahouse of the August Moon” was coming on and I was distracted. Still my bad.

troe
December 8, 2015 7:00 am

The USA’s military budget is laced with billions for climate change thingies and green gee gaws.
To get budget votes lots of log rolling and back scratching in the form of pet projects is slipped into the Pentagon budget. Meanwhile the Generals shriek that they
need more money for operations. An old game.
When you hear that the US spends fantastic sums on it’s military it helps to know where big chunks of that money go.

Editor
December 8, 2015 7:12 am

This should be fun to watch.

Rich L
December 8, 2015 7:12 am

WHY CAN’T I make comments with my WordPress Account??????????????????????
[The mods do not know. Your question ended up in the queue for review, and therefore was not immediately printed publicly. .mod]

Alan Robertson
Reply to  Rich L
December 8, 2015 8:31 am

Mis- typed email adrs have been known to cause delay issues… might want to check that.

December 8, 2015 7:15 am

Why cant I make comments with my Word Press account?

December 8, 2015 7:19 am

“Tuesday Afternoon Live” could be more interesting than SNL.

Samuel C. Cogar
December 8, 2015 7:24 am

a hearing on the effect of money and politics on climate research.

Hopefully, ….. the testimonies presented at this Congressional hearing will “trigger” additional hearings with subpoenas being issued to Directors, Managers, etc., of NASA, NOAA, NSA, DoD, DOE, etc. to give testimony on their expenditures, awarding of Grant monies and their politically biased science preferences …… and especially their highly questionable claims of scientific facts n’ figures.

Chris Carleton
December 8, 2015 7:44 am

Cruz, Christy, Curry, Steyn . . . all at once! Don’t want to miss this.
Wish I could attend live but I can’t. Assuming these sessions are recorded, does anyone know the link to view recorded sessions?

Marcuso8
December 8, 2015 7:44 am

I can foresee lots of hard drive crashes coming in the not too distant future of NASA, NOAA..etc…..And I didn’t even need a ” mode l” or to make any corrupt ” adjustments ” to my data !!!

Marcuso8
Reply to  Marcuso8
December 8, 2015 7:45 am

MODEL….GGGRRRRRrrrrrr……….LOL

TonyL
Reply to  Marcuso8
December 8, 2015 8:01 am

kewl, but what is your mode l ?

Marcuso8
Reply to  TonyL
December 8, 2015 8:38 am

Better than mode k !!!

Joe Bastardi
December 8, 2015 7:56 am

Titley went to school with me. As for more of the arctic melting, the amo flip coming in the decadol sense will end that little charade.

Gras Albert
December 8, 2015 7:57 am

A big surprise would be in store for the 40,000 useful fools, er..I mean delegates

I wonder how many of those 40,000 walked, or better still, swam to Paris?

Marcuso8
Reply to  Gras Albert
December 8, 2015 8:40 am

Paris ites don’t walk , they squirm !!!

Bob Burban
Reply to  Marcuso8
December 8, 2015 10:20 am

Like sea men?

DAV
December 8, 2015 8:05 am

Rear Adm. David Titley … who recently joined Sherri Goodman … in calling on politicians to stop politicking on the issue of global warming.

That is unless the politicians are Democrats.

December 8, 2015 8:12 am

Assuming the obvious, that global warming will cause direct melting of polar ice caps, let’s look at the RATE of sea level increase since the mid-1800s. Google this search: Battery NOAA Sea Level. The NOAA chart will show a strict linear trend of sea level increase, quite obviously not the least bit influenced by the world population increase from 1 billion to 7 billion since the beginning of that data measurement. (This is likely a trend that began with the last melting of glaciers 12,000 years ago.) Given that burning of hydrocarbons MUST have increased by orders of magnitude in that time, the data completely mitigate against any conclusion that there has been influence of man on sea level rise and thus global warming.

December 8, 2015 8:21 am

Ted’s appearance on this show was truly shocking:

BFL
Reply to  vuurklip
December 8, 2015 8:48 am

Any president that doesn’t get on his knees everyday…
May be that this prez does, just to the East & 5 times a day…..
http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/August/Islamization-of-Paris-a-Warning-to-the-West/

Reply to  BFL
December 8, 2015 12:14 pm

What does this have to do with Cruz at this ghastly event?

Bob Weber
December 8, 2015 9:07 am

Wondering why it’s a ‘record’ temperature year? It was high TSI in 2015.
In order, from high to low, http://lasp.colorado.edu/lisird/tss/sorce_tsi_24hr.csv
2015, 1361.4512
2014, 1361.3966
2013, 1361.3587
2012, 1361.2413
2011, 1361.0752
2003, 1361.0262
2004, 1360.9192
2010, 1360.8027
2005, 1360.7518
2006, 1360.6735
2007, 1360.5710
2009, 1360.5565
2008, 1360.5382
Sep, 1361.1063
Oct, 1361.3139
Nov, 1361.3688
TSI was also higher for most of October and November, compared to September, driving Nov/Dec temps upward:
http://lasp.colorado.edu/data/sorce/total_solar_irradiance_plots/images/tim_level3_tsi_24hour_3month_640x480.pngcomment image
2016 will NOT be a record year as there will be no long outstanding solar cycle TSI peak like Feb 2015. Enjoy it while lasts, solar minimum is on the way… It took 6-7 years for TSI to drop to it’s lowest levels in 2008, and UAH temps followed. SSTs had a similar dip for 2008, also tracking TSI. Easy to see the temp drop here into 2008:
http://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_November_2015_v6.png
Every bit of the increase in temps since 2008 is from the rise in TSI during SC24. Even though it’s the lowest SSN cycle in 100 years, SC24 was (and is) still potent.
It’s TSI. It’s the Sun! 😉

Auto
Reply to  Bob Weber
December 8, 2015 11:52 am

Bob,
Sorry to be – perhaps – a micro-tad cynical, but your emboldened statement, above – 2016 will NOT be a record year – refers, I presume, to UN-ADJUSTED ‘data’.
I have no idea what the adjusted data looks like . . . . unless, say, as a blind guess, a hockey stick.
Mods – please note the metaphysical /SARC as added anyway.
Auto.

DD More
Reply to  Bob Weber
December 8, 2015 3:06 pm

Bob, you do know that the TSI levels shown are not what is really hitting the earth. Check this statement on the offered website.
The available Level 3 TSI data products produced by the SORCE program consist of daily and 6-hourly average irradiances reported at a mean solar distance of 1 astronomical unit (AU) and zero relative line-of-sight velocity with respect to the Sun. At-Earth values are also included for climate researchers to use as inputs to models.
http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/sorce/data/tsi-data/
Unless your a ‘climate researcher’, they have taken away the actual distance and daily affect.

george e. smith
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
December 8, 2015 11:42 am

3pm where ??

December 8, 2015 9:21 am

Thanks, Ric Werme. I will be watching.

george e. smith
December 8, 2015 9:55 am

Well Dr. Roy, I have always thought not so much of a ” side kick ” relationship; but more of you, and your wing man; or verse vicea.
That way the two of you can do the Thatch Weave, while running down the greemlins.
Sounds like Mark Steyn, and Will Happer, will also make a nice duo.
Dr Curry, can just pick off the stragglers.
Sounds to me, like sanity will be well represented , and I hope that Senator Cruz understands that.
G

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