The title screams “Red Hot Lies” and will indeed make some “see red”. While it initially made me a bit uncomfortable, it is fairly straightforward and compelling. Having been written about in this book with such an “inflammatory” title and style, I suppose now I’ll be branded as a “denier deluxe”.
Click image above for details on how to order a copy from Amazon at a discount price. If you order from this link above, I’ll get a small percentage from the sale.
I got my signed copy in the mail today from the author, Chris Horner. This is it on the black slate of my desk. You can find the details about my surfacestations project on page 267, along with photos. There’s a back story there as to why that is the only page with photographs. I refused to give permission for my chapter unless they used at least one of the photos I provided. At one point, there were no photos. My argument was “it’s what I do”.
Even after all that argument, I had to chuckle though, because the way Horner signed it was quite the surprise. I never really looked at myself that way, I started down this road because I was curious about paint, and then one thing led to another…and well here I am.
The book also has a good compendium of what has occurred not only on the blogosphere, but also in the government, news media, and with the individual players like Hansen and Gore in the last few years. It also has entries from sometimes moderator and regular contributor here, John Goetz as well as many other familiar names that have inspired questions.
After reading the first chapter I thought I should pass on this note to readers who practice the “dark art” of questioning the veracity of the AGW science and the IPCC: shred your trash, then douse it liberally with butyl seleno-mercaptan (C4H9SeH).
Here are the details on the book from Amazon:
Product Description
From the author of the New York Times bestselling Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to Global Warming (and Environmentalism) comes Red Hot Lies, an exposé of the hypocrisy, deceit, and outright lies of the global warming alarmists and the compliant media that support them. Did you know that most scientists are global warming skeptics? Or that environmental alarmists have knowingly promoted false and exaggerated data on global warming? Or that in the Left’s efforts to suppress free speech (and scientific research), they have compared global warming dissent with “treason”? Shocking, frank, and illuminating, Chris Horner’s Red Hot Lies explodes as many myths as Al Gore promotes.
From the Inside Flap
Liars–Al Gore, the United Nations, the New York Times. The global warming lobby, relentless in its push for bigger government, more spending, and more regulation, will use any means necessary to scare you out of your wits–as well as your tax dollars and your liberties–with threats of rising oceans, deadly droughts, and unspeakable future consequences of “climate change.” In pursuing their anti-energy, anti-capitalist, and pro-government agenda, the global warming alarmists–and unscrupulous scientists who see this scare as their gravy train to federal grants and foundation money–resort to dirty tricks, smear campaigns, and outright lies, abandoning scientific standards, journalistic integrity, and the old-fashioned notions of free speech and open debate. In Red Hot Lies, bestselling author Christopher Horner–himself the target of Greenpeace dirty tricks and alarmist smears–exposes the dark underbelly of the environmental movement. Power-hungry politicians blacklist scientists who reject global warming alarmism. U.S. senators threaten companies that fund climate change dissenters. Mainstream media outlets openly reject the notion of “balance.” The occasional unguarded scientist candidly admits the need to twist the facts to paint an uglier picture in order to keep the faucet of government money flowing. In the name of “saving the planet,” anything goes. But why the nasty tactics? Why the cover ups, lies, and intimidation? Because Al Gore and his ilk want to use big government at the local, state, federal, and global level to run your life, and they can brook no opposition. But the actual facts, as Red Hot Lies makes clear, aren’t nearly as scary as their fiction.
Heroism — courage and self-sacrifice in the face of danger and adversity.
You fit the bill, Anthony. Congratulations and KUTGW.
Ordered per your request!
Nice!
Congratulations, you are a hero. Only the best to you.
Yes Neo – you are already being watched…
Anthony, “denier deluxe” a new moniker? Can we just call you Double D [DD] from now on?
REPLY: I prefer D^2, it seems less “buxom”. – Anthony
“The Debate is over” humorously enough signaled the start of the debate for most people. I have had a ringside seat for this my entire life. Glad to see there is hope for common sense in the world. “Stop climate change” has got to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I have come up with one that is more realistic. “Keep Adapting !!” ;^)
REPLY: Thanks David, your dad is also in the book. Tell him I said hello. I meant to respond to your previous comment but it was “lost at sea” when I got back to it. – Anthony
Just a note: There are many farmers who are Democrats. I suppose a hold over from the agrarian vs metro split early in the last century. These farmers are almost of the same mind regarding AGW. They are skeptics. They do, however, believe in climate change and plant accordingly. Yet according to this book, because they are Democrats, they are leftist. The author may be close to the truth regarding the way in which AGW has been more of a media-political movement than a scientific one, yet still writes with stereotypical strokes of the pen. He uses too broad of a paint brush to paint an intricately complicated picture of exactly who is for and who is against AGW and the policies it will give birth to. We all paint with brushes. The trick is to use smaller brushes to paint complicated pictures. Otherwise your work will be dismissed as nothing but slapping on of barn paint.
REPLY: Just wondering, have you read the whole book, or are you relying on the description above? – Anthony
My ‘one click’ order is on its way.
Have you checked this out?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081103084045.htm
Anthony,
Congrats…I’m ordering my copy now.
Remember…there is no spoon.
Jim
Yes – this is intereesting as Jennifer Morahasy confirmed today that she is from a Labour (Liberal) background as has Steve McIntyre. To try to label skeptics by politics is using a pretty wide brush IMO. Hey – I’m a lefty too. 🙂
Cathy,
It’s all about trying to keep your job as a scientist by finding some way (however obscure and ridiculous) to relate what you study to global warming.
Just ordered it and I’m looking forward to it 😀
Anthony,
Well, you SHOULD be in that book! Your work and this blog are special contributions to exposing the fraud.
Thanks for stepping up Anthony (probably works out to a few dozen times already actually).
If the public is not educated about the real science surrounding global warming, we will all be driving bicycles to work every day in a few years. I’m okay with a bike if warranted, but I don’t want to be forced to ride one just because of an irrational groupthink mania.
Butyl Seleno Mercaptan. If I’m not mistaken, is that the smelliest substance on earth? I remember references to this material in graduate school. At least Greenpeace is doing its chemistry homework. Too bad they skipped civics.
Based on his other books and the reviews written, I have come to believe he is fairly well on the conservative side of things. But you are right. I haven’t read this particular book. However, I will not retract or buffer my comment. When he riffs through the “anti’s” and conspiracy theories, he comes very close to stereotypical views of the left, which when seriously considered, don’t hold up to such consideration. I am clearly a left-leaning individual but I am also a believer in capitalism and lean government controls (EX: federal forests should be returned to state and private control, the Dept of Ed should be dismissed from school toot sweet, etc). I also don’t give much credence to conspiracy theories. I believe that it is fairly easy for large groups of people to honestly believe in and work for something that in reality holds little water. That is as true for conservatives as it is for liberals.
Maybe I am just tired of this damnable divide and the conspiracy chants. To tell you the truth, I have come to my end of patience regarding stereotypical views of “left” as well as “right”, or “pro” vs “anti” government, or “pro” vs “anti” capitalism, no matter who is holding the pen. My experience at the personal level tells me that for the most part, these differences should be celebrated and respected, and that the people who hold them are decent law abiding and patriotic citizens who seek only what they think is right for their country.
Most people give a new book a cursory look. This book seems as alarmist to me as those the author denigrates, and seems to want to pander to a certain group of people at the get go without thought at all towards broadening the appeal to a wider audience. You can, at times, judge a book by its cover. That is what is usually done. I doubt this book, with its title and flaps, will be used in serious circles to provide a balanced view of climate change when potential policies and programs are being discussed. That is sad. We need an opposing view that WILL be considered in serious discussions at the policy level.
Anthony,
A man should not go through life trying to make everyone like him. If you do, you will be a very unhappy man indeed.
Your wisdom, your creativity, your talent, your skill and your ability to iinfluence others is a unique thing.
Many will envy you. They are to be avoided.
Others will worship you. They are to be avoided.
Yet another group will listen to you, challenge you and engage you in honest discourse.
You will know the difference and must deal w/ them all accordingly.
barbee
Does the book mention McIntyre, the hockey stick, and the Mann shenanigans that Bishop Hill so nicely summarized?
REPLY: Yes it does. _ Anthony
What’s the background of the author?
Pamela Gray,
IF you really want something to bite on, try this Philosophy!
http://www.the-thinking-man.com/global-warming.html
Good show, Rev!
I am more interested in specific instances of “threats” and “fraud” than I am of “deception” (which regard as par for the course).
“I was curious about paint, and then one thing led to another…and well here I am.”
Just look at how a little curiosity took you in an unexpected direction, shining a light into one of NOAA’s darker corners. Rather hard to talk about a warming climate when the instruments are shown to be lacking and/or poorly sited.
Mark, Christopher C. Horner is an attorney in Washington D.C. He’s also a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He got his Juris Doctorate from Washington University in St. Louis and was awarded the Judge Samuel Breckenridge Award, which is fairly prestigious. Quoting from his bio:
He has testified before the United States Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and Environment and Public Works, given numerous addresses in the European Parliament in Strasbourg and Brussels and before policymakers in numerous capitals including London, Rome, Copenhagen, Madrid, Warsaw and Prague. As a result of these efforts to educate the public, Greenpeace has repeatedly targeted Mr. Horner, by stealing his garbage on a weekly basis, issuing press releases announcing with whom he is seen in the same room and including him in various other hysterical publications including most recently “A Field Guide to Climate Criminals” distributed at the UN climate meeting in Montreal in December 2005. Also in 2005, Cristina Narbona, Spain’s Socialist Environment Minister, referred to Horner as “the devil” for demonstrating to audiences in Spain and other European Union nations how Europe is failing to meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and why Europeans should abandon the doomed process.
He is, apart from everything else, a genuinely erudite fellow. He’s also extraordinarily articulate in live settings, and he’s fearless.
janama, you’re absolutely correct: Steve McIntyre did indeed disclose his extreme leftist leanings today — and more: he disclosed a shockingly heavy hand anent issues of speech and discussion, more akin to what you’d expect at realclimate. Let us just say, it’s very good that he does not venture into politics on his otherwise excellent blog, because his political-economic ideology is dangerously naive.
Pamela Gray — GW skepticism is painted as right wing for a reason, mainly because by doing so one can imply an anti-scientific slant. Right wing as portrayed on CNN is all about bibles and guns and drooling semi-literacy, anti-evolution and pickup trucks, etc. and this is an image people all over the world (international posters on blogs like these) seem to perceive despite the fact that only a minority of right wingers are anti-evolution types. It’s how the news is slanted. By saying “right wing” this is equivalent to “doesn’t get evolution” a.k.a. anti-science which is of course the litmus test for scientific literacy. Outside the US, Right Wing is a pejorative, not a political position vis a vis state powers! In terms of AGW one dismisses skeptics as being right wingers via the same mechanism as with the big science in the room — one doesn’t debate scientific truths like evolution with these people, and there’s no reason to debate AGW with them either. If they can’t handle evolution, they sure aren’t going to be able to fathom this…
Note that Gore said the debate was over. This wasn’t an accidental or coincidental phrasing. And we’ve all heard the accusations of Bush et al as being anti-science. That’s a big brush they’re wielding there.
Let’s cast aside the not so subtle psych stuff for a moment.
We also have to deal with the natural tendencies of the left/right ways of solving problems; the right tends to allow the market to solve itself and the left tends to impose state authority. Bottom up vs top down. Most AGW “solutions” I’ve heard are from those who identify themselves as “progressive” meaning state imposition of measures hence left. I can’t say I’ve heard a right wing argument to tax gas up to $10 a gallon to make it painful to drive. I have however heard this from the left/progressives.
e.g. were it up to the right wing, alternative fuels/etc would appear as the market allowed for it. Some egghead will invent something and make him/herself rich selling it, whether this is a 450 mpg engine or a cheap way to generate 100KW of power in your back yard. There’s no end of companies working on the problem for the sake of PROFITS. The left meanwhile seems to think that all that’s needed is to mandate that society will adopt renewable sources by 2025 and then we engineers wake up one day and poof it into existence. (As if we could have done this last year, of course, but nobody had bothered to make it a requirement… )
Oh, wait, I know, we’ll make a manhattan project thingie out of it and a couple of thousand smart people will solve the problem for the sake of the science! Right, so this is going to work when a few thousand earnest types are already killing themselves trying to solve the same problem for the biggest motivator of them all — money. (Does this scenario sound like something from the Idiocracy movie or what?)
So from my vantage point, it’s not a surprise that the right wingers will be the ones who are, on average, more skeptical.