As many of you know, the Weblog Awards ended Tuesday. Today WUWT was certified as the winner in the “Best Science Blog” category. The vote totals were unchanged from 5PM EST Tuesday. I had thought perhaps the last minute surges drummed up on Daily Kos and Huffington Post might have changed the outcome, be we persevered.
I’d like to sincerely thank all of you in the WUWT community of readers, contributors, and moderators, for creating (and maintaining) an atmosphere in which this could happen. Thanks also go to many friends who run other blogs and websites whom network and share content with us.
There are two other people I’d like to thank and to congratulate. Steve McIntyre of Climate Audit, who won last year and made a strong third place showing this year. Steve has been an inspiration to me in the last year.
I’d also like to congratulate Dr. James Hansen, of NASA GISS, whom was recently awarded the 2009 Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the American Meteorological Society (AMS).
The award states: The Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal is presented by AMS to researchers making outstanding contributions to the understanding of the structure or behavior of the atmosphere.
I may disagree with some of Dr. Hansen’s methods and findings, but the above is certainly true. Congratulations are in order to him.
Congratulations to Anthony for a clear win over not only his direct competitors, but also over the Daily Kos, Grist, the DU, and the many other sites that were urging their readers to specifically vote against WUWT.
Now, as far as Hansen’s award goes, I’ll withhold judgement until I find out how the recipient was selected: Who were the other nominees, if any? Who made the selection, the membership? Or a hand-picked committee, like the rubber stamp committees that have previously given Hansen the $250,000 Heinz Award in 2001, and made him co-winner of the $1 million Dan David Prize.
If Hansen didn’t win the award by a secret ballot vote of the membership, or in a head-to-head contest like Anthony’s award, IMHO it’s just more AGW spin, like science illiterate Al Gore’s Nobel prize.
I agree with Jennifer. A more appropriate award for him would be “Best Con-Artist of the Year,” or “Worst Scientist of the Year.”
Oh, and congrats, Anthony. I have to admit that I split my votes between you and CA, because I value both very much.
Wonderful news, well done! A well deserved award indeed.
Congratulations Anthony and all Contributors.
Your insightful posts for the scientifically challenged (moi!) are a blessing in helping me understand the climate and open my eyes to the possible world wide fraud that is being perpetuated on us.
Richard Sharpe: I am currently in north WA, it is 43c (we had thunderstorms yesterday which has cooled it down a tad) outside at the moment, in August we had to wear jackets in the morning as the temperature was 8c, oh and it rained as well!
I’ll add my congratulations to the others. Your focus on science, civility and integrity will keep attracting people to this site. Anthony, the moderators, the contributors and the commenters all bring value to this large banquet. So much here to chew on, ingest and digest… and no heartburn! Thanks for all you guys and gals do. I and a growing readership are very appreciative.
Mike Bryant
I hope I didn’t forget anybody…
Well done and congratulations for winning an award – I am sure that it will not be your last.
Thank you other bloggers for being so informative, fair, respectful and tolerant to all others who may not always understand the maths and physics but have a deep desire to see climate change fairly examined. My biggest wish is that the media begin to give scientists such as frequent this website the coverage they deserve. If they do not, then I am sure that cyberspace will.
Congratulations and thanks for running this wonderful site.
Well deserved — takes several dedicated people working every day to make a site like this one a success.
Sincerely interesting to me that the leading agw proponents are not as well attended/thought-of as the leading agw sceptics. Perhaps there is hope after all.
Aussie John (17:11:03)
Great story. LOL
Is this the analogy to the CO2 – water vapor feedback cycle?
Nobody beats the Rev!
Hank (16:49:41) :
Does AMS in giving out the Carl-Gustaf Rossby award, spell out what they regard as Hansen’s contribution to the understanding of the structure or behavior the atmosphere?
Now class, what have we learned from Mr. Hansen? 😉
(joke from another thread…)
Congratulations Anthony!! You desrve the win.
I also wish to thank the contributors on this blog. I have learned so much since making WUWT a daily (ok, sometimes several times a day) visit for the past year. I hope traffic increases because of this recognition and more people wake up from their slumber.
Perhaps this site should be recommended to the president elect so he could learn a few things, too!
Congratulations Anthony! WUWT is my go to site when I get up every morning and to check before hitting the sack every night. I must thank your for editing my guest posts to reduce the temperature of my prose to keep it consistent with the level headed analysis that is your signature. Well Done!
Congratulations; keep up the great work!
Congratulations! As far as Hansen’s award, my father used to say, his best professor was the one that was usually wrong. He had to spend so much time and energy proving him wrong, he learned the subject inside and out.
Anthony:
Congratulations, and well deserved. Still hope to get to those deep South Texas stations, but other things kep interfering.
Congratulations WUWT.
I voted you everyday for your good work.
Keep it going please.
I’d award hansen the Karl Gustav Largest Railroad Gun Award, for being the biggest blow-hard in climate science (he would have to split it with Al Gore, of course).
Oh, and congratulations!
A relevant post at Icecap: http://icecap.us/index.php/go/political-climate
Anthony, congratulations on your win, and my thanks for your having such a good site.
I got interested in global warming because it was such a threat. That being the case, I wanted to get a better understanding of it. And the more I looked into it, the less sense it made. The more I tried to figure out how CO2 was causing so much trouble, the more I got the feeling that it wasn’t.
It was from links from Andrew Bolt’s (blogger/journalist) site that I got onto WUWT and Climate Audit. Your sites, and a few others, go to the nitty gritty of how it all works, and have been very educational.
Its not the quality of the argument that has convinced me we do not face a CO2-induced disaster, but the lack of argument, and the persistence with facts on your sites. Its something that is lacking on the Gore/Hanson/Mann etc side of the debate, which gets vitriolic at times. They tell me what I should be thinking, while you and Steve McIntyre and others give me the information to allow me to decide for myself.
Re James Hansen: Your response is very gracious, but I doubt he would reciprocate. He has made an enormous contribution, along with Gore, Mann and others of the clique, by spurring others on to prove they are sprouting rubbish. I feel quite strongly about this because these are the people I should be able to believe. I’ve taken notice of what they have said, checked it out myself (over a few years) and found it sadly wanting. Initially they were guilty of exaggeration, but now its something else, something deliberately deceptive. To reward it (again) is just fundamentally wrong.
Way to go!
The Icecap post references Jennifer Marohasy’s post here:
http://jennifermarohasy.com/blog/2009/01/valuing-passion-over-wisdom-hansen-awarded-highest-honour-by-american-meteorologists/
I’m sorry and maybe I shouldn’t say this but Big Jim reminds me of someone…
http://www.markpascua.com/wp-content/real-homer-simpson.jpg
Well done Anthony, keep up the good work.