Quote of the week #29

A surprising number of comment pages do not allow one to post if one’s post contains the word Schmidt.
It gets flagged as a rude word, as if one were attempting to post S*h*i*t.

Misdirection. It’s not about reducing knowledge. It’s about reducing mistaken knowledge.

Gavin Schmidt;
The sites’ rising popularity, and the growing influence they appear to wield in shaping public debate, is deeply worrying to the scientific community>>
He presumes to speak for the entire scientific community?

Yep, a truly ironic quote on the contributions to knowledge. It is a measure of the madness.
=========================

“What should be deeply worrying to the scientific community is that they’ve allowed climate science to become noble cause corrupted by monied interests. Some serious retrospection is needed”.
This is the most disturbing issue. Not sharing data so that results could be verified (indeed, destroying data rather than complying with an FOIA request). Blacklisting skeptics and trying to run them out of the profession if they did not buy AGW. Colluding to keep skeptics from publishing. Selling the idea that AGW is settled science to their political, media, and academic allies to stampede the republic into misinformed, hugely expensive decisions. These climate scientists were acting as activists, not scientists. Shame on them and shame on those climate scientists who are not calling for a house cleaning in the climate science profession.
Even those climate scientists who agree with AGW must stand up for their profession and tell Hansen, Mann, Jones, etc. that these tactics have shamed the profession of climate science and that profound corrections need to be made immediately. There needs to be a thorough investigation and the perpetrators of this malfeasance, this stain on science, need to be tried for fraud.

Charles Darwin stated “to kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact”. I wonder if the Gavinator has ever heard that one?

I believe he and Big Al share some genes.

This quote is referencing the doubleplusgood versions of the words “knowledge” & “science”.
In Newspeak “Knowledge” : Knowledge is information ,true or false,that furthers the cause.
“Science” : Science is computer output ,true or false,that furthers the cause.
The truth WILL set us free thanks to true knowledge and true science and websites like this one.
Thank goodness for the internet. Nothing but propaganda, Oh, I mean “knowledge” & “Science”, on the main stream media machine.

The psychosis of Schmidts quote is amazing. On the one hand, he essentially calls McIntyre some kind of great intellect with the potential to be a “scientific superstar”; but then he implies that all this power is used for evil. In a sense he’s saying that thin line that separates scientists and truth seekers from going to “the dark side” is well, extremely thin. He’s doing more damage to real scientists with his quote than he realizes.
Looked at another way, his quote is saying that a loner who asks questions is an undesireable. By calling McIntyre this, he says that requesting data and methods is a path to cause a “reduction of the sum total of human knowledge”.
All this, and I’d wager real money that *what* Gavin says means significantly less to him than the satisfaction he gets just from seeing his name and quotes in mass media. I think people should refer to him as the Paris Hilton of climate science.

Where are the green police when we need them? Gavin is an egregious emitter of heated gas.

…the sum total of human knowledge…
Going by all the different books and periodicals that mankind has published, as often found at secondhand shops if they survive that long, and even the internet in general, I think those Augean stables are long overdue for a good reduction anyway.

I for one have come to the conclusion that Gavin desires, as do the other alarmists, that skeptics just simply give up.
I mean, look at the rhetoric :
Here is a response I got from Gavin after I posted a comment to a post entitled, ‘Whatevergate’
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2010/02/whatevergate/
“[Response: The IPCC is the most peer-reviewed document in the world. It is still not perfect. But even you could have reviewed it if you wanted to. Transparency is great, but even if the data was all locked up and the analyses secret (which it is not), the nonsense passing for journalism in the last few weeks would still be nonsense. But if you want transparency (and why not?), start downloading the data, or the code, or the papers (all of which are readily available), and point out where it is exactly that you think we are hiding anything. – gavin]”
What have we learned from this talking point from a leading alarmist.
He states that the I.P.C.C. report is the most peer-reviewed document, but fails to mention that the document contains alarmist material from non peer-reviewed author(s).
Another key point to avoiding the truth is when he says that data analyses is not secretive or locked up. Are you kidding me?
How much of the analytical data, especially the climate models, has been studied for confirmation of authenticity? None, the last i checked.
And lastly, his feigned attempt at implying to be transparent, is but a ruse.
Gavin reminds me of a used car salesman. A term used to flip a potential buyer, to continue to ‘always be closing the deal’, is called ‘bait and switch’. Which is exactly what he and many other alarmists choose when confronted with difficult questions.
So it may be if Gavin can continue to muddy the scientific waters with this tactic,
it may lead to some skeptics to feel frustrated or even defeated, but at some point those waters will become clear and the only one left defeated with be Gavin and those that hold firm to their failed foundation of AGW.
So, I tip my hat to Watts and McIntyre and the rest of the blogging skeptics that continue to research and question the consensus on global warming.
Keep up the good work!
D. Alan

kruddwatch, there are links at the bottom of this:
New special from founder of the Weather Channel tackles manmade climate change theory
http://www.examiner.com/x-25061-Climate-Change-Examiner~y2010m2d19-New-special-from-founder-of-the-Weather-Channel-tackles-manmade-climate-change-theory
“The situation is completely out of hand,” said Texas A&M climate scientist Gerald North. “One guy e-mailed me to say I’m a ‘whore for the global warming crowd.’ ”
which is from:
19 Feb: Science Mag: Scientists Grapple With ‘Completely Out of Hand’ Attacks on Climate Science
by Eli Kintisch
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/02/scientists-grapple-with-complete.html

What does “adds to the reduction of the sum total” mean? Is that math-babble for “subtracts”?
My judgment is that “trickery to hide the decline” subtracts from human knowledge, making GS’s efforts a net loss for all of us.

Jeremy,
Think of Gavin as the Paris Hilton of Climate Science? Please don’t ever create that anomoly again. The first thing that popped into my head was that Carl’s Jr. hamburger commercial with Ms. Hilton.

When people begin to criticise others I’ve learned over the years that what they are telling you is their world view. Somebody gives generously to a cause – bloke A stands up & loudly proclaims how nobody who isn’t seeking fame would do such a thing – bloke A is giving you an insight into his world, not that of the giver.
It’s as if such people can’t look at themselves & analyse who they are – they view the world around & think that everyone must be just like they are, so they take their own faults & project them out to everyone else.
Listen carefully when people begin to belittle others – they are telling you, in detail, how they see the universe.

All,
And ya know, most of us troglodites out here just would like to know what the hell is going on – from a scientific point of view. There are some folks on this site who obviously are convinced the whole damn thing is a bunch of bunk. Others argue (Pielke’s here) that wait a moment, looks like there is AGW, but it’s land use (apologies for over simplification – troglodite, remember?) that’s causing it. And there are a few who are CO2 cheerleaders (not talking about the trolls here, they don’t count).
Most of us are really sceptics on the CO2, I happen to like the Pielke theories – and think more $$$ should be invested there. At least I can trust the science. Anthony and others need $$$ for data integrety studies. It’d be money well spent since no matter your persuasion, at least you could trust the data (and access it).
I think the vast majority of viewers and posters here are not in favor of more pollution for pollution sake, but husbanding (can I use that – stewardship also comes to mind but that has a religious connotation) our natural resources and keeping this planet as “clean” as we can. What “clean” means is the scientific area.
Just my take, and thanks to everyone but Gavin…who reminds me of Pigpen in Charlie Brown, always stirring up dust.
Mike

M&M: True Canadian Heroes.
Veritas victrix.
…-
“The Heretics: McIntyre and McKitrick
When the infamous hockey-stick graph that purported to prove that human activities are causing runaway global warming was finally broken, there is some irony in the fact that a couple of Canadians did the breaking. Retired mining engineer Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick, Professor of Economics at the University of Guelph, have been a thorn in the side of global warming alarmists for years. McIntyre, McKitrick and, more often, the acronym “M&M” to refer to the pair, are the subject of many discussions in the e-mails released from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) last November.
Reading the e-mails, it quickly becomes clear that leading alarmist scientists, like Michael Mann at Penn State and Phil Jones at the CRU, seemed positively obsessed – almost to the point of appearing deranged at times – with discrediting McIntyre and McKitrick. For example, when the pair published their first hockey stick busting paper in 2003, Mann sent an angry e-mail to his colleagues, telling them how to deal with MM: “The important thing is to deny that this has any intellectual credibility whatsoever and, if contacted by any media, to dismiss this for the stunt that it is.”
Raymond Bradley, a climatologist with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and part of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), went even farther, suggesting that CRU should provide the “independent” voice that would discredit McIntyre and McKitrick: “…if an “independent group” such as you guys at CRU could make a statement as to whether the M&M effort is truly an “audit”, and if they did it right, I think that would go a long way to defusing the issue… If you are willing, a quick and forceful statement from The Distinguished CRU Boys would help quash further arguments.”
What did McIntyre and McKitrick do to put these climatologists on the defensive?” (more)
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/02/19/the-heretics-mcintyre-and-mckitrick/
“The Sound Of Settled Science”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi

It is called falsification. It doesn’t reduce knowledge. It removes error and in the process increases knowledge.

Gavin Schmidt works for NASA?
Where is the NASA that put men on the moon?
Where is that glorious NASA?

“He could be a scientific superstar,”
Sorry Mr. Schmidt, but I don’t think you know what a scientific superstar is.

I learned today that, despite reports to the contrary, the ‘hockey stick’ is alive and well and that Dr. Wegman’s report has been discredited–The Globe and Mail is a welcoming platform for AGW propaganda and it occupies land that would make a great parking lot.

touché

With quotes like that, maybe Gavin should consider switching from climatology to astrology.
It would raise the IQ levels of both disciplines.

Climate science is full of $ceintific $uper $tars if grant money is the measure of a scientist.

“He [Steve McIntyre] could be a scientific superstar,” Mr. Schmidt says. “He’s a smart person. He could be adding to the sum total of human knowledge, but in effect he adds to the reduction of the sum total of human knowledge.”
Congratulations Steve McIntyre for contributing to the sum total of vetted human knowledge! Someone has to take the trash out and you’ve been doing an excellent job cleaning up the huge mess of so many alleged scientists who let their political agenda overrule the scientific method. So once again I congratulate you for your excellent work slicing and dicing through the mythological claims of the alleged “ManN-made Global Warming” hypothesis to get to the truth. I congratulate you Steve McIntyre for having the guts to prune the tree of knowledge of it’s crud. It needs to be a bonsai tree not a sprawling mann-made mess with crud all over it that can’t support new growth rooted in facts.
Congratulations Steve McIntyre on contributing to the sum total of accurate human scientific knowledge and for putting the mythologists and soothsayers of doom and gloom into the side-lanes of history! Epic work Steve McIntyre! Epic!

“What should be deeply worrying to the scientific community is that they’ve allowed climate science to become noble cause corrupted by monied interests.”
You mean when connected to funds raised through Heartland, CEI, Cato…….. ?
REPLY: which are microscopic compared to the billions spent on AGW research and funding to organizations like WWF and Greenpeace. If you have a claim, step up and put your full name to it like I do. Otherwise keep your innuendo to yourself. -A

Well at least the “Grope and Flail” (as some of we canucks call that rag) has acknowledged there are climate skeptics. Now if only our Canadian Broadcasting Corporation would do the same!!!!

Many thanks to those kind souls who responded to my plea for a URL above.
Of course Anthony has now included the video clips on this blog.
I guess I should have predicted he would do this and then I would not have bothered people with my OT request.
Promise to do better in the future:-)

“The sites’ rising popularity, and the growing influence they appear to wield in shaping public debate, is deeply worrying to the scientific community.
What should be deeply worrying to the scientific community is that they’ve allowed climate science to become noble cause corrupted by monied interests. Some serious retrospection is needed.”
That is the wrong response, and the one that the warmers were hoping to elicit. You implictly accept their assertion that ‘the scientific community’ is worried about skeptic blogs. This furthers their propaganda that scepticism over alarmist propaganda is anti science.
Screw that.
I am a member of the scientific community. I am not worried about these blogs. Neither are the scientists who contribute to these blogs. We scientists are worried about the decidedly unscientific behavior of a clique of politicized ‘scientists’ who have entirely too much influence over the field of climatology.
No one who says ‘Why should I give you my data, when your purpose is to find something wrong with it’ is a member of the scientific community by definition.
Neither is anyone who attempts to conceal the divergence problem within the proxie data, deny its necessary implications, or draw attention away from its importance by waving hands about ‘multiple converging lines of evidence’ and other propaganda techniques.
They are agenda driven hacks, and a growing portion of the scientific community is very worried about them.

I think this quote of Jones earns an honourable mention, if not its own honour as quote of the week, requoted from his Nature interview with commentary mentioned here:
http://www.collide-a-scape.com/2010/02/15/hunkering-down/
“‘I don’t think we should be taking much notice of what’s on blogs because they seem to be hijacking the peer-review process,’ says Jones.”
“That’s probably not a smart thing to say, given he’s the guy who wrote this (in one of those infamous emails) to Michael Mann: ‘I can’t see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin [Trenberth] and I will keep them out somehow — even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!'”

I think gavin was sorta validating ronald reagan’s statement about so much of what they ‘know’ just being wrong. it must be frustrating for poor gavin to be aware of so much of his knowledge is BS and not knowing which might be knowledge versus what might merely be wishful thinking.

As usual, regarding this QOTW, Schmidt is using transference (or projection) – speaking for himself whilst condemning others for his own vices.

To maz2….This frontpagemag article ‘The Heretics: McIntyre and McKitrick’ reminds me that a few years ago, somebody organized a poll so that people could vote for the ‘the greatest Canadian ever’. My submission was Mark Steyn but regardless….the leftists mounted a strong (and ultimately successful) campaign to put Tommy Douglas over the top. If such a poll was ever held again, I propose that a grass roots movement be started to not only put Steve McIntyre on top but to push for a statue to be built in his honour. While we all owe a huge debt to many, Mr McIntyre has been a superlative representative of reason over the forces of glowbull warmist nonsense.
On the issue of the Mop and Wail, it is frankly a sad thing to watch how this rag has sunk so low. A once proud and irreproachable paper has been breached by the unhinged. On the other hand, it is nice to see that 2 out of the 3 Toronto newspapers are not afraid to call out the glowbull warmists. A very good op-ed in the Sun today…. http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/lorrie_goldstein/2010/02/19/12952876.html

I would like to add that people need to realize we are not “the man”. Those who back AGW are supporting and being supported by “the man”. Wake up.

Just think that 100 years ago some guys with names starting with M were trying to measure the Ether Wind. And look how that turned out. If they’d only kept their heads down and listened to Conan Doyle.

JeffK (15:13:18) :
Do you ever notice how liberals, when they go to attack somone they perceive to be a threat, actually wind up describing themselves?
That’s called “projection,” Jeff. I’ve seen some hilarious examples from Lefty commenters on milblogs.