SEE UPDATE below the “Continue reading” line.
In my town we have a contingent of crazies, just like most towns. I didn’t realize just how crazy some are until I read this letter to the editor in the Chico Enterprise Record.
This is what we are up against. I kid you not, this guy says earthquakes are a “real and genuine menace” related to global warming.
Source here
We have a t-shirt you can buy here at the museum store that speaks to our local agricultural base of orchards that says; Chico, where the nuts come from.
I may have to move.
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UPDATE: My local newspaper editor writes to me to say that Mr. Campbell was invoking sarcasm, and cites a couple of other similar letters to the editor Mr. Campbell has written in the past. He also says “I agree that sarcasm is hard to detect in print. A common mistake.”
I thought about that possibility of it being sarcasm, so I read it several times before posting on this. I could not detect a hint of sarcasm. Maybe my sarcasm sniffer is busted from reading so many outlandish claims about AGW effects. One only has to peruse the master MSM referenced warmlist here to see what I’m talking about. Note that earthquakes, earthquakes redux are on that list. Apologies to Mr. Campbell, but also forgive me, because I’ve seen even more outlandish things (like bridge collapse due to AGW, debunked here) that I can count in my tenure as a blogger on AGW.
That’s the problem with sarcasm, it is not always obvious to the reader. Learning from experience I make sarcasm obvious now with either a blog post tag or the “sarc off” /sarc at the end of a sentence.
When we have dubious claims being posted daily about global warming effects and linkages in science journals and in the MSM, it’s hard to tell what is real and what is sarcasm anymore. Either way, this episode makes me laugh, and I hope readers get a chuckle out of it too. – Anthony
Chuckles (1:14 am): So they reckon that global warming is softening the earth up, eh? Now let’s see… on the one hand global warming consists of a few lousy tenths of a degree on some dodgy thermometers in the exhaust gases of Jumbo jets, and on the other there’s magma at millions of degrees under our feet (“millions” according to that great Nobel laureate, A.Gore).
I have a sneaking suspicion that Mr. Gore and friends are exaggerating.
Just stand right there, and Global Warming will move you.
I notice a comment box on the letter page for “Shake and bake” with no comments yet. Might Hugh G. Campbell not just be a prankster or is he on some kind of medication?
Obviously a product of public school social promotions. Bush’s “No One Left Behind” program came along too late for him except maybe in the form of a job opportunity to be a poster child for it.
If the Chico nut is convinced global warming is causing earthquakes, might he and his Chico nutter-friends explain why the U.S. seems impervious to this “global warming”?
Latest US temps for 12-month periods, ending in June: http://www.c3headlines.com/2010/07/last-12-mths-ending-june-is-coldest-since-1998-us-temps-cooling-at-81f-rate-per-century.html
If Chico is getting to you, consider what Santa Cruz or Berzerkley could do to you.
A woman in the retirement village where I am currently working told me that global warming was causing feral cats to come into heat earlier every year. I thought she was taking the p**s and she became very angry when I laughed . Later I noticed in her room on a table was a statue of Jesus, a buddha and a pile of crystals. She was hedging her bets like all true thermogeddonists.
Anthony,
I don’t know whether the following information is correct i.e. pointing to the same person who wrote the letter for “Shake and bake” – maybe someone here can help. I’ve done a search on Google for “Hugh G. Campbell, Chico” and here are the hits:
Hugh G. Campbell, CSUC professor, Chico
http://www.smartvoter.org/2010/06/08/ca/bt/vote/ramsey_m/endorse.html
Hugh G. Campbell, CSUC professor, Chico
http://www.ramseyforda.com/endorsements/default.html
A further search with CSUC professor yeilded:
Hugh G. Campbell, 1967, Professor Emeritus, PhD, UCLA, History Department.
http://www.csuchico.edu/catalog/cat05/programs/8EndMaterials/03FacultyIndex.html
N.B. This may be completely different person so let’s be carefull.
Maunder and Dalton
Minimums, they were; Vulcans
Walked the earth and belched.
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The “Chicken Little” of the Week
Might this be a fair title of the type of curious outburst exhibited by such wellmeaning souls?
Hmmm… There’s the hidden heat!!!! It’s hiding in the Magma!!! And the Magma, now .7 degrees hotter, is uhhhhhh….. causing EARTHQUAKES!!!! Yeah, that’s the ticket!!! It’s so simple… Why didn’t I see it??? And all this time I thought it was hiding in my attic!!!
The writer appears to be repeating the Danny Glover theory, which says it all. Dumber than a sack of puppies.
Even yesterday video clip from Mann refers to Mother earth. He is afraid .
Algore says the earth is several million degrees 2 kilometers down. How does air warm that?
Mr Lynn says:
July 9, 2010 at 4:11 am
Other threads have commented on how language is always changing. Perhaps it’s time to retire that definition. You guys can work on it, I’m usually agnostic on such issues. 🙂
Science & Religion?
Don’t worry – I’m not going there…
Actually, the OT comment from
@M White July 9, 2010 at 2:16 am
“Germany targets switch to 100% renewables for its electricity by 2050″
Is actually much dafter than the CCotW quote that Anthony has shared with us.
Not quite as good as Buff Huhne’s 100% reduction in total emissions but the Germans are trying their best to act stupid.
Meanwhile during the first six months of the year Big Wind in the UK managed to generate 0.8% of our electricity (and, of course the “renewables” share of transport, industrial non-electric power consumption and domestic heating amounted to the square root of bugger all).
Having lived in Chico in the 80’s I’m familiar with the residual hippie characters that accrete in that university town. Usually cheerful types, they can make for entertaining climbing partners and are willing to help sponge up any beer money you have. They usually have little education but a lot of New Age attitude. I remember them fondly.
It’s that constant 20% that shows up in every poll…
…keep that in mind when you are out in public
1 out of every 5 people you see, are certifiable
Steveta_uk, wayne, John of K, Brent H,
Clearly more research is needed. Whose going to write the grant applications?
Naaah, standard use of a logical fallacy of arguing the consequent, generally made by those who never studied logic. Nut case? No, not really, since a lot of geological belief is also based on this logical fallacy. It’s also spruiked by those whose actual experience is zilch in the physical world, and over-compensated in the intellectual one.
The Eiffel Tower is up for sale. I could sell it to this guy dirt cheap but he’ll have to arrange collection…
It makes it pretty hard to argue a point if your opponent :
a) Doesn’t think logically
b) Doesn’t understand a lick of science
c) is dogmatic in their position
The author of the quote has all 3 of these problems going for him, as do many in the AGW camp. They are lost causes.
Mike G was clearly playing off Anthony’s quip,
“We have a t-shirt you can buy here at the museum store that speaks to our local agricultural base of orchards that says; Chico, where the nuts come from.”
But maybe Mike G will stop back and clarify. Methinks you’re reading a slight into his comment that wasn’t there. That nuts like Mr. Campbell might vote at all is truly alarming, whether or not Mr. Campbell is himself religious.
/Mr Lynn
“Lachlan says:
July 9, 2010 at 1:20 am
Crazies are everywhere. A few months ago I saw a comment on an Australian web site, claiming that carbon pollution is another tool of male oppression, because women suffer more from Tsunamis. I’m not making that up.”
That’s pretty much the position of the UN that disasters impact women and children more. It apparently comes from 2 ideas. Some brilliant person figured out that most war refugees are women and children (I guess the guys fighting the wars don’t count). Also there was a coincidence during the 2004 tsunami where a fishing fleet was out at sea when the tsunami hit. The fisherman were spared, but their wives bought it so naturally our friends on the left extrapolated this out to conclude that all disasters hit the female population hardest.
Just search “disater impact women” it’s almost like CAGW crazy. Everything imaginable is attributed to this phenomenon including more wife beatings as a result of Katrina & the Haiti earthquake.
Isnt there something to say for this theory? Glaciers and land-ice melts suddenly, the crust starts bobbing up due to isostacy, and ta da – earthquakes.
Ok, the guy who wrote this is a Person of Stupid.
But what about the editors of the paper?
They actually PUBLISHED it.