WUWT readers may recall last week that the “Our Climate” iPhone app was released and announced here. It has quickly become a best seller on the iTunes store.
It has also quickly become a target.
John Cook, a generally reasonable Aussie who runs a blog oddly titled “skepticalscience” (odd, since it isn’t skeptical, but pushes the consensus) also has an iPhone app. Knowing that he wouldn’t get enough traffic on his blog to effectively smack down this new informational threat, he turned to the Guardian, and was immediately offered a guest essay there.
The title? Climate change denial? There’s an app for that.
How sad that Cook and the Guardian had to resort to such a cheap shot.
Problem is, that essay appears to have backfired as “Our Climate” continues to grow. Right after that Guardian piece by Cook, downloads surged. So much in fact, Apple itself is even promoting it on the iTunes (installed Mac and PC application) front page now!
Have a look:
I hate it when that happens.
There are more than 230,000 Apps in the App store – Only 40 Apps are featured in this front page category at any time, so this is a singular achievement and opportunity for the truly skeptical side of the story to be heard.
Get the app for yourself: http://itunes.apple.com/app/our-climate/id371849150?mt=8
Don’t have an iPhone? Tell a friend who does.
And for the record, I don’t make a dime from this. I have no ownership or revenue sharing in it whatsoever.
As an aside, I wonder if Cook has seen the latest Gallup poll on Global Warming in Australia?
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Will this app also run on the IPAD? If it does, I’ll download it immediately.
Steve Jobs and company are died-in-the-wool establishment liberals (the Goracle is on their board), so it surprises me that they have not already heeded the alarms of The Consensus and put the kibosh on “Our Climate.”
And yes, Anthony, you should get a cut in return for promoting it. Nothing wrong with a little capitalism.
/Mr Lynn
“The accusation that CRU was manipulating the data to inflate the case for human-caused climate change has since been refuted.”
LOL! Now the word “refute” can also mean “to whitewash”.
Looking at the recent surveys, the three little whitewashes did nothing to restore the public confidence. But everyone knew that this was going to be a long, painful death for the AGW religion.
Tomorrow I have something on German attitudes. A bit anecdotal, but I think it sends a message.
I’ll get the app when I buy an iPad later this year. I’m waiting for the next upgrade… 🙂
Paul at Aeris Systems
I see no contact point on your web page.
John Cook has set up an app to promote his Skeptical Science rebuttals (“What the Science Says”) of “skeptic arguments”.
I would like to offer a first attempt at answering all of Skeptical Science’s faux rebuttals, to add to your app. I know I can do it in outline at least. Email me if you are interested. Click my name to get the feel of what I’ve already done, and to get my email contact point.
If my friend Rich Ritter can play ball, it occurs to me we might be able to set up a wiki-format skeptics’ “consensus” of replies to each of these faux rebuttals, open to all real skeptics to improve.
In the case of this happening, we would need an extra page explaining why we were choosing to go down the same route of excluding one’s challengers, as RC have done: special circumstances, only necessitated by the current stance of the official science bodies, RC, and Wikipedia.
I’ve always maintained that the true warmistas are the skeptics best friend. Give them free rein, I say old chap!
Get Romm to write about it. He claims to have 258,592 hits per day.
I think I’ll refute the garden fence this weekend.
If Climate Change is so bad, why isn’t there a Climate Change Test Ban Treaty?
There are agenices that practice “enhancement”, and the experiments get bigger all the time.
The US is not the only country doing this.
Why aren’t the Climate Change activists challenging them?
I not even allowed to sign in at Cook’s site anymore.
I’ve very proud of that :~)
For those interested, below are links to Lubos’ blog about John Cook’s “skeptical” science. Lubos has such a way with words 🙂
http://motls.blogspot.com/2010/07/john-cooks-blog-photosynthesis-is.html
http://motls.blogspot.com/2010/03/john-cook-skeptical-science.html
John Cook is a dimwit. Does he not realise the number of Warmists who will end up visiting WUWT and having their eyes opened for the first time? Backfire!!
REPLY: I don’t think he’s a ‘dimwit’ by any means, and it’s really not a label you should be using. He’s just not very good at understanding mass media and communications, like most scientists. – Anthony
orkneygal says:
August 7, 2010 at 3:35 pm
I not even allowed to sign in at Cook’s site anymore.
I’ve very proud of that :~)
——————————————————————
You’ve got every reason to be proud of yourself, orkneygal.
Congrats! 😉
Jimbo says:
August 7, 2010 at 3:41 pm
John Cook is a dimwit. Does he not realise the number of Warmists who will end up visiting WUWT and having their eyes opened for the first time? Backfire!!
REPLY: I don’t think he’s a ‘dimwit’ by any means, and it’s really not a label you should be using. He’s just not very good at understanding mass media and communications, like most scientists. – Anthony
—-
Sorry. I just lost my rag. It happens from time to time due to frustration and anger. :o(
The iphone is a junk device that does not support flash, java or rather just about anything to make the internet actually useful. You are stuck with crappy AT&T for service and the battery on the original phone had to be soldered in, replaceable batteries are so 1990s I guess. Who buys this crap?
Henry Pool says “I don’t like John Cook. ”
Whether you like John Cook or not is pretty irrelevant, this is not a popularity contest. I have to say if this is representative of the level of your posts then it’s hardly surprising you get deleted.
Skepticalscience.com is fine. Alot like WUWT, in between the polemical stuff there’s pointers to some of the new science aswell as dissections and critiques, all worth reading expect for the most close-minded.
My experience in two years of posting questioning/denier stuff on that website has been very few deletions, mostly when I quoted from the climategate e-mails or went OT. Stick to the science and avoid personnal insults and you’ll be fine no matter what’s your viewpoint. John himself is always level headed in his replies.
I think that one of the visitors with more disposable income offer to set up a link that gives the app away for free to first time visitors (that Register) to WUWT. Sure they have to have an iphone, but just think about the exposure.
Just re-read this and laughed. Exposure! It’s only the weather.
SkepticalScience.com is an excellent resource and probably has the best layout of any climate change site. His explanation for the site’s name is actually quite persuasive – many self-described skeptics on this website and others are far too willing to accept any viewpoint which confirms their beliefs, valid or not.
For the record I think the “our climate” app is a great idea as many consumers own an iphone, even if I never would but if I did this is one of the apps I would buy.
It was a properly annotated and cross referenced comment of peer-reviewed literature concerning the fact the the MWP was global, synchronous and much warmer than today that got me knobbed at Cook’s site, I think.
My comments on that topic never saw the light of day and other comments that I had made were “disappeared”.
That is so funny, and just so right IMO!
The gallup poll results have an interesting twist. The 21% who said “both” human activities and natural causes are to blame for the recent warming were ‘voluntary’ responses. This means when asked ‘does A or B cause C’ they replied ‘both’ without prompting. This is heartening as it implies people are really forming their own opinions rather than being media led.
Anything for the Blackberry?
Congratulations again to all those involved with promoting this app.
If possible, please work on an Android and Blackberry app for all those of us who prefer a better technology alternative to Apple. I will buy the app when it is available for Android devices.
Paul: For a BB I will buy it.
Cook the skeptic says: “the temperature adjustments only applied to temperatures in 48 U.S. states. As the USA comprises only 2% of the globe, this has had INFINITESIMAL effect on global trends.” (http://www.skepticalscience.com/1934-hottest-year-on-record.htm)
Wikipedia disagrees: “In common speech, an infinitesimal object is an object which is smaller than any feasible measurement, hence not zero size, but so small that it cannot be distinguished from zero by any available means.”
Cook can’t distinguish Two Hundredths from Zero. How irrational of him. He’s simply a hyperbolic doom-monger.
I, for one, will always remain rationally skeptical, and look at all the evidence.