Today at Huffington Post, a prominent soldier in the environmental movement wrote:
I was stunned by the industry’s shamelessness — and then chagrined at my own gullibility.
It seems the iPhone app “Our Climate” has caught the attention of the chairman of the Sierra Club, Carl Pope.
That quote above is from when he got suckered by an April 1st spoof app supposedly released by the coal industry (made up by another Sierra Club leader as a joke). As is typical for people that write with an agenda to discredit, he doesn’t examine any of the facts surrounding the topic or the application itself. Predictably, he’s used a collection of weasel words. Pope writes in the Huffington Post:
But truth, it seems, does imitate fiction, with only a few month’s lag time. For this week a prominent climate-cynics site, Watt’s Up With That, released a climate-misinformation iPhone app that contains far more damaging Orwellian language than the Sierra Club’s coal industry spoof. The app, called Our Climate, does indeed treat global warming as, perhaps, just the result of natural atmospheric rhythms. But then again, maybe the globe isn’t warming at all. Indeed, Our Climate is, in its own words, a “bite-sized” guide to how climate cynics argue — and as a result rarely have so many contradictions been encompassed in so little space: Climate is highly variable on its own, so people can’t be causing it to change . Then again, climate has self-correcting feedback mechanisms, so it can’t change, regardless.
But there is one consistent theme to all of the material contained on the Our Climate” app (and on its parent WUWT site). Taken in isolation, each bit of data is designed to send your brain the message, “There’s nothing to worry about (and no reason to stop burning coal and oil).”
Here’s the funny part. The app isn’t mine, I didn’t write it, and I make nothing from it. I only wrote about it a couple of times, as did many other skeptic blogs. Yet the Sierra Club chairman Pope gives WUWT all the credit for it, saying:
For this week a prominent climate-cynics site, Watt’s Up With That, released a climate-misinformation iPhone app
In fact, it was written in Australia, by Aeris Systems which is connected to WUWT only by the fact that they asked me to review it and post the press release.
Even though Pope links to the iTunes page for the app, which has no mention of WUWT, and that page links to the ourclimate.info website, where again there’s no mention of WUWT, he seems to have missed this basic bit of research on ownership. Oh but it doesn’t stop there. Pope also links to the Guardian smackdown by the other climate app developer, John Cook:
And, guess what? WUWT isn’t mentioned in that article either, neither am I. It’s pretty embarrassing when the chairman of the Sierra Club can’t take a couple of minutes to read the content in the links he cites. I have no idea how he came to the false conclusion that the app is mine.
Kids, this is what happens when you don’t do your homework. Will Pope fix it over at HuffPo? Doubtful – the Sierra Club traditionally doesn’t let facts get in the way of a good rant.
Looks like Sierra Club chairman Carl Pope may have been writing an autobiography with this book title:
“climate cynic”
you know, I kinda like that.
better than “denier”.
a step up from “skeptic”, I think.
I’m sure I’ve read that phrase about so many contradictions in so little space before. Recently.
pat says:
August 11, 2010 at 8:25 pm
It’s rough all over…
I spend more time on this site learning, I may get to posting something intelligent as well one day, but I just had to leave a note for Carl as well.
Actually, Anthony, a WUWT app that links to “Sea Ice Page” would probably be very popular! We could check for sea ice extent anytime we wanted!
Roger Knights says:
August 11, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Didn’t Anthony refer to the app as “our app” within the past two days? (Or was that someone else?)
=======
Don’t think so. He’s referred to it as the “Our Climate” app (its name). But never our (WUWT’s) Climate app. Perhaps some are pronounally challenged.
I often wonder why Carl Pope is not concerned about tangible environmental depredation, like light pollution, overgrown forests burning like torches (and fulfilling John Muir’s warning), dispersants in the Gulf, toxic waste dumping in the Hudson, precipitation enhancement (seeding) … just to name a few.
Whatever happened to watchdogging to ensure pollution is curbed and kept in check?
Everyone from the eco crowd to the Administration seems to have a tin ear when it comes to what the average American wants. There are reports now that Obama is sending Michelle Obama out to campaign for their people because because Commander Zero is being told to stay away.
They don’t realize how much of a liability Michelle Obama is — even the Chinese know about her.
Benjamin P.: To be more accurate, one side of the aisle supports the truth about the weather more than the other side.
My side believes that people and prosperity have no influence on the weather and should be left alone. Your side believes that people and prosperity causes bad weather and should be heavily controlled.
While visiting Carl Pope’s blog, I suggest readers check out his August 10, 2010 article called:
“How’s the Weather Treating YOU This Week, Carly ?”
http://sierraclub.typepad.com/carlpope/2010/08/hows-the-weather-treating-you-this-week-carly-.html
Quite a few catastrophic warming alarmist gems in there. After pointing out the heat wave in Russia, floods in Pakistan, & mudslides in China; Mr. Pope says:
“My point is different than that of climatologists who cite these events as evidence that manmade climate change is already happening around us. I’m not a climate scientists and I can’t make that call, although the overwhelming consensus is that any remaining doubts are gone. ”
“Well, the blunt fact is that it’s almost certain that global warming has already killed more people than terrorism — and it’s just getting going.”
– Roger Pielke Jr. has a great write up about this type of sensationalist writing:
“Journalists are drawn to the notion that greenhouse gas emissions increase the human toll from extreme events like Ulysses was drawn to the sirens. The connection between the two is made despite a robust scientific consensus — and lack of evidence to the contrary — that no signal beyond increasing societal vulnerability has been detected in increasing disaster losses, much less attributed to the effects of accumulating greenhouse gases.
Catastrophe Catnip:
http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2010/08/catastrophe-catnip.html
Let’s not turn frustration with the current activist administration into a nostalgic love fest for Dubya. Remember, it was “ABB” (anyone but Bush) Disorder that drove the public back into the arms of the Federal Reserve, Wall St. and Chicago Mafia machine that runs things, instead of looking for viable alternatives or taking action. This is how the system keeps humming along with an agenda that has less and less to do with caring for citizens, and more and more to do with war profiteering and fleecing the everyday bloke (and Sheila).
Minor correction on the above YouTube video: it was produced in Taiwan, not China.
The Sierra Club has had and still has a serious problem with truth, for a very long time now. The Canadian branch is no better. They have always been ideology driven. I can accept that but I can’t accept poor work, half truths or out and out untruths from them or anyone else. It is interesting to note that the former head of the Canadian branch is now a federal politician. To be exact, a candidate for Parliament representing the Green Party. Ms. May has run at least two times but has failed to be elected.
Publicity, deserved or not, is good Anthony. Just think, for a minute or two only, how much power you have. You get credit for all kinds of neat stuff that you had no part in; remember to remind everyone to spell it correctly. This also has an added bonus, in an effort to discredit you and WUWT they discredit themselves.
Are we talking about the same W who almost died after choking on a pretzel? The same W who unconstitutionally invaded a sovereign nation? Right.
Before I read a “letter to the Editor” I look to see who sent it.
Before I buy a book I like to know who wrote it.
Before a read a post (WUWT or other) I look to see who posted it.
(Many times commenters on WUWT respond as though Anthony wrote/posted something when it is clearly noted otherwise.)
Before I read a review of a product I look to see when it was written.
Now (read between the words, Mr. Pope), before I support an organization with my dues and contributions I like to know what they are up to and where the (my) money goes.
I didn’t examine the parentage of the “Our Climate” –iPhone app because I’m not an owner but do NOT recall thinking it was something from WUWT.
Pelicanman: Since I was never part of the AWBB movement, I guess I don’t have the concern that I should. I am of the Anyone But Patty Murray tribe and soon to be of the I Don’t Care Who Runs Against Him, Obama Sucks and Is Killing Our Country tribe.
Obama would be proud of you for reading the HuffPo blog – see the “Opposing View” section at the bottom of this page where Obama recommends HuffPo: http://www.appinsys.com/globalwarming/Acceleration.htm
HuffPo promotes AGW apocalypse – see: http://www.appinsys.com/globalwarming/HuffPoBlow.htm
Frank: How does one unconstitutionally invade another country? Are you saying we broke their constitution or they broke ours? Or is there some one world constitution that we don’t know about? Or is it all about the pretzel?
pyromancer76 says:
August 11, 2010 at 8:09 pm
…….Anthony, I hope you as the burr, of the scientific method and open and truthful discussions, in the “backsides of the enviromental wackos” drive them crazy.
That’s not a drive, that’s a putt.
James Sexton, your ignorance seethes.
April, I agree. Although I think you may have your sides confused.
Frank- you mean the same W. who really deserved the Nobel prize for the
work on African AIDS that has been cut buy the current administration…?
Not directly related to the topic at hand, but I wonder if Mr. Pope does a lot of travel as the Sierra Club President? Might he be a “Green Hypocrite”?
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/the_conscious_consumer/146/signs-of-a-green-hypocrite.html
Will Pope fix it over at HuffPo?
Noooooooo.
Will some of the commenters notice that?
Yeeeeeees.
“Are we talking about the same W who almost died after choking on a pretzel?”
Yeah, that’s the one. It just shows you how bad things have become in this “summer of recovery” when some here are nostalgic for the Bush Administration. It’s rather like the witch being better than the devil thing. And as bad as Bush was, he seems so much better now that we have the Obama Administration to compare him to.
Somebody above mentioned Harry S. Truman in reference to George W Bush. You are right, sir. If history is not witten by liberal {self snip} historians George W Bush will be revered as a great President.
[REPLY – Hear! Hear! Yet doesn’t matter who writes the history. Look at how desperately they have tried to pull down Reagan — and how they have so utterly failed. Dubya was one of the best presidents this country ever had. All of Truman’s strengths and none of his weaknesses. Dubya upheld true liberal values better and with greater courage than any politician alive today who thinks of himself as liberal. ~ Evan]
I dropped my Sierra Club membership. The club was dominated by a lawyer looking for farmers to sue.
Well, the fish stinks from the head downwards. So it shouldn’t be shocking that the most deluded and demagogic people can be found at the top – e.g. in the leadership of the Sierra Club. It shouldn’t be shocking but let me admit, I am still shocked when I read his article.
The quality of the “information” presented by this chap is just so incredibly lousy. Not only he doesn’t include a single sentence that would address a single point made by this excellent app for Apple devices – because he probably never saw anything that is inside; he is even not able to figure out who created or owns the app, not even the country where he and his company are located.
That’s like a refutation of the theory of relativity based on the claim that the relativity’s Mexican spiritual father (sorry, Anthony, I don’t claim you’re Mexican – it’s just an analogy haha) makes worse jokes than Charlie Chaplin showed last April. It’s just complete rubbish directed to complete morons.
Recall, Anthony, that the reviewers of the app had exchanges about the Miskolczi stuff. Pretty detailed exchanges about every piece and sometimes every sentence and every word that should be included or shouldn’t be included to help him make the app nearly perfect. Of course, the fearmongering “users” will never get to any of these points – and I was kind of sure that such things would never become an issue and that it would be completely counterproductive to restrict the creator’s freedom. They won’t even look at several “basic” parts of the application.
You know, we may find the Miskolczi stuff “probably incorrect”. But those AGW people are of course not totally scared “just” by Miskolczi: they are scared by any, arbitrarily incontrovertible piece of information included in the app. Every rudimentary or quantitative fact about the climate is lethally threatening for their movement because every single part of their movement is based on downright lies and obfuscation of the key important data.
They just know that the app contains the key truth for the debate and the truth is always inconvenient for these people, so they think how to sling mud at the app using ad hominem attacks and intimidation. Rational arguments have never been the pillar of the likes of the Sierra Club; bullying and behind-the-scene political tricks are.