From the “photo fraud on a large scale” department comes this exercise in bullshit (yes, that’s the right word, sorry if I offended your delicate senses) from some “artistic” greens as pointed out by Steve Goddard, and as pushed as some sort of significant event (to fake a satellite shot) over at Joe Romm’s blog. Here’s the ground level photo of the event:
I’ll have to hand it to him, McKibben was able to get a bunch of people to go out and stand in a ditch holding up blue cards and tarps for a photo op to fool a satellite, which is something I’d expect North Korea or Iraq to do.
But, McKibben, as usual with many “artists”, such as the Santa Fe Art Institute who provided the flash mob, is working in the abstract. He’s doing this to “save the planet”, so the ends justifies the means. Here’s the resulting satellite image of their event from Digital Globe, who they duped into donating (according to them) a half million dollars in satellite time:
I put the annotation on it to make sure you don’t get it confused with the “WUWT flash flood mob” that I staged from my spare bedroom this afternoon:
For all of McKibben’s manipulation of some weak minded people standing in a dry river bed holding up blue cards and tarps to fake out a satellite image, I’ll point out I can achieve the very same effect right here with Google Earth (35.660090° -106.016311°, rotated about 90° clockwise) and a paint program without wasting anyone’s time or emitting tons of CO2 to transport people to the event or having them respirate on-site.
From the Santa Fe Art Institute:
What? They are inviting 5000 people to drive from Santa Fe and park at the Mall? How does that fit it with reducing CO2? Oh wait, carpooling, yeah that’s the ticket. Over 1000 people actually showed up (so they say, an enterprising person could click the very top image and select the highest res photo and actually count people) out of the 5000 expected, so at least they succeeded in reduce that carbon footprint a bit.
Well, I daresay I came up with a nearly identical and artful result, and my carbon footprint was a mere fraction of what 350.org duped these 1000+ people into doing.
Then there’s this statement in the invitation:
Human-induced climate change is well-studied and documented and is a result, in large part, of burning of fossil fuels. Major impacts on human health in New Mexico have already been observed and, as warming progresses, they will likely increase. Some of the most profound changes are concerned with water, which is certainly scarce and precious here already. Because New Mexico relies heavily on snowpack for its snow-fed rivers, water stress will endanger ecosystems, economies, physical and mental health.
But, as Steve Goddard points out, that claim from these, plus the caption from Romm in the top photo is, well…BS. Goddard writes:
I worked one summer in the 1980s as a wilderness ranger in the mountains above Santa Fe and have some familiarity with the drainage. The river has been dammed above the city since 1881. There isn’t any water in the river bed because it all gets diverted to the city, Indian casinos and golf courses. National Geographic describes the problem.
Santa Fe suffers from chronic water extraction that leaves its bed a dry ditch for most of the year. “Everybody can agree that a healthy, flowing Santa Fe River is good for the community of Santa Fe,” Fahlund said.
“I think that the governor and the mayor are both solidly behind this, and I think that they are going to put some water back in the river. But it’s a matter of the timing and the permanence of that.”
The city’s growing water needs have drained the Santa Fe’s flow at the expense of dams and wells
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070418-ten-rivers.html
Santa Fe had their second snowiest winter in the forty year WRCC record last year, and five of the top ten years have been in the last decade.
All you have to do is look at Google Earth, just east and west of Santa Fe, to see where all the water from snowmelt ended up:
And as Steve Goddard suggests, this video from Penn and Teller pretty well sums up the premise of 350.org: [warning: adult language, f-bombs]
here’s part 2
With global warming decreasing snow melt, Santa Fe is running out of water.
So it’s getting so warm that the snow won’t melt? ;->
Truth is not a requirement when you are saving the earth/ trees/water/bears/flowers/ anything at all . Truth is something that sceptics have to provide since they are anti all the above. Our ABC (Aus) has admitted it actively promotes the government line so as to receive a better outcome when seeking taxpayer funds. Truth is less important than keping the funds coming. Hey. That sounds like the climate scientists as well. OK only the non-sceptical climate scientists. The sceptical ones should not be funded or heard at all.
well, from where I’m looking there are no more than a few hundred folk on that demo! but of course, I can only comment on what I can see in the pic!
more smoke & mirrors in the pic for this article!
21 Nov: Guardian: Alok Jha: Global emissions of carbon dioxide drop 1.3%, say international scientistsGlobal Carbon Project says fall in 2009 due to economic crisis but level still second highest in human history
The results are part of the annual carbon budget update by the Global Carbon Project (GCP), an international group of climate scientists and analysts that collates emissions data to help policymakers…
Because the global financial crisis has mainly affected developed nations, this is where emissions dropped by the largest amounts: in the US by 6.9%, the UK by 8.6%, Germany by 7%, Japan by 11.8%, Russia by 8.4% and Australia by 0.4%.
In the emerging markets, however, there were big increases: China rose by 8%, India by 6.2% and South Korea by 1.4%.
“The 2009 drop in CO2 emissions is less than half that anticipated a year ago,” said Pierre Friedlingstein, a professor of mathematical modelling of climate systems at the University of Exeter. “This is because the drop in world GDP was less than anticipated and the carbon intensity of world GDP improved by only 0.7% in 2009, well below its long-term average of 1.7% per year.”…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/21/carbon-emissions-fall-report
Nice exposition. Anthony, may I suggest — monitor as much crazy activities and media releases by the warmers. The Cancun meeting of thousands of climate bureaucrats and climate rent-seekers is just 7 days away. The more idiotic but scary stories they can produce, the better for their “cause”.
While I believe your point is valid, that reservoir you point out is considerably below Santa Fe, down on the Rio Grande (which also is much smaller than it used to be, due to irrigation usage upstream). The reservoir where the Santa Fe river is dammed, is upstream from the city to the East, in the Sangre De Christo mountains.
You will also be hard pressed to find a city less friendly to science, so this comes as no surprise to me.
REPLY: Thanks, I’ve added the second reservoir to the post. – Anthony
Lies, lies and more lies these agw proponents are pretty pathetic.
What a bunch of whining wimps! What happened to the idea of adapting and managing water and other resources through natural cycles and long term changes. Instead these Santa Fe jerks drive to their local demonstration and reveal themselves as mindless twits.
Reminds me of the Arkansas River at Holcomb/Garden City/Dodge City. Just goes underground between Kendall / Larkin and doesn’t pop up until the East side of Dodge City ( around 100 miles). Funny thing was during the spring thaw with some melting snow, there was some water flowing one year. Two days later some were trying to fish it already.
Same case, lots of ag sprinkler systems in the area.
http://maps.google.com/maps?client=opera&rls=en&q=holcomb+ks+map&oe=utf-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Holcomb,+KS&gl=us&ei=csfpTJ7hPI21nge-lP2rDQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQ8gEwAA
Thanks Anthony, gotta love Penn & Teller!
Truth can be trumped by Trickery. that’s for sure.
The last few decades have amply demonstrated that this has happened.
It’ll be interesting to observe just how many will continue to experience the level of cognitive dissonance that keeps the delusion alive that Mankind is other than a bit-player in the future of this planet!
Incredible! Not what they are doing, but the fact that they can’t see how stupid they look doing it. “We’ll be out of water in five years” chanted by grade school children? And a rap song as a support vehicle?
Even a dumb politician isn’t going to bite on this charade. Unless, of course, he thinks he’ll gain more votes than he loses.
Perfect mix of propaganda, exploitation and indoctrination of kids.
It’s a bloody shame.
Steve Goddard and Anthony, thanks for posting this.
So, speaking of misinformation… and unintended results….
Has anybody noticed that they banned phosphates in dishwashing detergent?
A while back, they banned phosphates in laundry soap. It sounds like a good idea but…
I was at a science fair last year. One of the students was testing laundry grey water with different detergents to see which made plants grow better. To his alarm, they all died. All of them. I knew this student, he was serious and capable.
At least phosphate is a fertilizer for plants. It makes them grow. It seems the new alternative laundry soaps kills plants. Can anybody confirm this? Anybody use grey water on their garden?
Re – Lawrie Ayres says:
November 21, 2010 at 5:15 pm
If you still have it in written form, I’d love to have a copy of the ABC statement. sherro1 at optusnet dot com dot au. Tks.
What would be the polite way to tell the carbon credit lady you’re not going to pay?
I’ve seen the “river”. I’ve seen the dam and reservoir. I’ve hiked in the watershed. All is as Anthony describes. These people are only fooling themselves.
The invitation claims there are an additional 17 similar “art projects” and the satellite images of all 18 are to be used in Cancun beginning on November 29th. (Their web page claims a total of 20.)
What are the other sites and are they equally bogus?
Each should be examined before then to see what other nuttiness they are up to.
The worse of what these loons do is to brainwash our kids. What is going to happen when all these little climate zombies wake up – as many inevitably do – when they reach 30.
Do you think they might be a little angry? I certainly expect them to be.
“With global warming decreasing snow melt”
So global warming causes droughts AND decreasing snow melts now?
Reminds me of the Salt River in Phoenix. When it is dry it is called a river. When it has water it is called a flood.
http://www.fcd.maricopa.gov/Education/history.aspx
“which is something I’d expect North Korea or Iraq to do.”
Can you got 100 words without saying something incredibly stupid?
REPLY: The fact that I’ve irritated you enough to get angry pleases me immensely. – Anthony
Dropeed fire retardant up there, worked with a very panicky fire crew back in 1994
when they were worried about losing the water shed . Love that Sangre’ De Christo
country. This is Santa Fe, not surprising from what I hear about the local population.
Prefer Taos, myself…
Another place is Sedona, Az. Wait until you are just about to drop 3000 galllons of slimy
red mud and the Fire crew hollers over the raido “Break off Break!!!” “There’s these
naked women in a sweat lodge tryin’ to stop the fire by chanting!”
Ironically, the fire crew was White River Apaches, and the lodge contained middle
aged Anglo women and their “Guru.” The fire crew packed them all up and got them
out.Oh, and the Incident commander said-” Might’ve worked I know I took one look and was scared…”
Santa Fe NM is a high-altitude (7,500 ft) desert, which (like much of the southwest US) gets a pittance in annual precipitation (rain plus snowpack). For those of you in the east, that means much less than 20 inches/year. The Santa Fe “River” rarely flows at all – ever.
USGS did a study of groundwater-surface water just downstream along the Rio Grande in Albuquerque in 2001. Most groundwater in the whole basin is more than 10,000 years old (radiocarbon years). That is, the last time these aquifers were recharged was during the last Ice Age.
Think about that. All the climate variation/weather/whatever you want to call it over the last 10 millenia/2,500 human generations has been insufficient to add anything measurable to groundwater resources. Santa Fe and the southwest have been CHRONICALLY ARID for thousands and thousands of years.
No amount of blue-painted cardboard is going to change that.
The only path to more water per capita is . . . . . fewer people. Hmmmmm, sounds like Margaret Sanger, Paul Ehrlich, and John Holdren.
Scary, really really scary.
Embarrassingly stupid. Typical McKibben pap.
And my local liberal rag, The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA.) spews forth with this c-rap just in time to attempt to sway the gullible reader:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/11/21/1433059/waves-taller-and-taller.html#storylink=omni_popular
At least toward the end of the article, a more rational viewpoint is presented, but the flashy headline is what most readers will remember. Nice job, TNT. Sensantionalize and use scary words linking recently-monitored enhanced wave heights off of the PNW coasts to human-induced climate change. I just about screamed when I read this drivel (had to bite my tongue – the wife doesn’t like me getting upset over these constantly-found erroneous psuedo-scince things, seems to happen daily though!). To the author’s benefit, the article mixes real science with the usual dogma-based diatribe towards the end…to what purpose?? To lend credibility to garbage almost-science?? I come away with the tast of bile in my mouth…
And the beat goes on in the liberal media….
Michael C. Roberts
Maybe I’m being paranoid but these are the very people we should be documenting carefully, true believers who are so dumb they are dangerous. Never mind I just realised they will proudly document themselves and post it on line.
It is arid in the SW and yet modern technology is able to supports millions int he same place where the Anasazi resorted to cannablism.
Pretty funny that John Coleman presents Arctic temperature as Global temperature in the P&T video, such blatant disinformation is laughable, and P&T complain about other’s bullshit.
A similar stunt was done in Vancouver, Canada today. A small group of people covered a lawn with green paper to form an outline of a “Carbon Boot”. I was glad to see that they didn’t have enough people to fill in all the spaces, and that they were shivering in the cold waiting for the plane to fly over (offsets purchased to compensate) to take the picture.
We might break the record in Vancouver for coldest temperature for this this time of year, beating 1977 as the coldest till now. It might be colder in the next few days than when “scientist” were warning of the coming ice age.
Santa Fe suffers from chronic water extraction that leaves its bed a dry ditch for most of the year. “Everybody can agree that a healthy, flowing Santa Fe River is good for the community of Santa Fe,” Fahlund said.
Actually, everyone agrees that water for drinking and cleaning is more important than a flowing river… at least everyone since 1881.
For once I find myself in agreement with Anthony and Steve. Artistic license is broad, but the Sante Fe River’s current problems are not likely due to climate change. Declines in precipitation are projected for the region and combined with temperature rise that increases evaporation may significantly reduce water availability at the end of the century or before. See: http://www.southwestclimatechange.org/node/790
But, 350.org does not make this clear and leads people to believe they are seeing the effects of climate change happening now. This image from a similar protest in Spain is more truthful (and more beautiful):
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4086/5192180852_5dee2edf6d_z.jpg
The caption says: “Citizens from the Delta del Ebro area in Catalunya, Spain joined renowned urban-artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada to form a giant representation of the face of a young girl who wishes to see the Delta survive the threat of climate change.” Elsewhere they mention the threat of future sea level rise.
Tim Blair destroyed Bill McKibben the lat time he raised his ugly head over the trench:
Tim Blair’s Site
As Blair says in his most eloquent fashion:
Demented end-of-species, end-of-world claims: tick
Non-blinking stare of the Holy Believer: tick
Three layers of clothing due to the, er, heat: tick
I think that the lead-up to Cancun is in stark contrast to Coopenhagen merely one year ago….. the hyped up climate nonsense is down 90%, and I suspect the attendees know that it’s all over, and are just going through the motions, and getting a bit of sunshine before their gravy train runs off the rails permanently.
Not a little bit of thanks is due to your efforts, Anthony, and that of countless others who believe in true science.
Sorry, must have muffed the reference to Tim Blair. Here it is in URL:
<a href="http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/tick_tick_tick/"
Propaganda, propaganda everywhere and mostly it is to unpalatable to drink too.
It would have been a hoot if the the dam operates had decide to release water in preparation for the winter rains while this was going on. That would have been some real performance art!
What an economic boon for Walmart!!!
I’m betting that no less than half the blue tarps were manufactured in China, and bought at Walmart just for this occasion.
What a bunch of chumps.
Proof of why aliens have not visited Earth yet.
Boris,
When slinging the gratuitous slags accusing someone else of being stupid, it is best to take a moment’s time and ensure you’re not making yourself look stupid.
“Can you got 100 words…”
By the way, thanks for making my day! 🙂
Anthony, feel free to refer to warmist effusions as bulls**t. I know from personal experience de-dunging a cowshed that bovine semi-solid body waste is GREEN.
On a planet that has roughly 70% surface area covered by water, we don’t have a water shortage problem, we have a water management problem.
But of course the people of the blue tarp would probably be the ones screaming the loudest if projects were undertaken to move significant amounts of water around – as in enough to satisfy the water needs of the South Western US urban and agricultural uses PLUS making the flash flood sluice they stood in a running watercourse, too.
Reuters reported this evening that the Mexican police had arrested a gang of kidnappers targeting the poo-bahs attending the ‘Kick the Cancun down the road’ farrago. The gang had detailed information on the security plan for the conference. RATS! It would have been hilarious watching the various governments pondering over whether to waste big bucks ransoming their worthless enviro-weenies.
Boris says:
November 21, 2010 at 7:04 pm
“which is something I’d expect North Korea or Iraq to do.”
Can you got 100 words without saying something incredibly stupid?
REPLY: The fact that I’ve irritated you enough to get angry pleases me immensely. – Anthony
Little Kim is probably irritated too. Not a fair comparison. The North Koreans are first class clones who put on spectacular synchronized pageants. This simple gathering of lemmings looks more like Pied Piper material, drawn from a place where The Warming is already causing the “mental health” issues they warn about.
Or is it a tent city for ‘climate refugees’?
P.S. This ‘artist’ actually states that “Major [climate change related] impacts on human health in New Mexico have already been observed.” Really? Like what? Or is it OK to say anything when playing ‘artist.’
Fascinating. I wonder if the participants knew that. Somehow I doubt it.
As Penn & Teller observe, this is BS. There wasn’t any water running through Santa Fe when I lived there as a child 50 years ago.
The picture led me to wonder how long it’ll be before we seen a return of marching flagellants, this time in environmentalist green.
Great point about the blue tarps DJ Meredith!
They’re probably those cheap plastic ones. You know, the ones made from oil derivatives? They were probably made in China in one of those downstream processing plants. You know, the ones the Chinese fire with coal because it is cheaper than oil? Now the machinery is all electric motors of course, so the electricity only had a 50% chance or so of coming from fossil fuel, but then they were sent on a diesel powered cargo ship, transferred to a diesel powered semi-trailer, and then stacked in a warehouse with a forklift, most likely propane powered. You would have thought they would have used local hand woven tarps made of plant fibers from local crops.
What’s that you say? $5.99 instead of $225.00? Yeah, well, that’s why Cancun will fail, ain’t it?
That most people don’t really understand the science I get. What I don’t get is how little most people understand how much more expensive it is to make a simple thing like a tarp without fossil fuel and how many items they take for granted that are made from byproducts and/or would be massively more expensive to manufacture any other way.
But hey, who needs ziplock bags and tupperware and plastic water bottles and pill vials and plastic tarps anyway?
The water was already visible, but they were looking for it in the wrong place.
I suspect many of the tarp holders would be upset if the city let the water flow and drew more water out of wells, making the water level go down at more distant places.
I suspect the protesters could buy water from the city and dump it in the river, but they don’t want to actually have to pay the same way every other water user in the city is paying.
I wonder if the satellite company got a tax writeoff for their donation.
Anthony: Are you going to do a post on the Wegman Report, and put to rest the allegations that are being lobbed by the MSM and the blogosphere? Dan Vergano at USA Today has a new story on the “shocking” plagiarism contained with the Wegman Report. If you need more material, Deep Climate has uncovered a whole host of problems with the “independent” Wegman Report, which apparently consisted little more than re-running the problematic R code (hint: it involves cherry picking) from McIntyre and McKitrick (2005) and reproducing their graphs. Oh, and he’s also apparently refusing to give up emails requested by George Mason University for their review of the plagiarism charges!
REPLY: This is what the Tips and Notes page is for, rather than spamming this thread. I already ran a couple of posts on this several weeks ago. USA today is just now catching up. “Deep Climate” is not a reliable source since he refuses to put his name to his posts. And, if you read John Mashey’s report which is what “Deep Climate” is pushing, you’ll realize what a trumped up bunch of conspiracy theory it all is. I’m looking forward to seeing it all in court, when true discovery can happen.
Don’t clutter up this thread with responses, they’ll be snipped as this is off-topic. – Anthony
REPLY: The fact that I’ve irritated you enough to get angry pleases me immensely. – Anthony
Nice. 🙂
They have their ways of showing they are losing.
We are dealing with a folk being the Inner Party of Orwell’s “1984”. It should be remembered all the time. And 1984 should be a reading from time to time, to have all the time the coming future in front of one’s eyes.
Jim Cole says:
November 21, 2010 at 7:11 pm
Most groundwater in the whole basin is more than 10,000 years old (radiocarbon years). That is, the last time these aquifers were recharged was during the last Ice Age.
Think about that. All the climate variation/weather/whatever you want to call it over the last 10 millenia/2,500 human generations has been insufficient to add anything measurable to groundwater resources. Santa Fe and the southwest have been CHRONICALLY ARID for thousands and thousands of years.
Thanks Jim Cole. I appreciate learning about this.
[snip, TSA stuff should go to Tips and Notes]
You have a valid point. That’s the first thing. But this is only one event and many things ARE indeed happening. Let’s not be hasty and generalize the things. It maybe that the Climate Change is used widely as an advertisement tool but forests are being cut down (right in my area) and so, not everything about it is wrong and stopped. 🙂
Possibly…. mark it as “goodwill”, marketing, etc.
DesertYote says:
November 21, 2010 at 8:44 pm
It would have been a hoot if the the dam operates had decide to release water in preparation for the winter rains while this was going on. That would have been some real performance art!
Discovery Channel is off course still no science channel, but a flashflood in a dry riverbed is the last thing that you want to happen accoording to all those survival-specialists.
Do these people ever watch anything outside the AGW scare stories? It might be useful if you are organising stunts like this.
Thanks for Penn & Teller – haven’t seen that one before. I loved the willingness of people to hand over money in the street for their guilt – if there is an online site for beggars, surely cadgers worldwide would be interested in this option for extracting cash, using just a clipboard, a calculator and a cardboard badge.
As for the website run by the SUV lady, an awesome example of fraud. The best bit is that, like Gore, she uses other people’s money, given to her, to pay for her own ‘sins’.
As for the riverbed artists, Anthony, I think you need to let them know that ‘performance art’ is, like, so 20th century, dude. Digital art is where it’s, like, at, nowadays.
We have lots of dry river and stream beds in Australia. Once in a while, it rains a lot and the idiots who camp in them get washed away. Does the one in your example ever get water flowing in it?
pat says: November 21, 2010 at 5:16 pm
21 Nov: Guardian: Alok Jha: Global emissions of carbon dioxide drop 1.3%, say international scientistsGlobal Carbon Project says fall in 2009 due to economic crisis but level still second highest in human history
Oh that’s just effing great; now when the temperatures fall they’ll say it’s because of the CO2 reduction.
Global warming is real!
It’s the man-made portion of it we have a problem with.
What was our percentage contribution of the previous warming again?
Hehe. Always liked Penn and Teller, like them even better now.
> Anybody use grey water on their garden?
Don’t. It contains a lot of salts and other chemicals. Some plants will be able to drink it (lawn grasses often can) but others will, well, just die. And so will the next one you plant in that spot, because you’ve altered the pH and the salinity of the soil you dumped your grey water on.
You should only put grey water into a grey water treatment system, then you can use it, but you’ll still need to be wary of the types of plants.
As for the river, I suspect it has gone the way of all other 21st Century river problems ; too many mouths drinking on the wet end of the hose, not enough rain to keep up with the mouths at the dry end. Here in Australia we’ve spent literally billlions of dollars to get us through the (infrastructure) drought. Only none of the money was spent on dams, it was all spent on pipes going everywhere and desalination plants. Only now the rain has come (as it always would) and filled all the dams and the desal plants are costing $30,000 a day to idle along, producing nothing at all. Plus all the interest to be paid on the billions borrowed to build stuff that is not needed or used. We’re still on water restrictions even though water is flowing over the dam walls, and councils are desperate for the money that could be earnt if restrictions were lifted.
The only drought is politicians willing to make the hard choices and build dams for the last 30 years. More water storage = plenty of water.
All traceable back to ‘climate’ policy that states that ‘models show decreasing rainfall in the future’
It would be interesting to know more about the super-generous satellite organisation and their affiliations.
The Bulls**t segment featuring the Eco-Anxious reeks of irony: None of those in therapy trying to portray their deep abiding love of nature would survive a day in a genuine state of nature, red in tooth and claw.
Pwned by Anthony! 😀
Bring it on, Mr Watts, don’t worry about the touchy feebly types (they’re the types that I wouldn’t leave my children alone with, anyways)
BS SHOULD BE CALLED BS
[d]
Looking at the children that the warmistas have recruited into doing their dirty work and the poor deluded souls on Penn and Teller.
Its just so sad…
When it comes to grandiose, futile and costly eco-gestures, I believe we Brits are your equal.
Check out this story from last year – £500,000 to be spent on towing “Nowhere Island” hundreds of miles from the Arctic to England, in the hope that an otherwise unremarkable lump of rock and gravel will “provoke thought, create excitement and will help us to fulfil our ambition to make great art available for everyone”, and in a way of exploring “issues of climate change, land ownership, national identity and the exploitation of the earth’s remaining natural resources.”
Be sure to read the comments below the article, mostly pouring justifiable scorn on this grotesquely expensive fossil-fuelled stunt (although one commentator – embarrassingly another namesake of mine – compares it vaguely to cathedral building).
Absolute and utter lunacy.
Pat Frank wrote:
[i]”The picture led me to wonder how long it’ll be before we seen a return of marching flagellants, this time in environmentalist green.”[/i]
Are you thinking of something along these lines http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roFB7bGCAgc&feature=related 🙂
I used to wonder how the CAGW scam still lives on, then I saw the Penn and Teller vid! I didn’t realise such incredulous people actually existed. ( I especially liked the dippy blonde). They deserve to be ripped off, (to salve their eco anxiety), but why should the rest of us suffer?
So when the science fails, try standing in a ditch, novel idea.
Another serious problem in the American SW is that too many people draw too much water from the ground so lowering the water table. The rivers run dry with lowered water tables. A comparison of population numbers over 20 years for Phoenix, Arizona will tell the story.
Never heard of Penn & Teller here in the UK.
Please tell me all those people paying good hard-earned for rocks indulgencies were actors and that Penn & Teller is a comedy show. Please!
No? In that case it’s not global warming we have to fear but global stupidity-ing.
Alex Cull 12.31
I reported here on this story myself last year. I have been in contact recently with the Arts Council asking whether in view of the spending cuts it is still going ahead. I have had no reply-perhaps they’re one of the quangos that has been abolished and this absurd project sunk?
If anyone has any news on this project please contact me by clicking on my name as we need to ensure it is dead and buried.
Tonyb
“…or having them respirate on-site.”
Sheesh. What were they thinking?
Posted this on Climate Progress but I expect it will get removed as investigating truth behind stories is not a strong point on that site.
Read the quote from the article link and you will see that this is not global warming but humans taking from nature to give to man, two very different issues!!!
“The second section of river extends from the lower dam through the city of Santa Fe, to the waste water treatment plant where effluent is discharged into the river. This 10-mile stretch of river is normally dry, because the upstream dams are operated to impound the full flow of the river.”
http://www.waterculture.org/Santa_Fe_River_Ethics.html
The reverse in the Delaware River Basin, guys and gals. They dam up all the lakes
for water for NYC to the north. Since the lakes are dammed, if a 3 inch rainstorm comes along and they have to release the water into the Delaware, its like having a 6 inch rainstorm. Signs on the Delaware river near New Hope are asking to be saved from global warming because of all the flooding.
This is very interesting because if lakes were near 100% capacity with a hurricane moving nnw at the Delmarva, driving a storm surge UP Delaware bay, ala Narragansett in 38 and 54, then a release of water out of the lakes with the
usual heavy rains in front of a northeast hurricane, combined with the “normal” drainage of a the Delaware river basin, could produce a storm surge meeting a river
flood very close to the ports of Philadelphia and Wilmington.
I wonder what would get the blame for that. a) global warming b) climate change
c) climate disruption d) some future name for all this.
Did you ever wonder where the pixie dust and unicorns who build windmills and solar power and where does the electricity come from to recharge the electric cars.
We are clearly reaching the point where they are too dumb to know how dumb they look.
r says:
November 21, 2010 at 6:19 pm
So, speaking of misinformation… and unintended results….
Has anybody noticed that they banned phosphates in dishwashing detergent?
A while back, they banned phosphates in laundry soap. It sounds like a good idea but…
I was at a science fair last year. One of the students was testing laundry grey water with different detergents to see which made plants grow better. To his alarm, they all died. All of them. I knew this student, he was serious and capable.
At least phosphate is a fertilizer for plants. It makes them grow. It seems the new alternative laundry soaps kills plants. Can anybody confirm this? Anybody use grey water on their garden?
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Yes I use grey water and NO it doesnt kill my plants, sanity should tell that kid that you DO add the rinse water to it to dilute it and you dont use it everyday either, a weekly dose as in real life is fine.it actually helps STOP soils becoming nonwetting in summer in Aus. some commercial wetting agents are simply a soap concentrate anyway:-)
phosphates didnt do much for the cleaning, and DO cause algal blooms when it hits the effluent outflows in rivers and seas, theres a heavy abuse of phosphates in commercial chem fertilisers already we do not need more.
funny thing?
since they cleaned up the Sulphur in fuels and scrubbed it from coal plants the soils now need added sulphur in many areas where they didnt use it before…
the paint? all that toxic paint???? and what? did they do with the now NONrecyclable cardboard after????
and as above the fuel and the travel etc etc
Idiots!
Of that 1,000+ people, the number who were taxpayers in the private sector?
My high guess would be 2.
And of course, we shouldn’t forget the carbon footprint of those nice pieces of plastic which will now be used to………………..?
I am now officially a Penn and Teller fan!!! Still laughing at the Al Gore no-thanks!!!
All the best…. Jeff
How much you want to bet they are holding climate change conference in a warmer city on purpose, after last year’s fiasco?
“OMG it’s hot in winter, it’s worse than… etc etc”.
P.S. Love Penn and Teller, they should do an updated episode of global warming, this one is missing a lot of new info.
Back in the old wild west, damming a river was fight’n words. It had noth’n to do with weather. It had to do with some land owner up stream wanting to store water so they could have a bigger herd. Cities and counties have done exactly what a greedy land owner did when the West was one big fight in the dirt. If these folks really wanted to let their art talk, they would be at the dams, not down river. Unless of course, the people who were at this art sit-in were from among the dumb and dumber. Can you imagine, way back when, the lower stream ranchers staging such a mamby pamby, light in the loafers protest against the upstream land owner dam?
These water reservoir dams are there because the people let the dams be there. Every small “take” by a governmental organization will eventually bite a huge chunk out of your behind. So shut up and take your medicine. The old saying should be the caption of these photos. “Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.”
Blue Kool-Aid everywhere and not a drop to drink!
“From the “photo fraud on a large scale” department comes this exercise in bullshit (yes, that’s the right word, sorry if I offended your delicate senses)”
Anthony I love it when you talk dirty.
But seriously don’t these people have something better to do with their time?
Ralph says:
November 21, 2010 at 6:58 pm
“With global warming decreasing snow melt”
So global warming causes droughts AND decreasing snow melts now?
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And increasing glacier melts, too.
Very clever stuff, this global warming thing. It can target just about anything the zealots want it to.
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Vorlath says:
November 21, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Proof of why aliens have not visited Earth yet.
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– I like it. You made me laugh out loud!
I think the color choice was wrong. When water flows in the river bed, I doubt that it will be BLUE in color. I think that it would be brown-green to muddy.
Warren: From the Land of Sky Blue Waters………….Hamms
They need to dip their butts in “Agua Fria” (Cold Water) 🙂
What kind of pot are selling over there that causes those effects?
Michael C. Roberts- that is the biggest bunch of hysterical Bravo Sierra I have read in
a long time. Those buoy studies happen to be in the middle of a warming PDO period,
Now not so warm. I had memorable trip across the Columbia Bar in the middle of July!
What about the recorded wave that broke over Cape Blanco in about 1883, I can’t find the reference for it, but remember reading about it from a History of the Hughes
Family. It was approximately 120ft. in height. If beach erosion is going on well that is because of-beach erosion.. Natural, happens all the time people are always wanting to
build on the beach- then they look up on the bank above, and see driftwood above their home. Guess what? logic would dictate that the Ocean had been there sometime in the recent past! Then they blame AGW for the fact that their home is now on its way to Japan,rather than natural forces….
Robert says:
November 21, 2010 at 10:43 pm
DesertYote says:
November 21, 2010 at 8:44 pm
It would have been a hoot if the the dam operates had decide to release water in preparation for the winter rains while this was going on. That would have been some real performance art!
Discovery Channel is off course still no science channel, but a flashflood in a dry riverbed is the last thing that you want to happen accoording to all those survival-specialists.
Do these people ever watch anything outside the AGW scare stories? It might be useful if you are organising stunts like this.
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I grew up in the Phoenix area. I am well aware of the nature of dry river beds. I spent my formative years studying desert riparian habitat. On top of that, for 6 years I use to walk my dog every weekend in or around the Salt River and Indian Bend Wash. A controlled water release from a dam, a flash flood does not make. That was why I included all the details in the scenario I created. A real flash flood is no joke. I posted a link to the flood history of the Salt in an earlier post.
I believe it’s powdered aluminum. It has a nasty effect on the brain.
r says:
November 21, 2010 at 6:19 pm
So, speaking of misinformation… and unintended results….
Has anybody noticed that they banned phosphates in dishwashing detergent?
There is a lot on this out on the web. Simple solution? Add TSP to your dishwasher detergent. Problem solved. Here’s one interesting comment among many on numerous sites- seems there is an underground movement out there to re-phosphatize dishwasher detergent:
By jove; it works Anthony; I can see the vegetation that is sprouting just downstream of the WUWT flash flood on the right of the river.
See what those Art -efacts forgot, is that if you block the sunlght from raching the ground with a tarp; then nothing will grow. And I know that from actual scientifica experimentation, done with the help of my own r4esearch grant. My wife wanted me to stop putting Roundup on the weeds that grow all over our back yard; because she wanted to grow some food there. So I covered the whole back yard with a black plastic sheet, held down by a whole bunch of her broken pottery shards; and that killed everything under neath stone dead. Well the plastic ultimately started turning back into fossil fuel; so I had to get rid of it, and the weeds are coming back; and no my wife hasn’t planted a thing out there. Pretty soon the back yard is going to be “shovel ready” for installation of one more official owl box measuring station; but that is going to have to wait until I go out and buy a Webber grill to keep the thermometer warm.
The NCDC data for New Mexico shows flat-to-increasing, not decreasing, precipitation in New Mexico:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/cag3.html
And, the same is true for the precipitation data from the two closest USHCN tations (Jemez and Las Vegas), available here:
http://cdiac.ornl.gov/epubs/ndp/ushcn/ushcn_map_interface.html
Just watched the Penn and Teller video. Its funny. And, shocking news, one of the best parts – the eco-stress therapy group – was in Santa Fe.
I assume some of them were part of this blue tarp circus.
It seems like an array of parties are piling into the carbon offset game:
“Beginning in January, UPS WorldShip 2011 Version 14.0 will be available to
customers. This newest version will include the following enhancements:
· UPS carbon neutral: For a small per package fee, you can use UPS carbon
neutral to easily offset the carbon dioxide emissions generated by the
transportation of your shipment. Fees collected are used to fund environmentally
responsible projects around the world.”
Once the Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming Narrative is fully debunked, I wonder if companies such as UPS will be culpable for carbon offset fees collected under false pretenses and thus exposed to potential litigation…
Bob Tisdale says:
November 22, 2010 at 1:42 am
“…or having them respirate on-site.”
Sheesh. What were they thinking?
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Why not?
They don’t respirate->they turn blue and die as well as no need for the blue tarps.
All in all it’s fewer people on earth and no need for China to manufacture the oil based tarps!
It’s what these people want, right?
I’ve always been intrigued by the fact that supposedly enlightened minds of the Left are so inclined to participate in primitive rituals like this one. I’m not sure why, but my intuition tells me that this is a reflection of something very basic to this particular cast of mind. (It seems to involve both narcissism and magical thinking.)
At any rate, it shows that at the end of the day these people would prefer not to think, but just wallow in feeling.
Anyone remember the days of old when the communist hippies went like but we have to drain otherwise we get diseases due to all that stagnate water and them evil stinking methane producing bogs and what not, plus we WILL need all the clean water we can get in the future due the future clean water problems, et cetera et al yada yada yada?
This is what happens, drainage problems, and now they can’t blame the drainage because then they’d have to blame themselves. This is why we don’t have any bogturtles left where I live, due to crazy we-have-no-clue-what-will-happen-but-since-we-believe-we-are-right-we-are-right-communist-hippies. On the note, anyone heard anyone else but a environazi not wanting to clean up 50 year old chemical spills only because it has a calculated <1% of getting worse and therefor the crap is left out in the woods because people don't live around there anyhow . . . and that's how important nature are to them hippies. Nature to the hippies is just a friggin romanticized ideal of an idea nothing else, but everyone who thinks nature ought to be healthy to be able to produce has to be looked up to save the planet. Pfft!
Talking of bullshit, I’m waiting for the NSIDC Arctic Sea Ice Extent to spike up once the Cancun shindig finshes.
It’s little miracles like that which make life interesting.
History will look back on these people with amusement, and wonder what possessed a large portion of humanity to fall into such a degregated frame of mind. The illusion that they belong to special group with a goal to save the world and humanity from itself, puts them in the class of useful idiots.
An opportunity presents itself here for ration people to make the work of historians easier and more fun. The leaders of the alarmist cause have been quick to catagorise non believers even to the point of calling people criminals.
Diving scores are rated on their degree of difficulty, perhaps we can start separating these people by listing them with their degree of stupidity. The pecking order of the useful idiots and the leaders could thus be noted and the task of historians made with more clarity. [ Sarc on or off?]
“”””” rw says:
November 22, 2010 at 12:00 pm
I’ve always been intrigued by the fact that supposedly enlightened minds of the Left are so inclined to participate in primitive rituals like this one. I’m not sure why, but my intuition tells me that this is a reflection of something very basic to this particular cast of mind. (It seems to involve both narcissism and magical thinking.) “””””
I assume that you are not familiar with the “Burning Man” festival that takes place every year out in the desert in Nevada; it’s a ritual of the same order.
Actually it’s not that original. Back in the years following WW-II, the natives of New Guinea (Papua) decided that all the aeroplanes (American and Japanese) that were buzzing around during those battles must be some sort of gods; so they started erecting stick models of aeroplanes on perches evidently trying to lure the gods back ot bless their hunting or gathering or whatever.
They have about the same intelligence level as the Burning Man ritualists; maybe more, since they have survived all manner of calamities.
All McKibben’s followers have to do is look at the ENSO, PDO, NAO, Indian Dipole and various other ocean oscillations to see how predictable periods of drought and floods have been, are, and will continue to be all around the world, including NM. No magic here. No “Mann”-made gw. Just ocean oscillations, brought to you by the Sun, Moon and planets!
George E. Smith says:
November 22, 2010
Back in the years following WW-II, the natives of New Guinea (Papua) decided that all the aeroplanes (American and Japanese) that were buzzing around during those battles must be some sort of gods; so they started erecting stick models of aeroplanes on perches evidently trying to lure the gods back ot bless their hunting or gathering or whatever.
This form of worship by South Pacific islanders is called “Cargo Cult.” From WiKi:
“Cargo cult activity in the Pacific region increased significantly during and immediately after World War II, when the residents of these regions observed the Japanese and American combatants bringing in large amounts of material. When the war ended, the military bases closed and the flow of goods and materials ceased. In an attempt to attract further deliveries of goods, followers of the cults engaged in ritualistic practices such as building crude imitation landing strips, aircraft and radio equipment, and mimicking the behaviour that they had observed of the military personnel operating them.”
Do suppose the warmists will become their own form of Cargo Cult when the billions in grant largesse eventually peters out?
I will never know why people feign shock and outrage over people like Bernie Madoff. We get to see his kind working in the open daily with these kinds of rip-offs. The only difference is that Madoff promised something tangible in return (more money), while these clowns only promise “peace of mind”.
I wonder how much their piece of mind costs? Not much.
While I disagree with the 350.org flash flood’s political goals, I still have to say that being part of that would be really cool. I love finding my house and work and other things in satellite photos on Google Earth. It would be really cool to be able to point to an event like this and see myself, or at least know that I was there.
Thanks for the satellite photo! I am a Northern New Mexico local (thankfully not a Santa Fe resident – shudder) and my first reaction on seeing this event reported in the Albuquerque Journal North Edition was “Hmmm. I wonder if they could actually be seen from space.”
The Journal North reported “about 500 participants” and included quotes from participants who came from Taos (70 miles north of SF) and Albuquerque (60 miles south of SF). Let’s hope they traveled using pixie dust and wishful thinking.
The Santa Fe New Mexican, more sympathetically, reported “over 1000” participants at the event. Deliciously: “Many youth turned out for the event. Some even drove from The University of New Mexico [Albuquerque Campus]. Rhiannon Frazier, 18, found out about the event in her sustainability class at UNM, and decided to participate because the issue is important to her.”
As a small factual point, as another commenter has also mentioned, your second photo of a reservoir is Cochiti Lake, which is located on the Rio Grande. The Santa Fe River actually drains (such as it is) into the Rio Grande just below the dam. So snowmelt from the Santa Fe watershed does *not* fill Cochiti Reservoir.
Duped! It was a really fun party. A perfect blue sky afternoon for a wonderful spectacle of old and young, marimba band, punk band, New Orleans style 2nd line band, mariachis, Buffalo dancers and drummers, Japanese film crew, 1200 people making some theater, helicopter film crew and a cage of filmmakers shooting from a crane.
It was fun. Guerrilla art and a satellite view of how small we really are. So glad I made it.
McKibben seems to be surrounded by some sour grapes types. Global change is real. You can smirk and guffaw and call artists idiots. If we cut our use of carbon energies we could clean up Mexico City, LA…god have you seen the satellite pictures of that mess? It is real.
“”””” Sally Blakemore says:
November 23, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Duped! It was a really fun party. A perfect blue sky afternoon for a wonderful spectacle of old and young, marimba band, punk band, New Orleans style 2nd line band, mariachis, Buffalo dancers and drummers, Japanese film crew, 1200 people making some theater, helicopter film crew and a cage of filmmakers shooting from a crane. “””””
Well Sally, I’m glad you had a good time. I’m sorry that you missed getting stoned at Woodstock; but I’m glad you made the river party.
Looking at that picture of your efforts, I would venture that it would be a good place to go fly casting in that river for rattlesnakes. I’ve caught a Moray eel on a fly rod; and that was a royal mess as the thing wound itself into a ball around my line, so we had a hard time getting it off the hook. I presume that a diamond back would get quite pissed off, if you tossed it a kangaroo rat fly, and it took the bait.
You know I’ve been watching global change for the best part of a century now; and yes it is very real; but we still had useful idiots back when I was trying to get an education.
I do like New Mexico though; but somebody needs to ask the water board to turn the spigot back on for a better picture; I assume y’alls can swim !
So 1200 people eh ? how do you figure that, do you count the feet and divide by four ? I can see 200 of them; I guess the rest are hiding under the dada junk.