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
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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