Oh dear, some of these folks aren’t the brightest CFL’s in the room.
Readers may remember this famous Penn and Teller video from 2006 where they get well meaning (but non thinking) people to sign up to ban “dihydrogen monoxide” (DHMO), which is an “evil” chemical found in our lakes, rivers, oceans, and even our food!
Yeah, they signed up to ban water. Now watch the video from the Cancun climate conference, you’d think some of these folks would have enough science background (from their work in complex climate issues) to realize what they are signing, but sadly, no.
Some people will sign anything that includes phrases like, ”global effort,” “international community,” and “planetary.” Such was the case at COP 16, this year’s United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Cancun, Mexico.
This year, CFACT students created two mock-petitions to test U.N. Delegates. The first asked participants to help destabilize the United States economy, the second to ban water.
The first project, entitled “Petition to Set a Global Standard” sought to isolate and punish the United States of America for defying the international community, by refusing to bite, hook, line and sinker on the bait that is the Kyoto Protocol. The petition went so far as to encourage the United Nations to impose tariffs and trade restrictions on the U.S. in a scheme to destabilize the nation’s economy. Specifically, the scheme seeks to lower the U.S. GDP by 6% over a ten year period, unless the U.S. signs a U.N. treaty on global warming.
This would be an extremely radical move by the United Nations. Even so, radical left-wing environmentalists from around the world scrambled eagerly to sign.
The second project was as successful as the first. It was euphemistically entitled “Petition to Ban the Use of Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO)” (translation water). It was designed to show that if official U.N. delegates could be duped by college students into banning water, that they could essentially fall for anything, including pseudo-scientific studies which claim to show that global warming is man-caused.
Despite the apparently not-so-obvious reference to H2O, almost every delegate that collegian students approached signed their petition to ban that all too dangerous substance, which contributes to the greenhouse effect, is the major substance in acid rain, and is fatal if inhaled.
Perhaps together, the footage associated with these two projects will illustrate to mainstream America the radical lengths many current U.N. delegates are willing to go to carry out an agenda no more ethical, plausible or practical than the banning water.
I’m for building massive DHMO sequestration systems, but we need funding for the research for proof-of-concept first.
Has anyone even thought about sequestration possibilities? Perhaps shooting it into space, and aiming it at the sun to stop Global Warming??
kadaka (KD Knoebel)
December 8, 2010 12:20 pm
Someone should have brought along a petition to Save the Naugas, which had once been hunted to near-extinction for their valuable hides (hydes). I know someone who had one, set up a little stand at his college campus community center in the 1970’s, right next to a chair covered in the offending material. Yes, people signed the petition.
Apparently this has caused quite a stir over the years, forcing Uniroyal, the “maker” of Naugahyde, to set up a website where they explain how Naugas actually can harmlessly shed their skins. http://www.naugahyde.com/ – click on “Nauga History.”
Although I suspect this might be Dangerous Corporate Misinformation as the “Naugas” they present look nothing like the Nauga portrayed by Gary Larson when he stated the Naugas triumphant return to healthy population sizes in the wilderness in a special The Far Side cartoon.
The one I love to quote relates to those “it’s one atom away from . . .” some bad chemical or another. Today, you are breathing in material that is ONE ATOM AWAY FROM THE ACTIVE INGREDIENT IN ZYCLONE B!!. Air is 78% N2. Take away one N, substitute a C and you have the CN ion.
It seems they were ‘partying like there was no tomorrow’ when the Cancun conference began. Perhaps the delegates were left with plenty of goodwill but just sufficient brain power to sign these foolish petitions – or any more dangerous documents foisted on them by the organizers of the conference. The upshot: the organizers and their cronies could continue to celebrate for some time but for the rest of us, the party would be over.
orthodoc
December 8, 2010 12:23 pm
Amazingly enough, we use this stuff in the hospital! On patients! Sometimes we mix it with sodium and chlorine, or even potassium! We stick it on their skin, in wounds, on eyes! Even in the operating room!
Something must be done!!! For the children!!! Oh, the humanity!!!
Darell C. Phillips
December 8, 2010 12:30 pm
Re: Ken Harvey: December 8, 2010 at 12:05 pm
————————————
😉
Indeed. “Stop sea level rise. Ban dihydrogen monoxide.”
Perhaps this is what was meant when Pres. Obama said “This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”
RichieP
December 8, 2010 12:35 pm
Jeremy says:
December 8, 2010 at 11:04 am
‘Don’t look at every employee of such places and think they’re a con artist, many of them actually believe the crap they’re spouting.’
And that’s the real problem we all face when dealing or debating with these cultists.
Greg2213
December 8, 2010 12:52 pm
Hu McCulloch says:
December 8, 2010 at 12:08 pm
R Taylor says:
December 8, 2010 at 10:41 am
Not that it would matter to the signers, but the claim that DHMO is fatal if inhaled is false. Anyone breathing the natural atmosphere inhales it with every breath, and most of us die of other causes.
The gaseous form is pretty harmless to breathe (if at room temperature), but the liquid form can kill you if inhaled in sufficient quantities, as noted by Stephen Lewis at 11:20.
—-
Simple experiment: Jump into the pool (sans breathing apparatus,) submerge your head, inhale. Note the effects.
Ian pp
December 8, 2010 12:53 pm
It isnt the natural DHMO that is the real problem, it is the man made hydrogen hydroxide HOH that is the problem. Our polluting ways are contaminating the natural DHMO with evil, global warming causing, man made, hydrogen hydroxide. We are all doomed if we dont do something.
Robinson
December 8, 2010 1:00 pm
Hahaha. Classic.
Tali-Ihantala
December 8, 2010 1:03 pm
“I confess I wouldn’t have known what “Dihydrogen Monoxide” is. But I expect I’d have asked, “what is it? where does it come from? who makes it? why is it bad?””
People don’t usually ask those questions because they’re afraid they make themselves fools for not knowing something that could be obvious even for a five year old.
But I was surprised to see that this H2O petition hoax is still valid nevertheless it’s almost as old as a wheel 🙂
tobyglyn
December 8, 2010 1:08 pm
“John Eggert says:
December 8, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Oxygen too is toxic, if breathed in a pressurized environment. That is why deep sea diving “air” is up to 98% helium.”
Isn’t the Helium in deep sea diving tanks replacing Nitrogen? Take out the Oxygen and you have a dead diver.
Dave Andrews
December 8, 2010 1:10 pm
I would’nt get carried away with this. You have no idea how many people may have refused to sign, or asked awkward questions. (They would obviously not have made the final video)
This is just spin, adopting the same tactics as any pro AGW group. It shows and means nothing.
[Reply: Someone appears to be humour impaired.☹]
megawati
December 8, 2010 1:13 pm
Hi Stonyground (10:46). The reason that the exception proves the rule is that for it to be an exception there must be a rule, by implication.
Hi Jeremy (10:47). Yes, the audio cable con has to be the worst snake oil business of them all (except for AGW, of course).
tty
December 8, 2010 1:14 pm
“The gaseous form is pretty harmless to breathe”
At partial pressures from about 1000 mbar and upwards it causes severe burns. It is actually so lethal that it is used to sterilize e. g. medical implements.
LarryD
December 8, 2010 1:19 pm
What can you say. The Di-Hydrogen Monoxide snare isn’t even new, that site has been around for years. You’d think they would have heard of it by now.
If you’re familiar with the standard chemical nomenclature, the very name gives it away. Of course, the Progressives tend rather strongly to avoid technical subjects in their education. Too much reality, I think.
Another Ian
December 8, 2010 1:28 pm
Sounds a bit like this verse from a rugby song
“My brother’s a curate in Sydney
Saving young girlies from sin
He’ll save you a blonde for a dollar
My God how the money rolls in”
arnie
December 8, 2010 1:30 pm
When your High Priest/imam/Rabbi tells you to sign, you sign. Can’t upset the faith!
Peter 62
December 8, 2010 1:32 pm
I have always wondered why water vapor is considered a greenhouse gas leading to globel warming, every time a cloud comes over it gets cooler
RockyRoad
December 8, 2010 1:46 pm
Dave Andrews says:
December 8, 2010 at 1:10 pm
I would’nt get carried away with this. You have no idea how many people may have refused to sign, or asked awkward questions. (They would obviously not have made the final video)
This is just spin, adopting the same tactics as any pro AGW group. It shows and means nothing.
It shows how gullible they are; it shows none of them have had a chemistry class in their life; and it shows extreme herd mentality.
And the lesson obtained means we should also question the intelligence of all those who signed the petition. We don’t have to worry about those who didn’t sign; hopefully there were a few who were brave enough to ask probing questions, but I’ll ask them:
Hey, CFACT students, was there ANYBODY that knew what dihydrogen monoxide was, or that hesitated signing a petition to criple the U.S. economy?
You can’t automatically assume the counter argument–we’ll see what their response is.
JPeden
December 8, 2010 1:46 pm
I think this also falls under M. Stanton Evans’, “law of inadequate paranoia” – another paraphrase: “just when you think it’s looking very bad, it just gets worse.”
I’ve mentioned the law before, yet I still get rudely upbraided by not following it myself, in imagining what the CAGW acolytes don’t know.
Unfortuneately, the CAGW propagandists knew it all along.
ian middleton
December 8, 2010 1:47 pm
This DHMO stuff is causing all kinds trouble in SE Australia at the moment. It’s damaged my kitchen ceiling and destroyed a bridge on the way to work. Awful stuff
tty says:
December 8, 2010 at 1:14 pm
> “The gaseous form is pretty harmless to breathe”
> At partial pressures from about 1000 mbar and upwards it causes severe burns.
I don’t think I’ve heard that line before. I’ll probably think of it every time I make pasta in the future. Grr!
KD in Milwaukee
December 8, 2010 1:51 pm
Dave Andrews says:
December 8, 2010 at 1:10 pm
I would’nt get carried away with this. You have no idea how many people may have refused to sign, or asked awkward questions. (They would obviously not have made the final video)
This is just spin, adopting the same tactics as any pro AGW group. It shows and means nothing.
___________
Dave’s a total buzz-kill.
And if you truly believe what you wrote, I suggest you try the experiment yourself. As the saying goes, ‘There are none so blind as those who will not see”. Zealots, on all sides, tend to be blind.
The key here is the zealots on the AGW side are being used by governments to gain power and redistribute wealth (mostly to their own friends and pockets).
I’m for building massive DHMO sequestration systems, but we need funding for the research for proof-of-concept first.
Has anyone even thought about sequestration possibilities? Perhaps shooting it into space, and aiming it at the sun to stop Global Warming??
Someone should have brought along a petition to Save the Naugas, which had once been hunted to near-extinction for their valuable hides (hydes). I know someone who had one, set up a little stand at his college campus community center in the 1970’s, right next to a chair covered in the offending material. Yes, people signed the petition.
Apparently this has caused quite a stir over the years, forcing Uniroyal, the “maker” of Naugahyde, to set up a website where they explain how Naugas actually can harmlessly shed their skins.
http://www.naugahyde.com/ – click on “Nauga History.”
Although I suspect this might be Dangerous Corporate Misinformation as the “Naugas” they present look nothing like the Nauga portrayed by Gary Larson when he stated the Naugas triumphant return to healthy population sizes in the wilderness in a special The Far Side cartoon.
The one I love to quote relates to those “it’s one atom away from . . .” some bad chemical or another. Today, you are breathing in material that is ONE ATOM AWAY FROM THE ACTIVE INGREDIENT IN ZYCLONE B!!. Air is 78% N2. Take away one N, substitute a C and you have the CN ion.
Or rather-
Re: Robbins Mitchell: December 8, 2010 at 11:11 am
—————————————————–
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax
“Under the 2005 revisions of IUPAC nomenclature of inorganic chemistry, there is no single correct name for every compound.”
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IUPAC_nomenclature_of_inorganic_chemistry#Naming_hydrates
“For example, H2O (water) can be called dihydrogen monoxide.”
So DHMO is just fine and it’s more scary sounding than hydrogen hydroxide.
It seems they were ‘partying like there was no tomorrow’ when the Cancun conference began. Perhaps the delegates were left with plenty of goodwill but just sufficient brain power to sign these foolish petitions – or any more dangerous documents foisted on them by the organizers of the conference. The upshot: the organizers and their cronies could continue to celebrate for some time but for the rest of us, the party would be over.
Amazingly enough, we use this stuff in the hospital! On patients! Sometimes we mix it with sodium and chlorine, or even potassium! We stick it on their skin, in wounds, on eyes! Even in the operating room!
Something must be done!!! For the children!!! Oh, the humanity!!!
Re: Ken Harvey: December 8, 2010 at 12:05 pm
————————————
😉
Indeed. “Stop sea level rise. Ban dihydrogen monoxide.”
Perhaps this is what was meant when Pres. Obama said “This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”
Jeremy says:
December 8, 2010 at 11:04 am
‘Don’t look at every employee of such places and think they’re a con artist, many of them actually believe the crap they’re spouting.’
And that’s the real problem we all face when dealing or debating with these cultists.
Hu McCulloch says:
December 8, 2010 at 12:08 pm
R Taylor says:
December 8, 2010 at 10:41 am
Not that it would matter to the signers, but the claim that DHMO is fatal if inhaled is false. Anyone breathing the natural atmosphere inhales it with every breath, and most of us die of other causes.
The gaseous form is pretty harmless to breathe (if at room temperature), but the liquid form can kill you if inhaled in sufficient quantities, as noted by Stephen Lewis at 11:20.
—-
Simple experiment: Jump into the pool (sans breathing apparatus,) submerge your head, inhale. Note the effects.
It isnt the natural DHMO that is the real problem, it is the man made hydrogen hydroxide HOH that is the problem. Our polluting ways are contaminating the natural DHMO with evil, global warming causing, man made, hydrogen hydroxide. We are all doomed if we dont do something.
Hahaha. Classic.
“I confess I wouldn’t have known what “Dihydrogen Monoxide” is. But I expect I’d have asked, “what is it? where does it come from? who makes it? why is it bad?””
People don’t usually ask those questions because they’re afraid they make themselves fools for not knowing something that could be obvious even for a five year old.
But I was surprised to see that this H2O petition hoax is still valid nevertheless it’s almost as old as a wheel 🙂
“John Eggert says:
December 8, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Oxygen too is toxic, if breathed in a pressurized environment. That is why deep sea diving “air” is up to 98% helium.”
Isn’t the Helium in deep sea diving tanks replacing Nitrogen? Take out the Oxygen and you have a dead diver.
I would’nt get carried away with this. You have no idea how many people may have refused to sign, or asked awkward questions. (They would obviously not have made the final video)
This is just spin, adopting the same tactics as any pro AGW group. It shows and means nothing.
[Reply: Someone appears to be humour impaired.☹]
Hi Stonyground (10:46). The reason that the exception proves the rule is that for it to be an exception there must be a rule, by implication.
Hi Jeremy (10:47). Yes, the audio cable con has to be the worst snake oil business of them all (except for AGW, of course).
“The gaseous form is pretty harmless to breathe”
At partial pressures from about 1000 mbar and upwards it causes severe burns. It is actually so lethal that it is used to sterilize e. g. medical implements.
What can you say. The Di-Hydrogen Monoxide snare isn’t even new, that site has been around for years. You’d think they would have heard of it by now.
If you’re familiar with the standard chemical nomenclature, the very name gives it away. Of course, the Progressives tend rather strongly to avoid technical subjects in their education. Too much reality, I think.
Sounds a bit like this verse from a rugby song
“My brother’s a curate in Sydney
Saving young girlies from sin
He’ll save you a blonde for a dollar
My God how the money rolls in”
When your High Priest/imam/Rabbi tells you to sign, you sign. Can’t upset the faith!
I have always wondered why water vapor is considered a greenhouse gas leading to globel warming, every time a cloud comes over it gets cooler
Dave Andrews says:
December 8, 2010 at 1:10 pm
It shows how gullible they are; it shows none of them have had a chemistry class in their life; and it shows extreme herd mentality.
And the lesson obtained means we should also question the intelligence of all those who signed the petition. We don’t have to worry about those who didn’t sign; hopefully there were a few who were brave enough to ask probing questions, but I’ll ask them:
Hey, CFACT students, was there ANYBODY that knew what dihydrogen monoxide was, or that hesitated signing a petition to criple the U.S. economy?
You can’t automatically assume the counter argument–we’ll see what their response is.
I think this also falls under M. Stanton Evans’, “law of inadequate paranoia” – another paraphrase: “just when you think it’s looking very bad, it just gets worse.”
I’ve mentioned the law before, yet I still get rudely upbraided by not following it myself, in imagining what the CAGW acolytes don’t know.
Unfortuneately, the CAGW propagandists knew it all along.
This DHMO stuff is causing all kinds trouble in SE Australia at the moment. It’s damaged my kitchen ceiling and destroyed a bridge on the way to work. Awful stuff
tty says:
December 8, 2010 at 1:14 pm
> “The gaseous form is pretty harmless to breathe”
> At partial pressures from about 1000 mbar and upwards it causes severe burns.
I don’t think I’ve heard that line before. I’ll probably think of it every time I make pasta in the future. Grr!
Dave Andrews says:
December 8, 2010 at 1:10 pm
I would’nt get carried away with this. You have no idea how many people may have refused to sign, or asked awkward questions. (They would obviously not have made the final video)
This is just spin, adopting the same tactics as any pro AGW group. It shows and means nothing.
___________
Dave’s a total buzz-kill.
And if you truly believe what you wrote, I suggest you try the experiment yourself. As the saying goes, ‘There are none so blind as those who will not see”. Zealots, on all sides, tend to be blind.
The key here is the zealots on the AGW side are being used by governments to gain power and redistribute wealth (mostly to their own friends and pockets).