Pigs have been flying at AGU, apparently. All hope is lost for this organization. Get out while you can.
Grab an air sickness bag, then see this press release:
AGU Board adds new members with expertise in science policy and communication
AGU Release No. 10–39
15 November 2010
For Immediate Release
WASHINGTON—The American Geophysical Union’s board of directors has approved two new members who will bring expertise in science policy and communication: policy advisor Floyd DesChamps and author Chris Mooney. Their selection reflects AGU’s commitment to applying the results of scientific research to challenges faced by the global community, many of which are based in the geosciences.
Floyd DesChamps served as senior advisor on climate change to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee from 1997 to 2009, and was a co-author of the landmark climate bill, the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act (also called the McCain-Lieberman Climate Change Bill). He is currently a senior vice-president for the Alliance to Save Energy, where he develops the Alliance’s policy initiatives.
DesChamps has degrees in mechanical engineering and engineering management, and previously worked for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Chris Mooney is a journalist and author of Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future (co-authored by Sheril Kirshenbaum) and “Do Scientists Understand the Public?” a report of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He co-writes a blog with Kirshenbaum called “The Intersection” at Discover magazine which covers science’s interactions with politics and other realms.
Mooney was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2009-2010 and a Templeton-Cambridge Fellow in Science and Religion in 2010.
AGU bylaws authorize appointment of up to two members of the Board in addition to those elected by the membership. President Michael J. McPhaden exercised that option in bringing DesChamps and Mooney to the Board for approval.
“Floyd and Chris will provide expert advice on how to effectively communicate the importance and relevance of Earth and space science to the public and policy makers,” said McPhaden. “We’re really excited about their involvement and what it means for new opportunities to advance AGU’s outreach efforts.”
AGU is a not-for-profit, professional, scientific organization with more than 58,000 members in over 135 countries. The organization advances the Earth and space sciences through its scholarly publications, conferences, and outreach programs. AGU is accessible on the Web.
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Ok well here’s a few tidbits. Mr. Mooney is neither a scientist nor engineer, but an English major. He’s also just a kid who doesn’t seem to fit in well with this photo line up. In fact, they had to decolorize this photo to make it fit in even slightly.
He’s also an angry activist kid, with a mouthpiece, several actually.
Roger Pielke Jr. says this:
Last week my friend and colleague Dan Sarewitz tossed some red meat out on the table in the form of an essay in Slate on the apparent paucity of Republicans among the US scientific establishment. Sarewitz suggests that it is in the interests f the scientific community both to understand this situation and to seek greater diversity in its ranks, explaining that “the issue here is legitimacy, not literacy.”
Sarewitz’s essay has been followed by predictable responses (1,243 of them at Slate alone). Writing at MIT’s science journalism tracker Paul Raeburn offers this suggestively sinister critique:
And what is Sarewitz’s political affiliation, I wonder?
Since everyone else knows the answer to this, you’d think a journalist might have ways of figuring it out. Similarly sophomoric, Chris Mooney, in his characteristic us vs. them fashion, asks if Sarewitz will be joining the forces of evil:
Would Sarewitz himself like to become a Republican?
…
AGU recently appointed Chris Mooney to its Board. I am sure that Chris is a fine fellow, but appointing an English major who has written divisively about the “Republican War on Science” to help AGU oversee “science communication” is more than a little ironic, and unlikely to attract many Republican scientists to the institution, perhaps even having the opposite effect.
Yah, ya think?
This comment over on Phil Plait’s blog pretty well sums it up
semi Says:
Phil,
There is the Ophelia Benson case:
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2009/waist-deep-in-the-moral-slime/
The lockdown and moderation of comments on Mooney’s blog (which had the effect of preventing comments critical of Mooney’s handling of the “Tom Johnson” affair from being posted.)
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2010/07/08/housecleaning-note/
The sordid “Tom Johnson” affair in which Mooney ran with a sock puppet’s post as evidence for discrimination and general nastiness of scientists toward the religious (all fabricated) Mooney claimed he had “checked” the source out and was legitimate :
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/07/tom_johnson_fini.php
(You can wade through the comments if you want evidence of post moderation)
My feelings about Mooney is that based on the evidence I have seen, the negatives outweigh the positives in the “helping science” category. I have no ill-feelings about Mooney personally, and he might be a great guy. But as far as supporting science? Not so much. Ditto with the journalistic ethics.
Here’s the AGU fall meeting, maybe some people that run the outfit will come to their senses there. One can hope. I stopped getting Discover Magazine also as it has gone the way of NatGeo and SciAm. There’s just nothing in these magazines anymore that seems to be free of science politicization.
In fact, my family doesn’t get any magazines anymore, the recycling issue becomes much simpler when you have less glossy waste.
Gotta love AGU’s commitment to warmist science though, they have a rooftop weather station:
Only one problem:
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So is that an English Major? or a term paper tacked onto a PHD in Radical Environmentalism, Womens studies and the Sierra Club Summer School of Activism.
(Free Apple macs for the first 200 who sign up.)
Bottom of the barrel stuff, and it looks like its a Schrodinger’s Barrel, the only way to know how deep it is, is to plumb its murky depths – but plumbing its murky depths, merely reveals how bottomless it is.
Also has an aroma of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle:
“The more precisely their position is known, the less precisely they apply their uncertain principles”
Not to worry, i’m sure Cancunhagen will gallop to their rescue, since the Earths core is millions of degrees – and hey, they would know right?
Three typos in one article.
derived form records… should be ‘from’
and grow there food… should be ‘their’
and represnetativeness…
I’m going to stop now. How many millions does NOAA get?
I’m of the mind to join then immediately resign, after all any club that would have me as a member I don’t care to join (h/t Groucho)
How about creating web based alternatives to the scientific publications and organizations that have been captured by the left? If they don’t produce paper based periodicals it should be cheap to produce web based pubs, especially with volunteer labor thrown in.
R. Shearer says:
December 13, 2010 at 3:32 pm
It could be worse. He could have majored in Environmental Studies.
That’s an interesting proposition – what are the concrete, specific items that distinguish a current journalism major from an environmental studies major?
A small victory in the wtermelons Long March?
Such is the case with many scientific societies, unfortunately:
Their members may consist of scientists, but their boards are controlled by politicians and ideologues.
Grrrrrrr.
Time to light the torches.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
Thanks for the info…after 30+ years as an AGU member, I am not renewing and have written to the Director and President to advise why! I am not expecting a response.
Ric…FYI, the info on Floyd DesChamps at the ase.org has been removed…
So the AGU has gotten itself a political officer. Now where have I seen this sort of thing before…?
This Mr Mooney reminds me of Paul Holper of the CSIRO as promoted here:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/05/26/australias-victorian-government-creates-seminar-to-deal-with-denialism/
The blurb said: “Paul manages the CSIRO’s involvement in the Australian Climate Change Science Program, a $15 million program supported by the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.” So I was surprised when our speaker was introduced in his role very much as an ‘educator.’ And it was also clear in the Q & A that his knowledge of climate science had alarming limitations.
S’pose its ok to have project managers running these things, but these guys seem to be specialists in propaganda and activism. Sometimes it seems that when it comes to Climate Science the marketing department has taken over managment.
Literacy…..
This is a sign that the increasing acceptance of mediocrity as the new ultimate standard in the educational system has worked its way throughout the left wing scientific community and also shows who their target group for opinion manipulation will be.
Hopefully the real Scientists’ will find a way to stand by their scientific integrity, in the middle of a corrupt and biased grant dependent system, and gain back the public trust again.
Of course “no problem” science does not have any big potential for sustainable grants and is not selling as good as alarmist science.
E.M.Smith says:
December 13, 2010 at 4:35 pm
BTW, I no longer buy SciAm, nor Nat Geo, nor Discover. Same reason as above. Too many times the BS-o-Meter clanging about bias presented as information…
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I think this issue would make an interesting poll on this site. For my son’s recycling campaign in 5th grade, we donated about 8 feet (stacked) of NatGeo, SciAm, and Discover mags/rags. I no longer saw them as valuable, and I had saved them for so many years. Miss the pics in NatGeo sure, but got so tired of the dark-this, dark-that, CAGW content of the mags/rags.
FWIW, about 5? Christmasses ago I got the (then) $19 cannonical set of NatGeo on CDs. Incidentally got a 1/4 of a garage back and didn’t need to relevel the foundation after all after the recycle 😉
Oddly, just as I never actually LOOKED at the old paper versions, I’ve also not looked at the CDs. It seems it’s enough simply to know I possess the images…
So now that you know someone who has a set, you can rest assured that they will not be lost, and you can know they will be archvied forever. Enjoy your new garage space 😉
Steve Koch says:
December 13, 2010 at 5:18 pm
How about creating web based alternatives to the scientific publications and organizations that have been captured by the left? If they don’t produce paper based periodicals it should be cheap to produce web based pubs, especially with volunteer labor thrown in.
You are reading one, Pard, WUWT is Anti-BS spray!
Can I join just so I can resign?
I nominate R Gates for the American Geophysical Union board.
He would be perfect!
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
American scientists are obviously not scientists at all, any more. The degradation of American academics, and perhaps that of Britain and Canada, surely New Zealand and Australia, has entered into areas rarely traveled by cultures. Nazi Germany went through a similar phase among its medical scientists. Where a predisposed belief was more important to grade and employment advancement than actual intelligence or knowledge. We see this in the Islamic world every day where real knowledge takes place to superstition.
If this continues, the West will fall. We will become the next Iran, Russia, or Saudi Arabia. A parasitic culture filled with non-nonsensical arrogance.
Stephan says:
December 13, 2010 at 3:47 pm
… we are probably entering a solar minima with serious implications for the earth that is if it continues and enter a real ice age. The AGW crowd may need to be arrested. LOL!
—
Naw, no arrests. Ridicule and a complete loss of credibility is fine.
Bob Cohen says:
December 13, 2010 at 6:50 pm
> Ric…FYI, the info on Floyd DesChamps at the ase.org has been removed…
It’s still there for me. Let me post the meat, it’s not too long and doesn’t have copyright warnings. (Yes, I know it’s still considered copyrighted material, but this reads more like a press release and I think was meant to be shared.)
Floyd DesChamps Joins Alliance as New Senior Vice President of Policy and Research
Submitted by phlusko on July 15, 2010 – 12:30pm
This week, the Alliance welcomed its new Senior Vice President of Policy and Research Floyd DesChamps.
Floyd will collaborate with President Kateri Callahan, the Board of Directors and Alliance staff to further develop and refine the Alliance’s portfolio of policy initiatives. He will also serve as a spokesperson for the Alliance before government legislative, executives and regulatory bodies at both federal and state levels and manage the eight-member Policy & Research Team.
Says Alliance President Kateri Callahan of Floyd’s appointment, “We are thrilled to have Floyd at the helm of our Research and Policy Team, especially during this critical time for U.S. energy policy. His deep knowledge of energy and climate legislation and federal energy programs will be most valuable as the Alliance navigates the path towards a more energy-efficient future.”
Prior to joining the Alliance, Floyd was president at the Desner Group, an international consulting firm, where he worked as the U.S. Director of the GLOBE (Global Legislators Organization) International developing and supporting consensus positions among G20 legislators and parliamentarians on global environmental issues.
In addition to his environmental expertise, Floyd has extensive experience with government institutions. He worked as a senior advisor on climate change for the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation from 1997 through 2009, where his work focused on such issues as federal research and development, government and commercial space development, technology transfer and climate change. He also co-drafted the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act (McCain-Lieberman Climate Change Bill).
Floyd spent seven years working for the U.S. Department of Energy in several different capacities, including program manager at the Office of Science and Technology, Office of Environmental Management.
Floyd has a master of science in engineering management from the University of Maryland University College and a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the University of South Carolina.
Says Floyd, “Joining the Alliance is an excellent opportunity and I look forward to leading the Research and Policy team in helping the organization fulfill its mission for advancing energy efficiency while moving our nation toward a more sustainable energy future.
I recommend the option of sticking with such organisations but requiring they record in their minutes your dissent from every politicised resolution they pass.
Yes the organisation keeps your dues, but this disadvantage is outweighed by the existance of an alternate view in the records of the institution.
As a rule, scientists are as ignorant in politics as politicians are in science. The political science they create is an abomination. People must speak up against it.
Ric: Floyd runs GLOBE?! – the same GLOBE that counts the infamous Oxburgh as a member. (see the English inquiries). Floyd must be holding the spoon forcefeeding AGW down our throats…..
Does he hold any windmill stocks?
“Gotta love AGU’s commitment to warmist science though, they have a rooftop weather station:”
Urban airflow and dispersion modelling is a large area of research and it requires urban measurements.
Although I can understand why you’d want it stopped in case these scientists join the global warming conspiracy.
Bureaucrats nominating and praising and electing each other to head gubmint-funded “Alliances”, Committees, and Foundations.
Same old, same old.
It’s a good thing we understand the importance of keeping clear blue water between Science and politics and don’t show any political bias on this site!