UPDATE: 3/17/12 Thanks to everyone for all the support, kind words, and well wishes. Today I found myself taking another long nap, and I awoke feeling much better than yesterday. Stress is an insidious thing, and until it catches up with you, you don’t realize what impact it has. – Anthony
It has been an exhausting month since Fakegate hit the scene, and tonight when I came home from work, I crashed hard, taking a nap. I even missed dinner. My children tried to wake me up apparently to no avail. At the moment I feel like I have a hangover.
Behind the scenes, I’m dealing with a lot of things related to WUWT and the legal fight building with the Pacific Institute and Gleick, plus other things. Today for example I’m wrestling with starting the blog all over again on another platform because my wordpress.com free hosting keeps messing under the hood with the production code and they’d broken something yet again (some readers can’t comment any more thanks to a new security feature) just after we got the mess with adwords fixed last week. So yeah, I’m pretty toasted all in all at the moment. Then I read this comment from a reader on the DeSmog Blog headed back to obscurity thread.
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Ally E. says:
I found WUWT barely a month before Fakegate happened. Prior to finding this site, I was a head-in-the-sand kind of person. I knew the whole fry-and-die alarmism was wrong, the claims were getting very stupid, as was the panic.
Getting fed up with ever increasing nonsense scare tactics, I pushed back from news outlets. I didn’t want to hear anymore. I also felt very alone. It was Ian Plimer’s “How to get expelled from school” that opened my eyes to the growing fight back to rational thinking. I bought the book (and there were only two left on the shelf, so I know it’s popular) and read it in a day.
Encouraged, I got online and found WUWT and others. I cannot express how wonderful it felt to learn that REAL scientists out there are practicing REAL science and presenting it properly.
Point is, for those years I had my head in the sand, I didn’t know just what a tangled mess this had all become. I didn’t know what a horrible world was developing right under our noses.
I come here every day. This is my home page. I love the science, I love the way it is presented and I love reading the comments and thoughts from so many very intelligent people. But I also devour any news on the political front. I crave and seek out every snippet of good news, and believe me, this is good news.
Anthony, I want to see these dastards go down. I came in at a most exciting time and I want to watch every step of the alarmists fall from grace. Thank you for providing the whole picture, the wide picture, science, politics and all.
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Thanks, Ally. That made my week.
Alaistair Pope:
And don’t forget Willi Muenzenberg! (In fact, Josh should do a cartoon with WM in an AGW T-shirt.)
I know you will probably not take my advice (heaven knows I don’t always) but take weekends off. Not to put too much emphasis on it but the world needs you to keep up the fight and this site will help the world (read politicians, scientific organizations and the MSM) get back to REAL science.
Thank you for all you and the entire group of volunteers behind the scenes at WUWT do for us.
My take on the voluminous adoration that is being heaped upon Lord Watts, smiter of the Algorites,defender of common sense, and most annointed conquerer of legions of the HockySchtickery, and there champion, sir Mann Hole… It is as deserved a praise as can be given (pythonesque Humour off)
More than once the weight and significance of what I learn here daily has been of enormous wealth to me as an individual, and provided me the ability to engage others in intelligent, factual, discourse on an issue(global warming nonsense) that i feel very passionate about.
Thank you, Lord Watts.
Sam.
Anthony:
Wordpress is a great platform. However, you should be able to move your WordPress site to a different host.
Another “probably my only post” post!
I’ve followed Climate Audit, WUWT and a few others since their start having had my eyes opened by John Daly’s site a few years ago. It really is one of the few places where you can get a balanced view of the world. Thanks Anthony and keep up the good work.
Well said Ally & Anthony.
RE: Dastards
Yeah, I know the meaning of the word and know what Ally meant.
I was just being a smarta$$ about the dyslexia. Thus the ☺ after the comment. ☺
Clive
When I started examining the question of CAGW four years ago, I discovered WUWT early on. I was quickly impressed by your willingness to discuss and argue the science. All I ever saw on the Pro-CAGW sites was that the argument was over and the the issue was settled – a total unwillingness to engage in the science. Thanks so much Anthony, keep up the good work.
Hello Anthony:
Been a fan for about 5 years now, from Kate’s small dead animals blog.
Today my morning coffee was in my WUWT coffee mug, and my ‘homepage is here’ so this is the very first blog I check every day and all day long as I get all the emails too – don’t want to miss anything! Hubby loves his t-shirt – wears it proudly.
We love science, reality, facts, the truth – rare to find these days – thankfully it’s here.
I seldom post here as – I’m a sponge here – elsewhere I’m big poster opposing CAGW with facts. Facts that I get from here. Actually takes me some time to wad through data that is far beyond my level of education and comprehension (but that’s improving too, because of this site!) – so it’s in the comments where everything gets disseminated so that I can glean the facts and truths to articulate it elsewhere.
For the most part I find the average person knows or has a strong inkling this is all BS, but they can’t explain why – then they get bowled over by fasle data being screamed out by the alarmists. Then there’s the whole political aspect of it…grrrrr. So finding a good way to explain this in terms people can understand that they in turn can explain themselves is key to tearing down this lie.
On a personal note: Some years ago before I was even on the net 2002/3 iirc, my daughter came from first year high school with the story that ‘Greenland’ was all a propaganda lie by the governments of that era -“never was warm – all a gigantic lie”. We were rather shocked by this so sat her down and explained some hard facts about that nonsense right on the spot (at that point I, myself was one who was submissively going along with this ‘green is good’ thinking – but you can’t just LIE about history – that really ticked me off!!!) Thankfully she was able to see the truth and continues to question the ‘status-quo’ on everything and especially anything mainstream media blows out now. Scared me how hard they tried to pit her against what real science is. She graduated without being swayed to the dark side, thankfully.
Now she’s another reader of WUWT and another voice out there within her peer group, stating facts instead of propaganda.
Thank you Anthony, thank you for doing this tremendous task and all our best from our family to yours. Please take all the time off you require and then some!
And a BIG thank you to all the contributors, all the other great BLOGS, mods and commenters – it’s all so valuable and vital to all of us.
ldd
p.s.
Think someone may write a great book or movie about you and your life one day Anthony…just have that feeling. 🙂
I couldn’t have written it any better!! That’s how I felt when I first found this site! Thanks for writing it so well.
add to the list, my appreciation, too.
but, frankly, i can’t wait until there is a whole lot of smiting going on.
the time for pat.a.cake was over ages ago.
LOL, and see? With just a bit more reading and I learned how to get through WP’s comment blocking. Change your email.
I would like to echo all the comments so far. I’m new to WUWT, being buried forecasting plain ole weather, but have been exasperated and angered by the climatologists who have abandoned science to meet personal agendas Then I discovered your site quite by accident and found hundereds and more who share my feeling. I am truly amazed at your energy and ability to put this all together.
Tough times pass, keep your chin up and chest out. You have more supporters out here than you probably know.
Frank K. says:
March 17, 2012 at 6:18 am
“I’m running a St. Patty’s day 5K race today – I’ll try to break 22 minutes (my PR) in honor of WUWT :)”
UPDATE:
Well I did it! (21:35) Beat my old 5K PR 🙂
I know we don’t say it enough, Anthony (at least I don’t), but THANK YOU SO MUCH.
I am Anthony Watts!
Not really, but I saw something like that in a movie once where people had someone they respected… and loved. They were inspired by his dedication to what was right and his courage in opposing evil, tyranny and lawlessness. They supported and followed him to such an extent that they were willing to take up and continue his cause no matter what. They learned from him and realized they were the better for it.
Such people are rare. Anthony Watts is one of those rarities. I come here every day to learn and be inspired and challenged.
Keep up the good and righteous work you do, Anthony. You continue to inspire many.
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Dennis Kuzara says:
March 16, 2012 at 8:59 pm
I rarely see Anthony mention $$, so you know he is doing it for all the right reasons. The best way to say thank you is to open your wallets (to heartland too). There is tremendous power in a lot of small donations, the Tea Party has already proved that.
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Echo that! – Anthony and Mods, thank You for everything
Anthony, I have visited your site for years, found originally via a link or comment on the late John Daly’s ‘Still waiting for greenhouse.’ While I do not understand everything I read here, the input has been an invaluable counter to the constant distortion of science by those who political objectives have corrupted their capacity to be honest. Your contribution is byond measure, as others here have reminded. Keep at it. You make a difference.
I think there are many Ally’s here. God bless you Anthony. Eventually the truth will always win. Henry
Speaking as one of the ones that cannot seem to post, I appreciate the efforts. Although it probably won’t let me post this…;-)
You should check out the Goodreads blog interface. I don’t know if it is publicly available (and I don’t know if it supports latex, sadly) but it is butt-kicking good in other ways — preview feature, edit feature. The one thing you have to do to use it is set up an account (which is free) but I don’t really mind that.
There has to be something out there that at least competes with wordpress.
rgb
Yes, Anthony! On this point . . . . Ally speaks for me . . . and says it well!
I am glad you do what you are doing . . . thankyou!
Anthony
A big thank-you from me too. I found WUWT just in time (BC) and have visited pretty well daily ever since. I had been struggling to understand why so many people apparently with far better scientific credentials than myself clearly believed in a theory that did not reflect my experience of climate (after more than 50 years of personal observation), nor my knowledge or understanding of climate in either the historic or the geological past. Finding WUWT showed me I wasn’t alone. I’m no scientist and some of the techie stuff goes clear over my head, but the fact that you had the guts to create this site and have gathered so many high quality contributors gives me hope for the future. What really gets my goat is the true believers’ fallacy, that because they do what they do to “save the planet”, anyone who disagrees in the slightest must want to destroy it. It’s uphill work to counter that attitude, but together we’ll get there. Just give yourself a break occasionally – you deserve to be around to get your share of the plaudits when the AGW house of cards finally falls down. And when we are both long gone and the history books write up AGW as the weirdest, least explicable, potentially most economically disastrous case ever of international mass hysteria, WUWT will be in the footnotes as one of the few asylums for the sane in these dark days indeed.
Anthony,
Ever since I “discovered” WUWT in 2008, I don’t think a day has gone by without visiting, reading, learning, and sharing the most excellent subject matter found here with those who would be less enlightened, including my children.
Real science is not dead. It lives here as evidenced by all of your faithful visitors, moderators, guest authors, and commentators. True champions of science and the scientific method all.
Your efforts are most appreciated. Thank you sincerely for all that you do.
Manfred Kintop
Anthony,
Your blog touches the inner light inside us that seeks the truth.
This home of open discussion attracts all our little lights.
You inspire us; intuition keeps us present.
Bundled together our lights burn very brightly.
Our synergy can change global attitudes back to something rational.
Rest and rejuvenate and all of us will keep this home fire burning.
kbray.
It is my homepage too. I greatly appreciate, fellow readers, the links you provide to the original papers and the other links to interesting related materials. WUWT is my prime one-stop science shop. Engadget is the only other place that gets my clicks.
I took heat for years as a climate catactrophe skeptic and have been on the right side all along. The reason is tha I was trained early on to seek to see for myself. Learning to read science papers is not difficult. After a while, spotting BS comes naturally.
It was said a day or so ago that if the CAGW scam ended, there would be no reason for WUWT to exist. Not so. We can be positive and share. It is not only about demonstrating the falsity of bent ideas. It is about instilling a culture of international collaboration for truth and proof. And it is succeeding in the face of great odds.