Note: This letter to WUWT from Sherri Quammen was received today at at 1:47 PM PST and titled as: A “do it yourself” home global warming test. I present it in entirety, unedited, with appropriate citations for spelling and the original story. See follow up here. – Anthony
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When I suggested (WUWT May 22nd, 2007) that Mr. Watts park his gas guzzler in the garage, close all the doors and leave his engine running, it was a humourous [sic] yet effective attempt to make a point to all the ney [sic] sayers that man has drastically affected this planet’s climate as well as it’s [sic] very fragile, life supporting eco-systems.
I merely suggested that he try a little experiment at home comparing the effects from the exaust [sic] of just one running vehicle on his health as well as the probable increase of temperature in his garage. He obviously knows that many folks have commited [sic] suicide doing this or he wouldn’t have avoided the real issue and instead call me a vitral [sic] filled leftist or what ever he said at the time. If one car in an enclosed area ( like the Earth’s atmosphere) can kill someone, then imagine what six billion running cars can do.
In just the short time that the government insued [sic] a no fly rule after 9-11 where no planes were allowed in US skies, there was over a one degree cooling of the atmosphere’s temperature or something like that. Can you see where I’m going with this, or am I just another tree hugging earth lover with my head in the polluted clouds? I’m pretty sure this won’t be printed. We can expect as much from a man paid by the corporations to be a weapon of mass deception.
Sherri Quammen
Concow, CA
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Sherri, Sherri baby… (a song)
Your letter is quite popular.
You could at least make one civil comment.
Maybe become a regular guest poster like Willis?
Come on, a keyboard is easy…. type away.
I did not see your post…. welcome.
Sherri,
We don’t hate you. But perhaps more offensively we can’t take you seriously. I know you aren’t delusional, but you sure write like it. Fracking: all the evidence is fracking itself never effects the groundwater. The shale simply is too deep. There is always the possiblity of a poorly sealed well, but that is just as true with conventional drilling. At my aunt’s ranch in Wyoming, forty years ago you could light the gas that came out of the kitchen faucet. It didn’t have anything to do with oil wells.
Believing something, even passionately, with all your heart, doesn’t make it true. Please learn to examine the evidence dispassionately.
I have to ask, your blond hair is natural, right?
sherriq says:
March 23, 2012 at 2:52 pm
It’s fairly predictable that the majority of comments regarding my letter are filled with venom and hatred. It is what I’ve come to expect from the folks on the right….
_______________________
There you go making assumptions again based on zero fact.
People here are NOT on “The right” they are on the side of science. Many are Democrats or Independents. Many like me are former members of Greenpeace or Sierra Club or World Wildlife Federation. We all care about the children of the future only we do not want to see them as serfs returned to a dark age economy by a totalitarian government run by the Ultra Wealthy.
Wake up and see who you are really working for. The Rothschilds. the Rockefellers, the Morgans and the World Bank, the World Trade Organization as well as a bunch of leaches called United Nations Bureaucrats.
Don’t believe me?
Then read just this one article by the Director of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy: http://theglobaljournal.net/article/view/56/
Also remember the EU is run by an bunch of unelected bureaucrats. this article gives you exactly how a global government will operate since the pilot project was the EU.
The Battle to Save the Polish Countryside: http://www.polishforums.com/archives/2008/news-politics-4/battle-save-polish-farmers-23819/
I am old with no children, if I did not care about future generations I would not waste my remaining time on earth trying to spread the truth.
sherriq says:
“It’s fairly predictable that the majority of comments regarding my letter are filled with venom and hatred.”
What, there are no mirrors in your yurt?☺
Sherri,
Most of us here would like to see less pollution….
That’s not usually what is discussed here though.
However Carbon Dioxide is not a poison or a pollutant like the EPA is claiming.
And is here considered a minor influence in Global Warming if at all.
The new California Carbon Cap and Trade Law is a scam.
And it will cost you dearly in the next year.
Advocate to revoke the law.
There you could be very helpful.
Best regards to you.
Ps to Sherriq,
We are not all bad and evil people.
Your friend Sue Hilderbrand is a friend of mine.
See, it’s a small world really…
Anthony is a great and reasonable guy.
Why not meet him for coffee at the perk.
You can bury the carbon hatchet in a cup of joe…
sherriq says:
March 23, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Derision is neither venom nor hatred. We wonder at your ignorance.
Did you know that if we live long enough, it is likely that the major cause of death will become cancer?
Cancer was almost unheard of in the 1800s, not because it was unknown but because no-one lived long enough to get it!
DaveE.
I was amused by this story, yet I also can’t help but feel very strongly disappointed in this Sherri Quammen.
Sherri
You must realise that the banskters and corporations are the ones behind and who profit from the global warming scam.
Sherri,
Your audience here extends to every corner of the world.
You are being handed the microphone.
Speak up.
Sherri,
I applaud you for posting in what must seem a hostile forum to you, and may I note that you express your points eloquently. It is easy to despise people you don’t know, and imagine the worst of them, and this is true for all people, right, left, conservative, liberal, or whatever. Making an effort to communicate is fundamental to countering this.
I’m quite certain that many of the posters here care deeply about the environment. For my part, I find it agonizing that so many resources are squandered to so little effect in the AGW/CAGW arena, when these millions of hours and billions of dollars could actually accomplish real benefit and solve real problems in other areas. We are NOT comic book villains here. Well, except for Mosher. :p
Thanks for posting,
Sherriq,
You have made my day, if inadvertently. We do not hate you. Most of us have been mightily entertained, and many of us appreciate a good laugh. Please note the number of people who thought Anthony was pulling a fast one on us with what those people thought was a fabricated letter. Given the content of your letter, that thought was certainly plausible.
Consider that if Anthony had taken you up and done your experiment, it would not have proved your point. Assuming that Anthony used a gasoline powered vehicle (I don’t know what kind he has, and I suspect you don’t either), and he had sufficient fuel, Anthony would be dead, not because of CO2, but either by carbon monoxide poisoning or lack of oxygen, the oxygen having been consumed by combustion. Carbon monoxide has never been a part of the climate debate as far as I know. No one has suggested we will suffocate from carbon dioxide, so your analogy is fatally flawed. It was merely trying to be clever about how you suggest Anthony kill himself. It is you who are hateful and vitriolic to suggest such a thing.
You rail against corporations, yet you use their services and products without apology. You complain about high gas prices (in other posts you have authored) when the current administration likes high prices to slow down consumption of carbon based fuels and make the big oil companies lots of money by artificially limiting supply. Most of the electricity you use to run your computer and be on the internet to post your opinion is non-green sourced. You must be as angry at yourself as with Anthony or the rest of us. That is sad.
What I would like to suggest is that you laugh with us and reconsider your position. For example, consider this video:
The lady in the above video did not have any clue about how rainbows are formed via refraction and reflection in water droplets. She attributed the rainbow to toxic chemicals in the water. She could have easily discovered that her water wasn’t polluted on cloudy days. She could have discovered that pollution had nothing to do with it by using a powerful light on her sprinkler at night. Since she has access to the internet to upload this video, she could easily have googled “rainbows” and discovered how they are made and applied it to her situation. She obviously didn’t. If she had, she didn’t believe, and if that is the case, there is really nothing that can be done for her. I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that nothing can be done for you either, as you can’t even argue your own side of the debate correctly. I’m surprised that your local papers are publishing your uninformed comments. The fact they publish your thoughts does not mean your thoughts are valid. The editors may see the same entertainment value many of us in this thread do. Its been a real hoot. Publication may not necessarily be a compliment.
If you want to be taken seriously, you need to learn about how the arguments for and against limiting carbon usage as a fuel apply and how to use them correctly. While spelling mistakes won’t affect the validity of your arguments, or lack thereof, you should realize you don’t want to give people a reason to ignore you. Spelling errors make you look uneducated and give people another data point that suggests you may not have enough information to come to the conclusions you have come to. If you see a red line under a word, the WordPress editor thinks you have misspelled it. Use Google on such words, and it will let you know about any mistakes with “did you mean ______” where the blank is the potentially misspelled word. You then take that word and use Google on the proposed spelling with “______ definition”. If Google got the spelling correct (it sometimes misses), you will find several dictionaries with an entry on it. I’m guessing that the people who criticized your spelling did so not because it invalidated your arguments, but because it fit with the lack of understanding you have of the subject matter you are attempting to promote. There is no point in inflicting self administered wounds.
Now, Sherri, one last thought I’d like you to consider: in the vast expanse that is the universe, mother nature loves cold. Lots and lots of cold. Like as in 99.999% or more of it is too cold for any kind of life. You might want to appreciate the warmth we have. It has been warmer than now as recently as 1000 years ago during the medieval warm period without harming life as we know it. More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is good for life, especially plants, and may put off for a small time the inevitable swing back to cold. I like warm. Warm is good. 🙂
PS: Please do take advantage of Anthony’s offer to visit with him.
You, know, the more I think about this, the more I’m convinced that Sherri Quammen of Concow, CA would be the perfect foil at one of Monckton’s presentations.
I mean, her grasp of the science and of the English language would be more than enough to counter ANY of Monckton’s arguments.
Maybe he should extend an olive branch, and personally invite her to a debate.
Sherri, I for one am very glad that you replied. I disagree with much of what you say but I think you have every right to your opinions. I don’t think the misspelling detracts from your argument. Although you got a hostile reception, you at least had the right to reply. There are all too many countries that would have denied you that right. At the same time, I think you were brave to post. Apart from anything else, I see you as a person who cares deeply. The world needs people who care even if sometimes/often we disagree.
Chris1958 says:
Sherri, I for one am very glad that you replied. I disagree with much of what you say but I think you have every right to your opinions. I don’t think the misspelling detracts from your argument. Although you got a hostile reception, you at least had the right to reply. There are all too many countries that would have denied you that right.
Not only countries, but blogs – many of which Sherri probably considers as authorities on the subject.
And in all of this, I have yet to see a response to the FACTUAL errors in her assertments.
Sherri – please answer: is your BELIEF so ingrained that it can’t tolerate debate based on the FACTS? If so, then I must ask – what good is it? (If not, then I have to ask, why are you not debating the facts?)
…he wouldn’t have avoided the real issue and instead call [sic] me a vitral [sic] filled leftist….
Don’t know how we missed that one….
Sherriq, if, by my own statements I have caused you any pain I am deeply sorry. I am a victim of my own hubris.
Best Thread EVER.
Smokey says:
March 22, 2012 at 4:39 pm
LOL, Ok, OK! I was feeling bad for Sherri. I mean yes, it is good to show the hate and manufactured ignorance in our society, and it is true that this letter is a classic example of that. Yet do we really need to remove this poor gril’s head to feel talller? And so, feeling a bit sad, I was not amused at what is really kind of tragic, and then Smokey posted this and I had to LOL.
The following is not directed at the sincere Ms Quammen. She may be fully capable of understanding the most esoteric details of climate science, and indeed have an IQ higher than any of the rest of us. Her apparent misunderstandings of science and logic may be directly attributable to a lamentable educational system.
This discussion brings to mind two concepts I learned in just the last couple of weeks (isn’t it odd how one often learns something new, and immediately sees an application for it?). Those concepts are the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and Anosognosia.
The Dunning-Kruger Effect is when a person’s incompetence masks his/her ability to recognize his/her incompetence. Or as some put it, when a person is so stupid that they don’t realize they’re stupid. That sounds a bit harsh, but we’re not very good at knowing what we don’t know. The less we realize that, the more likely we are to look foolish.
Anosognosia is a condition in which a person who suffers from a disability seems unaware of or denies the existence of his or her disability.
For a very entertaining discussion of these conditions, I suggest reading http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/the-anosognosics-dilemma-1/
I’m still waiting for Sherri to show her proof that I’m “…paid by the corporations to be a weapon of mass deception.”
I’m looking forward to seeing how she’s going to prove that, seeing how it isn’t true.
That and an apology for suggesting I conduct a garage experiment, which was a thinly veiled suggestion that I kill myself. I wonder if the Peace and Justice Center will have to write another letter apologizing to me for the behavior of one of their members since she’s likely to write another letter to the local newspaper telling everyone how terrible I am, all my readers are. etc.
Of course Sherri, all that could have been avoided if you’d responded instead of ignoring me the first time. I used to be much like you, so sure of myself about the evils of Carbon Dioxide, pollution, etc. But I soon discovered that much of what is being fed to us in the MSM is hype, and if you look no further than the headlines, you fall victim to the hype.
Call it EGAD, environmental gaia affected disorder
Sherri,
I decided to give you the benefit of doubt for the experiment. The atmosphere of earth has a weight of 5×10^18 kg, Now the weight of atmosphere where I am is 1.215 kg/m^3.
My garage is 9x5x2.5 meters or 112.5 cubic meters. So I have ~137 kg of atmosphere in my garage. So with this sense of scale in mind I decided to go ahead and run the worlds cars in my garage. Now there are 800 million cars globally(a little less than your 6 billion number), these produce 3.77×10^12 kg of CO2 annually. So we’re looking at 1kg of co2 added annually per 1.33×10^6Kg of atmosphere.
So scaling this for my garage was difficult to finding a match. In the end I settled for a match. I took a matchbook (made from recycled paper) into my garage and lit it(before anyone corrects me I know that this produces quite a bit more CO2 than is accurate for the experiment, but it’s best to ere on the side of caution.). After waiting a few minutes I checked my thermometer and it showed no change in temperature.
To go for broke I pulled my car into the garage. Now I had another problem, the car displaced about 30 cubic meters of atmosphere, but I decided not to worry at this point. I shut the garage and let the car run for about 10 seconds. This would simulate the emissions of a billion cars over a century. Now admittedly my thermometer I have is only accurate to a degree so it’s not a perfect experiment, but I didn’t see any increase in temperature.
Thank you for your experiment it really helps ease my mind that CO2 is not the big scary monster people make it out to be.
On a side note my car is an old 1983 Mercedes. Current generation cars produce a fraction of the CO2 emitted by my vehicle so we’re actually getting better in that regards.
(sigh)
Opens with insults, turns around and claims victim status.
Nope, not accepting it. Just another passive-aggressive attempt to control the conversation.
In her defense, not that I consider any of this defensible, I find that in posting comments with my Android that the “spell checker” can get very creative with its choices and that may explain some of the flicker word
Excellent example! The word “flicker” above resulted after I had typed “florist”.