Ray G writes:
Donna Laframboise has a post up on the upcoming Royal Society-sponsored meeting with 2,500 attendees expected. the topic is climate change. Donna holds up the ridicule the list of attendees, singers, bureaucrats, song writers, PR professionals. The list is short on physicists, chemists, statisticians and, of course, she supports her conclusions with facts. The RS deserves the attention that your megaphone provides.
happy to help Ray
The Royal Society’s Blatherfest
A “major international conference” will begin on Monday in London. It’s being hosted by the Royal Society, the oldest science academy in the world and previously the most prestigious.
But over the past decade the Royal Society has abandoned its longstanding neutrality and become a political lobby group.
The depths to which this formerly esteemed body organization has now sunk may be seen on the website for this conference. A number of official blog posts appear there, including one written by the event’s co-chair, Mark Stafford-Smith. It declares:
our science tells us that the Earth has entered the ‘Anthropocene’, a geological era in which human impacts are now as important in driving how the planet operates as geological and astronomical forces have been in past eras. [backup link]
But this is nonsense. As I observed last August, a scientific body called the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) is responsible for naming geological eras. It has made no such determination that a new one has begun.
This strange claim can be traced back to informal musings a decade ago by atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen. He is not a geologist. He’s doesn’t belong to the ICS. He has no more authority to announce the beginning of a new geological era than I do.
more here:
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2012/03/24/the-royal-societys-blatherfest/
E.M.Smith says:
March 24, 2012 at 7:01 pm
So maybe R. Gates finally graduated 😉
Does that also mean Hugh Pepper wasn’t accepted into first yeer?
It is the age of toothpaste photographers, telephone desinfectors and the construction of the ‘B’ Ark. Joe Romm will sit in a bathtub, steering the thing while those with two braincells to rub together will wave these folks goodbye as they take off into outer space. And yes, that’s a thinly veiled Douglas Adams reference.
Iggy Slanter says:
March 24, 2012 at 7:25 pm
Anthony,
I just wanted to say how much of a gentleman you are to do what you did earlier. A class act through and through.
I.G.
========================================
Completely agree, even though I made a comment or two myself. If only she could learn from this experience and realize who the people who are really into true environmentalism are.
Sadly, …..
Jimmy Haigh says: I’m disappointed that Bono won’t be there.
Representative Bono might have attended, just a few years ago. However, she’s had a change of heart, causing apoplexy over at thinkprogress:
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/02/07/207451/koch-mary-bono-mack-pollution-epa/
Oh, you mean that Bono….
: > )
Watched a nice documentary on the BBC iPlayer site last night. It was about a 3000 year old Peruvian Pyramid-building civilization that suddenly went extinct about the time of the Spanish Conquistadors in the 16th Century.
Turned out that they panicked at that time because of the news of potentially impending doom brought about by the appearance of the horse-riding iberians and resorted to human sacrifice to assuage the wrath of the gods.
Didn’t work so they self-destructed!
Maybe it’s just me but I see a similarity here 🙂
“”philincalifornia says:
March 24, 2012 at 6:35 pm
PaulH says:
March 24, 2012 at 4:24 pm
The good folks at The Resilient Earth dismantled the silly notion of the Anthropocene:
http://theresilientearth.com/?q=content/brave-new-epoch
————————————————————-
You just reminded me that R Gates would parrot the word “Anthropocene” as one of his “memes of the month”. Where did he go ? I miss the guy.
He seemed to disappear around the time of Peter Gleick’s “heroic” act. Was he disgusted, or … or …. or …. has anyone ever seen R Gates and Gleick in the same room together ??
Just asking.””
I took a look at fantasyclimate.com. R. Gates hasn’t commented over there for some time either. He is a regular there.
Lots of academics from India trying to tell the world how to clean up the environment. Well I spent some time in Mumbaia few years ago and it is the filthiest place I’ve ever seen. Why don’t these Indan academics practise a little of what they are trying to preach to us about back home first?
juanslayton says:
March 24, 2012 at 7:46 pm
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don’t tell me that there’s more than one?!/!?!/!??!!!!!!!!!!!1
Moral: When faced by certain catastrophe it is necessary to first convene a great meeting of the wise and powerful; have a show of hands to determine the consensus; vote to isolate, marginalise and get rid of dissenters.
Meet consequent and inevitable failure with stoical acceptance and look for others to blame!
Hint. Most scapegoats revel in taking on the role of the martyr. They confuse the notion of the ‘Hero’ with ‘Useful Idiots’
Discover novel crises, market aggressively and repeat until a well deserved and rewarding retirement ensues.
Be able to define Hubris without ever understanding what it means.
I was visiting a major London Science Museum circa 2005. Nearby was an elderly gentleman, reading the museum’s dire predictions of catastrophic manmade global warming.
He was obviously very upset, and slowly shook his head. Our eyes met, and he spoke to me sadly, bemoaning the impending climate doom that would befall his beloved grandchildren.
I tried to ease his concerns, and said “I’ve studied this subject for twenty years and recently co-authored a paper with leading climate scientists. We believe there is no global warming crisis. Your grandchildren will be just fine.”
I hope he believed me, even a little. But then why should he, with even the esteemed Royal Society promoting global warming hysteria?
One of the many immoralities of global warming mania is the needless fear that has been deliberately caste into the minds of children and those who care most about them. This tactic was morally wrong , even when the claims of dangerous manmade global warming had some limited credibility.
Now that global warming has been exposed as a fraud in the ClimateGate 1&2 emails, this tactic of frightening children and the elderly is despicable.
There has been no net global warming for a decade.
There is no evidence of a manmade global warming crisis.
Is it not about time that the warming alarmists tuned down their very-scary rhetoric, and stopped scaring little kids and old people?
Erratum:
“have a show of hands to determine the consensus”
replace with
“have a show of hands to CONFIRM the consensus”
Determinism is done by the Despots. Confirmation is genetically wired into the DNA of the sheeple.
An evolutionary advantage right up to the point that the flock gets herded onto the market transportation system. Downhill from then on!
Sorry about that.
I prefer “the Bozocene.” It’s short, punchy, clear, and has a good vowel-to-consonant ratio.
For a fall-back position, I like “the Lysenkocene,” which reflects the state of the RS and post Modern science.
When it comes to nonsense-on-stilts, the proctocratic RS advances full-thrust to its newfound Coulrocene Era, where outgassing is pseudo-science’s new norm.
I suspect that when the history of global warming psychosis is written we will discover that the leaders of the movement were driven not by a desire to save the world, nor to create one world government, nor by religious fervor; rather I suspect this whole movement was driven by money.
In the US, the political class is permitted to invest in things and then make laws that make those things more valuable. It explains how many politicians enter political life with few assets, yet retire as multimillionaires despite making only a modest salary (e.g., Joe Biden). The US is not alone in this regard — the UK is arguably worse when it comes to economic corruption of politicians.
The one thing that politicians from all parties could agree on is that climate policy was a great way to make a lot of money. So politicians got on board and invested heavily in “green technology”. And all of the friends and big donors of the politicians followed suit. All that remained was to pass a set of politically popular climate regulations and presto, instant millions. It was a plan that could not lose.
Unfortunately, democracy got in the way and the political will for climate legislation evaporated.
Now, the political class and their friends are in a panic. The Carbon Credit market has collapsed and green tech companies, cut off from subsidies, are all going bankrupt. We are seeing the green tech bubble burst and its not pretty sight. At this stage, the promoters of the scheme will say and do anything to try to restore the sense of climate fear that existed prior to CGI, CGII and Fakegate. It strikes me as not at all unusual for the leaders of the Royal Society to throw the reputation of the society under the bus to save their retirement accounts.
If the Royal Society is any indication, we are in the Lysenkocene.
Two comments
1 This mob are obviously a humourless bunch since they are willing to sit through 4 days of repetitive mutual masturb*tion with very limited opportunities for a drink for relief. I imagine the sandal/ Oxfam shop quotient will be high.
2 Of the long list of sponsors, about 4 are from the private sector, the rest are funded by you and me. Where’s Big Oil when you need it!
Cheers
Paul
kbray in california says: (March 24, 2012 at 4:31 pm) OT Good call on “Letters, I get letters”
Good judgement makes this place “the best”.
I fully endorse those sentiments.
it’s the putrescine. i know by the smell.
Early days of the Royal Society
http://royalsociety.org/about-us/history/
1660
Following a lecture by Sir Christopher Wren, the Royal Society is founded at Gresham College, London on 28 November. King Charles II becomes patron.
1661
Marcello Malpighi observes capillary action in frog’s lungs and writes to the Royal Society. It is the missing link in William Harvey’s theory of blood circulation.
1662
Christopher Merrett communicates to the Society a technique of double fermentation to produce sparkling wine. The champagne method will found a regional industry in France.
1663
Charles II, his physician Walter Charleton and John Aubrey view the Neolithic stone circle at Avebury in Wiltshire, submitting plans of the structure to the Royal Society. Modern archaeology begins here.
1665
The Royal Society publishes Robert Hooke’s Micrographia, containing landmark drawings made using a microscope and including the famous flea. The book coins the word cell as a biological term.
1677
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek sees little animals under the microscope the first sighting of micro-organisms. The Royal Society repeats his observation and the science of microbiology is born.
1687
Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica describing the action of gravity is published by the Royal Society with the help of Edmond Halley. It remains one of the most influential books of all time.
1714
The first English account of inoculation against disease appears in the Philosophical Transactions. The fight against smallpox in the West begins, ending in global eradication by 1979.
1727
Sir Hans Sloane becomes President of the Royal Society. On his death in 1754, Sloane’s collections, including much Royal Society-related material, become the core of the British Museum.
1736
The Copley Medal is established from an endowment of £100 received from the estate of Sir Godfrey Copley in 1709. It is Britain’s oldest scientific honour, a prestigious forerunner of the Nobel Prize.
1752
Benjamin Franklin demonstrates the electrical nature of lightning using a kite and key in a paper to the Royal Society. It is still the world’s most famous scientific experiment.
1768
The Royal Society backs an expedition to observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti. The vessel Endeavour, commanded by Lieutenant James Cook, reaches Australia and New Zealand.
1769
The geologist Rudolf Eric Raspe is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. His most enduring work relates the fantastic and unreliable Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1785).
1774
The Royal Society publishes letters on ornithology by curate Gilbert White. His systematic records will create the Natural History of Selborne (1784), the most popular nature book of all.
1781
William Herschel discovers a new body in the solar system. Sensationally it is a planet, reported to the Royal Society as Georgium Sidus [George’s Star] by 1783 and eventually renamed Uranus.
1804
In a letter to President Sir Joseph Banks, Matthew Flinders suggests that New Holland should be termed Australia. The name appears in the 1806 Philosophical Transactions.
1823
The Royal Society approves Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine, a mechanical means of computing mathematical tables. Babbage goes on to design Analytical Engines capable of storing programs.
1825
Gideon Mantell, a physician from Lewes in Sussex, describes for the Society some ancient bones he has found while on medical rounds in 1822. The creature is Iguanodon, the first land dinosaur.
1839
William Henry Fox Talbot communicates his process of photogenic drawing to the Royal Society. His colleague Sir John Herschel promptly renames it photography, the first new art form in centuries.
1851
The British Government awards the Royal Society its first annual Government Grant of £1,000 to be distributed for private individual scientific research.
1864
Charles Darwin receives the Copley Medal. On the Origin of Species (1859) is controversially excluded from the citation, but a speech affirms it is with that work that the public will naturally recollect the honour.
1883
Krakatoa explodes killing an estimated 40,000 people. The Royal Society solicits observations from the public and letters pour in from many nations describing this global phenomenon.
1894
William Ramsay and Lord Rayleigh agree to research atmospheric gases in the aftermath of a Royal Society lecture. Ramsay discovers argon, helium, neon, krypton and xenon in a research tour-de-force.
1904
The Society’s Tropical Diseases Committee begins to research malaria and other ailments, particularly in Africa. As a result, Sir David Bruce elucidates the role of the tsetse fly in sleeping sickness.
1919
Astronomers confirm general relativity theory to the Royal Society using observations made during the total eclipse of this year. Albert Einstein is elected to the Fellowship in 1921.
1932
James Chadwick detects the neutron, and publishes his findings with the Royal Society. Soon, neutron bombardment of uranium will release the power of the atom.
1936
Sigmund Freud is elected to the Fellowship.
1953
Francis Crick and James Watson determine the structure of DNA, detailing their breakthrough in a paper to the Royal Society. It is the secret of life, radically changing science for decades to come.
Allan MacRae says:
March 24, 2012 at 9:33 pm
Early days of the Royal Society
1768
The Royal Society backs an expedition to observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti. The vessel Endeavour, commanded by Lieutenant James Cook, reaches Australia and New Zealand.
That reminds me – there is a transit of Venus this year, on the 6th June.
Allan MacRae says:
March 24, 2012 at 8:29 pm
“One of the many immoralities of global warming mania is the needless fear that has been deliberately caste into the minds of children and those who care most about them. This tactic was morally wrong , even when the claims of dangerous manmade global warming had some limited credibility.”
The moral wrong perpetrated against children in the name of climate science is so large and so grave that it staggers the imagination. The Left sees children as weaker useful idiots who can be programmed to become stronger useful idiots.
intersesting point made above. Maybe they are not scientists any longer. As we all know, the Union of Concerned Scientists is entirely political, with a smattering of people educated in science, but who do nothing but lecture Matt Lauer and other media idiots on ‘science’ that is nothing of the sort.
This just makes me sad. The Royal Society is (was) such an august body. So many (real) Nobel laureates have explained there findings here. Did you know that the first one-way street in the world was created there after the traffic jam that arose when Pierre and Marie Curie presented their findings on Radium. That was before the days of motor vehicles.
Now they were real scientists and it cost them lives to make that discovery. Nowadays scientists give up if there’s no money or fame in it.
Monckton is right, we stand on the edge of a new Dark Age.
Judging from the cliches, it sounds like the conference would be an ideal occasion to play this game.
http://www.lovelyjane.btinternet.co.uk/bullshit.htm
I want the geologists out there to confirm that we have entered the anthrop (sic) era. I hadn’t read that, and didn’t know. Who knew? Not me.
Just for kicks, what is the typical time span of a typical geologic era? A few thousand years?