McIntyre's rebuttal of Michael Mann's pants-on-fire book

Steve McIntyre is back blogging and writes (links mine):

I had also spent some time considering a response to Mann’s book. It amazes me that a reputable scientific community would take this sort of diatribe seriously. Mann’s world is populated by demons and bogey-men. People like Anthony Watts, Jeff Id, Lucia, Andrew Montford and myself are believed to be instruments of a massive fossil fuel disinformation campaign and our readers are said to be “ground troops” of disinformation. The book is an extended ad hominem attack, culminating in salivation in the trumped up plagiarism campaign against Wegman, arising out of copying of trivial “boilerplate” by students (not Wegman himself). Wegman’s name appears nearly 200 times in the book (more, I think, than anyone else’s).

Virtually nothing in its discussion of our criticism can be taken at face value. Mann begins his account by re-cycling his original outright lie that we had asked him for an “excel spreadsheet”. Mann’s lies on this point had been a controversy back in November 2003. The incident was revived by the Penn State Investigation Committee, which had (anomalously on this point) asked Mann about an actual incident. Instead of “forgetting”, as any prudent person would have done, Mann brazenly repeated his earlier lie to the Penn State Investigation Committee. Needless to say, the “Investigation” Committee didn’t actually investigate the lie by crosschecking evidence, but accepted Mann’s testimony as ending the matter. In the book, instead of leaving well enough alone, Mann once again re-iterated the lie.

Steve’s full essay is here.

One only has to read Mann’s latest whine over at Climate Progress to know that Steve McIntyre is spot on.

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Interstellar Bill
April 23, 2012 7:56 pm

Nature’s review of Mann’s book is as sickening as the latest fawning post on ‘Skeptical Science’
Their total misperception of reality would be comical if it wasn’t so prevalent in Big Govt.

rk
April 23, 2012 7:58 pm

Steve’s last sentence ‘I’m starting to feel a little better now that spring is coming. I’ll start posting again in a couple of weeks, but doubt that I’ll ever post as much as I have in the past.’ is sad…but really, inevitable. Where would we be if Steve and Barton hadn’t both stood up and said we need to examine this stuff.
I’m sure the left/catastrophist are cheered by the thought, but fortunately we have a stable of people, including this site, who will carry on…so don’t cheer too loudly Dr. Mann et al. Remember, you lost Lovelock today

April 23, 2012 8:03 pm

Reblogged this on Climate Ponderings.

Elftone
April 23, 2012 8:15 pm

I would have at least some respect for Dr. Mann if he didn’t whine so much. I mean, really… does he think that after so many “guest posts” and letters to the editor [of whichever publication published something that might have called his work into question – please fill in the blanks] that he would be taken as anything other than a pre-pubescent teenager having a hissy fit?
Good grief, doctor, grow a set, and stop taking legitimate criticism so personally. And, if you’re going go on the offensive, use facts rather than mewling. You’re up against some of the sharpest minds around. Ones who remember stuff, and can string together coherent sentences. Ones who really aren’t bothered if you call them bad names. Good grief.

Jack
April 23, 2012 8:44 pm

Mann’s audience is growing smaller. Lovelock’s admission he extrapolated too far and therefore too alarmingly also sinks the warmist’s alrms. All they are good for now is scaring politicians. However, politicians want the power and the tax, so continual feeding of the CAGW frenzy is a symbiotic relationship.
It will take massive votes denying the acquiescent politicians power and revenues to stop this self perpetuating cycle. Obama, who stood to gain millions from the CCX, must be voted out decisively. Gillard in Australia must be sent to electoral oblivion along with her party and the greens.
I guess Britain is still deep in the maw of political correctness, so it will take some doing to oust the greens from all sides of parliament. However the signs are there with voters protesting the cost of electricity and the flagrant anti environment of building wind farms.
Don’t think Spain will ever take the road to green ruin again. What the dropkick greens cannot imagine , is that when you have ruined business, then the tax revenue drops. Too simple for them to comprehend.

A. Scott
April 23, 2012 8:54 pm

Worse than a shrill small child … ‘those mean boys are picking on me…’
Remember in “Manns World” … “skeptic” = OK … but we are all “denier’s” and are the scourge of the Earth in the Gospel According to Mann ….

David Ball
April 23, 2012 9:06 pm

Wegman is being dragged through the mud because he was spot on. Most importantly on the incestuous pal-review.

Brian H
April 23, 2012 9:16 pm

Mann once again exposes himself as a mental and moral midget. McIntyre the opposite.

Lew Skannen
April 23, 2012 9:19 pm

Having read a bit of Manns little hissyfit all I can say is that the burning stick figure in the yellow picture above looks positively calm and composed by comparison.

Darren Potter
April 23, 2012 9:36 pm

“Nature’s review of Mann’s book is as sickening as the latest fawning post on ‘Skeptical Science’”
True enough, but “Mother Nature” in review, just took a dump on Mann’s latest alarmism. 😉
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/24/uk-usa-weather-northeast-idUSLNE83M00N20120424
Gore effect?

April 23, 2012 9:36 pm

…and our readers are said to be “ground troops” of disinformation.
That implies that we’re in lock-step with everything. The only military organization I can think of that would be analogous to the multidisciplinary skills and knowledge WUWT readers bring to the fight is a Special Ops regiment.

Dr Burns
April 23, 2012 9:59 pm

” Mann’s lies on this”; ” his earlier lie”; ” investigate the lie”; “re-iterated the lie.”
Steve is obviously not worried about a libel suit against him.
“Libel is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, a negative image. “

JEM
April 23, 2012 10:13 pm

I suppose I should see if I can borrow a copy of Mann’s book somewhere.
If I’m going to have to step in to his reality-distortion field, I’d prefer to do so in a way that funds its continued existence as little as possible.

Rhoda R
April 23, 2012 10:18 pm

Truth is the best defense against chages of libel – I doubt that Dr. Mann would submit himself to the discovery process that bringing suit against Steve would expose him to.

April 23, 2012 10:25 pm

From one of Romm’s followers who comments in response to Mann’s whine at Climate Progress:
” PBS News Hour is also reporting on anthropogenic climate change and interviewing Richard Alley, Penn State geoscientist, about the two-part documentary, “Earth: The Operators’ Manual,” which PBS will air this week”
With a link to the PBS Interview:
Geoscientist Bungee Jumps to Imitate Shifting Climate
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/04/documentary-series-leaps-into-sustainability.html
Richard Alley has taken an extreme leap — off a really high bridge — to demonstrate how drastically the Earth’s climate is shifting.
In two installments of the PBS series “Earth: The Operators’ Manual,”Alley, the film’s host and a Penn State University geoscientist, bungee jumps from a platform in Queenstown, New Zealand, while visiting communities around the world that are finding new ways to harness renewable energy resources and reduce their carbon footprint.

Darren Potter
April 23, 2012 10:27 pm

Dr Burns: “Libel is the communication of a statement … that may give an individual, a negative image.“
Given that definition, Libel would not be applicable, since a prerequisite would be a non-negative image.

geologyjim
April 23, 2012 10:28 pm

Glad to read Steve McIntyre back blogging again. I’d begun to wonder “What’s up with that?”
I hope he will continue. He really is one of the “Fifty People Who Matter”
Michael Mann is such a pathetic, sniveling little twit and a complete embarassment to establishment “Climate Science”. He has never directly answered a question about his research, nor has he responded to rational criticism with facts, logic, or independent corroboration. He’s a prissy bully and an intellectual lightweight.
One day, history will record the shriveling departure of this deceptive stick-maker whose main contribution to science will be as the prime example of its corruption for political purposes.
Good riddance.

Alex Heyworth
April 23, 2012 10:57 pm

Mann? Is that Quinn E. Mann? The dummy?

April 23, 2012 11:32 pm

Just visited Climate Progress and glanced at Mann’s piece…heard the lonesome whining of the wind and saw tumbleweeds blowing through the ‘ghost town’ that is their comments section.
Must be a bad feeling for the Warmists…the way it is ending. Not with a bang…but a whimper.

April 23, 2012 11:34 pm

Thanks for deleting my string of faux pas…some days I just don’t get it! 🙂

April 23, 2012 11:40 pm

Dr Burns,
I suspect the reason Steve is so relaxed about his statements or to be precise his ‘accusations’ is that an actual court of law (with powers to call witnesses and subpoena evidence)is the very last place on earth Michael Mann wants to find himself. Maybe Steve is taunting him with this very outcome in mind, let’s not forget that famous case, where it was Oscar Wilde who initiated the legal proceedings that led to his own downfall.

crosspatch
April 23, 2012 11:53 pm

Well, its a good thing nobody pays much attention to the discredited Dr. Mann these days anyway.
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,077 in Books
I think the above tells all we need to know about his influence on the public.

Gail Combs
April 24, 2012 12:15 am

Just think, Mann and Phil Jones represents the types of University Professors teaching our children….

Phil Clarke
April 24, 2012 12:17 am

McIntye is still whining about the format of a file sent a decade ago? And the inconsequential Tiljander kerfuffle? Is that it? Hardly the stuff of scandal. Or indeed ‘rebuttal’.
Meanwhile, back in the reality-based community, the EGU have awarded Professor Mann the well-deserved Oeschger medal and later this year he is to be made a Fellow of the AGU.
Compare and Contrast.

April 24, 2012 1:34 am

Phi Clarke,
I can’t tell if you are being sarcastic, or are you under the impression that the awarding of medals by the EU and AGU has any basis other than pure politics?

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