UPDATE: Is is now totally unraveled. The person related to the culling license speaks out, see below.
I feel there will be more crow pie coming on the menu for David Appell and Nick Stokes.
Simon from Australian Climate Madness writes:
This is turning into the story that keeps on giving. After yesterday’s revelation that the one possible “threat” was actually an innocent discussion about culling kangaroos, now Legal Affairs editor Chris Merritt writes in The Weekend Australian:
Media Watch eyes climate scientist death threat claims
AFTER triggering a global news event with reports about death threats against climate scientists, the ABC and Fairfax Media are under investigation by Media Watch after a central plank supporting their reports was found to be non-existent.
Before the flaws in their reports were revealed, their versions of the truth had been picked up by Britain’s The Guardian and the scientific journal Nature.
The critical error in their reports, which has been revealed by The Australian, is that emails held by the Australian National University that were supposed to outline death threats against climate scientists have been independently assessed as containing no death threats.
Those emails were made public on Tuesday after a long Freedom of Information campaign by blogger Simon Turnill.
Full story here
============================================================
UPDATE: On the website “Catalaxy Files” and in comments on WUWT below, the person who is at the center of the alleged “death threat” months before the other emails, identifies himself. Link.
Read it from the beginning here: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2012/05/10/the-dog-ate-my-death-threats-with-garcinia cambogia-ii/
Here’s the comment left on WUWT:
I feel I can now throw some light on the matter. The document viewed as most “threatening” referred to an alleged Deliberation at the ANU about climate change in the Canberra region at which one person “made a death threat” (sic) by showing his gun licence and boasting about his skill as a sniper.. Only two people dropped out of the conference only one of those who did so attended the even meal. Me. I am certainly the one who is alleged to show someone their gun licence. That is not true while at the evening meal (of poor quality) comments moved to eating game meat and I was approached by the Commissioner for the Environment ACT, Dr Maxine Cooper who recognized me as someone involved in the kangaroo culling program in the ACT. She politely asked if she could sit at the vacant seat next to me and asked if I had past the recent licence test – not easy. I replied yes and showed her my current licence. I also impressed on any one interested the high standard of marksmanship necessary to allay any cruelty concerns. I might add that earlier in the day I had challenged two speakers to comment on a letter in the Canberra Times that claimed that temperatures had not increased in the Canberra area for decades. They were unable to do so, having not apparently checked the record despite the the “Deliberation” (conference) supposed to be about rising temperatures in the Canberra region. As all daytime conversations were recorded (we all signed waivers to allow this) this can easily be checked.
I note Readfearn has commented on the “death threat at the conference” in Crikey ,com. He got one thing right I did leave of my own accord. When meal had finished and a piss poor meal it was.
Gail Combs says: May 12, 2012 at 2:26 am
Gail, suggesting that Maxine Cooper “set up” Mr. Coochey is quite a stretch. It sounds like two acquaintances having a chat at a public venue. As I read this, Mr. Coochey himself didn’t know that he had been the inspiration for one of the “death threat” incidents until the e-mails were released. It’s entirely likely that Dr. Cooper her self still has no clue of her role in this farce. It would be nice if she would take the time to come forward and corroborate Mr. Coochey’s version of events.
It would seem, however, that Mr. Coochey himself disagrees with your categorization of Maxine Cooper (see the comment just below yours).
Mr. Coochey, thank you very much for coming forward. Your meal at the Deliberative Democracy meeting may have been tasteless, but your recounting of the experience is just delicious.
from page 6 of the report linked at Catallaxy:
“The second departed after feeling frustrated that he could not get his views across to the group (and was very unfortunately subjected to special attention by the comedy act that was intended to provide the opportunity to decompress at the conference dinner after a demanding first day).”
http://deliberativedemocracy.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/working_papers/CCPSPartReport.pdf
go to page 28 of the report, at the bottom of the Timetable for Day 1, to see the comedian considered suitable for this august occasion was Rob Quantock:
Oct 2009: reportage/enviro: Emergency call from Parliament House
Photo Caption: Rob Quantock, Melbourne comedian and fervent supporter of the climate action movement, entertains the crowd
The afternoon of free entertainment around 350 Day of Global Action featured Melbourne’s funnyman Rod Quantock, in a play, Gamble with the Climate which highlighted the urgent need to reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere from the unsafe level of 390 parts per million to under 350ppml…
ANU Professor Andrew Glikson spoke prior to the play on why 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere constitutes a safe climate, and 450 is a very unsafe climate for the globe. Andrew informed us on what the latest and best research is now telling us on the severe risk of not acting to immediately reduce carbon emissions and levels.
http://www.reportage-enviro.com/2009/10/emergency-call-in-front-of-parliament-house/
ANU hearts Quantock:
(WITH AUDIO LINK AT BOTTOM)
Oct 2009: ANU: Thirsty Work
Rod Quantock
Comedian, Writer and Climate Change Activist
Rod Quantock says, “If climate change doesn’t scare you, then you don’t get the science.” Fortunately Quantock does, and when he gives you his take on the physics, chemistry, biology, geology, palaeontology, cosmology and meteorology of climate science you’ll get it too. And then… you’ll be scared. It’s win-win. Sounds like great fun doesn’t? It’s an edgy mix of panic and hysteria. But that’s what you’d expect from someone whose comedy has been described as ‘medicinal’. In his irreverent style and clever humour has proven to be a great avenue to deliver powerful messages about the reality of climate change, water issues and possible outcomes.
This lecture was introduced by Jon Ward, Manager, Environmental Policy, Toyota Motor Corporation Australia
http://www.anu.edu.au/discoveranu/content/podcasts/thirsty_work/
Now if Michael Mann’s nickname was Skippy….
I believe they had a simple typo. I believe we have made death to paycheck threats.
John Coochey says:
May 12, 2012 at 2:47 am
I think you have overstepped the line here. Dr Cooper is a professional and capable Public Servant and I have he highest respect for her
________________________
Sorry my dislike and distrust for public servants is showing.
I voted for a US senator who deliberately lied to my face to make sure I (and those I talked to) voted for him. I am still steaming two years later. Especially when I question him after he voted for the bill I was opposed to and gave me a pathetic song and dance routine about the bill having been “changed” so he “felt” it was alright to vote for it.
Well the mails deserve being read and published all over the place. It is worth reading each one of those also in conjuction with John’s post above:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/05/11/death-threats-against-climate-scientists-story-deader-still/#comment-983046
It is revealing how important is to have the FOI process in place and also how do warmist transform reality:
https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/www.moyhu.org/FOI/ANU_emails.zip
Incredible stuff. We all own a lot to Simon for the perseverance he showed and clarified this against all the obfuscation, it is a great step forward in clarifying the situation:
“Those emails were made public on Tuesday after a long Freedom of Information campaign by blogger Simon Turnill.”
Gail Combs says:
May 12, 2012 at 2:26 am
YEESH,
So the woman who set him up is now Government Auditor General?? Says a lot about the honest of government doesn’t it? That is almost as bad as having a tax cheat as the US Secretary of the Treasury.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Doesn’t take too much in the way of comprehension skills to figure that Maxine Cooper is blameless in this. Ad homs chucked about willy-nilly do the realist cause no good at all, especially at a time when we’re not as firmly entrenched on the high ground as we might be.
http://hauntingthelibrary.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/climate-of-fear-terror-campaign-against-scientists-very-real/
It would be reasonable to expect that faced with FOI disclosure of 6 months of Emails, ANU, finding that they had little/no credible evidence in there to support their ‘death threat’ claims, would have voluntarily raked out any material from OUTSIDE that period in order not to look complete idiots: but wait . . .
Climate scientists are waging a campaign to change our minds, to control the message, to effect social change by claiming there is a crisis. This is just one more example of their propaganda efforts. Indeed, when reading through this, and seeing the original purpose for the meeting where the Kangaroo culling license was shown, I was stunned, absolutely stunned that scientists were there trying to do research into how to change the public’s mind about climate change. In other words, how to make their propaganda more effective. How to do social engineering on the Australian public and warp them to their cause (or is it The Cause.) Truly I find THAT part of it far more disturbing than how they self-servingly conflated innocent incidents into a crisis.
This is such a discourtesy to all kangaroos. Who are the climate “scientists” going to blame next? Mother Teresa? Koala Bears?
Climate Change: Ask an expert – public lecture Jan 2010 (Australian National University, Canberra, Australia)
0:41:27- 051:23 Dr Maxine Cooper, Commissioner for Sustainability and Environment in the Australian Capital Territory discusses what is needed at the local and regional scale
042:23 How to I communicate that to Mary and Joe in the public?….
044:27 One of the things I’m very pleased about, when I write the ‘State of Environment’ report, it has to be tabled in the Assembly- the government then has to respond to those recommendations
044:38 And in the region, I don’t have legislative power but I have the support of 17 local Councils
0:48:28 ‘How do we make it politically irresistible?
0:49:21 How do we get those changes?
0:50:12 And the most powerful change that you can do in terms of change…… is going to .. be the peer group…… is the discussions at the dinner table, the coffee shop. That will make a difference.
0:50:21 The first conference on the psychology of climate change was held in Bristol last year …………… greatest obstacle to action………….. but the denial strategies that we all adopt……… and we need to re-frame climate change……don’t talk about polar bears. …….. energy independence and potential for new enterprises, … peer pressure. ‘
Canberra, the capital city of Australia with a population of 358, 000 (public servants).
You must be very careful what you say to a Warmista. After all, they believe:
1. an extra 0.01 % of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere will cause global death and destruction;
2. that windmills can save us;
3.that someone else will pay for the windmills;
4. that anyone who questions these facts is intellectually and morally inferior.
These plainly wrong claims of threat are explicable – CAGW supporters have a propensity for detecting problems where there are none.
Unfortunately, as evidenced in the last few months, most of the press are all-too-willing to believe without question all these kinds of phantasy problems invented by the CAGW industry – CO2 harm, big bad Oil, big bad Heartland and death threats from skeptics.
Data obviously have not conformed to the death threat model, but hey, why could not they simply adjust the emails? Is it not unprofessional a bit?
Do “Alarmists” need a special gun license to shoot themselves in the foot? More crimes may have been committed than just prevarication.
The thing about CAGW fanatics, like all radical leftists, is that they will lie, lie lie in order to support their position. I’ve seen this again and again – the end justifies the means. Sometimes they just make it up as they go, to support their untenable scientific and ethical stance.
I saw this first in July 1989, when I entered East Germany on a business trip, and saw firsthand the alleged “Worker’s Paradise”… … and what a dysfunctional, repressive hell-hole it really was.
In scientific papers, Steve McIntyre has capably exposed the voodoo science of dendrochronology, and the cabal of co-conspirators who have misled us for over a decade, in their deceitful attempts to eliminate from the scientific record the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age, in order to support Mann-made global warming fanaticism.
As Earth has refused to warm, the warming alarmists have not only changed their story (Global Warming => Climate Change => Sustainability), they have even changed the surface temperature data (GISS, and recently Hadcrut4).
It is notable that NONE of the global warming alarmists scary predictions have materialized. Nevertheless, we waste enormous time and effort, as every week there are new, very-scary CAGW predictions to refute.
I propose a time-saving strategy to deal with these CAGW serial BS-er’s:
The Law of Warmist BS
“You can save yourselves a lot of time, and generally be correct, by simply assuming that EVERY SCARY PREDICTION the global warming alarmists express is FALSE.”
Regarding threats of violence and actual acts of violence, I do know of some, but all of these were directed at global warming skeptics. Dr. Tim Ball has received several death threats and has gone public. Other scientists who have been the victims of actual violence do not want their names or stories mentioned, and I must respect that – but it has been a very “dirty” war.
On a lighter note, I received a threatening email in ~2002, after I wrote a skeptical article in the National Post, accusing me of causing the flooding of Prague. I pondered this accusation for a moment, and briefly enjoyed my newfound God-like powers. “Thor, God of Thunder, Despoiler of Worlds!”. I responded to my anonymous tormenter: Dear Sir, You are correct. I am the ONE, fully responsible for the flooding of Prague. Now “run along” or I’ll do it again!
Gail Combs says:
May 12, 2012 at 3:37 am
John Coochey says:
May 12, 2012 at 2:47 am
I think you have overstepped the line here. Dr Cooper is a professional and capable Public Servant and I have he highest respect for her
________________________
Sorry my dislike and distrust for public servants is showing.
I voted for a US senator who deliberately lied to my face to make sure I (and those I talked to) voted for him. I am still steaming two years later. Especially when I question him after he voted for the bill I was opposed to and gave me a pathetic song and dance routine about the bill having been “changed” so he “felt” it was alright to vote for it.
______________________________________________________
Q: How can you tell when a politician is lying?
A: When they open their mouth.
How I wish they would “eat crow”, but you can’t shame the shameless. That’s another reason why this fight has gone political, and *Has* to be a political, rather than a scientific one. This is yet one more piece of evidence that the people pushing the AGW meme, men like Gleick, are not “honest scientists” but in fact are Frauds, Cheats, Liars, Con Artists, and moral degenerates through and through. Our efforts have to be focused on letting everyone ELSE know what they are and why we know that, not on changing the minds of the moral degenerates themselves. That will remain an impossible task.
warning the public about what they and what they want (domination and money) now remains as our highest and best purpose.
I visited Nick Stokes site and see that even some of his own supporters are not agreeing with him over it.
He he…..
How many lies will it take before we openly question how much of the work in this field is simply faked?
The release of the e-mails and the testimony of John Coochey illustrate two points. Which may be blindingly obvious to others but might be worth restating anyway.
1. Challenge everything a warmista says. Make them prove it with evidence, not opinion. Don’t be fobbed off with ‘this has been debunked’ or ‘research has moved on’ or idle references to the research literature. Get them to explain it. In public..in words that you can understand. Be polite and calm. Say please and thank you. Do not use emotive terms or insults. Act like a forensic lawyer would do. Use the rhetorical question ‘is it correct to say that…….and if not why not?’ Never lose your cool. Never get emotionally involved. Never give a warmista a simple excuse (insult, bad language, ad hom etc) to moderate/ban/ignore you. Use FoI if you have to. And publish the results in a blog. That way they are always retrievable somewhere.
The Australian guys got away without challenge for a little time. But eventually the truth was fund by a bit of dogged determination. And it was not to their credit.I suspect that many others of us believe that the truth of many other warmista myths is equally damaging. We just need to get to the bottom of them.
2. This hilarious saga shows a long trail of ludicrous misjudgement by nearly everybody involved. From the first earwigger who misinterpreted the conversation to the university authorities who suspended credulity and common sense for the purpose of a headline..and to the journos who didn’t even botheer to check their sources before making a big noise about nothing in particular,
How much can we rely upon their collective judgements when the matter is not a relatively minor one of a snippet of an overheard conversation over dinner, but on the Future of Humanity itself – or whatever guff they are coming up with today. Since I wouldn’t trust them, on this showing, to cross the road unaided without a stroller,, a nurse, a safety net and three functioning GPS devices, I fear that their pronouncements on (CA)GW will still leave me cold.
Those who know cockney rhyming slang will realise that my calling them a ‘wunch’ (*) is not meant as a compliment.
(*) From the contemporary English saying ‘A Wunch of Bankers’
I love teachable moments. Anyone & everyone still unsure about whether or not humans are destroying our climate should read the ‘death threat’ emails for themselves:
http://www.wakeup2thelies.com/2012/05/10/read-the-so-called-anu-death-threat-emails-in-full-here/
Now ask yourselves the following questions:
1. How much have these climatologists over exaggerated the impact humans are having on our climate?
2 Are these people capable of objectively evaluating scientific data and drawing rational conclusions?
3. Do you still believe CO2 is destroying the planet?
This from “Norm” at Judith Curry Climate etc. site I can barely believe it. Nature etc.. need to retract/withdraw all of Hansen’s publications!
Quote :
“Carbon dioxide only has an effect on the atmospheric window centred on 14.77microns and ranges from about 13 to 17 microns and not from 7 to 14 as stated by Hansen
How did the peer review miss this obvious error!
This and several other errors and scientifically unsubstantiated claims in this paper have contaminated the peer reviewd literature and provide a faulty scientific reference for the future research which has resulted in the mountain of defedtivet research that supports the fraudulent contention od CAGW.
Left unchecked, this has eroded public trust “.
What do you want to bet that statistically Climate Skeptics versus Climate Alarmists closely mirrors the political mores of the Tea Partiers versus the Occupy Wall Street mob? The Tea Party is smeared by the media as gun toting violent rednecks who could snap just like that, but in thousands of rallies involving millions of people there have been no incidents. Meanwhile, you can hardly rub together two OWS’ers without get a knifing or rape, much less a simple threat of violence.
No doubt, when Tony Abbott (opposition leader in parliament) forms a new government at the next election in Australia and repeals the Carbon Tax, riotously violent dissent will suddenly become a patriotic duty!
Knowing the prejudices of sanctimonious academics, simply being in the proximity of someone with a roo culling license would have been offensive to their urbane sensitivities, much less breaking bread with such an uncouth barbarian. Combine their bigotry with their sense guilt — climate academics are well aware the tide of evidence is flowing strongly against them — it’s not hard to imagine them conjuring up bilious fantasies of mayhem.
The real goon squad here aren’t the bigoted neurotic academics, but their enablers in the media who conflated what they must have known from the evidence was baseless paranoia into a yellow star to pin upon the “denialists.”
Just another Epic Fail for the grand consensus of righteousness.