UPDATE: 5/30 8:45AM After we pointed it out Romm has now snipped the ugly part of the comment seen in the screencap below, it only took him five days to notice it with our help. The original post in entirety is preserved here http://www.webcitation.org/682NzGF0b – Anthony
UPDATE2: 5/30 3PM Reuters has issued a correction, removing the 2050 reference and replacing it with (towards the end of this century) See http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/05/30/co2-iea-idUKL5E8GO6B520120530
UPDATE3: 5/30 4:3oPM In response to being called out, Romm issued one of his usual jihads, insinuating with the help of Eli Rabett aka Dr. Joshua Halpern that everybody else is stupid but him, and that we really will all roast. He trots out his favorite predictive Wheel-of-Climate! again.
It’s a laugh riot. But Romm didn’t start questioning the story until AFTER other people started to question it, and he passed it on with no caveats in the original post, archived here. He did make a note in comments saying “I meant to post that 2050 is obviously a mistake by the reporter.” but never actually did make any caveat in the main body of the post until he found himself embarrassed by it all. He also deleted (5 days later after we pointed it out ) the ugly commentary about death wishes for “coal/oil people” (see below).
The level of noise today is telling, much like the “voodoo science” claims of Pachauri. – Anthony
This is sad. Joe Romm promotes another overt fabrication, and some poor kid writes in despair, hoping all the “oil/coal people” here die “a horrible death, preferably caused by climate disasters”. If that were sent to somebody at ANU, it would by the Appell/Stokes rule, be declared a “death threat”. Since it’s on Romm’s site, the poster gets sympathy and counseling instead of admonishment. See below.
First, Romm’s reporting of an overt fabrication of 11°F temperature rise by 2050 by Fatih Birol.
The claim of 11°F comes from this Reuters news article . It cites Fatih Birol, the chief economist of the IEA, who says:
“When I look at this data, the trend is perfectly in line with a temperature increase of 6 degrees Celsius (by 2050), which would have devastating consequences for the planet,” Fatih Birol, IEA’s chief economist told Reuters.
Of course 6°C =11°F, and given the climate sensitivity figures bandied around by the IPCC, there doesn’t seem any way these numbers can pencil out.
Hans von Storch writes on Die Klimazwiebel that this is “pure alarmism”:
A forth interesting issue is that climate science has become irrelevant; it shows up in passing, when “limit devastating climate effects like crop failure and melting glaciers” is mentioned, and the quote “the trend is perfectly in line with a temperature increase of 6 degrees Celsius (by 2050)” is made.This is a pretty bold prediction, given that we have so far less than 1 degree warming since pre-industrial times, so that the warming must be more than 5 degrees/38 years, i.e., about 0.7-0.8 deg/decade. I consider this pure alarmism, which is related to the timing, and a misuse of scientific analysis for creating some unsustainable short term drama for the Bonn-negotiations.
I wonder if this 6-degrees claim is really from IEA, or just an addition by Fatih Birol, because is no not mentioned in the IEA’s announcement.
Even Joshua Halpern, aka “Eli Rabbet”, says in comments the claim by Birol makes no sense:
Not having a BS detector that works on himself, Romm runs with it, embellishing it with this bit of propaganda:
As Birol said of 11°F warming late last year, “Even School Children Know This Will Have Catastrophic Implications for All of Us.” If only school children ran the country.
And following his rant, we get this comment first up from a school age child:
And not one person in the thread following that comment, not Halpern, nor even Romm himself, says anything about the death wish, or even suggests to the poor kid that saying such things are unacceptable. There’s agreement in the silence. There’s no significant disagreement with the feelings of doom espoused either. It is really depressing for the lack of reality based discussion.
I have to wonder though, if this kid has ever driven or ridden in a car, or used electricity made from coal. Maybe he/she thinks such things are powered by the grace of the green energy fairy.
If the situation were reversed, Romm, Appell, Halpern, and the whole cast of haters would be all over it as yet another example of how terrible skeptics are.
Their double standard behavior is disturbing. Romm should be ashamed of himself, but he won’t be, because he’s paid a six figure salary to promote this garbage.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
It is not just 17 year olds. I know several adults who literally lie awake some nights worried about what they actually believe will be the end of life on Earth. No, it is not rational. Yes, I have tried facts, science and sweet, sweet reason on them. No, it had no observable effect on them.
Have you ever tried talking with a hypochondriac? They resent the idea that maybe they are not really sick; they get angry — really angry — that you would even suggest that they are not sick. At some level, I think that many of the CAGW foot troops are some sort of “global hypochondriac”. They place great value on the idea of the world being destroyed. They seem fascinated by the belief that we humans are destroying the planet. I don’t understand it, but it seems as if they will cling to any rationale which lets them hold on to the idea (the hope?) that the Earth is doomed.
ntesdorf says:
May 30, 2012 at 4:21 am
You only have to glance at the photo of Fatih Birol, the Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency to know what sort of a man he is. Unlike the portrait of Dorian Grey, his faults, his greed, his evil intentions, his ambition and duplicity are etched into his face. One could trust nothing at all that this man ever says.
==================================================================
As well said by P.B. Shelley:
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lips, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Wayne said: “If anyone has noticed, the skeptical side is always being blamed (…)” and (of the warmists) “They tend to be tied into drugs and atheism, no rules, no morals for them.”
Hipocrite!
Jimmy Haigh. says:
May 30, 2012 at 3:33 am
“What is happening in schools these days so that students believe this crap?”
To answer my own semi-rhetorical question: “A whole generation of liberal/leftst schoolteachers and the complete “dumbing down” of the education system, that’s what.”
If this was really written by a 17 YO, It is a girl. 17 YO boys don’t readily admit to being scared.
IMHO. This is adult written. Peter Gleick perhaps.
Jason Calley, Yes I’ve noticed this love of doom myself.
I call it Munchausen Syndrome by Temperature Proxy.
Romm is just another naked boogeyman. Immature teens have not yet mastered fear and are still afraid of the dark. They require guides if they are going to visit Romm’s house of horror. Teachers are not informed guides and are pouring gasoline on small flames. Despicable! GK
Anyone now seventeen was born in 1997/98. From then on, to the extent measurable, all subsequent years have registered either unambiguously declining or manifestly stable global temperatures.
For this misfortunate exemplar of post-modern education (sic), facts matter nothing, AGW catastrophists’ nattering “narratives” are key. As mere attitudinal prejudice rather than reasoned response, this “learned helplessness” fits perfectly with the totalitarian worldviews of such as Pentti Linkola and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, beholden to death-eating Luddite sociopaths like Paul Ehrlich, John Holdren, Keith Farnish.
[SNIP: OK, that’s a bit too far. WUWT does not condone suggestions like this and has condemned them when thay appear on other sites. -REP]
First, 17andscared, consider that the warming we have had since 1850 has been overwhelmingly a positive thing. The longer growing seasons and more benevolent weather in the developed countries has resulted in a better life for most people. Warm is, within limits, always better than cold.
Second, don’t dwell on things you can’t do anything about (I wish I could do that myself). Instead, work toward short and long term goals that you set for yourself. You are at the age when you need to decide what you will do with the first part of your working life. One goal you could set would be to go back to 9th grade composition class and learn to write properly. Based on your writing, I would never hire you. That is a far more urgent issue than climate change for you personally.
Third, the past will generally repeat itself, so let history be your teacher. Do you really think that the planet can warm as fast as 11 deg. by 2050? Question everything, look at the record, and develop your own opinions. This applies to everything, not just climate. Don’t let a self-serving scaremonger ruin you life.
“Dr. David Suzuki: I do despair. My wife and I huddle at night and weep for our helplessness. We are losing big-time and I’m enough of a scientist to see we are heading right down the tube. Judging by the past twenty years, we are going backward.”
For the rest, see:
http://climatequotes.com/2011/04/06/pity-for-david-suzuki/
Why would anyone place credence on childish prattle. These kids know nothing that hasn’t been served up to them in school. If the education (!) system is nuts, it is no wonder that the kids come up with nutty beliefs/worries.
James Sexton has it exactly right in his comment above, we live in “the Age of Stupid”.
Oh, I think that it is possible for Romm to be both ashamed and alarmist. We know what he is, and his price is 6 figures and a govt. pension.
It looks as though Romm has snipped part of the comment. But his reply is very strange:
Not advocating violence….really Joe……we will have to remember that.
Eli Rabett says:
“In the discussion there scientific sources were found by others for the 6C claim in 2100.”
And third-person speaking Eli finds that the economic portions of these simulations posited in these scientific studies reflect current European (and potential USA) economic reality to what degree????
It looks more like Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain will be praying for AGW to keep warm because they won’t be able to afford sticks to rub together for heat. But who cares about economics, MIT had a cooooool roulette wheel.
Keep in mind that most of us were also pretty naive at 17. Hopefully, this kid will eventually check historic temperatures and realize it hasn’t warmed at all in his/her entire life. And, when it doesn’t warm in the next few years they will start to realize they were had. It sometimes takes events like this for youngsters to realize that 89.341948% of all predictions are total nonsense.
Links have been provided at RR, they are to an MIT study. If you want to know why Birol says 6 C by the end of the century go buy the 2011 World Energy Report, it’s in there. The statement itself is in the executive summary which is on line.
So at the end of this, let us summarize, Romm was right, the IEA is forecasting 6C in 2100 or thereabouts. Tony was wrong (and David Appell and Hans v and several others here), no one was talking about 6C by 2050. Reuters made an error (see RR) and corrected it. Thank you for confirming my faith in Mr. Watts and his readers.
REPLY: Except, the quote exists, so obviously your “no one was talking about 6C by 2050” is just another rabett tale. BTW, Hr. Halpern, my name is not Tony, its Anthony.
It seems the 2050 date was mentioned in the IEA press release:
http://www.iea.org/press/pressdetail.asp?PRESS_REL_ID=436
So the Reuters reporter got it wrong, conflating the date for CO2 doubled in 2050 with 6C by then, instead of 6C by the end of the century. But in typical Eli-snarkbunny speak, Professor Joshua Halpern of Howard University blames everybody else here for bringing this point of nonsense to light.
And, we’ll continue to do so, no matter what Mr. Halpern thinks about it.
The IEA has a separate World Energy Outlook website, which has a section where quotes from news articles about the IEA are archived. Showing the expected wisdom of a UN bureaucracy, the new quotes arrive on Page 1, pushing older quotes to higher-numbered index pages, ensuring web links to pages with specific items will eventually die.
Currently at the bottom of Page 8 is the correct “2100” figure:
On the current Page 1 though is a good whopper from Mr. Birol (bold added):
With price reductions from technology improvements for wind and solar and expected increased energy efficiency over the coming decade, it’s going to take $4.60 then to do what $1 does right now? Is that adjusted for inflation? Is he expecting multiple economies to crash and the US dollar to be seriously devalued?
$1 now for $4.60 in ten years? Wow, that’s an impressive interest rate! How do I get in on that action?
Jenn Oates says:
May 29, 2012 at 9:32 pm
Not to mentioning encouraging a teenager to feel so hopeless about the future. If I had a student who was like that I’d be referring him/her to counseling ASAP.
_______________________________________
That is the truly sad part of all of this and the reason I Really Really hate the fear mongering in the pursuit of cash and control. How many kids lives will be ruined or ended because of this crap? How many, like my niece will decide to go to college for some sort of “ecology degree” and end up in some dead end job (straightening up other peoples houses) instead of contributing to our technical progress?
From the Fuzzy Wuzzy Bunny Rabett on May 30, 2012 at 9:09 am:
World Energy Outlook 2011 Executive Summary pdf download here.
Relevant excerpt, report page 2:
That tells us enough. The exaggerated $4+ figure comes from holding atmospheric CO2 to 450 parts per million by another daft global “carbon emissions” limiting scheme, which will never happen. The “New Policies Scenario” is looser, likely heavily weighted to “Green low-to-zero carbon” energy sources to reduce “carbon emissions”. If we do nothing than we get the 6°C.
Which brings up previous IPCC reports and Jimmy Hansen projecting temperature increases with no restrictions that still haven’t materialized. Such has failed before. Why would the IEA (and a fuzzy wuzzy bunny rabett) believe that this time those increases really would magically materialize?
John F. Hultquist says:
May 29, 2012 at 9:57 pm
17 years old? I don’t think so. 7, maybe. If really 17, he or she is unhinged.
_______________________________
You have not dealt much with kids who have been spoon fed hate and fear by the alarmists have you? I get screamed at by teenagers (and adults) all the time because I -GASP – have ponies and livestock. Unhinged is indeed the correct term but it is the adult teachers that are doing the “Unhinging”
“PETA has infiltrated our public schools, offering free lesson plans to teachers in every school, from coast to coast, under the guise of “humane education”….One such “lesson plan” was created by a PETA group called Just Choices. The lesson, The Road to Social Justice, equates racism, sexism and speciesism
PETA is also on the CAGW bandwagon
PETA to Energy Conscious Mount Sinai Schools: Going Vegan Is One of the Best Ways to Conserve Resources and Protect the Environment,
more: http://www.consumerfreedom.com/2009/03/3852-peta-turns-elementary-school-into-circus/
PETA to pay schools for Ads on school property: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/could-penn-kids-soon-be-subjected-to-peta-ads-in-school/
This same type of crap is going on in the schools in regards to CAGW. PETA is just easier to find examples of because it is more closely knit.
@ur momisugly RobRoy “I call it Munchausen Syndrome by Temperature Proxy.”
Good one! I might be using that… 🙂
Alexis says: @ur momisugly May 29, 2012 at 9:40 pm
““I hope you die and rot in hell” is a curse, which is a sin; but it is not “I hate you and I’m gonna kill you” which is a death-threat.”
________________________________
No, it’s not a curse however it is very easy to turn that type of anger and hate into a serious threat to others. Anthony already pointed out “…the Olga Cell of the Informal Anarchist Federation International Revolutionary Front has claimed responsibility for the non-fatal shooting of a nuclear-engineering executive on 7 May in Genoa…. link
This kid is a prime target for recruitment into this type of violent organization. Half of new graduates are jobless or underemployed and about 3.2 million students are expected to graduate from high school in 2011–12. How many of those jobless million are primed for mayhem by the brainwashing they have received?
This is not theoretical either. I had for years been the “target” of several “attacks” by kids recruited by PETA. A friend is fighting a multimillion dollar lawsuit most probably engineered by PETA. The attacks on me stopped a week before they managed to entangled my friend in the lawsuit and not one attack has happened in the several years since then. (Lawsuit is still on going so enough said)
The situation is darn dangerous, I just hope it does not explode into major violence.
****
Eli Rabett says:
May 30, 2012 at 9:09 am
****
Silly rabbit. Trix are for kids….
Disko Troop says:
May 30, 2012 at 5:23 am
I live in England,and was about the same age when the Cuban missile crisis happened. I can remember my parents discussing it. They were pretty worried at the time.
When I was 18 (1969), the college I was attending had a ‘One in Five(?)’ talk given by the Civil Defense people from the government. The aim was to give one in five (or whatever the number was) of the population a crash course in what to do in the event of a nuclear strike. I remember us being told to put brown paper on the windows, and the rest was basically put your head between your knees and kiss your a**e goodbye. It wasn’t so much frightening as laughable. That was when there was supposed to be a four minute warning. As somebody said at the time, some people can run a mile in four minutes.
The same sort of people as promote CAGW formed CND, and wanted us to unilaterally get rid of our (the West’s) bombs. The only thing that stopped a first strike was the concept of mutually assured destruction, but that was a very powerful incentive, and we now know what happened. That scare has, I hope, receded. (Iran notwithstanding………..)
But as HL Mencken said, government has to keep us in a state of fear. CAGW was chosen, but it appears not to be working too well. It appears they are now going for sustainability and the threat of mass extinction. Those don’t really fit the bill for scaring us all to death. It really has to be global, and involve apocalypse and megadeaths.
This pathetic 17 year old (if he/she actually exists) is just shouting this generation’s equivalent of ‘Ban the Bomb!’