PRESS RELEASE August 2, 2012
Contact:
Matt Dempsey Matt_Dempsey@epw.senate.gov
Katie Brown Katie_Brown@epw.senate.gov
Inhofe Exposes Another Epic Fail by Global Warming Alarmists
Photo Posted by KFOR and Think Progress
The dumpster fire that caused the melting lights
Photo Provided by KFOR
Link to Think Progress Blog Post
Link to Watts Up With That: Alarmist fact checking – street lights don’t melt at 115°F
Washington, D.C. – Today the far-left blog Think Progress posted a photo (originally posted on KFOR’s facebook page) of street lights in Oklahoma that had melted, they claimed, because of extreme heat. Global warming alarmist Bill McKibben took to Twitter immediately to publicize what he believed to be proof of global warming, tweeting to Senator James Inhofe (Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, “Senator Inhofe, God may be trying to get your attention. Check out this picture.”
Not long after the picture surfaced, Oklahomans posted comments on Think Progress’ blog saying that these lights had melted due to a fire – which makes sense considering that the two front lights were melted while the two back lights remained unscathed. Once this news came to light, Think Progress immediately removed the post and provided an update that reads: “After we published this piece, we saw reports from people on the ground in Stillwater that the melting streetlights were due to a nearby fire. The person who took the photo, Patrick Hunter, described the scene: ‘Being the person that actually took this photo, I’d say that this was due to a fire semi-close by coupled with the unbelievable heat we are experiencing.’ Still an amazing photo and not fake as many are saying on here. Enjoy!”
This afternoon, KFOR confirmed that the melted lights in the photo were not caused by hot temperatures but a nearby dumpster fire.
“Poor Bill McKibben – he’s been trying to get something to melt for ages but it keeps backfiring,” Senator Inhofe said. “These alarmists never learn their lesson. Remember Bill McKibben was the one who was going to melt a giant ice sculpture in the shape of the word ‘hoax’ on the national mall, but his group had to cancel because there wasn’t enough interest. Now, after proclaiming that street lights in Oklahoma are melting because of global warming, we have confirmation that a fire caused this scene.
“Amid the resurgence of hysteria from my friends on the left, I appreciated climatologist Dr. John Christy who testified this week before the Environment and Public Works committee saying that instead of proclaiming this summer is ‘what global warming looks like’ it is ‘scientifically more accurate to say that this is what Mother Nature looks like, since events even worse than these have happened in the past before greenhouse gases were increasing like they are today.’
“This isn’t the first time alarmists have tried these stunts and it certainly won’t be the last – when will they finally realize they’ve lost this debate?”
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“Senator Inhofe, God may be trying to get your attention.” First post
and I been lurking here for years. I’ve read all the posts, too. AGW is
a serious topic with serious comments, right up there with religion.
It’s said we are all made in God’s image. I tried to melt the cover on
a street light and staring at it hard as I could I failed. Now I’m depressed
while waiting for one of you commenters to throw a few hysterically
funny words about the absurd tweet from Bill Mc Kibben. Please. I have
a glass of beer and a roll of paper towels when I spew wash and dry my
monitor and keyboard. Please advise Josh or Fenbeagle to handle the
visual art. Thank you. JMS
‘Being the person that actually took this photo, I’d say that this was due to a fire semi-close by coupled with the unbelievable heat we are experiencing.’ Still an amazing photo and not fake as many are saying on here. Enjoy!”
===============
Enjoy, what ?
The utter collapse of credibility ?
Done.
Just goes to show.
Bill McKibben has cooked his brain with all his overhyped AGW/CC beliefs. He needs a vacation to cool off in the nearest funny farm.
That’s what I thought … but, no, it looks like he’s serious. 🙁
I have a suggestion for meatheads on both sides of the issue, it’s called civil discourse.
I’ll skip the rest of the sermon. Bah Humbug! A pox on all their houses.
Since the alarmists are unlikely to fact check any piece of evidence purported to demonstrate dangerous, unprecedented, man-made climate change, as shown by the melting streetlight example, the “drowning polar bears” example, the Himalayan glacier example, etc., maybe we can organize a kind of honey pot sting operation by flooding the web with obviously bogus, staged photos and stories of “unprecedented” warming events to see how many Bill McKibben and friends will pick up and run with. Then we point and laugh.
Warmists are still claiming (connecting the dots) the melted lights are a result of man-made global warming. High temps. (because of humans ) caused the dumpster fire which caused the lights to melt.
High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) is the plastic that these covers where made of. Sustained,continous(yeah,I know it’s the same) heat of 110*C/230*F without melting or deformation of any kind. I guess the McGibbon(isn’t that a monkey breed) and at least one of his Gibbonites (Grimsrud),either failed chemistry,or can’t do a Google search,OR,have just drank to much Kool-Aid(TM).
And for at least 4 billion years,heat has been causing ALL fires,pipples.This one has a name,spontaneous combustion(Google that,McGibbon).
So this is flaming rubbish?
The left\green extremists scraping the bottom of the barrel, or should I say dumpster?
If I were Bill McKibben I would take a very long walk on a very short plank and hide my face for ever.
To paraphrase McKibben: I think God is giving a signal to the warmists that they are all stark raving………….
Just another microclimate.
Hey! Proof of Catastrophic Manmade Warming, albeit highly localized. Didn’t even make it to the next two lamps. (Dang! I just realized that if CO2 levels would have been much, much higher, there would have been no fire at all.)
_Jim says:
August 2, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Think Regress headline: “UPDATE: In Oklahoma City, It’s So Hot And Dry There’s Mandatory Water Rationing”
No they’re not; those are watering restrictions .. watering even/odd street addresses and certain days of the week on account of increased DEMAND by citizens to keep lawns green!
=============================
Jim, 7 out of every 10 years we have the same water restrictions. It is the norm for us. While getting this drought two years in a row has dropped the lakes that supply most of the local water supply sucks. As soon as the heat dome gets pushed off we will get rain again. Stupid super La Nina….
http://think-progress.tumblr.com/post/28562214038/wow-its-so-hot-in-oklahoma-that-the-streetlights reports a correction, saying “Correction: The lamp was standing pretty close to a recent fire, so it’s likely they didn’t melt from the heat.”
Only ‘”likely” they didn’t melt from the heat?’ So they are not ruling that possibility out!
The drought wouldn’t be so bad if some tropical storms or hurricanes would’ve moved up that way and dumped rain in recent years. Weren’t we supposed to have more frequent and more severe such events?
The melting point of glass is 1425 degrees Celsius… I’m not sure of the temp that it becomes plastic and deformable, but it would have to be up around 1000 degree C.
Yet McKibben didn’t pause for breath, didn’t reflect on what he was looking at. Didn’t engage his skeptical mind…. He just believed because he wanted to.
Let’s hope this little lesson in humility will give him pause now when heating claims are made about the climate….. Maybe he will engage his skeptical mind and ask some pertinent questions.
From Yahoo News: (after they reported the original story)
“Still, that dumpster fire was caused and aggravated by the record heat and dryness. And if dangerous, spontaneous fires aren’t reason enough to go green, we don’t know what is.”
@Theo Goodwin says:
August 2, 2012 at 4:21 pm Theo, as you know, based on your many thoughtful posts here, the “thought process” was non-existent.
It cant be a dumpster fire, because I am pretty sure that Bill McKibbed calculated the odds of that happening as being greater than the number of stars in the universe.
My dad reported two 120°F thermometers (alcohol in glass) broke one day in northeast Oklahoma during his childhood (probably that summer of 1936). On a farm, with one on the porch and one on a tree trunk. He never thought it was overly hot after that.
This year is much better than last, but it is a bit hotter. Our water supplies are stressed, but not in danger. The reason for the outdoor watering restrictions is due to pressure issues, not supply issues. When so many people are watering their yards, it is hard to have enough pressure for more important things, fighting fires for instance.
As to our Senators, I am proud of them. Also, the honorable Mr. Inhofe does it for his grandchildren, and mine. I am grateful.
Eric P. Grimsrud says:
August 2, 2012 at 3:49 pm
I actually kinda like that. I’ve seen a dumpster fire in the middle of the night, some guy lit up that paper recycling container and the flames were 6 meters high and while I was thinking about calling the fire brigade cops already arrived. According to Grimsrud that’s Nature’s Way.
Really, kinda like an eye-opener. Seeing the ways of Nature in the dumpster fires around you.
Pardon my language, but that is the dumbest sh[*]t ever.
[No, we don’t pardon your language. Robt]
Nerd –
1) Ever cared for a patient dying from metastatic melanoma? I have. Just take a vitamin D capsule.
2) You don’t know squat about the pathophysiology of coronary artery disease.
As an Okie supporter of Sen. Inhofe, I hope that he has better things to do than read the pathetic rants of Eric P. Grimsrud. Grimsrud’s understanding of atmospheric science is far below what it should be for someone with a chemistry Ph.D and long years of experience.
Yahoo News is still reporting the lamps melted due to Global Warming!
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/oklahoma-hot-street-lamps-melting-203656312.html
Truly ignorant.
@ericgrimsrud.
While the “course” you are offering is free, the level of vitrol you exhibit and your inability to consider someone else opinions and/or dissenting evidence, makes you appear to be less along the lines of “scientist with a conscience offering a free education” and more along the lines of “snake-oil salesman.”