Some days, you just have to laugh. As WUWT readers know, we’ve had the Josh 2013 Skeptic Calendar done independently in the UK via Bishop Hill, and of course we gauged interest here at WUWT. Josh sent over the artwork via email which I turned into the USA version. (Note: Dr. Mann probably doesn’t realize that Josh is a professional illustrator in the UK who gives his climate caricature services to skeptics free each week, just for fun.) Last week I sent out a few free copies to some folks that I thought could really use some Christmas cheer: Dr. Mike Mann, Dr. Gavin Schmidt, Dr. Peter Gleick, and Dana Nuccitelli.
Never beyond my wildest dreams did I think it would turn into a #Kochmachine conspiracy theory issue. But then again, there’s this strange pervading idea that skeptics are well funded and well organized. Here’s what Dr. Mann Tweeted today:
If four people is “widely distributed” well then I guess we all need to revise our world view.
It gets even funnier. Here is what he posted on Facebook:
The return label says COSTCO Photo Center, not Heartland, not Koch Brothers World Headquarters, and not “Skeptic Lair”. I guess Dr. Mann really is out of touch with the common man, because all he had to do was visit COSTCO photo center to see for himself that ANYONE can create and order calendars, and have them sent to friends or family, just like I did. No Koch Brothers credit card needed.
It is really easy. All you have to do is upload JPEG images (Josh’s artwork emailed to me) and use the calendar creator wizard.
Here’s what it looks like after completion in the COSTCO photo center website:
And in answer to the question of:
“Who paid for production and shipping costs for this flashy (apparently widely distributed) Anthony Watts WUWT climate change denial calendar?”
The answer is, me. I used my personal credit card, here’s the screen cap of the order to Dr. Mann. I’ve blurred out his address as a courtesy to him:
See the “did you know” sidebar item that allows you to send orders from COSTCO.
So, I spent a whopping $15.84 to send this, and about the same for the other three. Given the reaction, I’d say my plan to spread a little good humor just didn’t work on the humorless.
Merry Christmas anyway Dr. Mann, and to you too Gavin, Peter, and Dana. (Of course none of this would be an issue if the world had just ended yesterday like it was supposed to, but I’m an optimist).
If you want a calendar, you can get one here. For the USA edition, Josh and I split the meager profit, the Koch Brothers get nothing. If you are in the UK/Europe, you can get one at Bishop Hill’s place. Or at http://www.cartoonsbyjosh.com/
P.S. Oh, I should mention, I gave one to Steve McIntyre too. Here’s (Right to Left) Steve, Mosher, Charles the Moderator, and I at AGU in San Francisco at a private dinner at COCO500 (Steve and I split the check). Note the Josh calendar on the table:
UPDATE: 9AM PST 11/23 It seems Dr. Mann’s ploy has backfired. This article is now #1 on WordPress worldwide. See the screencap from the WordPress dashboard:
I feel sorry for Mann’s family this Christmas. Not only do they have to agonise over what to buy him, now they have to factor in his over-reaction and slurs on their motivation.
On reflection, probably no different to any other Christmas for them.
More Mann propaganda:
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Weather-warnings-become-reality-4139790.php
The meme out in Warmi-la-la-land about WUWT:
I mentioned it in another blog, and a poster challenged me to deny that Anthony/WUWT was on a $90K salary from Heartland. Of course, I clarified that Anthony had initiated a project to make a valuable but nearly unusable gov’t database accessible with an open graphics package, costing about $80K, and that one of Heartland’s backers had anonymously contributed ½, $40K, the rest being raised through WUWT readership, etc. That this was a one-time event, and that not a dime had gone from Heartland to WUWT before or after. I invited him to examine the relationship of RealClimate to its fatcat PR firm owner, Fenton, as a contrast to the out-of-pocket and readership supported WUWT, or any other sceptic site.
The realities of “sceptic funding” seem to be just opaque and incomprehensible to these loons. They project their own situations and motivations — and condemn them!!
The bind moggles.
DirkH:
Maybe you would benefit from knowing more about NASA’s efforts with regard to cryospheric science.
http://giesn.uc.edu/upload/FCKeditor/2010-05/02112139.pdf
Regarding the snow-on-ice mechanism, the operative part is that it is snowing more now on both the sea ice and the Antarctic continent than in the recent past. So that mechanism is becoming more important and significant.
Got to this thread late since this morning I had to plow snow for a couple of hours for the Christmas buffet here at our club. Was further detained after filling snow plow with gas(JD 260 diesel of course!). After running ok for 15 minutes it stopped…2 hours later and fuel system drained and refilled in busy parking lot here I am…
Anthony, had I known you were sending Mikey a Christmas gift I would have been happy to donate a fruit cake!
Doing something stupid on occasion is fine, own up to it and taking the ribbing you deserve
“forming a layer that eventually freezes and becomes “snow ice.”””
Gees, I just figured out how snow turns to ice. !
Because its really COLD !!!!!!
Oakden Wolf (@oakden_wolf) says:
December 23, 2012 at 12:28 pm
“Maybe you would benefit from knowing more about NASA’s efforts with regard to cryospheric science.
http://giesn.uc.edu/upload/FCKeditor/2010-05/02112139.pdf
”
From the page:
“The program’s focus is on the use of remote sensing data to study the Earth’s cryosphere.”
Now that’s funny. The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies does all its temperature measurements with 1,500 earthbound thermometers (that is, after 4500 of them died).
NASA suddenly uses satellites? I’m cracking myself up!
DirkH
I don’t believe that GISS is strongly allied with NASA’s cryosphere program. Maybe more research is required 😉
The man has a serious inferiority complex! He thinks he’s important 🙂
T Pugh says:
December 23, 2012 at 5:32 am
I have travelled to the arctic circle sseveral times over the past 30 years and I can tell you without a doubt that the north is melting and rapidly. This web site has loads of data proving (look at the ice pages) that the planet is warming yet everyone here seems to ignore the obvious. No matter what you think or say here you will be effected by these changes. So let me spell it out for you.
You have seen all the responses so far and I have the feeling that you are disregarding them all as hand waving and bloviating by people who haven’t seen what you have seen – and you have 30 years experience of sailing in the Arctic. Unfortunately, you are making the mistake in thinking that your experience is the ‘normal’ for the Arctic. It isn’t. There is a continual cycle of large melts followed by recoveries. But I do not expect you to believe me after all I am just hand waviing like the rest. So why not read: http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/050/mwr-050-11-0589a.pdf ?
This is an archive of reports saved by NOAA. The report you should read starts 2/3rds of the way down the left column. It is a report from a Geology lecturer from the University of Christiana on the great changes his expedition have found in the Arctic in November 1922 Ninety (90) years ago:
“The oceanographic observations have, however, been
even more interesting. Ice conditions were exceptional.
In fact, so little ice has never before been noted. The
expedition all but established a record, sailing as far
north as 8ldeg21min in ice-free water. This is the farthest
north ever reached with modern oceanographic apparatus.
The character of the waters of the great polar basin
has heretofore been practically unknown. Dr. Hoel reports
that he made a section of the Gulf Stream at 81′
north latitude and took soundings to a depth of 3,100
meters. These show the Gulf Stream very warm, and it
could be traced as a surface current till beyond the 81st
parallel. The warmth of the waters makes it probable
that the favorable ice conditions will continue for some time.”
They even quote someone who sounds very much like you only he had more than 54 years experience sailing in the Arctic – and makes almost precisely the same comments as you – except a century earlier…
“In connection with Dr. Hoel’s report, it is of interest
to note the unusually warm summer in Arctic Norway
and the observations of Capt. Martin Ingebrigtsen, who
has sailed the eastern Arctic for 54 years past. He says
that he first noted warmer conditions in 1915, that since
that time it has steadily gotten warmer, and that to-day
the Arctic of that region is not recognizable as the same
region of 1865 to 1917.
You make much of the race for oil – this expedition was no different except they were looking for coal. The report says:
“Dr. Hoel, who has just returned, reports the location
of hitherto unknown coal deposits on the eastern shores
of Advent Bay-deposits of vast extent and superior
quality. This is regarded as of first importance, as so
far most of the coal mined by the Norwegian companies
on those islands has not been of the best quality.”
Plus ca change – the race to reach easy access resources was present even a century ago.
So we have reports from 100 years ago that sound almost precisely the same as your post. Its warmer than ever, there is no ice, there is a search for fossil fuel resources. Indeed, the ocean was completely ice free as far as 81:21N. Yet we know that the ice returned again after that then melted again during the 1940’s then returned again. This is a cycle slightly longer than a man’s lifetime experience. The Vikings sailed to Greenland and created large communities with arable farming for several centuries, and also had communities in North East Canada, It is a natural cycle. Those who have not learned history are unaware that they are watching a repeat. Perhaps you should read some history it can be more reliable than politicians and climate ‘scientists’ as it actually happened.
Oakden Wolf (@oakden_wolf) says:
December 23, 2012 at 1:24 pm
“DirkH
I don’t believe that GISS is strongly allied with NASA’s cryosphere program. Maybe more research is required ;-)”
I am very sure NASA’s cryosphere program will not find out anything that could jeopardize the very successful grant-grabbing enabled by Dr. Hansen, of NASA GISS fame, with his superior temperature extrapolation technique.
Or if they do, they will cover it in caveats as thick as the Antarctic ice shield.
See, that’s how much I trust NASA. You won’t convince me otherwise. Money talks. Same thing happening here in the EU, of course. 200bn of the 2013 EU budget (research and non research combined) are marked as being for “climate-related” activities.
Meaning, up for grabs by the people in the know, never to be seen again.
Ian W says: December 23, 2012 at 1:54 pm
=======================
Thank you for that post. This is the sort of post that should silence the wailing and the hand wringing over melting ice. But the global warmers always ignore this sort of proof.
“Dr. Hoel reports that he made a section of the Gulf Stream at 81′
north latitude and took soundings to a depth of 3,100
meters. These show the Gulf Stream very warm, and it
could be traced as a surface current till beyond the 81st
parallel. The warmth of the waters makes it probable
that the favorable ice conditions will continue for some time.”
Here is the reason for the present warmth in the arctic. The global warmers refuse to look past their cherished and oft-refuted AGW theory. SST is due to insolation, not the greenhouse effect. Warmer SST is not due to AGW, and this is incontrovertably so.
Steven Mosher says:
December 23, 2012 at 10:02 am
===================
I’m sure we didn’t deserve it.
But, it was a nicely worded comment.
Mann may be upset because he was planning on coming out with his own calendar to “communicate better” about climate science. However by the time the Team got done with artistic design, detailed wording, stock selection, several rounds of reviews with 97% of top climate scientists, status meetings in Hawaii, etc., etc., the cost estimates were up over $800K and he was putting together a grant application to cover it.
Thus his comment about where you are getting funding for your effort.
/sarc, in case anyone needs it.
By coincidence, my calendar arrived on the 21st. I will hang it up at work when I return.
Sigh, I own out pn MM’s FB site that I partially funded his calendar, and what do I get? my comment is deleted (and I imagine many others), and he writes:
He hasn’t learned what the latest Koch donation was tagged for (health care), I doubt he’s interested in anything beyond his own confirmation bias.
Wow, Anthony! I had no idea Charles the Mod was so cute! More pictures, please!
Brilliant Anthony!
It’ll keep his mind off the microphones we managed to have fitted to the Xmas tree lights in his office
oh… sorry
Ric Werme says:
December 23, 2012 at 3:51 pm
He… said… what? “having spent any of his 88K from Heartland (i.e. Koch Bros et al) on calendar.”?
Rotflmao, I say, rotflmao.
Hey Anthony, it is a convenient lie.
Since they’ve told it so often and their faithful flock believe it, repeating it “appears to work”.
I had a feeling CtM was younger than the rest. The Snark is strong in This One. Merry Christmas to Anthony, Charles, Willis, and everyone responsible for this great place. Happy Solstice to those of another bent, even Dr. Mann and his crew!
[I’m 7 months older than Mosh, ~ctm]
Ric Werme says:
December 23, 2012 at 3:51 pm
Sigh, I own out pn MM’s FB site that I partially funded his calendar, and what do I get? my comment is deleted (and I imagine many others), and he writes:
Michael E. Mann So Watts minions coming out to defend him against having spent any of his 88K from Heartland (i.e. Koch Bros et al) on calendar. So how did he spend the Heartland/Koch money??
He hasn’t learned what the latest Koch donation was tagged for (health care), I doubt he’s interested in anything beyond his own confirmation bias.
Oh it gets worst, they have complained to twitter that i have posted unsolicated replies to peoples accounts, so i have had my account suspended.
How low a level do they want to go?
Time to composite pictures: 6 hours
Time to add them to Costco calendar: 2 hours
Cost to send personally made calendar: $15.84
Reaction of recipient moving article to #1 in WP: Priceless
It is not just a sense of humor that Dr Mann lacks, it is a sense of proportion. Climate science is connected to the real world by statistical analysis, so this lack of proportion is more than a trivial issue.
Dr. Hook “Everybody Loves Me” verse 2&3.
It used to be a kind face was a rarity
But now I got friends coming out both ends just to visit me
But it don’t make sense ’cause my confidence has been destroyed
Everybody loves me but I’m paranoid
What ever happened to the cold cruel world I used to understand
When every road was paved with wet cement
Back when if I was hanging off a cliff you’d be walking on my hands
Somebody please tell me where all the good times went whooo