This has been the most strange and unsettling week ever. Wiretaps, using the tax code as a political tool against your opponent, Huffington Post goes over to the dark side, and we witnessed the collapse of climate models ability to predict the future.
The Chinese must be laughing at our folly.
“May you live in interesting times“, often referred to as the Chinese curse, is reputed to be the English translation of an ancient Chinese proverb and curse, although it may have originated among the English themselves. It is reported that it was the first of three curses of increasing severity, the other two being:
“May you come to the attention of those in authority” (sometimes rendered “May the government be aware of you”). This is sometimes quoted as “May you come to the attention of powerful people.” (Alternately, “important people”.) Source
The icing on the cake this week is a portrayal as being one of the “Mad Men”, but given what’s been going on, one has to wonder, who really are the mad men? You just have to laugh though.
For those unfamiliar, this is a parody of the TV series Mad Men, which I have only a passing familiarity with. Apparently its about Madison avenue, sex, power, and smoke filled back rooms in the 60’s.
Unfortunately there’s no large version of the poster, because I’d surely like to print it and frame it for the sheer hilarity of it. It’s like somebody did a Vulcan mind meld with Mike Mann, and this was the image that came out. Of course, I want to frame the poster, rather than burn it like some that inhabit Mann-world do.
(Update: In comments, Michael Palmer says at June 7, 2013 at 10:48 am: here is a reconstructed mostly hi-res version of the picture. My thanks to him – Anthony)
Just a couple of notes for the artist, Steve Brodner, who didn’t bother to do his homework (all he had to do was check my “about page“), but instead allowed himself to get caught up in the Mannian fantasy vortex. For example, recall how Mike Mann reacted with full on conspiracy theory when I sent him a free calendar for Christmas.
I’ve met some, but not all of these people. As far as I know, none of them smoke. I asked Joe Bastardi yesterday whether he smoked or not (given his bodybuilding I highly doubted it) and he replied “only when I’m on fire!”.
For the record, both of my parents died of smoking related illnesses while I was young, and my severe hearing loss is connected to ear infections (and treatment by an ototoxic
drug) due to growing up in a smoke filled household. Smoking adversely affected my life, and made life choices for me that I didn’t plan. To portray me as embracing smoking is particularly unkind and most certainly inaccurate. But, that’s what happens when you live in The Mad Mad Mad World of Climatism.
While the cartoon is funny, the smoking portrayal does bother me a bit about this cartoon, because it is personal, and the artist of course is just another low information sap who works with popular memes. But, that smoking meme all part of the ongoing comparative smear to tobacco company tactics that Mann and Co. like to push, because after their own failure of the alarmist public relations strategy, all they have left now is denigration. Maybe they need to watch that “Mad Men” show for tips.
Oh, and also for the record I’ve also never gotten any money from big oil, small oil, Olive Oyl, Kochtopus, or the American Petroleum Institute, nor am I on the payroll (nor have I ever been) of any such organization. What you see is what you get, some advertising on the blog and the donation button on the right sidebar.
Finally, I don’t “deny” climate change. Most certainly the climate has changed over the last century. My view is that while CO2 has an effect, it isn’t as bad as being portrayed and it certainly isn’t living up to the expectations of the climate models. Like many eco-causes, it is over-hyped to get emotional churning which panders to the gullible.
Yes, we live in interesting times.
UPDATE: I’ve asked Steve Brodner on his blog (where he talks about the artwork) for a full sized copy. We’ll see how he reacts. I’d really like to get one. – Anthony
wws at 9:03 am
The implication, of course, is that climate skeptics are nothing but very clever marketers…
Of course, unfortunately, the exact opposite is true.
We are a ragtag group that puts up close to zero ads. Even the Heartland Institute doesn’t do much on that front. In contrast, the govt and academia and especially wildlife groups are putting up ads constantly. Millions of dollars are dropped on pro-AGW campaigns almost on a monthly basis. They have a huge amount of funds and organization, we have neither.
But we must remedy this disparity. And don’t think we don’t need marketing. Just because THEY taunt us for our clever (non-existent) marketing doesn’t mean we should shy away from marketing. They are doing it like experts, and that’s why for years they have controlled the game.
The evidence is on our side. There is nothing unusual about current temps (the hockey stick was debunked), and there is no demonstrated causal correlation between CO2 & temps. And we have Hide and Decline and so much more. Go to town, with ads… to change public opinion. Good ads will be largely self-financing, as conservatives would give $ en masse. An expert campaign would change public opinion in our favor, and make the difference in so many elections (it might have saved Romney if we had done a campaign circa 2011). Go to it (somebody?).
Response from Josh eagerly anticipated….
…I’ll surrender my climate denier card, but I’m keeping my secret Koch message decoder ring.
I would say that the 12 pictured in the image represents a consensus.
On Steve Brodner’s site, 1500×960 version available, 490 KB JPG, see details below.
http://stevebrodner.com/2013/05/30/the-mad-men-of-climate-denial/
“Vest pockets” is an early attempt at the concept, available there.
This link is the large picture, but just the pic, no text or text boxes added yet, link is tiny thumbnail on main page.
http://stevebrodner.com/wp-content/gallery/editorial/mad-men-of-cc-1500p.jpg
Back at the story, there are assorted large-size pieces with the text, from the published final version, but it’d be a challenge to do much with them.
Contest Suggestion!
Since the “blank” is currently available, how about a fill-in contest? “The League of Extraordinary Defenders of Science” or something.
Bonus points to whomever can photoshop out the smokes so there’s a “cleaner” version to work with, scattered applause if you transform them into California-approved medication vaporization systems.
You are right but both Laozi and Zhuangzi didn’t phrase things that way. They never indulged in explicit curses.
Western version:
Laozi version:
You have the spirit of Daoism right. One lives longer and more contentedly if one does not seek out interesting times. If one understands one’s situation, one manages to be elsewhere when interesting times happen. If one does not understand one’s situation, one walks in the door just as the s*** is hitting the fan.
here is a reconstructed mostly hi-res version of the picture.
REPLY: Excellent work, thanks – Anthony
I am not sure who A.Watts is in the picture
must be the one on the left with the cigar?
Perhaps somebody can enlighten me.
Anyway, either way, we are in a cooling period,
with temps. falling globally just about anywhere,
despite of who says what,
except those who get more clouds in a cooling period,
Anyway, either way,
http://blogs.24.com/henryp/2013/02/21/henrys-pool-tables-on-global-warmingcooling/
shows where we are going
http://blogs.24.com/henryp/2012/10/02/best-sine-wave-fit-for-the-drop-in-global-maximum-temperatures/
It could be we are falling into a little ice age’
but I am counting on our ingenuity \
to prevent us falling into that trap….
I don’t see you portrayed as smoking in that image. You’re just holding a glass. And apart of that, it wouldn’t be a good parody of Mad Men if people in the image weren’t smoking.
I wonder why Roy Spencer and Judith Curry are missing in that picture.
I like the most of the picture. The only thing I don’t like is the red rectangle because I don’t see any truth in what’s written there.
The reference to Mann assuming a conspiracy with respect to your work is interesting. According to a “study” featured on Mother Jones at
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/06/conspiracy-theorists-also-doubt-climate-science
and found at this link
http://websites.psychology.uwa.edu.au/labs/cogscience/Publications/LskyetalPsychScienceinPressClimateConspiracy.pdf
conspiracy theorists are most likely to “deny science,” and vice versa. I skimmed the paper but decided it was a bit oriented toward proving a previously held belief and not within what I consider my scientific curiosity space. It may be that the paper is what psychologists call projection, I think, in which people project their own psychological processes onto others.
In any event, the conspiracy reference caught my attention. One thought that did occur to me is whether the Lewandowsky paper (and the 97% paper) would be called “climate science” and included in future studies of “consensus,” but the circularity of the process gave me a headache and I stopped thinking about it.
Holy crap. Never saw that article before. Is there any follow-up perhaps identifying the NeoCommunist photoshopper? And it is not even a good ‘shop at that.
I was hoping to read through the comments to see if anyone flushed out the details, but I guess the Telegraph didn’t allow them back in 2010. Anyone else have any leads?
Love the background picture of the smoking chimneys – or are they the burnt out remains of wind turbines? Heh-heh…
And before I read anything about your smoking habits I realised that showing seven out of twelve people smoking in a group is a bit OTT.
So apparently, you 12 deniers (see-through stockings, all of you!) are drunken, smoking, ‘industrialists’ who wear bad suits. Yeah…that’ll persuade me to the cause.
The poor fellow obviously can’t draw thumbs very well. Therefore he hides most of them. It will take a FOI decree to find them.
By the way, Anthony, it was partially do to you that I quit smoking. Thanks.
REPLY: That made my day – Anthony
Cigarettes! I think it’s time we hit back.
The BBC Pension fund, as at 31 March 2012, had investments in the following tobacco companies:
British American Tobacco
Imperial Tobacco
Reynolds American
Altria Group
Philip Morris International
Al Gore, the climate change campaigner, has been quoted in 1996 by the New York Times saying:
Earlier in the same article the New York Times said:
—
In 2007 the Union of Concerned Scientists issued a report called “ExxonMobil’s Tobacco-like Disinformation Campaign on Global Warming Science”.
The Union of Concerned Scientists has in the past received funding from the Grantham Foundation, which is bankrolled by hedge-fund manager Jeremy Grantham. At the time of the funding the foundation had holdings in tobacco giant Philip Morris. In August of 2011 his fund owned millions of shares in fossil fuel companies such as Exxon Mobil.
—
One of the founders of the wildlife and climate campaigning WWF is Dr. Anton Rupert. The now deceased Dr. Rupert made his fortune from the cigarette manufacturing company called Voorbrand, re-named Rembrandt, now consolidated into Rothmans.
Ref: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1508360/Anton-Rupert.html
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/tag/tobacco/
Big Oil! Fossil fuel funding! I think it’s time we hit back.
Actually Most of Brodner’s pictures are available in many different sizes. The folder seems to have no security-
Index of /wp-content/uploads/2013/05
http://stevebrodner.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05
Kind of interesting (pun intended), the Wikipedia article lists that the third Chinese curse is supposedly: “May you find what you are looking for.” and at the bottom of the page Wikipedia has a clickable question: “Did you find what you are looking for?”
If you click “no” it offers you the opportunity to supply feedback, but then advises that feedback is not accepted.
Is this a wikijoke?
Skin thickness is highly and directly correlated to self-confidence.
I included it my patriot post article this morning
http://patriotpost.us/opinion/18551
Opposite time in the bizarre world of AGW.
I explained climate change denial is absurd. we all believe in climate, the climate is always changing, so its redundant. The denial is with them because when the globe stopped warming, they had to change their attack, since actual facts put them in denial
But here is what really got me. How is Anthony there looking like a face that should be on a Roman Statue and after 35 yrs of bodybuilding and 7 of wrestling, 3 at PSU, I look like the winner of the Nucky Thompson from Boardwalk Empire Look alike contest? Geez that hurts.
Maybe Steve Bescemi plays me in the movie.
Don’t you guys get it, there IS a consensus, not 97%, not 98%, 100%. Every single reputable climatologist agrees that the earth is warming dangerously and that we need to stop our emission of CO2 in order to save the earth. Any climatologist who disagrees is not reputable. See, just make sure the definition is correct and viola, perfect consensus.
Now go back and repeat the same process with every other viewpoint that we disagree with.
Roy Spencer says:
June 7, 2013 at 10:27 am
“…I’ll surrender my climate denier card, but I’m keeping my secret Koch message decoder ring.”
You know, if the Koch Brothers buy the LA Times (and I hope they do), you can be the official climatologist for their weather page!
For me, the irony is that it is the AGW promoters who have meeting after meeting on how to promote/sell/market their brand. It is not skeptics engaged in systematic marketing campaigns or hiring pr firms. It is the AGW opinion leaders who are doing exactly what the artist accuses skeptics of.
@ur momisugly Jimbo says:
June 7, 2013 at 11:19 am
Yup. Climate change mafia have shaken Big Oil down for much of their funding. It’s all about the funding, which is why Mann’s knee-jerk reaction to Climate Audit was to ask where their “funding” came from. The thought of doing real science for no remuneration never even occurred to the money-grubbing low life.
Waaaa! I’m in the spam bin again. And it was such a neat idea, too… . Oh, well. I had fun thinking it up, anyway. (No, it was not obscene — I even spelled Enviro-n–s weirdly)
Or, perhaps, something more sinister has happened, Mr. Morrow! (o_o)