Kenji got this in his inbox today (donation links redacted):
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UCS supporter—
It’s bad enough that climate deniers get elected to Congress.
But it gets much worse: some purveyors of disinformation sit on the House Science Committee.
Rep. Lamar Smith, who chairs the committee, wrote a recent Washington Post op-ed replete with misleading information about the science of global warming.1 Rep. Jim Bridenstine believes atmospheric temperatures have more to do with solar activity than human activity. AND he is about to introduce a bill to defund climate change research. Oh, and he wants President Obama to apologize for funding it.2
I wish I were making it up, but I’m not. We need your help today so we can continue our work mobilizing prominent scientists, armed with facts, to testify on Capitol Hill, meet with lawmakers, and speak out in the press. What we do works—but it doesn’t happen without support and resources from people like you.
Before MIDNIGHT TONIGHT all gifts will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to $125,000. Give now—time is running out!
Thank you for fighting for science.
—Kathy
P.S. Need more reasons to donate before midnight? Check out our previous message below.
1. http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/policymakers-climate-science-0383.html
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So much for the Democratic process. I wonder how UCS will use money sent today to somehow make a change to the list of people testifying on Thursday? The previous message they reference is also pretty funny. They claim Shaun Marcott was abused by ‘hate mail’ and “bloggers twisted his research” but provide no proof of it, simply linking to his FAQs on RealClimate and a USA today story about James Hansen as a reference. Pretty lame.
Here’s the previous pitch for money:
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Dear UCS supporter,
When Dr. Shaun Marcott published a groundbreaking paper showing the world is warmer today than it has been for thousands of years, climate deniers went ballistic.1 They sent him hate mail, and bloggers twisted his research.
When Dr. Joseph Skorupa’s research showed that phosphate mines were polluting waterways and poisoning trout, his supervisors at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told him not to go on The Daily Show to publicize the findings, saying: “the leadership doesn’t want you to go on and they will make your life hell,” according to Skorupa. “Part of the threat was that my colleagues would also be punished.”2 Skorupa felt he had no choice but to decline to go on the show.
The truth can’t always protect itself. When researchers get targeted, sound science can lose out to ideology and corporate agendas. The Union of Concerned Scientists helps researchers like Dr. Marcott and Dr. Skorupa, providing technical, moral, and media support.
Today, you can help even more scientists brave enough to stand up for the facts: There are only two days left to help us reach our goal. What we’re able to raise before Wednesday will have major implications for the work we can do in the months ahead.
Help scientists in jeopardy, and your online donation will be MATCHED dollar-for-dollar, up to $125,000.
When you make a tax-deductible gift to the Union of Concerned Scientists, you make a difference for science. Here are just some of the reasons why:
- You’re empowering scientists. We helped Dr. Marcott focus the media on his findings—not the false controversies dreamed up by talking heads. “I never expected this to happen,” said Dr. Marcott. “I’m glad there’s a group like UCS that can be there for scientists when they’re attacked for their work.”
- You’re helping stand up for the facts. UCS teaches scientists how to clearly communicate their research to the public and respond to attacks. And our Science Network gives 20,000 scientists and technical experts opportunities to connect with policy makers, directly impacting laws that protect our families and our planet.
- You’re protecting scientists who speak the truth. UCS members were instrumental in passing groundbreaking whistleblower protections—in part by showing lawmakers over 400 federal experts who are uncomfortable with their agency’s timid approach to censorship of publicizing the results of their science.
Will you be there for scientists who need you? The next round of attacks could happen any day—for Dr. Skorupa, Dr. Marcott, or another courageous scientist. When you give now, you’ll help them face down the insults, misinformation, and intimidation.
Don’t miss your chance. Give now to have your contribution MATCHED dollar-for-dollar, up to $125,000.
Our opponents aren’t resting—and we can’t either. Together, we’ll make sure the truth wins out. We have to—the world is depending on scientists and concerned citizens like you and me to create a healthy, sustainable future.
On behalf of all the scientists we work with, thank you for your support.
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Sincerely,
Kathleen Rest, PhD, MPA Executive Director |
1. http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2013/03/response-by-marcott-et-al/
2. http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/vergano/2013/04/06/hansen-federal-scientists-communication/2053077/
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It seems Kevin Knobloch is out and Kathleen Rest is in as president. Given the ever present drumbeat for money, perhaps the “Union of Concerned Shysters” might be a better name?
IMHO, you’d either have to be stupid or a dog to belong to this organization.
“…continue our work mobilizing prominent scientists, armed with facts, to testify on Capitol Hill, meet with lawmakers, and speak out in the press. What we do works—but it doesn’t happen without support and resources from people like you.”
So you have to pay these guys to do this? How much is it for a phone call to them?
“When researchers get targeted, sound science can lose out to ideology and corporate agendas.”
Which is all wrong of course. Researchers need immunity, and sound science must serve ideology and NGO agendas.
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Such silliness.
Even if Ryan’s “creationist” was a, for lack of a better term, “strict creationist” and had a doctorate in the field of “superbugs”, what difference would make what he believed about the origin of the superbug’s great-great-great-(add few billion “great”s) ancestor if he knew and understood the facts about current superbug?
Should NASA have ignored input or fired any “rocket scientist” involved in the Apollo program simply because he believed God put the Moon there?
I’m sure Monckton would know the Latin name for the logical fallacy you are trying to employ. I don’t but it’s plain to see. What Dr. Spenser believes about the origin of the laws of nature has nothing to do with knowledge and understanding of them regarding “Climate Change”.
Bill Parsons says:
July 17, 2013 at 2:09 pm
That would be Robert Schumann’s composition for piano “The Happy Farmer, Returning From Work”, from his 1848 work Album for the Young, Opus 68 – absent the chorus, of course,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Wing_%28song%29
Like most songs, it sounds a bit like plagiarism…exclamation mark!! 🙂
A sweet song, nonetheless. Nothing is completely original.
Well according to a recent study of USA Physics PhD graduates, 65% of them will never get a real full time job as a physicist, and are doomed to be post doc fellows at some institution or other, until their retirement. Evidently , climatology is a favored gig, since it isn’t expected that you will prove any climate effect, in the short time scale between graduation and retirement; no deadlines to meet really.
So have Kenji send money, since these folks live off grants.
“””””…..Per Strandberg (@LittleIceAge) says:
July 17, 2013 at 10:15 am
I always find it fascinating while looking at the academic background of people who act as experts in climate science.
Dr. Rest earned her doctorate in health policy from Boston University and her master’s degree in public administration, with a focus on health services, from the University of Arizona.
Need I say more. But, hey she’s a doctor……”””””
Well Dr Laura is a Doctor too; she has a PhD, and no she doesn’t know anything about climate.
She gets her kicks listening to perfect strangers tell their darkest secrets, they would never tell their own mother.
After all this time they still spew out the phrase “climate deniers”. It’s like negotiating with zombies.
Kenji has more brains than the whole rest of their membership.
Maybe Dr Kathleen Rest personally utilised the standard communist ploy of horizontal recruiting to get Kenji to join?
Mr Green Genes says:
July 17, 2013 at 12:19 pm
I’m not going to get involved in the politics of another country; you US guys can do all that’s needed for yourselves…..
I hope so, but with Obama in the White House for a few more years, it’s going to be a huge struggle.
Meanwhile, back in the UK….
For much of my life I was set to be a lifelong Conservative voter, but no more. I will never vote for a party whose policies are designed to push up the price of energy. It would be immoral even if the most exaggerated doom mongering were true. Far more people are killed by the cold than by heat, and as energy prices remorselessly rise in the name of the global warming cult, more and more old and relatively poor people will die because they can’t afford their energy bills.
And these barking mad energy policies are based on science that is almost certainly wrong, almost laughably bad (e.g. Mann and Marcott), in some cases provably fraudulent (they seem to involve hockey sticks), and involving clear scientific misconduct (e.g. a recent study claiming the Earth was warmer than at any point since the last Ice Age, see above).
I’ll assume that people like Cameron and Ed Davey have been seriously misled by their advisers. Being a global warming zealot is probably a job requirement for these science advisers. But, bearing in mind that their energy/ climate change policies will cost anything from 400 billion to over a trillion pounds (the second figure from the Daily Telegraph business section), then I think these politicians at the top had a duty of care to make sure that the science was right. They had a duty of care to listen to both sides of the debate. They should have realised that many climate scientists have a huge vested interest in climate alarmism. When our climate change minister says the science is ‘certain’, then clearly something is wrong. Even the IPCC does not claim 100% certainty, and of course science is never certain. Even Relativity is still questioned by scientists, and rightly so.
Clearly, our politicians at the top have made no effort to understand the science (which is full of uncertainty), and yet they have committed vast resources on the say so of people with vested interests.
For this reason I will probably never forgive David Cameron.
For the foreseeable future I’ll be voting UKIP. I agree with them on Europe and, as far as I’m aware, they’re probably the most sceptical party in the UK on climate change (I have to admit that Nigel Farage’s comments about wind power are music to my ear!)
I would like to become a Conservative voter again. But there are several conditions that must be met:
1. A new leader. I would be fairly happy with Boris. Although he can be a bit of a character, he seems to have done well as mayor of London. And he has the makings of a climate sceptic, he had an excellent piece in the Telegraph recently.
2. They will have to scrap the Climate Change Bill.
We can only meet those mad emissions targets by shutting down the country. Ironically, there is evidence that wind farms have virtually no effect on overall emissions. And, if the impossible happened and we did meet those targets, what would they achieve?
Absolutely nothing. China and India are building a new coal powered power station every week. All of those huge costs and sacrifices in the name of the climate change cult would be absolutely and utterly futile.
Despite all this, I strongly hope that the Conservatives win a clear majority in 2015. That’s because, among the parties likely to be in power, the Conservative party is by far the most sceptical. A number of senior Conservative politicians are sceptical: Peter Lilley, Nigel Lawson and even Mrs Thatcher in her later years. Tim Yeo recently stated that the warming might have been natural.
But the lies and deception, fervently promoted by the BBC, will last for a long time yet and we will all pay dearly for it. I suspect I’ll be voting UKIP for a long time yet, if not for the rest of my life….
Chris
It’s hardly a the sign of a strong argument that you call for censorship and for the dices to be loading in your favour. Rather it’s a sign of a poor argument the evidenced for you know to be bad.
i hope that Kenji doesn’t even send them a dog biscuit.
Look at Ms. Rest’s picture again, and tell me that’s not a Pod Person.
These creatures are EVERYWHERE.
Last March I put in a test application for an FRSA, for convenience using the name Kim Jong Un, of Pyongyang. The RSA website promised a confirmation within 12 working days.
http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/doomed-planet/2013/07/how-to-impress-like-clive-hamilton
H/T SDA
I wish I were making it up, but I’m not. We need your help today so we can continue our work mobilizing prominent scientists, armed with facts, to testify on Capitol Hill, meet with lawmakers, and speak out in the press. What we do works—but it doesn’t happen without support and resources from people like you.
Before MIDNIGHT TONIGHT all gifts will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to $125,000. Give now—time is running out!
Thank you for fighting for science.
—Kathy
Perhaps this was the pre-edit version?
I wish I were making it up, but I’m not. We need your help today so we can continue to pay the rent on our office (continue our work) and the phone bill and my salary is due tomorrow, The bailiffs are coming in the morning to repossess the fax (armed with facts,), If we do not get the money in time the police will be here (meet with lawmakers), I will get my name in the papers and look a fool. (and speak out in the press). What we do works—but it doesn’t happen without conning money out of (support and resources from) people like you.
Before MIDNIGHT TONIGHT our bank account will be foreclosed (all gifts will be transferred (matched) dollar-for-dollar, up to $125,000 to my offshore account. Give now I cannot face another bankruptcy court—time is running out!
Thank you for fighting for my job (science).
—Kathy