As a skeptic of AGW, I and many of my peers are often subjected to scrutiny and accusations of being in the employ of “big oil”. It’s a standard line used by warmists, almost as effective at denigration as playing the race card in an argument that has nothing to do with race.
“Oh, don’t pay any attention to him, he (insert one) /works for/is paid by/is supporting/is a shill for/ big oil” is how it usually goes when warmists want to shut down a conversation.
On Twitter this weekend, a bit of sparring by Andrew Neil of the Spectator and the BBC led to one simple question by Dana Nuccitelli:
Yes, I was kind of curious also. Thanks for bringing up the question. But just as soon as the question started getting asked, we have this followup from Dana:
Stop fishing? That’s funny. Why wouldn’t he want his co-workers to know he’s got this plum gig over at the Guardian, that bastion of all things green, where he writes about the evils (and silver linings) of carbon emissions?
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/jun/11/climate-change-carbon-emissions-iea-silver-lining
His bio at the Guardian is rather sparse, listing him only as an “environmental scientist and risk assessor”: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/dana-nuccitelli
Since that bio is a bit slim, how about this one from his Linked in page:
Source: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dana-nuccitelli/7/a44/661
And who is Tetra Tech?
Source: http://www.tetratech.com/markets/oil-a-gas.html
It reads:
“We support oil and gas exploration and production, gathering pipelines, transmission pipelines, compressor/pumping stations, processing facilities, refineries, storage facilities (above ground and below ground), and rail, truck, and marine terminal import and export facilities.”
This revelation about Dana working for a company that supports “big oil” in the form of oil and gas exploration and production may very well revoke Dana’s “green card”.
And ironically, Tetra Tech is big in mining too, for those that want to talk trash about Steve McIntyre’s work in the mining industry.
Welcome to the Streisand effect, Dana.
As a follow up to this primer, you can read Andrew Neil’s essay on the issue here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23405202
Addendum: If Dana wants to argue that the reason he works for this company that supports oil and gas exploration and production, is that he believes that such things can be done in an “environmentally friendly” way while managing the risk, so that we can continue to use oil and gas in the face of the risks he talks about, I would certainly be OK with that. – Anthony
UPDATE: his response? Fingers in ears: la la la la la!
And I just laugh..
My last contract was paid out of the climate trough 🙂
I’ll take their money, but I won’t take their agenda.
I’d love to know what Scooter’s employers think of his crusade against their best interests.
Joseph Bastardi says:
July 22, 2013 at 12:06 pm
“who cares who pays him?”
Not to minimize the extreme importance of real science in evaluating Climate Science’s ostensibly scientific methods and claims, but “beating them at their own game” by applying their own rules to their own practices and standards is also fair game, especially when “mainstream” Climate Science’s whole operation so far is basically a gigantic Propaganda Machine,. aimed at manipulating perceptions and actions via tactics solely involving devious forms of thought control.
Sorry, I know this sounds somewhat ad-hom, but must we be subjected to a photo of Dana’s unfortunately ugly face each time a story appears about him? I mean, that is one unnecessary face. Enough already. Sheesh.
Seriously guys, we shouldn’t stoop to the same level as alarmists. Stop playing the man (as they keep saying). For all we know, Dana may actually be in there helping to ensure the environmental impact of TT’s clients is as small as possible (which I’m sure we will all agree is a good thing compared to open industrial scale desctruction of the environment).
At worst, Dana is a hypocrit. But in all honesty, who here hasn’t been a hypocrit at some point in their lives? Right now I’m an athiest working for a Jew and a Muslim for the Uniting Church in Australia (Christian). Yes, I’m a hypocrit, but that does not (equally) make me wrong or the church wrong.
Keep to the science:
– Models do not model reality
– Humidity does not reflect high positive feedbacks
– Deep sea measurements are patchy to non-existent
Instead of asking Dana why he works for Big Oil whilst campaigning against them, ask Dana why negative phases of ENSO/solar/PDO are causing the current plateu, but the positive phases of the same cycles can’t cause warming from 1980-2000.
“Who cares who pays him? I really don’t. If he is truthful and accurate, that is all we should care about, trusting the art, not the artist. So the pursuit of the truth as far as what is going on is what we should be after.” — Joseph Bastardi, July 22, 2013 at 12:06pm
I fully agree—at least that’s the way it should be.
But with great respect (because I know who you are, even though I’m British), that’s beside the point here, because the subject is not the art in this case but quite specifically the behaviour of the artist.
Given the unfortunate, heavily politicised environment in which this now consequently highly distorted debate on the science is taking place, it was he himself—no doubt to his regret now—who exacerbated this distortion and thereby helped to escalate it.
That’s the ugly reality here, one he brought on himself. One can choose to ignore it but it’s too much to expect others to do so, and in my view, given what’s at stake, it’s unwise too.
I’d like to be able to stand back from it, as I have tried to do for most of my life with politicking of any kind, but I can’t, not any longer.
It’s really not about who pays him but the HYPOCRISY. Dana regularly lets out ad homs about fossil fuel shills. Why should we tolerate this? This is not about polite discussion anymore, it is guerrilla warfare. I say that sometimes you have to fight fire with fire (and evidence).
Reblogged this on Anthropogenic Global Alarmism and commented:
Dana’s “green card” revoked. LOL
@chris y
I have also thought on more than one occasion that catastrophists are too ignorant, juvenile, and incompetent to be for real. This could be the actual big oil conspiracy, right under everyone’s noses.
wws says:
July 22, 2013 at 10:25 am
No.
I have a conscience.
Big Oil stands to gain big times from carbon taxes and carbon credits. It is coal and the poor that will suffer. As coal is phased out, oil companies can raise prices even further because there will be no alternative. As a bonus, they can get carbon credits for pumping CO2 into oil wells to enhance recovery.
Anyone that claims skeptics are in the pay of big oil is likely trying to hide their own involvement.
You don’t get it. The AGW hypesters *own* the public square. They barely tolerate skeptics simply because they are not sure just how to get rid of us. Think of Gleick’s experience: he was *rewarded* for being a common slimy crook by the AGW hypesters.
I wouldn’t be real keen hiring Tetra to help me with a new oil project – they might assign Nuccitelli to help me with my environmental application.
I would have what I think are reasonable concerns that Nuccitelli might not put my interests first, given his very public concern about the “damage” done by fossil fuels. I would also wonder how many other Tetra employees share his radical green views.
Many commenters seem to be missing the point. “Big Carbon” ’employs’ people like TetraTech for ‘protection’, in much the same way as the owner of a strip club ’employs’ for protection the large gentlemen who visit him with outstretched hands and some well-chosen comments about how nice the place is looking, and what a shame it would be if any of it got broken. TetraTech has two sides to its business – 1. manufacture the threat – 2. sell the protection. DN’s job is presumably to attend to the former.
@Margaret hardman
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Not sure what point you are trying to make. Private Eye magazine makes a figure of fun of all public figures, even the most ‘sacred’. If PE isn’t taking the p**s you’ve not arrived.
Let’s remind ourselves of Dana’s Amazon ‘book review’ of Montford’s Hockey stick Illusion
When challenged in the comments he opined
Tells me everything I need to know about this guy.
Joseph Bastardi
Quite right.
It may be fun to pick on the likes of Dana, but inn the end the data is the data.
Anthony: I know you suffer a lot of slings and arrows, and this is really fun, but it low brows thw whole discussion. No need to go down to their level. (Pigs like it)
Seems to me that Tetra Tech is simply following in the footsteps of Shell and BP. Whenever you go to the seat of EU power in Brussels you are confronted by huge posters from these companies encouraging EU officials to bung them lots of EU funding for sourcing “green energy”. Dana is merely part of their crusade – a useful stooge.
Fact is, as BP have found out, sourcing energy in the form of oil is difficult, dangerous and costly. So much easier to source windpower and solar energy when the purse strings are held by some dim-witted government minister with billions at his disposal and pressure to spend it on local companies. Things haven’t changed much since the days of royalty. They petition the rulers to extract taxes from the poor to funnel it towards them, so much easier than competing in the open market for the people’s wealth. Practically the entirety of Western economies seem to be heading this way since the Chinese entered the fray – so much easier to get the government to squeeze cash out of the people and force them to spend it on healthcare, defence and of course clean energy, rather than compete with the Chinese. Nobody seems to know where the people are going to get the money from in the first place, however – looks like the government is set on simply printing it.
Dana Nuccitelli’s Tetra Tech missed the contract for the Keystone XL pipeline by a nose length see this US Senate report page 11 and 12: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Keystone%20Final%20Report%20020912.pdf
The man has a good choice of companies to work for: Tetra does fossil fuels AND green energy . Equally Dana Jekyll gets paid by Big Oil, while Dana Hyde gets payed by the Green Guardian.
A full blooded response from Nuccitelli: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/jul/23/climate-change-andrew-neil-bbc-errors-take2
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/jul/23/climate-change-andrew-neil-bbc-errors-take2
It would be intersing to have informed comments about this article.
Julian,
I’m guessing but maybe your second link was intended to be to Andrew Neil’s blog:
Global warming: Andrew Pendleton and James Delingpole.
ferd berple says:
July 22, 2013 at 6:05 pm
“Big Oil stands to gain big times from carbon taxes and carbon credits. It is coal and the poor that will suffer. As coal is phased out, oil companies can raise prices even further because there will be no alternative. As a bonus, they can get carbon credits for pumping CO2 into oil wells to enhance recovery.”
Oil is one of the commodities where the TBTF banks now have a near monopoly over the commodity trade. Coal is undermining their attempts at gaining complete control over energy prices – too many miners in all continents. Coal is also more difficult to warehouse. Warehousing is important so you can create artificial scarcity.
CO2AGW climate science is a play by the TBTF banks to get into a position where they can blackmail any country.
Brings to mind a certain statement about: “drag[ging] a dollar bill through a trailer park and see what you come up with …” * only this time it’s more (like) in the “field” of “climate trolling” LOL
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(*Owed initially to James “Chester” Carville.)
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Beg to differ; this post brings forward heretofore unknown facts and underlines outright hypocrisy and perhaps even provides the insight (background and understanding) for more than just a touch of exhibited “projection” …
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Probably not in this lifetime; the climate mafioso protect their own, verily, it is a racket.
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