During David Suzuki’s Q&A on Australian ABC-TV, and WUWT regular Bill Koutalianos puts the fruit fly guy on the spot. Video of the interview follows. Andrew Bolt writes:
David Suzuki proves he’s pig ignorant about global warming
The very first question put to David Suzuki on Q&A last night revealed this warming alarmist’s complete ignorance of the most basic facts of global warming.
Fancy Suzuki not even knowing what the world’s main temperature data sets say about global temperatures. Fancy him not even knowing what those data sets are, even when he is given their names.
The only rational response to Suzuki’s astonishing admission of utter ignorance would have been to say to him: “Sir, you are a phony and imposter. Get off the stage and don’t waste our time for a second longer.”
Read the exchange for yourself:
BILL KOUTALIANOS: Oh, hi. Since 1998 global temperatures have been relatively flat, yet many man-made global warming advocates refuse to acknowledge this simple fact. Has man-made global warming become a new religion in itself?
TONY JONES: David, go ahead.
DAVID SUZUKI: Yeah, well, I don’t know why you’re saying that. The ten hottest years on record, as I understand it, have been in this century. In fact, the warming continues. It may have slowed down but the warming continues and everybody is anticipating some kind of revelation in the next IPCC reports that are saying we got it wrong. As far as I understand, we haven’t. So where are you getting your information? I’m not a climatologist. I wait for the climatologists to tell us what they’re thinking.
TONY JONES: Do you want to respond to that, Bill?
BILL KOUTALIANOS: Sure, yeah. UAH, RSS, HadCRUT, GISS data shows a 17-year flat trend which suggests there may be something wrong with the Co2 warming theory?
DAVID SUZUKI: Sorry, yeah, what is the reference? I don’t…
BILL KOUTALIANOS: Well, they’re the main data sets that IPCC use: UAH, University of Alabama, Huntsville; GISS, Goddard Institute of Science; HadCRUT. I don’t know what that stands for, HadCRUT; and RSS, Remote Sensing something. So those data sets suggest a 17-year flat trend, which suggests there may be a problem with the Co2.
DAVID SUZUKI: No, well, there may be a climate sceptic down in Huntsville, Alabama, who has taken the data and come to that conclusion. I say, let’s wait for the IPCC report to come out and see what the vast bulk of scientists who have been involved in gathering this information will tell us.
See those data sets here.
Like I say, a complete know-nothing, citing false claims:
STEWART FRANKS: In an opinion piece last week you wrote that the Great Barrier Reef was threatened by the increasing frequency of cyclones. Everyone watching and listening can onto the Bureau of Meteorology’s website and see that there is no increase. In fact there has been a decline over the last 40 years and no increase in the severity. Are you not, by exaggerating…
DAVID SUZUKI: That I have to admit…
STEWART FRANKS: …or even just getting wrong, are you not actually vulnerable of actually undermining your very own aim in that, you know, the Great Barrier Reef does have environmental threat, but cyclones ain’t one of them?
DAVID SUZUKI: All right. That was one, I have to admit, that that was suggested to me by an Australian, and it is true, I mean, it may be a mistake. I don’t know.
Nor does David Suzuki know what the hell he’s on about when he’s fear-mongering about genetically modified crops:
DAVID SUZUKI: Well, I mean, that is always the argument that’s made. GMOs are very, very expensive. Now, the people that need this food are not going to be able to afford it. Are we going to just create these new crops and then give them away? I simply don’t believe that’s what’s going to happen. I don’t think it is a generosity for the rest of humanity that is driving this activity.
RICK ROUSH: Actually, we are. I mean, Bt corn technology has been given away to the Kenyan State Government research people for use for subsistence farmers. Monsanto gave away insect resistant potatoes in Mexico over 20 years ago. James is working on lots of similar cases. In cases where there is no economic return, it is, in fact, being given away and they’re not so difficult to develop. When I was at Cornell, we got a gene that was a gift from Monsanto for experimental purposes. We made broccoli plants that were resistant to attacks of Dimebag Moths. A student – one of our students made about 50 transformants in about six months. The great cost of these things are no longer the actual creation of the plant. It’s the regulatory challenges to take sure that you can take them to market, to do all that safety testing.
TONY JONES: Okay, Rick, well we’ll get a response to that and we’ll move on?
DAVID SUZUKI: Well, I don’t have any response. It sounds great. I don’t know.
How in God’s name could people take this man seriously?
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Kudos to Bill Koutalianos for asking a simple question. Simon at Australian Climate Madness has put the ABC video on YouTube:
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I think he is just pretending not to know much about Climate Science. He is referring to his old friends as “they” rather than “we.” This creates distance between himself and certain people he is well aware are facing an increasingly outraged and angry public.
Next will be his suggestion, “I was misled; I trusted “them” and “they” were dishonest with me.” Then he will blink and look very surprised and sad. He likely will also purchase a cane and attempt to dodder and to look frail and helpless. There is no way on earth he wants to face what he deserves. However he has enjoyed his treasure on earth, and Lord knows what he’s got coming to him in heaven.
Years ago when he was in his “prime”, he was a complete douchebag to my uncle who was a biologist, head of environmental research for a very large company. Suzuki edited an interview to remove everything but the one single question my uncle had trouble answering because of the language, not the subject. My uncle is French, questions were in English.
My point is that I’ve known for decades that David Susuki is not a scientist. He is a politician pushing an agenda and has no problem being a douchebag and a liar to make anyone who disagrees with him look bad.
It is a shame what he’s become, I liked him back in that first Karate Kid movie.
I am just gobsmacked at the ignorance of some of the alarmists! They have no clue on the difference between “warming” and “warmest”. And his utterance here is sheer stupidity based upon his ignorance of the difference! The first decade was the WARMEST in recorded history (after adjustments, no explanation given), but that does not mean that they were the 10 HOTTEST years (indeed, 1998 still reigns supreme).
Mike Bromley the Kurd says:
September 24, 2013 at 8:30 pm …………….
Mike, that is a perfect summary. Thanks.
For more on Suzuki….
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2011/06/03/david-suzuki-is-a-drama-queen/
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2012/03/21/canadas-senate-david-suzuki-the-delinquent-teenager/
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2012/04/18/david-suzukis-smoke-mirrors/
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2013/01/31/suzuki-money-doesnt-matter-heres-my-30k-invoice/
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2013/01/30/david-suzuki-dirty-old-man/
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2013/02/27/david-suzuki-ejects-tv-crew/
He has lost all respect from many/most Canadians.
Interesting that the ABC broadcast this at all (without heavy editing). Perhaps very early signs of a subtle shift in the Australian media?
They are getting more hysterical in the lead-up to IPCC:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/r/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/09/23/National-Politics/Graphics/CEOkxl.pdf
After yet another year of record temperatures, terrible drought, dangerous wildfires and
worsening storms,
Suzuki’s “Quirks and Quarks” show on CBC Radio was once pretty good, but by the mid-Eighties I would stride across the room to turn it off before he could say something ridiculously unscientific on almost any subject he touched. I suspect that as the stature of the show initially grew so did his, so that he was eventually able to dispense with the editors and producers who worked to conceal the defects of a third-rate scientist turned passable radio presenter. Suzuki-the-National-Treasure was an invention of the CBC. Suzuki-the-Man turns out to be much less than brilliant; just an ordinary activist. The kind with more eagerness than clues.
You don’t have to be a climatologist to read a thermometer or its printed data sets. Any grade school student can do this if they have access to a computer.
Johanna:
The GMO industry is as old as agriculture.
GMO IS agriculture. Those wheat plants and wheat fields are not natural, bur developed over millennia. Modern GMO is simply making the process better, less hit and miss. Let’s here it for Mendel.
JJB MKI says:
September 25, 2013 at 5:18 am
Interesting that the ABC broadcast this at all (without heavy editing). Perhaps very early signs of a subtle shift in the Australian media?
———————————————————-
No chance. He was interviewed across multiple ABC radio stations and television programs, by friendly interviewers who asked him questions like “well, what do you think about the state of the world, and what should we do about it?”
It was only when (non-“journalists”) got to ask him questions that the bare bottom of the Emperor was exposed.
The ABC, the best resourced media outfit in Australia, are so blinded by ideology that not one of them realised what would happen if anyone who was not an acolyte asked him anything.
one of the biggest names in global warming…
..and he can’t even pick up basic information through osmosis
I think his testosterone levels are still too high.
I’m astonished at Suzuki’s lack of knowledge regarding gene modification. He was a genetics professor at UBC for 40 years!
This guy has 28 honorary doctorates. 28!
Well, as a Canadian, I’m not as upset that Suzuki is one two. Only because I can mentally balance his entire knowledge of climate with any single post written by Steven McIntyre. Or Dr. Ball.
I have caught him [in] several emotive lies (had letters to the editor in the papers where his article ran) about GE crops over the years. He no longer publishes much on that subject. “Keep his feet to the fire” folks.
Suzuki epitomizes the sorry state of media driven fear mongering pseudo-science. He isn’t the root of the problem – if not Suzuki the media would have found another “voice” for their propaganda. As Ezra Levant on Sun News points out – the problem is that nobody is allowed to challenge these talking heads to expose them for what they are (at least not publicly on TV). Suzuki is worshiped in Canada and anything he says goes unquestioned.
Amazing that this interview was captured in Australia?
Amazing that Sun News (Fox equivalent in Canada) is the ONLY news station in Canada that dares to challenge the eco-alarmist narrative.
The lame stream media is at the root of the problem – they do not present balanced rational views and they do not challenge viewpoints that match their predisposed agendas of scary sensationalism (worse the media goes out of the way to promote pseudo-science nonsense by giving these fear mongering priests a pulpit to preach from). The media are no better than ambulance-chasing lawyers – there is no interest in justice just grab all the money you can.
Even in Canada Suzuki’s lustre is tarnished as he has been shown up for being intolerant of criticism here (refusing to speak in meetings if certain journalists are present).
I am quite truly saddened by his demise – as a geneticist I had a lot of respect for him doing my undergrad and PhD work in the 80’s. Then he got some kind of god-complex and started spouting off on things he knew little about and refusing to be corrected by people who knew better. After this came the fame and fortune and he couldn’t afford to go back on anything (even if he wanted to) as his funding would disappear in an instant.
It is hard even to use his original genetics textbooks any more (which were standard texts in most english-speaking universities) as he is so thoroughly discredited in academia.
Well, I for one would like to kick start a Suzuki.
Interesting. I’ll add him to the list of know nothing frauds protecting their money bags at the expense of science and good public policy.
So the 17 year hiatus of warming is simply the result of some hicks in Alabama falsifying data?
“Conspiracy-Ideation” anyone?
Also Suzuki dismisses the 17 year trend as data “cherry picking” then seconds later backs up his postion with the infamous “10 hottest years” meme. So 10 hottest years (in 140) is scary and edifying while a pause in warming is cherry picking, riiiigggghhhhttt.
Keep up the good work WUWT
Paul Homewood
I agree with your thoughts about the continuing need to get the basic climate data out to the public by any mean possible .The unforunate part with the Suzuki situation is that he was the anchor man and science messenger for science news in Canada and CBC. It is clear now why all attempts in Canada to get CBC to report climate news in an unbiased and fair way giving both sides of the debate have failed . He seemed to be misinformed and biased and he passed this bias on to CBC and ultimately to all Canadians . To this day many Canadians have not heard the real facts about what has been happening to our climate . The National Post and the Toronto SUN are perhaps two of the major media outlets that report climate news in an unbiased way in Canada. So in a way I am pleased to see his misunderstanding and bias exposed for others to see so that corrections can come about .
Rhetoric may seem immediately gratifying to someone in a live argument, with adrenalin flowing and all, but it convinces very few and will not provide a lasting conclusion to any debate. Logic will, and logic requires facts.
The winning format should be: “You have said X, but the measurements show Y. Why are your claims incompatible with the measurements?”
“I don’t know what the datasets say. I just wait for a Climatologist to tell me what to think.”
Yes, yes you do… exactly why was he being interviewed then if he simply regurgitates talking points and knows nothing?
– – – – – – –
We have, in Suzuki’s statements and in his acting, just witnessed what his alarmist fellow traveler Hansen is likely to say and act like at the AGU’s Annual Fall meeting in San Francisco this December.
Little residual value remains in their absurd alarming claims, so they are left with being exposed as supporters of fundamentally irrational thinking.
I send this observation to them both:
The bell of scientific integrity lost is not tolling for scientific skeptics, Messrs Suzuki and Hansen, it tolls for thee.
John