We’ve had issues with Mr. Laden before, and being called on it hasn’t changed his bad behavior, hopefully he’ll learn something this time. This is a pretty simple black and white issue, so I’ll do it with bullet points.
- Yesterday, Mr. Laden claimed WUWT had sunk to a “new low” for daring to question the wind speeds of Typhoon Haiyan hyped in the media with ground measurements reported by the Philippine Meteorological Agency. Our position was the media poorly reported on the storm, made egregious errors that we documented, and that this led to inflated wind speed numbers given to the public, such as 235 kilometers per hour being reported as 235 miles per hour, to give an example.
- He further claimed that we were “disrespectful” for not immediately updating the death toll to the new estimate of 10,000, which was the result of a political meeting in the governor’s office. I said we’d stick with the last report of the Red Cross number of 1200 as I trust them because their mission has no agenda other than aid. The 10,000 estimate may be met, or even exceeded, and if so we’ll report it then. (Now at 1774 as of 1015AM 11/11) UPDATE: 11/12 7AM Philippine president Aquino says to CNN: Typhoon Haiyan deaths likely 2,000 to 2,500 — not 10,000
- He added in a comment:
Let me ask you this but you better answer quick because the ground is sliding from underneath you as I type this. How important is 1,200 vs. tens of thousands? If it turns out to be tens of thousands instead of 1,200 will you STFU forever? Please?
- He then proceeded to write a long winded blog post at “ScienceBlogs”, and launch a Twitter tirade, from the position that he had some sort of moral high ground. As one WUWT commenter put it: The leftie pose of “We care more about real people than you do” is on full display.
- Yet, despite that angry posturing from that self-imagined moral high ground, Mr. Laden never once offered to help the people of the Philippines as WUWT has with the links to the Philippine Red Cross in the side bar graphic and in blog post links. Other bloggers such as Bob Tisdale have followed my lead with links in postings. Even 350.org’s Bill McKibben has thanked WUWT for providing him this info as he was pushing the “Save the Children Organization”, which isn’t disaster equipped.
- I waited over 24 hours to see if Mr. Laden had a conscience, and if he would offer his blog to help the people of Philippines or was simply interested in his holier than thou tirade against WUWT. So far, he has not.
- I made a donation to the Philippine Red Cross.
I chose 5000 Philippine Pesos (PHP) from the menu, which works out to $118 USD as it allows Mr. Laden and others who may donate to easily match the contribution. The maximum value on the Red Cross donation page in the menu is 10,000 PHP, or about $230 USD.
Between his donation (assuming he makes one), his readers donations (assuming he pitches it to them), and my donation along with WUWT reader donations, that should add up to a significant and useful sum, but any amount people may choose is useful and appreciated. Feel free to note your donation in comments if you choose.
The challenge:
I challenge Mr. Laden to meet or exceed my donation, and to post a link and graphic on his blog to the donation page for the Philippine Red Cross, and encourage his readers to contribute.
He is welcome to use this graphic I created:
Give Generously
The link is: http://ushare.redcross.org.ph/
Be sure to select the campaign first in the menu pulldown to be Supertyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan), then select the monetary amount and the payment method.
I also encourage WUWT readers to donate if they feel so inclined. It will be interesting to see if any other blogs who have been critical of WUWT pitch in to help. I’m betting few will as it isn’t in their nature but would be happy to be proven wrong.
Full disclosure: My wife’s maternal side of family is from the Philippines, and we have learned that one of her relatives there has lost a home in the storm. We have no word on the others there at this time.
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UPDATE: Laden’s claims in his tirade aren’t supported by actual science and data, he writes:
But Watts and Homewood don’t want storms to be important for the simple reason that the best models strongly suggest that there will be more storms … especially in the Pacific, where Haiyan struck, over coming decades because of the changes to climate that humans are carrying out and that Anthony Watts and Paul Homewood deny to be real.
This paper shows the reality from data – no trend:
Kubota, H. and Chan, J.C.L. 2009. Interdecadal variability of tropical cyclone landfall in the Philippines from 1902 to 2005. Geophysical Research Letters 36: 10.1029/2009GL038108.
“Despite global warming during the 20th century the number of tropical cyclones annually making landfall in the Philippines did not experience any net change. All variability was merely oscillatory activity around a mean trend of zero slope”
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http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/11/10/an-ethical-challenge-for-greg-laden-put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is/#comment-1472018
PS I am not implying that the Philippine Red Cross falls under the “business of being a ‘charity’” category.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/11/10/an-ethical-challenge-for-greg-laden-put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is/#comment-1471979
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Well said.
I just donated 2500 PHP to Philipino Red Cross for Relief from Yolanda (Haiyan).
Here’s mine – transaction id OE97080D…
Where’s his?
Thanks for the prompt, Anthony
Glad it’s possible to donate directly to the Philippine Red Cross, hopefully the aid will get to where it’s needed quickly. Thanks for posting the link Anthony.
Michael Larkin says:
November 11, 2013 at 2:18 am
Charity should be anonymous.
—
If the purpose of announcing your gift is pride (to show off or brag), or if there is a chance of embarrassing the person receiving the gift, then yes, it should be done in private and maybe even anonymously.
If however, by announcing the gift, there is a chance that you will (without pride or risk to the receiver) inspire, encourage, or otherwise make it easier for others to give, then your gift can (and perhaps should) be made publicly without reservation.
That giving publicly may cause unintentional discomfort for someone who chooses not to give is not a relevant concern.
I donated.
Louise, nobody is bragging about their donations. Communication does not equal bragging. Fact: the more people who COMMUNICATE their donations, the higher the likelihood that others WILL DONATE.
Response to Dr. John M. Ware (November 11, 2013 at 2:54 am): “…rather, they were exhorting others to follow their lead and provide actual help to those less fortunate, as Christian charity dictates.”
Issuing challenge grants is a tried and true fund raising method and wholly in keeping with true Christian principles. It requires guts and certitude because the nay-sayers always attack one for doing it — the more successful it is, the more they attack.
re:Michael Larkin says:
Charity should be anonymous.
I would respectfully suggest there can be a difference between setting a good example, and being boastful.
@ur momisugly King of Cool
If you’d have continued reading that Wikipedia article you referenced just a little further you’d have probably noticed that it’s confused about what numbers are greater than others:
”the JTWC estimated Haiyan to have attained one-minute sustained winds of 315 km/h (195 mph) and gusts up to 378 km/h (235 mph).[25] This unofficially ranks Haiyan as the fourth-strongest tropical cyclone on record in terms of wind speed, only exceeded by Typhoon Ida (325 km/h) in 1958, Typhoon Violet (335 km/h) in 1961, and Typhoon Nancy (345 km/h) in 1961.
How exactly is 378 exceeded by 325, 335, and 345?
I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying it’s highly likely there’s a miscommunication/typo/error somewhere.
Those who are sniffing at stating donations obviously have never watched a Jerry Lewis or public broadcasting fund raiser. Challenge donations are announced all the time, though under friendlier banter. In this case, shaming into donating was the game available to our blog host, compliments of the idiot. Ant***y volleyed back. Game set and match to Ant***y. Well done.
Thank you for that link. I was wondering if the Philippines had a Red Cross to contribute to. Now I know.
Whatever the motivation of Anthony to publish the Philippine Red Cross link at the top of his blog yesterday, and his post today, it sure has motivated a lot of WUWT posters to donate. I didn’t know what PhPs were until a couple clicks for the exchange rate. Thanks for the motivation encouragement Anthony, good job.
Donation made.
I agree with Bastardi,,,,,,, how can they live with themselves. They know they are not telling the truth. Then again, the highest ranking official in the US does exactly the same thing. That does not make it right. It only makes it more wrong.
John, your article lists sustained winds and wind gusts. It correctly lists the other three in terms of sustained winds compared to Haiyan’s 315 km/h sustained wind. The wording is a bit confusing when they use the term “wind speed” as an equivalent term with “sustained wind”.
Owen in GA says “The maximum wind speeds weren’t actually recorded during that storm as the instruments were blown off their mountings before reaching the peak.” … exactly … so who knows what the wind speed was in this case?
5000 from me too. Nice action, Anthony !
I was fortunate to go there 12 years ago: Philippines is a very nice country full of very nice people!
King of Cool exactly expresses my opinion, it was the headline “overhyped etc” that triggered my response. I felt that the terrible situation by Haiyan was misused for another attack on the AGW church over the back of the victims (dead or alive) in the PI.
That some of the sceptics felt our piety was nauseating well that says more about them then us who are sceptics as well. My wife has a lot of relatives in the area (Iloilo) with many of them we have not been able to even get in touch, even we are in Manila. Some of us with fly to the place as soon the flights will resume to find out what happen to them.
Sometimes it’s better to leave the battle with the alarmistas for what it is.
This is called political correctness, the first and last refuge of a scoundrel. It is designed to shut us up. Violating it in other societies might lead to a late-night visit after a phone call tips off the powers-that-be. Here mostly it results in a chorus of demented comments from crazy people which is still enough to cower the weak and timid into shutting up.
It has been used effectively in our own District of Criminals to steamroll over timid opposition to every Socialist idea that comes along, until we have now reached the incredible position of having the politically correct point of view being to NOT speak up about debt, and the politically correct point of view is to fall in line and approve everything. Guess where this all ends up.
Joseph Bastardi says:
November 11, 2013 at 6:05 am
The whole situation is getting worse with people like this. The May 31 F5 Tornado, later downgraded to an F3 is classic. Grab the headline, and then assume the debunking will not be heard.
I am becoming convinced that these people care not about actual facts, but their dreams of control…
Exactly. Two things happened. One was a monstrous storm. The other was that people in the Philippines were in its direct path.
The storm, though not as monstrous in intensity as originally claimed, was devastating to the people in its path.
The alarmists need the pain and suffering to accomplish their objective, which is to convince the general public that the storm was the “worst ever” and (of course) was due to the progression of global warming/climate change. Had the storm never approached land and never harmed a soul, the reporting on its peak strength likely would have been accurate, or at least more easily corrected. But now, with the “worst ever” meme established, the reporting naturally turns to the human devastation and any corrections are buried in the damage coverage.
Thus do the alarmists utilize human carnage to accomplish their objectives. Then, as with Mr. Laden, they accuse anyone shining a light on their subterfuges of being uncaring cretins. Yet they are the ones using human suffering to advance their goals, and probably their own fortunes as well.
Incidentally, the sort of mind that seeks advantage in such an “opportunity” is unlikely to be particularly charitable.
Michael Larkin says “Charity should be anonymous.” It all depends on motivation and only each of us can judge that for ourselves. Some might think it wrong that Anthony is calling out Laden for the gold digging, attention seeking D – Bag that he is, but, what the heck it gets the ball rolling. Anthony gave a donation and others think, “Yes, I would like to help too! Thanks, Anthony” It’s not like he sold his house and took a vow of poverty, he’s just reminding us that there is something we can do here in front of our computers.
I think Laden should do the proper thing and stop using fossil fuels. First thing to do would be to STFCD .. Last two words … ‘Computer Down’ then he will help save the planet.
If a meteorologist can’t ask for accurate wind speed data, who can?
Donation sent.
See the difference?
1) The official death toll is 1,200 people.
2) Up to 10,000 people are estimated to have dead.
The 1,200 figure is certain to rise, as it rises you stick to that otherwise you end up with words like “revised down”. Do we estimate global warming? No, everyone is very ‘precise’ indeed.
Laden is enjoying the Streisand effect – he is less unknown thanks to this kerfuffle and his distortions. I liked it better when he was an unknown idiot but maybe it’s a good thing that more people know he’s an idiot.