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.
==============================================================
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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Dylan,
WMO’s definition of sustained winds is 10 min at 33feet. That is the universal standard, a few years back National hurricane center used 8 min average, which has since been reduced to one minute average. Interestingly NOAA lists the definition of sustained winds as a two minute average. If they would stop monkeying around with the numbers and just use the WMO’s standards, there would not be this kind of confusion. The difference between 10min and 1 min average is usually 14%. The reason for the 10 min average is to reduce the influence of gusts. Sustained winds do the damage. 200mph 10min average winds would have done a lot more damage. The point is accurate reporting and the fact that NOAA can’t be trusted anymore to give accurate information without reading the fine print is kind of sad. Sensationalizing a storm for political purposes is kind of sick really. If your going to report on something, particularly sensitive topics, the facts are important the hype isn’t.
v/r,
David Riser
OK. Found the post
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/10/28/the-big-stink-93-9-million-years-ago-blame-co2/#comment-1460394
Incidentally, “temp” also accuses my father of running away from a fight in order to taunt him into a flame war. Any regular reader of this blog knows my father (RichardSCourtney) is easily taunted into a fight. The accusation was ludicrous but did prey on the tolerant moderation policies here.
Thank you to Man Bearpig. You have, I believe, correctly spotted a dirty tricks campaign against this blog.
So, let me get this straight…
This storm was “the worst ever”.
That was caused by an increase in global warming.
There has been no increase in global warming now for 16 years and 11 months.
So…what caused all this, exactly?
Any argument that says such and such was the worst ever because of global warming will have this same problem, a lack of recent warming to feul it. Conclusion, sonething else must be feuling it, probably, hype.
Donation to the Philippine Red Cross made; not as much as Robin at 2:32 pm made, but it’s all I can afford.I adamantly refuse to give to Oxfam as I have seen them in ‘action’ in Africa. They spend more on themselves than they do on helping other.
dbstealey, M Courtney and Tim C. Don’t give to OXFAM. They are a UK organisation and very distant from the Philippines. They might be a charity, but a lot of their income is via the UK government. Nearly 50% in fact. Their income is over £380m/yr so they can easily spend huge amounts on the disaster. The Philippines charities are the ones that really need the money and they are the ones actually there now. They are the ones that can spend the money most efficiently, not OXFAM who will spend the money on sending their staff out to help. Sorry Anthony for distracting from the charity drive, but I want the money to go to those charities that will make the most difference to the people in the Philippines.
M Courtney said @ur momisugly November 11, 2013 at 2:30 pm
M, it doesn’t appear to me that the solitary fact that one’s politicz are left-of-centre automagically makes one a socialist. There’s an analysis of one’s politicz at the Political Compass:
http://www.politicalcompass.org/analysis
The prominent politician I am closest to according that analysis is the Dalai Lama, a left-leaning libertarian. As you say, it’s all about liberty and individualism. There are as many on the right as the left that would curtail both. Politicz often makes strange bedfellows…
David, first of all using the ten minute standard, the author of the blog contradicts his own post.
Watts says ” Given the geography of the Pacific, most typhoons stay out at sea, or only hit land once they have weakened. But in total terms, the busiest typhoon season in recent decades was 1964, whilst the following year logged the highest number of super typhoons (which equate to Cat 3 +). Of the eleven super typhoons that year, eight were Category 5’s. So far this year, before Yolanda there have been just three Category 5’s, none of which hit land at that strength.”
These are the records for the other three Catergory 5s recorded
Typhoon Lekima- 1 minute-sustained winds, 160 mph, 10 minute-sustained winds 130 mph
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Lekima_(2013)
Typhoon Fransisco- 1 minute sustained winds 160 mph, 10-minute sustained winds 120 mph
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Pacific_typhoon_season#Typhoon_Francisco_.28Urduja.29
Typhoon Usagi- 1 minute sustained winds 160 mph, 10 minute sustained winds 125mph
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Usagi_(2013)
In fact, I have gone through every single sub-900mb cyclone measured in the western Pacific since the 10-minute sustained wind speed measurement became commonly used for WPAC systems (roughly 1978). Of all the sub-900 mb storms, only one (Typhoon Tip) is recorded to have Catergory 5 equivalent winds (160 mph) using the 10-minute sustained wind metric. Therefore, by applying the 10-minute sustained wind metric, there has not been a single Category 5-equivalent cyclone in the WPAC since 1979. Not only is this assertion obviously false, it even contradicts Watts own post.
In fact, based on the 10-minute wind speed measurement, Haiyan (147mph) is the second most powerful typhoon on record, second only to Typhoon Tip (160 mph), and right above Typhoon Bess (145 mph) as no other cyclone in the WPAC, at least from what I have seen, goes above the 140 mph 10 minute sustained wind speed measurement.
Therefore, not only does the use of the 10-minute sustained windspeed measurement, still justify Haiyan being one of the most powerful, if not possibly the most powerful, tropical cyclone ever observed, this also shows that when comparing tropical cyclones, using the 10-minute sustained windspeed measurement simply does not work, as it would strip the Category 5 status of nearly every Catergory 5 hurricane ever recorded.
In terms of your assertion that the National Hurricane Center in the past used a 8-minute average, at least from the records I have seen, they have not done so at least since 1969. For reference, the sustained wind speed records of Wilma, Mitch, Gilbert, Hugo, and Camille, are all listed using the 1-minute sustained wind speed measurement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_intense_tropical_cyclones#North_Atlantic_Ocean
“My lefty friends are the ones crying for all sorts of gov’t handout programs and yet they don’t give a dime to charity.”
“No Oxfam is not a good way to give. Oxfam is a leftist ONG political institution which mission is to indoctrinate trough giving.”
“The leftie pose of ‘We care more about real people than you do’ is on full display.”
“The truth is, the lefties do not care more about real people, they only care about how bossy and how idealistic they can be, they do not give a tinkers cuss about real people!”
“The left always likes to claim the moral high ground, I guess they are so accustomed to such nasty under-handed behavior that they don’t even think about it anymore.”
What kind of idiots write this stuff? Grow up for god’s sake!
REPLY: So the real question here Jon, did YOU step up and donate? I think not. – Anthony
milodonharlani says:
November 11, 2013 at 1:14 pm
Speed says:
November 11, 2013 at 12:42 pm
Despite The Philippines kicking us out of Subic Bay Navy & Clark Air Force bases in 1991, there are quite a few US assets still in the islands, supporting the federal government’s poorly publicized war against militant Muslim separatists in the south, descendants of the Moros whose amok attacks inspired the Colt Browning .45 cal semi-auto pistol.
Once again, USA steps up to the plate when a disaster devastates a poor country, yet these same countries revile us. There is and has never has been a country that is a greater force for good and compassion in the world than the United States. Very sad.
Concience pricked, arm bent, 5000php sent.
After so many debacles, Haiti being only the latest, I too have grave doubts about the Red Cross, Oxfam, plus anything UN-related. So I made my donation via Salvation Army Canada.
Well done, Anthony.
Ps. My son and my friend in Cebu City both report that the typhoon passed north of them. They experienced very high winds, but afterwards saw only metal roofs strewn about. In Cebu City there were many private emergency generators (presumably to keep corporate computers running), so the inconvenience was really very slight there. Which further shows that industrialization and wealth do much not only to alleviate such tragedies as seen further north, but even to prevent them in the first place.
Chuck L says:
November 11, 2013 at 3:24 pm
Americans are generous to be sure, even to those who despise us, but it’s also true that we’re the only power on earth capable of helping out anywhere on the planet, thanks to our military. Please remember & thank veterans & serving personnel in our armed forces today.
I just added 1000 PHP. Thanks for the heads up Anthony. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the link Anthony. Matched your donation.
Tanks Anthony for this helpful initiative. Let the vinegar p*ssing Ladens enjoy their supremacy in solitude.
I joined tour call and donated.
May G*d have mercy on those unlucky people in the Phillipines
Harrie
In his next blog post, no doubt Mr. Laden will take credit for taunting WUWT’s proprietor and his “minions” into atoning somewhat for (indirectly) causing death and destruction in the Philippines with their “denialism”.
Chuck L said @ur momisugly November 11, 2013 at 3:24 pm
Perhaps that’s why Americans feel less need to dig into their own pockets to help.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AonYZs4MzlZbdHEtRUY3dllDZEI4RnFtR1A1NmpZUmc&hl=en#gid=0
@Pompous Git – that does not look like your note implied. It does look like that with the exception of Switzerland, the top countries are all former colonies of the UK. But even at #5 (tied), it still kinds of outshines the non-English Speaking countries of the world. Given we have the likes of Biden and Obama (basically giving 0), I am not ashamed at our numbers or ranking.
milodonharlani said @ur momisugly November 11, 2013 at 3:27 pm
The Git has many happy memories of your “boys” when they visited the port of Hobart. We always managed to find a bed and a home-cooked meal for at least one. Haven’t seen so many lately…
Anthony,
I enjoy following your blog and check it nearly every day.
In the interests of accuracy and correctness would you please clearly answer Dylan and others assertions on wind speeds and measurement methods.
REPLY: I’ve been studying the issue, will likely have a post this weekend – Anthony
Mr Laden is probably just picking a fight to bump up the numbers at his blog. Do. Not. Bite.
The Pompous Git says:
November 11, 2013 at 3:57 pm
Many are the USN squids who hold fond memories of the Antipodes. Ditto the other services. Two blocks away in my tiny home town lived a lucky guy with an Australian war bride, whose son became holder of most of the athletic records at the high school named for my Scots immigrant great granddad.
Then there is this stellar example of Australian-American allied unity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cate_Blanchett
She is but one among many such.
Sadly, you are correct that not just Hobart but all allied ports of call are less frequented these days.
OK — I donated 1,000 PHP — but not before looking up the exchange rate — it’s not that I don’t trust you Anthony — but — well you know how it is. Had to fill out a lot of info, and I kept looking at the secure certificates. Wasn’t sure what to put down for a village or locale — it wouldn’t let me leave it blank, so I entered “None”, and it accepted that. Will be checking my online account to make sure that it didn’t charge me something different.
Thanks for the link Anthony! Donated and posted to my facebook page (with kudos to you, of course….)
@Dylan says: November 11, 2013 at 3:18 pm
and
ColA says: November 11, 2013 at 5:29 pm
Yet somehow you have failed to reference these two Typhoons:
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Nancy_%281961%29
Highest winds
1-minute sustained:
345 km/h (215 mph)
Lowest pressure
882 mbar (hPa); 26.05 inHg
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Tip
Highest winds
10-minute sustained:
260 km/h (160 mph)
1-minute sustained:
305 km/h (190 mph)
Lowest pressure
870 mbar (hPa); 25.69 inHg
(Worldwide record low)
Dylan and CoIA ,typhoons happen and they are not caused by man made CO2.
Say what!? You’re making this up as you go, aren’t you.
Anthony’s charity is anonymous! He gave to the Red Cross, so the recipients will not know Anthony made the actual donation. That is what is meant by ‘anonymous gifts’; ones where the recipients do not know who is the donator.
That’s a sentence right out of tyranny or communism and is meant to diminish or demonize people who donate their time, money or both. Everyone should be D__n proud if they’re kind, generous or just plain good people. Usually they’re not popping with pride as those sorts of folks tend to be humble.
Did Anthony or any of the other questioners of bad climate science blogs write entire posts about their kindness or generosity? Absolutely not!
The mention about the ‘donation’ is just a few lines and is a direct challenge to the antagonistic CAGW alarmist. The amount Anthony donated in his ‘first’ donation sets the bar for the challenged. It also helps others decide on an amount to donate.
So take your high and mighty mockery and go find something useful to do, like take a trip to the Philippines to rebuild; be sure to do it anonymously.