A photo essay. What follows are a series of photos and comments that catalog my impressions of today.
As you may know, I’m attending the 2013 AGU Fall Meeting. After some hassle a couple of months ago, I was able to finally get a press pass:
![IMG_20131209_162335[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_20131209_1623351.jpg?quality=83)
It took me three weeks, but I persevered.
First, my video gear case and tripod:
![IMG_20131209_122932[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_20131209_1229321.jpg?quality=83)
During registration while waiting in line, some people recognized “WUWT” and I got a couple of dirty looks.
On my way to my first exhibit hall, I encountered this fellow:
![IMG_20131209_122143[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_20131209_1221431.jpg?quality=83)
I suppose his method works just as well as some of the geoengineering ideas to stop climate change being floated here.
This was the first sign I saw walking into Moscone West:
![IMG_20131209_122342[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_20131209_1223421.jpg?quality=83)
Sometimes climate scientist Richard Alley and an Open Mic at a Bar? I’d call that an Alley Ooops.
I assume he’ll be studying tipping points with James Hansen there? Maybe there will be dancing too.
Signs are big at this show, so is blogging apparently, though I’ve never heard of any of these.
![IMG_20131209_122711[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_20131209_1227111.jpg?quality=83)
Apparently they need sign ups.
![IMG_20131209_130857[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_20131209_1308571.jpg?quality=83)
My first session was the Ethics Workshop.
It addressed the lack of ethics in several hypothetical situations. But addressing the lack of people interested in ethical issues of science research might have been a better topic:
WUWT regular John Whitman was there and reports:
I was at this ethics session. The audience was divided into 4 groups. Each group was given Mickey Mouse (in my view) ethicaly hypothetical scenarios to evaluate and present to the other groups. My group had a plagiarism case.
Overall, it did give me the opportunity to see that the audience was not generally subjective in ethics.
If there is another ethics workshop like this one, I would decline attending on the basis that it did not deal with actual critique of ethic controversies in climate science.
Right after the ethics session, I ran into Kevin Trenberth in the hall, but he was too busy to talk, he ran off to the authors prep room to prep for his presentation. No chance for an interview.
Both Hansen and Trenberth are big this year:
![IMG_20131209_131005[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_20131209_1310051.jpg?quality=83)
![IMG_20131209_151710[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_20131209_1517101.jpg?quality=83)
Trenberth gets an award for climate communications? Nobody can explain this and it is a travesty that we can’t.
I hear plain English works best for communicating science.
![IMG_20131209_131350[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_20131209_1313501.jpg?quality=83)
This looks like a billboard that you’d see for ambulance chasing attorneys along the highway:
![IMG_20131209_131354[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_20131209_1313541.jpg?quality=83)
Some people protest against fossil fuels with their electric fossil fuel powered laptops. Irony impaired I suppose.
![IMG_20131209_145107[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_20131209_1451071.jpg?quality=83)
The thing that struck me most was the sheer size of this convention and the number of people attending…and almost everyone of them is doing it on the taxpayer’s dime.
Up next, the descent into poster normal science.
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I think I will get a bumper sticker that says: “Hold your bladder…prevent sea level rise!” I imagine that holding your bladder has about as big an impact on sea level rise as riding your bike to work has on atmospheric temperatures.
” Steve Oregon says:
December 9, 2013 at 8:41 pm
Ask many people one question.
If there is no warming for years to come when should the global warming theory be terminated?”
Dude, didn’t you get the MEMO?
“TO, ALL: Due to the ongoing failure of the ‘CO2 Will Cause Catastrophic Planet-Wide Atmospheric Warming’ Hoax, all Hoax operations will now be conducted under the ‘CO2 Will Cause Catastrophic Planet-Wide Climate CHANGE’ Brand. For all practical purposes, operations will be unchanged and adhere to standing S.O.P.”
Bureau Unrelentingly Losing Logical Stature, Highest Intervention Tier
1 Despot Plaza
Elitist Tower
Desperation Way
Here, Now 54321
Mr. Ed — LOL. #(:))
And so right, too.
First, I just want to say “fantastic photo essay!”
Now I can’t help but comment on Richard Alley. Alright, I get that he’s a ham. He impresses me as one of the least offensive of the CAGW proponents. To me he makes an entertaining and lucid case for his science. Of course, some of you may know something that I don’t.
Ed,
Yes I got the memo but the question must be simple.
And at some point there will be no climate warming or disruption.
So I’d ask them “When the music stops how long before your dancing stops?”
One of them must have an answer. People look really stupid dancing with no music.
Gas Sucks Ride a Bike… Sticking that on a laptop:
a) made in all likelihood in some China sweatshop;
b) containing all sorts of rare chemicals and materials;
c) said chemicals resulting in all sorts of pollution events in China, and
d) which got transported half way around the world,
e) all using fossil fuel…
must be some kind of strange inverse self insult..
She should get herself a pencil and hide her new iPad behind it…
Steve Oregon — you also make a good point. If they were rational, honest, thinkers, you might save a few from the cult… . They dance to the music they hear echoing in their minds.
Cult of Climatology Hymn 97
“Everybody’s talkin’ at me, I don’t hear a word they’re sayin…” Sounds like EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE TROLLS ON THIS SITE.
“… skipping over the ocean… .”
Of course.
@Steve Oregon
In Computer Science we know that the Halting Problem is undecidable: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_problem
Anthony, I admire your bravery and resilience. To put yourself in that den of sychophants and troughers took huge courage.
Anthony – when are you going to start reporting on the contents of the AGU sessions/meetings? That is what the blog sponsors who have paid for you to attend expect (rather than just posting some snaps).
REPLY: I’ll point out that you didn’t help (nor would you ever, since your past comments have demonstrated your disdain for me and this blog) and therefore you don’t have any say in the matter. That said, I’ll have session reports tonight. This was just my getting a lay of the land. – Anthony
Re the picture of agu blogs
I recognize several of these. Typically, they are graduate students or lecturers with a particular interest in geology, Earth or Space sciences, Natural Hazards etc.
While I haven’t looked at all of them, the subject matter rarely (if ever) seems to cover climate science so it is not surprising that readers here (including Anthony) would have met them. If you have an interest in Earth and Space things that are outside the climate science field then have a look.
http://blogs.agu.org/
Anthony, you were an infidel amongst the true believers. It must have been scary. At any time you could have been burned at the stake. I hope you were careful with what you ate and drank.
The audience (if you can call it that) doesn’t seem to be overly interested in what the presenter has to say…
sherlock1 doesn’t live up to his name and doesn’t deduce from the actual words given that “The audience was divided into 4 groups. Each group was given Mickey Mouse (in my view) ethicaly [sic]hypothetical scenarios to evaluate and present to the other groups “
At least the guy in blue claims to have repented.
The attendees remain unrepentant.
The “Gas Sucks” lady is a hypocritical idiot of course. She might as well say that “money sucks”, or “houses suck”. What a maroon. And, as far as her bike-riding saving gas, so what? The money saved is a paltry amount – maybe about 13 cents per mile at first glance. Add in the bicycle and other gear, plus the other fuel these morons never think of which is food, and there are hardly any savings to speak of. Yes, Pippen, riding a bike does require energy.
Now, having said all that, I am in no way against walking and biking as alternative transportation, as they can provide healthful and enjoyable exercise.
“Trenberth gets an award for climate communications? Nobody can explain this and it is a travesty that we can’t.” Bloody hell, Anthony! That’s another keyboard you owe me!
“Trenberth gets an award for climate communications? Nobody can explain this and it is a travesty that we can’t.” Chuckle.
It takes courage to be there. Getting more and more like an IPCC meeting. I suggest you put a sticker WIND BLOWS on the back of your laptop and sit across from our GAS SUCKS enviro.
“Sharing science in plain English” sounds great except for the implied agenda of convincing people of something, or propagandizing. For climate “science” at least, they seem to have this notion that the reason the idea that we are responsible for the warming, which supposedly is only going to get worse unless we do something isn’t wildly popular with people is because they haven’t dumbed the message down enough. The funny thing about BS though, is that dumbing it down actually just makes it easier to spot and to fact-check.
Does riding a bike not emit CO2s (and even more potent dihydrogen monoxide)? What does the human body metabolise food into while generating mechanical energy and heat while cycling? Have the filthy hippies hit on some kind of perpetual motion carbon neutral system?
I’m so proud to be part of this community that WUWT constitutes!
Here, I can read up on real analysis, made by real researchers, without the bias of AGW politics that is so widespread in some corners of academia. Touting their PhDs, BSc and etcs. To me, such a title only indicates that you have been fooled into “science”.
I’m proud to say that I learn much more from analysis here at WUWT. And now we have our man within the Lion’s den. I’m feeling like I’m taking part in something big here!
Ralph Cramden says:
December 9, 2013 at 6:05 pm
Next time, don’t persevere. Your presence is not helpful.
[Reply: Actually, it was very helpful, “Ralph”. ~ mod.]
**********************************************************
if the science is settled why do you need help?
Pippen Kool (December 9, 2013 at 6:27 pm) My macBook air uses about half of that, so I’m good for about 2 months…
Did you build your macBook yourself out of sand and metal ores? Mine has some plastic which is presumably not recycled. If not, did you at least row across the Pacific to China to pick it up? If you did none of those things, have you at least amortized the fossil fuels into your calculation?
Here’s a start: 0.86 kg of CO2 per dollar of GDP in China times $500 (the likely amount China gets after building your MacBook. Divide by 9 kg of CO2 per gallon of gas, which means 48 gallons of gas for the laptop itself, plus shipping.
@Andrew,
Their argument would probably be that food is “carbon-neutral”, since it absorbs CO2 when it grows, and the CO2 is merely released when we metabolize it, but they “forget” that farming and transporting food are fairly fuel-intensive activities.