So, as WUWT readers well know, I have a different opinion about global warming.
Do you think the New York Times should endorse stabbing me (and others with similar opinions) through the heart like a vampire because I hold that opinion? See panel #4 “self destructing sabers for dispatching climate-change deniers”.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2014/02/09/opinion/sunday/see-something-say.html?_r=2
Admittedly, this is a lame attempt at humor/satire, something we are all well familiar with applying here at WUWT. But, imagine if the tables were turned, and the cartoon depicted global warming alarmists such as Mike Mann or James Hansen in the same role? Our friends would have a collective cow. Yet, somehow, somebody at the New York Times thinks it is acceptable to suggest “dispatching” a whole class of people that hold a different viewpoint from them.
I’m waiting on I have a comment from NYT’s Andrew Revkin, who was the subject of a post yesterday, as to what he thinks about this in his own newspaper.
For the record, I don’t think global warming is a “hoax”, but it certainly has been oversold.
h/t to Steve Milloy at Junkscience.com
UPDATE: Andrew Revkin sends this comment via email:
I find the final panel in this cartoon on uses for surplus icicles to be the antithesis of humor. But some artists, like some bloggers, seem to thrive on edge pushing. Andres Serrano (“Immersion: Piss Cross”) comes to mind. There are many others. We are quite a species.
UPDATE2: Revkin has added some additional thoughts at his tumblr blog:
It’s worth saying more. This cartoon is right up there with the “pretty edgy” 2010 climate-campaign video showing a teacher blowing up students who didn’t sign on to cut their carbon footprints.
Both are great attention getters, and were utterly stupid if the goal was do accomplish anything other than inflaming and dividing people on an important issue. And that would be a reprehensible goal.
While there are certainly aspects of the AGW miasma that qualify as ‘hoax’, most of it is noble cause corruption, rent seeking and moral hazard, combined with magical thinking and historical illiteracy.
Rob Dawg says:
February 23, 2014 at 8:15 am
“Greenshirts.”
And Hemp Jackboots.
Reply to Mod ==> “Mildly Humorous” is a guy with a cigar in his mouth being poked with an icicle saying “Ouch!” (there is no “being stabbed in the heart” there in the cartoon).
Attributing every political cartoon to be the will and intent of the editors of the newspaper is silly beyond words, of course.
Are we going to report the Editors to the ASPCA next for cruelty to animals — tricking little Fido with melting fetch sticks?
Rob Dawg says:
February 23, 2014 at 8:15 am
“Greenshirts.”
And Hemp Jackboots. Goose-stepping for Gaia!
I am a “denier,” and I thought it was funny. Think a bit…it’s also
having a bit of fun with the AGW folks who are a tad overzealous. Their world-view includes vampires masquerading as critics.
You eagerness to be offended has eroded your sense of humour.
richardscourtney says:
February 23, 2014 at 12:50 pm
highflight56433:
Your post at February 23, 2014 at 12:33 pm is yet another example of an anonymous ultra-right troll trying to pretend that anything they don’t like is “socialist”.
Totalitarians come from all parts of the political spectrum. Your list is of murderous totalitarian governments. For example, any list is plain daft when – as yours – it claims to be of “socialists” and includes e.g. “Feudal Russia”.
Russia”
First, get it straight, it is not my list.
Second, any offense taken as you seem to be taking of such a list, is a reflection of some other type of denial.
Third, just as you demonstrate so well, you did not read the link where the posted link originated from on this blog.
Fourth, your name calling and demonizing (“anonymous ultra-right troll”) seems pretty similar to the game the CAGW zealots play.
Now I am going back to burning lots of trees in my fireplace to melt the latest weapon of choice as to eliminate the enemy anti global warming crowd, so the place stays hot while I drive to the liquor store in my big heavy four wheel drive V-8 SUV for a backup supply of cognac, most likely distilled with natural gas, and a quick stop at the gun dealer for more ammo for my personal arsenal that won’t melt above 32F. 🙂
“Yet, somehow, somebody at the New York Times thinks it is acceptable to suggest “dispatching” a whole class of people that hold a different viewpoint from them.”
Dispatching whole classes of people = “class struggle”; no surprise this comes from the NYT.
mandrake9 says:
February 23, 2014 at 12:52 pm
“It’s not a threat to anyone, please lighten up.”
Are you a spokesperson for the Left? In that case, thanks for only jokingly suggesting we be killed for the moment.
Makes you wonder if they are loosing the battle so badly that this is all they have left… The smell of desperation…. is pungent…
Bill Adams says:
February 23, 2014 at 12:41 pm
“It is a mystery that this got past the editors of the NYT, I grant you.”
It will also stay a mistery how the NYT could miss the Holodomor. And get a Pulitzer price for missing it.
Roy Spencer says:
February 23, 2014 at 8:05 am
I don’t get the Department of Commerce connection, though.
Roy,
You may find this information enlightening, as to the Chamber of Commerce reference.
Six reasons why the Greenhouse Gas cases are worth Watching
National Constitution Center, By Tom Donnelly February 19, 2014 10:25 AM
4) The Chamber’s Starring Role: While the U.S. Chamber of Commerce often files amicus briefs in important Supreme Court cases (including in EME Homer earlier this Term), the Chamber is actually one of the parties before the Court in the Greenhouse Gas Cases. Indeed, in its petition for review, the Chamber asked the Court to scrutinize the EPA’s core finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger the public, and, even though the Court rejected this plea in limiting its grant of review to the PSD program, the Chamber has continued to argue that this important program is limited to “conventional” or “localized” air pollutants (like soot and smog), a conclusion in significant tension with Mass v. EPA. So far, the Chamber has amassed a perfect 6-0 record this Term, but the biggest decisions are still yet to come. The question remains: Will this be yet another big term for Big Business, or has the Chamber finally gone too far for the Roberts Court?
http://news.yahoo.com/six-reasons-why-greenhouse-gas-cases-worth-watching-102603756.html;_ylt=AwrTWVXiZApTEnIA_PnQtDMD
Mac
Ecoterrorism has been promoted for a long time in the US. How many decades since ecoterrorists started spiking trees to maim or kill people harvesting trees?
highflight56433:
You compound your offensive, untrue and silly post at February 23, 2014 at 12:33 pm by your childish excuse for that troll;ing which you provide in your post at February 23, 2014 at 1:21 pm.
YOU POSTED THAT LIST TO THIS THREAD. AND YOU MADE THE LIE THAT IT WAS A LIST OF “SOCIALIST” GOVERNMENTS.
It does not matter where you obtained the list. And it does not matter if anyone else had made ther lie before: you have made the infantile excuse that “Little Johny did it first”.
I really despise anonymous trolls!
Richard
NikFromNYC says: February 23, 2014 at 12:29 pm
In the picture:
“The Earth is warming faster than it has in 11,000 years”
– It is typical that the Earth is getting warmer every time an Ice Age has ended!
(Simple logic, mathematics and statistics are definitely not their companions …)
Anthony, guess this allows you to get a concealed carry permit in CA. Too many natters out there that would like to do something for the cause….
(not 100% kidding either)
REPLY: Already handled – Anthony
This debate is about well-being and survival–which always leads to lots of emotion. Indeed, survival is what emotions are all about.
Since all the data the warmists have says that the Earth is on fire, and that is is the scientists who say so (97% of them), they don’t understand how anybody could disagree. But we have something terrifying–a certain ability to influence politics despite these “facts.”
You and I know that it is the politicians (Algore ran for President, remember?) who say the Earth is on fire, so that they can raise taxes (carbon tax), and that it is the world’s scientists, especially the most eminent ones, who are the skeptics. Regular readers of this blog know what the science is.
The general public believes that the Earth is warming but that it is not enough to worry about. Many WUWT readers hold that opinion, including Lord Monckton. The IPCC has shifted strongly towards our opinion.
But the Basic on the whole subject is still the Mauna Loa CO2 graph. A huge rise in atmospheric CO2 for a time period of only decades. Over millennia, there have been far larger swings, but it is very hard to look at the Mauna Loa graph and imagine that 20th century technologies had nothing to do with that graph.
It just struck me this morning that the carbon dioxide graph looks like a great dying. The annual part of the graph is a rise every winter as living things die from the cold and lack of sun. In the Summer, the growing season, carbon dioxide falls.
There have been a few posts on this site to the effect that the total carbon dioxide from all the fossils burnt so far cannot account for more than a small fraction of the observed CO2 increase. In that case, something else is going on that is distinctly different from the AGW mantra.
The Earth is in a severe dying, and the alarmists are screaming about the wrong thing.
As a biologist with degrees and a strong interest in agriculture, I know what is causing the great dying: chemical agriculture that kills soil organisms, dams, and a little bit from nuclear power plants and even solar and wind farms (bird slicers). Some claim that Fukushima is causing a great dying in the oceans, but others think the problem is overfishing, or the thousands of industrial chemicals.
The most damaging energy source for the biosphere is hydroelectric (dams). These flood huge areas. They may cause extinction of a sea turtle and a human tribe in the Amazon. Turkey has bought into this idea that the most devastating energy source is good for the Environment. Turkey is where Adam, Eve, and Noah lived. These were real people, though the Bible was written thousands of years later and may not be precisely accurate. Troy is there, Constantinople was there, Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) was there, and a substantial number of other ancient cities that led to our present civilization. Downstream of the dams are other countries that would be destroyed if 2013-14’s dams in constructionare finished. The amount of harm scheduled to be done by dams in Turkey this year beggars description, and we don’t have much time to prevent it.
So its not just a matter of an economic depression if the lies continue. It’s truly serious biological harm.
We can’t fix any of it by pointing out how hysterical our enemies are, with monstrous cartoons like that. We need to understand where they are right and build on that. Then we can unravel all the nonsense and work together on the agriculural and energy technologies that will solve all the problems and lead to a fluorishing of life. Fossil fuels are part of the solution.
The amount of harm scheduled to be done by dams in Turkey this year beggars description, and we don’t have much time to prevent it.
Do people being stabbed to death really say “Ouch” when stabbed? “Ouch” is a cartoon response to being poked or pricked, not slaughtered as some of the semi-hysteric posters above have asserted. My opinion of cartoon interpretation would also note the lack of any small lines at the top of the icicle or near the hand, that would indicate rapid movement of the icicle into his chest. Rather there seem to be lines that would suggest back and forth movement, as one might find if the woman was saying, “Don’t go there,” as she poked him.
That the cartoonist allows the character to fully advance (enough letters of icicle are there for us all to recognize the word) a skeptic meme by posing the question in the bubble, and has him unreasonably interrupted by a irritating poke would seem to indicate a more complex message than most have posited. The “Icicle Stimulus” and “Temporary Doorstop” parts of the panels would also seem to indicate some resistance to authority, lending more evidence to a more nuanced view of this cartoon’s message than most seemed to have perceived. Irrespective of my accuracy in interpretation, kudos to the artist whatever their intention, as they certainly have got a lot of panties in a bunch here; the goal of most cartoonists.
veeeery interesting. But not very funny. Arte Johnson
As the whole folly falls apart and the ground falls away under their feet, the Warmistas are becoming more and more desperate. They are now clutching at straws, strawmen and deggers.
I don’t care if you stab someone with an icicle, kill a Jew or lynch an African-American. I don’t like that kind of humor. I don’t think it’s funny at all.
Dear Richard S. Courtney,
How unpleasant of you to come out so full of hate. Now take a look below at your comments, then read…thoroughly. Then try to calm down, then figure something out as to the kind of crap that is coming out of your head.
“richardscourtney says:
February 23, 2014 at 1:31 pm “You compound your offensive, untrue and silly post at February 23, 2014 at 12:33 pm by your childish excuse for that troll;ing which you provide in your post at February 23, 2014 at 1:21 pm.”
“YOU POSTED THAT LIST TO THIS THREAD. AND YOU MADE THE LIE THAT IT WAS A LIST OF “SOCIALIST” GOVERNMENTS.”
It does not matter where you obtained the list. And it does not matter if anyone else had made ther lie before: you have made the infantile excuse that “Little Johny did it first”.
“I really despise anonymous trolls!”
Now that we all and you see yourself Mr. Richard S. Courtney, read this and notice the time it was posted:
“Paul Westhaver says at 9:31:
February 23, 2014 at 9:31 am
“…..Look at history, the socialists are responsible for the death of 262,000,000 people in the last 110 years. See: Death by government::
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM ….”
Bye 🙂
It won’t be long before the warmists call for skeptics to be beheaded for their perceived scientific apostasy. CAGW is the new “Religion of Peace”.
re.
highflight56433 says:
February 23, 2014 at 1:21 pm
HF, I’m with you. CAGW IS a socialist avenue to power. Apparently some Brits still don’t understand the concept of liberty. In spite of the American revolution some 238 years ago.
Stabbing people with icicles? Possible, but highly impractical. Anyone dumb enough to try killing with icicles as illustrated would most likely shatter the ice and only leave a bruise, being more of an annoyance than a threat. The individual response to such a threat made flesh however, would be down to the assaulted individual.
how about using STUN GUNS on “CLIMATE DENIERS”! not a cartoon, but broadcast twice on on taxpayer-funded ABC Australia (21 & 23 Feb). the only transcript available is on Cambridge University/BBC “Naked Scientists” website. not sure if it has yet been broadcast by the BBC, but worth reading it all:
14 Feb: Cambridge University: ABC Naked Scientist: Chris Smith: Naked at the AAAS
(Live at the AAAS 2014 meeting in Chicago, panellists David Willetts, the UK
Minister for Universities and Science, Robyn Williams, of the Science Show
on the ABC, MIT Enterprise Forum president, Kathleen Kennedy, IgNobel Awards
founder Marc Abrahams and University of Madison-Wisconsin scientist Molly
Jahn)
***Joel Veness, science journalist. Like most good ideas at this conference,
this question came from some spirited drinks we had after the session
yesterday. Climate deniers often use the tools of propaganda to further
their campaign. Should science be embracing these similar tools?…
ROBYN WILLIAMS, ABC AUSTRALIA: Naomi Oreskes is sighting the tobacco
companies who, for 40 years or more were trying to say that cigarettes may
be okay. There is doubt about the science. So, it’s unequal and I think it’s
time the scientists really got up, didn’t use propaganda, but use short,
sharp sentences and fought equally.
***CHRIS SMITH, ABC AUSTRALIA: And stun guns might help as well.
ROBYN WILLIAMS, ABC AUSTRALIA: Yes.
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/naked-scientists/show/20140214-1/nocache/1/?cHash=7cc4c94970a73724aa3bd0a2037b8257&tx_nakscishow_pi1%5Btranscript%5D=1
as for “science journalist” Joel Veness, i haven’t found a single example of journalism by him online, but he is into “REINFORCEMENT LEARNING” aka propaganda, by any chance?
Joel Veness: GOOGLE SCHOLAR
University of Alberta
Artificial Intelligence – Reinforcement Learning – Data Compression
http://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=_iYrAxEAAAAJ&hl=en