Wow, this is just bonkers.
Lewandowsky and Cook would have a field day with this one, except, Dr. Wadhams is on their team (the warmist team) and thus would never think about accusing the good doctor of such psychological aberrations.
It’s a Big Oil conspiracy! The possible murder of three fellow warmists may be connected, says Cambridge University Dr. Peter Wadhams according to this story in the Telegraph:
Professor Peter Wadhams said he feared being labelled a “looney” over his suspicion that the deaths of the scientists were more than just an ‘extraordinary’ coincidence.
But he insisted the trio could have been murdered and hinted that the oil industry or else sinister government forces might be implicated.
…
Asked who might have wanted them out the way, he replied: “I can only think of the oil lobby but I don’t think the oil lobby goes around killing people.”
Big Oil must be omnipotent, as the evil oily elite were apparently able to arrange a targeted lightning strike:
The three scientists he identified – Seymour Laxon and Katherine Giles, both climate change scientists at University College London, and Tim Boyd of the Scottish Association for marine Science – all died within the space of a few months in early 2013.
Professor laxon fell down a flight of stairs at a New year’s Eve party at a house in Essex while Dr Giles died when she was in collision with a lorry when cycling to work in London. Dr Boyd is thought to have been struck by lightning while walking in Scotland.
Apparently, it gets worse:
Prof Wadhams added: “I thought if it was somebody assassinating them could it be one of our people doing it and that would be even more frightening. I thought it would be better not to touch this with a barge pole.”
His suspicions drew outrage on Saturday from Prof Laxon’s partner, who was also a close friend of Dr Giles. When told what Prof Wadhams had said, Fiona Strawbridge, head of e-Learning at UCL, replied: “Good god. All of this is completely outrageous and very distressing.”
Why yes, yes it is. And here Lewandowsky and Cook have a peer reviewed paper telling the world that its’s the climate skeptics that are the conspiracy nuts to be feared. I guess they forgot to look within their own peer group.
When you believe stuff like that, it’s easy to believe your own theories of climate catastrophe. Such as Wadhams big Arctic collapse prediction in 2012:
One of the world’s leading ice experts has predicted the final collapse of Arctic sea ice in summer months within four years…
Prof Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University calls for “urgent” consideration of new ideas to reduce global temperatures…
“This collapse, I predicted would occur in 2015-16 at which time the summer Arctic (August to September) would become ice-free. The final collapse towards that state is now happening and will probably be complete by those dates”.
Still there:
![N_bm_extent[1]](https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/n_bm_extent1.png?quality=75)
Readers may recall we noted Dr. Wadhams forecast was about to be falsified, so he moved the goalposts:
Over the past few years the Arctic expert, Professor Peter Wadhams, has strongly predicted an ‘ice-free’ Arctic no later than 2016. Late this year he changed it to 2020 without apparently giving an explanation.
You can watch his latest set of wacky Wadham predictions below.
NOTE: This post was updated about 30 minutes after publication to include the scan from the Saturday Times, rather that the satirical news channel image featuring professor Wadhams.
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Did he check where John Cook (now known as Cooky Biggs) was at the time?
I heard a rumour that someone wearing a Nazi Uniform and calling themselves ‘Lubo’ was seen in the vicinity at the time of these deaths.
/sarc
“Police wish to question 30 million British taxpayers…”
If man can control where lightning strikes, then controlling global temps should be a piece of cake.
Man may not be able to control where the lightning strikes, but it’s pretty easy to attract it to your experiment with a rocket.
..
http://wxguard.com/lightning-news/university-of-florida-lightning-lab-voted-awesome-lab/
you have to love The Times for juxtaposing the article with another headlined: “This year likely to be hottest on record”. subtle, what?
Wadhams’ tale is picked up in the Booker article comments:
25 July: UK Telegraph: Christopher Booker: How Arctic ice has made fools of all those poor warmists
The belief that the ice was vanishing has been for the warmists the ultimate poster-child for their cause
In 2007, with the aid of scientists such as Wieslaw Maslowski and Peter Wadhams, the BBC and others were telling us that the Arctic would be totally “ice free by 2013” (the Independent even cleared its front page to announce that the ice could all have disappeared within weeks).
By 2011, the BBC’s science editor Richard Black was telling us that the ice would “probably be gone within this decade”. In 2012, his colleague Roger Harrabin was reporting that the sea ice was now melting so fast that more had vanished that summer than “at any time since satellite records began”…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/11763272/How-Arctic-ice-has-made-fools-of-all-those-poor-warmists.html
“Climate scientist fears murder by hitman”
========
Never a thought given to the hardships endured by the hitter during the set-up.
Typical.
is it still Thursday?
is it still April 1?
If he’s so convinced that what he’s predicting is so serious with deadly consequences for mankind, why is he smiling his way through the interview? Creepy.
“Dr Boyd is thought to have been struck by lightning while walking in Scotland.”
Reminds me of an old joke. Three retired businessmen were in a rest home and explained how each made his fortune. The first had a store, but wasn’t doing very well. A fire broke out and burned the building to the ground, after which he collected the insurance. The second guy also had a business that was failing, but a water pipe burst, flooded the building and he also collected the insurance. The third guy explained how he had a business in Florida, it wasn’t doing very well, when a hurricane came through and destroyed it; he also collected the insurance. The first two guys looked at each other, then at the third guy and asked, “How did you manage to make a hurricane?”
So, how did big oil manage to generate lightning?
Satin skivies and wool socks will do it.
He keeps saying ‘this is where we should be spending our money’, ie. studies on the release of methane from the Siberian continental shelf. Who does he think should be paid to do this [research]?
Big Oil? Oh for Pete’s sake. Why would “big oil” assassinate warmists when the warmist’s position continues to fall apart? If you want a realistic ‘conspiracy’, why not the greater possibility that these people were killed because they were going to publically admit the warmist position is wrong?
If I pay (and I do) $65,000.00/gal for an exotic boutique petro-chemical or I pay $2-3.00/gal for gasoline, where do you think ‘big-oil’ would rather send their limited petroleum feedstocks?
I notice from watching the video, that Prof. Peter Wadhams is extremely keen on blinking. He seems to like blinking several times per second.
As an ad hoc experiment, me and my mirthful partner Carol have tried imitating his rate of blinking and we felt…well…blinkered.
Blinkered and befuddled. Befuddled and confused.
I recommend this experiment to anyone.
Watch a few minutes of the footage and then try to imitate the facial expression and blinking and see how you feel.
But seriously, the man has made the mistake of making a very public and very precise prediction. He has staked his reputation upon a clear prediction which can be checked against reality.
This was a big mistake.
Reality has not acted in his interest.
Predictions should always be vague and tentative, and coded in uncertain terminology.
Now, Prof. Wadhams is the victim of his own over-confidence.
He had deeply embarrassed himself.
And in the process, he has gone stark raving mad.
Maybe he needs a holiday.
Not for his benefit.
But for ours!!!
OK. What’s crazier?
The Times reporting his paranoia?
Or the Guardian reporting his catastrophism?
Both are ridiculous.
Note that the Guardian isn’t even carrying this story.
Velly intewesting.
I doubt if even the Onion would as well .
“Our children only have a future if we take action now”. Given that very little action is being taken, and not likely, our children should be terified of dying from global warming. Poor kids!
“Everything is increasing exponentially”
“no-one is doing anything because of cowardice” Oh, just like we’ve never bothered to address any of the world’s problems in the past or find any solutions.
“There are now vey few politicians or statesmen with credibility. The only person who has real respect and unquestionable moral status in the world, is the Pope.” (does that include his views on birth control, homosexuality and dealing with paedophile priests?).
Anyone who is convinced all peer-published academics are infallable and morally sound geniuses should watch this.
Actually, Francis has taken strong action on the latter matter. (Should have been done decades ago.)
the little i heard of the following on radio this morning sounded more like another CAGW scary story to me:
AUDIO: 25 July: BBC Science Hour: Arctic Ice
A new paper just published in Nature Geoscience shows that in 2013, which was a slightly cooler summer than average, arctic ice had grown, by 41% on the previous year. The study, uses data from ESA’s Cryosat 2, which incorporates not just the surface area of ice, but the all-important number – the volume. Adam examines the results with Rachel Tilling from University College London…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02xdr1h
TWO POLAR PIECES ON LAST WEEK’S PROGRAM:
AUDIO: 11 July: BBC Science Hour:
Global Warming and the Arctic Tundra
An international team of scientists, led by the University of Edinburgh, has carried out one of the biggest ever studies of key vegetation in the Arctic tundra. It found “strong evidence” that “dramatic” changes in the region are being driven by climate warming, researchers said. Tundra shrubs, which act as a barometer of the Arctic environment, were found to grow more when temperatures are warmer. But the study also suggested that increased shrub growth, driven by recent and future warming in the Arctic, could cause further warming in the area and the planet as a whole. Taller shrubs can prevent snow from reflecting heat from the sun back into space, warming the Earth”s surface. They can also influence soil temperatures and thaw permafrost…
Ice cores
Next year, scientists from around the world will start to place glacial ice core samples from across the world in a vault in Antarctica, an underground ice tunnel near the Concordia Research Station. Marnie Chesterton investigates…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02w8y8k
It is worse than we thought.
Wadhams is a nut but what I find interesting is that The Times even published this drivel. I know that standards have fallen low in so many journalistic quarters, but this article puts The Times on the level of supermarket tabloids that blare headlines about alien abductions and fictitious celebrity scandals.
Wadhams is an aggressive nutter from one of the most prestigious universities on the planet – and that sets him apart.
He’s been roughing up people using his status as a shield / weapon for too long and this is probably only a minor inconvenience before he gets pensioned off…. to provide rent a quotes for the usual suspects….
Can’t say I wish him well – but do thank him for a steaming plate of schadenfreude – which I hope is added to with early retirement and an “I love me” jacket next week.
Perhaps the Times is starting to have doubts about the whole global warming thing.
Start by pointing out some of the lead supporters are not altogether sane, then start asking harder questions about the science.
Professor Wadhams need to turn in his PhD and resign his professorship. Apparently, he hasn’t heard of insurance speak – “Act of God” or “accident.”
Do you suppose that perhaps God, Buddha, Allah, Krishna, Jesus Christ, and even random fate are opposed to AGW?
If he is going to pretend to be an Arctic ice specialist, he also needs to look at the biomarkers that indicate that for the first 2/3 or so of the Holocene, Arctic sea was mostly a perennial winter occurrence.
Arctic sea ice is anomalously high compared to all but the last few hundred years of the current interglacial.
Yes, in fact Prof. Peter Wadhams’ keen insight has led him to connect the dots and discover a heretofore unknown conspiracy. The only problem is that he has fingered the wrong suspects. Clearly what Wadhams has revealed is that God herself is a CAGW skeptic. Now, that should certainly be fodder for headlines…
i referred to the second BBC Science Show prog with 2 polar pieces as being “last week’s program” when it’s 2 weeks old; however, i heard it last week when it was being repeated.
This post is not a fine hour as far as I am concerned. Loved ones died and loved ones had grieving to do. This kind of thing can cause that grief to come back as if it were fresh. We should not be a party to it.
wrong adress, pamela –
it’s saturday times + the guardian who are seeking riots by fabricating
‘conspiracy ideation’, like murder plots from ‘big oil’
____
these are the adresses that you should be concernd with.
Hans
Not our finest hour, eh ?
Stick around, it might get better 🙂
Dr Boyd was hit by lightning. Only a Climatologist would believe that professional hitmen have Tesla lightning generators and weather control devices.
“Over the past few years the Arctic expert, Professor Peter Wadhams, has strongly predicted an ‘ice-free’ Arctic no later than 2016. Late this year he changed it to 2020 without apparently giving an explanation.”
And he gets paid
With extracted OPM.
OPM.. is that short for opium?
Or some other hallucinogenic. ?
‘Other People’s Money’ a marvelous Thatcherism. Heh, knowledge of which is sometimes a clue to ideology. ‘People’ have rarely heard of it; ‘Other People’ are sick to death with it.
Not measuring you by this oft unreliable metric.
=========================
And yes, it’s hallucinogenic.
Good catch.
=========
Oops, P. G. Wodehouse has precedent:
“There was the usual announcement that the President – that old Good Time Charlie, bless his heart – was planning to spend a billion dollars of other people’s money on something or other,……”
from ‘Laughing Gas’, copyrighted in 1936.
====================
No doubt the good Professor has evidence to back up his claims. I’m sure the output of his computer models detailing the unfortunate demises of his colleagues will be available for all to see any day now, actual code will of course be withheld.
(Yes, I was being very sarcastic here. I am saddened by the untimely passing of these people.)
Anonymous lorry driver: Am I accused of murder?
Anonymous person at top of stairs; Am I accused of murder?
Anonymous lighting bolt thrower; Yeah, it was me. He was waving around a 1 iron, and I had to prove I could hit it.
The modern instrument of lighting attraction is the “selfie stick”.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/man-who-was-struck-and-killed-by-lightning-in-brecon-beacons-was-carrying-a-selfie-stick-10370907.html
Umbrellas work well if you lack a selfie stick.