As some people may or may not know, I am a full member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in good standing. The 2015 AGU Fall Meeting is coming up in December. With nearly 24,000 attendees, AGU Fall Meeting is the largest Earth and space science meeting in the world. I hope to attend so that I can cover what is being presented in the world of climate science, while keeping tabs on the antics of people like Michael Mann, John Cook, Peter Gleick, and some of the other players. For the last two years when I attended, I produced several reports and videos in 2013 and again in 2014, plus many, many, live Twitter entries that kept tabs on the politics and the science. This year I hope to do the same. But this year, I’m going to be more than that – I’m going to be the only climate skeptic invited to give a scientific presentation.
There’s only one problem. It is VERY expensive to attend, and more so in previous years due to my dual role as news media as well as presenting AGU member. The reason is that I’m told that while in previous years I could register for free as a member of the news media, this year due to the fact that I’m presenting, I’m also required to register like any other attending member.
The cost of registration is $455, and the deadline is November 12th at 1159PM EDT to get that rate.
Add a hotel for 5-6 days at the typical $150-250 per night rate in SFO, plus incidentals, parking, etc. and the cost to attend easily tops $3000.
While many attendees get the taxpayers (via their Universities) or their NGO’s via donors to pay for such things, WUWT has no such resources, and despite the claims common from detractors, like the last two years, we are still waiting for that ‘big oil check’ to arrive. I’ll drive down to save money rather than take a plane.
So, like I did for the last two years, I thought I’d ask the readership if they can help out so that there will be somebody at AGU to report on climate science that can do so from the skeptic side. It is very important that at least one climate skeptic reporter attend. Otherwise, the media coverage will be completely one-sided. AGU approved my media pass, so now I’m set to attend for that at least, but in order to present, I need to pay the member registration fee and hotel in advance.
But, more importantly, here is what I’m presenting at AGU on Thursday, December 17th, at 1:40PM:
It will be a challenge for me, not just for the content, but because I’m going to have to deal with one-on-one questions in the noisy hall,(and maybe some personal derision, hopefully not) for daring to not only attend, but to make a presentation that questions the surface temperature record.
I need your help. Thanks for your consideration, and most of all thanks for reading WUWT.
Donations toward this effort will be gratefully accepted: here
UPDATE: I’m overwhelmed by the courage and generosity of WUWT readers, the goal has been met and exceeded, such that I’ll be able to not only attend the conference, but do so comfortably. Thanks to one and all for your help! – Anthony Watts
Another few $ towards your expenses. Good luck with your presentation.
Done $50 Bernie
$100.00 Good luck!
Done – thank you Anthony for all that you do!
Wow, a lot of ” Big Oil ” companies on this site !!!! sarc
More than happy to support the voice of reason. $200 on the way.
$10 on the way via PayPal. Good luck and keep up the good work!
Best investment ever. I’ll receive at least a 1000% return in education and entertainment value.
Done, thanks for your effort Anthony.
Done, hopefully your goal is reached and you can use mine for a well deserved beer.
Good luck Anthony
$50. Hope it helps…
Done – $50 more coming your way. Thanks for all you do with this site
Joe
I’ll be donating a little once I get to a location with a secure network.
Glad to see there will be a Poster at the Poster section presented by Anthony.
It should be fun Anthony so enjoy it.
John
Great job.
will you be releasing the data and code
When it hits the journal, yes.
so basically this is marketing
(Snip. This is off-topic. Normally tolerated maybe, but not on this thread. -mod)
Steven Mosher says:
so basically this is marketing
In the links SM posted, Anthony replied:
Mr. Mosher knows my email, and has my telephone number, and mailing address, and so far he hasn’t been able to bring himself to communicate his concerns to me directly, but instead chooses these potshots everywhere.
The project was worked on for a year before we released, a number of people looked at it at various stages. Dr. John Christy was in fact the one who suggested we should put a note in about TOBS at the end, saying we will continue to investigate it it, because he knew it would be an important consideration. I concurred. We also knew that to do it right, the TOBS comparison couldn’t simply rely on the “trust us” data from NCDC. Christy had already been through that with his study of irrigation effects in California and had to resort to the original data on B91 forms to disentangle the issue.
What we are finding so far suggests NCDC’s TOBS times (we have the master file for all stations) don’t match what the observers actually do. That’s a discrepancy that we need to resolve before we can truly measure the effect along with siting.
Mr. Mosher would do well to note this comparison.
1. When The Team gets criticized on a technical point, they typically dismiss it with a wave of the hand, saying “it doesn’t matter”. Upside down proxies, YAD061, and lat/lon conflations are good examples.
2. When we get criticized on a technical point, we stop and work on it to address the issue as best we can.
Whining won’t help #2 go any faster.
‘A. Scott’ also replied:
Watts “surface stations data classification” is the result of applying Leroy (2010) siting standards to the existing readily available station data. Not a thing I can see to stop you from duplicating his work and verifying or disproving his results…
(At this point ‘A. Scott’ linked to all the sources needed to replicate Anthony et al’s work.)
…I believe that is all of the data required to reproduce Watts work. I even included the NCDC station history metadata in case you don’t want to do the extensive visual and/or onsite inspection Anthony and his help spent well over a year doing.
Another reader added:
Seems to me instead of complaining about his work – if you want to refute it you should just jump in and have at it. Do the work and show where he is wrong.
I think Mosher is just miffed at the deconstruction of the B.E.S.T. paper that he was part of.
Mosh knows ALL ABOUT marketing..
Its is only claim to fame.
Steven Mosher,
Ha ha ha ha . . . .
Rumor has it that Elvis is still alive, so there is a marketing opportunity for you, éminence grise.
John
I would classify myself as a luke-warmer, but frustrated that what should be a scientific debate has become acrimonious and political. So have sent a small donation towards your expenses. Bon voyage!
$250 with pleasure. There is more in the coach cushions if you don’t reach your goal. … Which I doubt …
Take a bow readers of WUWT. You’re outstanding! 👏
Added my $50. Good luck. I suspect there will be more skeptics there than you might think. Let’s hope they give you a standing ovation for all your good work.
Donation of $50 from England on its way. Thanks for helping me to keep sane in all the current climate doom frenzy.
Internet panhandler
When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser – Socrates
Jealousy seems very becoming of you !!!! At least you have 2 billion Hiroshima bombs on your crappy little website ??? …LOL
…..2 billion Hiroshima bombs and counting !!!!
Try turning the “!!!!!” off, so you won’t look like such a fool.
jl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
I, for 1, LOVE the !!!!! — drama is FUN!!!!!!!
#(:))
Have a great evening!!!
you mean like those others (Bill Mc Kibben, Greenpeace, WWF , UCS, etc) ?
At least we all know Anthony has real science here at WUWT!
Internet slanderer
Dan Pangburn,
At least you are self aware.
John
Re: “internet panhandler”
To YOU, Mr. Pangburn. Not to those of us who WANT to help Anthony get the truth out there. To us, it is: welcome opportunity.
Reminded me of something….
American* G.I. liberating Buchenwald in N@zi-speak: fiend
American G.I. liberating Buchenwald in Yiddish: mensch.
*only because Anthony is an American
*****************************************
Thank you, Anthony Watts, for LETTING us help!
Alarmists-government panhandlers. You really didn’t think that one out, did you?
$100. Wish I could give a LOT more!!
Surely, at my age, it doesn’t mean anything that I had to look up my PayPal password (again).
It does look like the electrons and the digital bits did their thingy. Perhaps they’ll be beamed into folding stuff as well.
Enjoy and I do hope there is more skepticism than you alone. Otherwise, a sad day for science.
re: “look up my PayPal password…”
Of course not! It only means you have more important things on your mind.
When I was in my 20’s, I remember forgetting where I parked my car at Nordstrom (those were the good old days……… when I lived with my parents, so much of my income was available for my favorite purchase — clothing :)), ….. and I said to myself, “I am going to remember this for when I am in my 80’s and I forget where I parked and attribute it to age: I forgot where I parked my car in my 20’s.”
Now. If you look at those keys in your hand… and can’t remember what they are for….
….. well……… (sigh)…… just ask someone who loves you. All will be well.
I would add, “… and don’t worry if they start to cry,” but, — you won’t be troubled by those tears at all. And that, truly, sad as that also is, it is a blessing.
Sorry so much about Altzheimer’s Disease/dementia…. watched Ben Carson (he has my vote!) on the news this evening and found out that his mother has it. It is “the happy kind,” but I know it must make Mr. Carson and his family very sad at times.
Take care,
Janice
$100 already on the way.
Imagine what it will cost to support the thousands headed to Paris soon? Even my state’s governor (and a small entourage) are going. I am sure that will set the state back a few bucks. Also certain his presence will only increase the dreaded carbon dioxide in the meeting room.
Surely your governor (and mine) will be paying out of their own pockets. /that tag thing
Its me and my fellow french taxpayers who are bearing the brunt of this shit.
I was going to offer Anthony an Amtrak ride to the conference and back, but it looks like he is covered enough to travel via golden limo!
Anthony – Thanks for all you do. I just sent a contribution by PayPal.
With everyone talking about the mythical 97% consensus of scientists, it would be nice to get a real poll of scientists on a truly relevant question (like “Does the evidence support catastrophic human-caused global warming?”)
Perhaps you could ask for an audience show of hands to guess how far north they would have to go for cooling equivalent to the projected cumulative benefit through the end of the century of the recently imposed Clean Power Plan. Using the highly optimistic alarmist numbers (that are probably overstated by several fold) the 32% required reduction of CO2 emissions will only avoid 0.02 degrees of warming (equivalent to going north less than a mile). If you offer choices of 500, 100, 50, or less than 10 miles, I wonder how many will know that it’s less than 1 mile (I calculated 0.6)? And, that assumes that the coal we don’t burn stays in the ground (not shipped to China, which is more likely) and that positive feedback amplifies the warming (which is also unlikely).
Correction, my calculation of how far north you’d have to go for the same cooling as the Clean Power Plan projections is about 0.99 miles, not 0.6 miles.