Letters, I get letters, and even though the WUWT contact page says clearly:
Contacts made under this form (especially hate mail and threats) are considered to be fair game for publishing, just like the “submit story” form.
Some people just can’t help themselves. For example, today the story Seven Earth Day predictions that failed spectacularly by Andrew Follett of the Daily Caller got quite a bit of attention, and one David Corgan thinks I’m a “villain” for calling attention to failed Earth Day predictions of the past. The farce is strong with this one:
Name: David Corgan
Email:[redacted]@hotmail.com
Website: http://Astropunks.com
Subject: [Watts Up With That? – Earth Day Post] Contact
Message: Are you insane? It is only through MASSIVE efforts and huge expenditures by numerous governments that the Earth Day predictions have been averted. If not for the warnings, sentiments, and efforts of the scientists you denounce, we very well could all bestarving to death right now.
There are no scientists, or anyone that pays attention to actual data, that doesn’t believe we are rapidly heading for a global collapse. As a astrophysicist, I know how fragile and special our planet is, and shame shame shame on you for trying to promote such a horrible and destructive agenda.
The scientists, volunteers, authors, and more that you feebly attempt to debunk are champions of our planet and the human race. You are a villain.
Hmmm. Paul Ehrlich prevented us from starving to death? Somehow, Mr. Corgan just doesn’t strike me as a real astrophysicist…yet. Seems I’m right.
As for global collapse? We’ve heard it all before, that’s what the article points out. Here’s a few more Earth Day predictions that failed.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Villain, eh?
I gotta say I love the throwback nature of that term.
The real problem with being a villain is all the added expense involved, Anthony. You are going to have to grow your moustache out; invest in a moustache curler; add moustache wax to your shopping list…
And we haven’t even got to the top hat and opera cape yet!
An eye patch or monocle as well.
“5. What challenges do you see facing Minnesota’s community and technical college students?
Besides the constant concerns with keeping tuition and fees down, and simply finding a parking space, we struggle with current & future employment, time management, stress & depression, upcoming legislative budget shortfalls, a cumbersome financial aid & application process, and reliable grad planning.”
Looks like depression and a parking space loom large in his life. The internet just doesn’t forget.
I didn’t see “where my next meal is coming from” on the list of concerns, which puts him light years ahead of many millions of humans present and past. Compared to them, he’s living the life of Riley.
I went to a local state school for both my BS and MS … commuted for the MS. The greatest complaint heard was a lack of parking. There was plenty of parking … I never struggled to get a space in my “favorite” lot, which left me an enjoyable 3/4 mile walk. It never failed that those complaining were those who expected the space next to the door. This guy fits the bill of the ever expanding populace who wants life to be easy, and others to do for him.
+1 Beautiful metaphor. It works for so many whining issues.
Nobody ever takes the spots at the back of the lot, unless they have to. If you’re willing to walk a bit, you’ll never lack for a parking space. You’ll get some exercise, too. Burned calories is burned calories, in or out of the gym.
“If not for the warnings, sentiments, and efforts of the scientists you denounce, we very well could all be[]starving to death right now.”
Did he maybe misunderstand what the Green Revolution was all about? Once upon a time, “green” had other connotations than today, after all. Among other things, it used to be about increasing the output of agriculture. In Norman Borlaugs words:
“…some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are elitists. They’ve never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they’d be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things.”
(http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/01/forgotten-benefactor-of-humanity/306101/)
” It is only through MASSIVE efforts and huge expenditures by numerous governments that the Earth Day predictions have been averted”
Part of the beauty of global warming alarmism is that any predictions of climate doom that don’t come true you can say its because of what we DID do, and anything bad that happens that is possibly weather related its because of what we DIDN’T do. As for massive efforts and huge expenditures by governments… the rise in global CO2 levels has continued to accelerate with all that herculean effort and massive spending. So all those gloom and doom predictions about rising CO2 level caused global warming were averted by massive government actions and expenditures to make sure the CO2 levels kept accelerating at the same pace they would have had the government done nothing to stop the rise? Sounds like a lot of wasted government money.
David Corgan seems to be more of a cranial proctologist than anything else.
Plexibody (where a piece of Plexiglas is inserted into the lower abdomen) is a new surgical procedure that purports to alieve the symptoms of cranial-rectal insertion syndrome.
Umm..Is that like a ‘Butt Head’ or, or like a Doc who studies people with their heads stuck up their asses? A psychiatrist..ologist?
Part of this is happening because they have the wrong problem. You and fellow travelers have proved beyond a scientifically reasonable doubt that the planet is NOT WARMING.
But something much more serious (warming would be good) IS happening–and our greenie “friends” do have the right SOLUTION.
The world’s soils are being near-sterilized by chemical-based agriculture. It is the dead bodies of a zillion earthworms and insects and beneficial bacteria that are piling up in the sky as carbon dioxide. In itself, the increased carbon dioxide is a blessing because we are carbon-based life forms. Not only plant fertilizer, CO2 is directly beneficial to mammalian bodies as well. We evolved with much more of it in the atmosphere than today’s starvation levels.
It is an indicator, though–and the Paris conference wanted to “sequester” the carbon dioxide into the soil. They have the wrong problem–but they have the right solution! Richer soils are indeed needed. Get behind that effort and you can finally succeed in toning down the attack on fossil fuels–the ONLY fuels that INCREASE the carrying capacity of the Earth.
Yes Paris included the usual garbage, but nothing was binding–which is realistic anyway.
This site has mostly engineers and atmospheric people on it. But the real point of the whole debate was always, health, vitality, the biosphere. LEARN about this. You cannot teach a greenie–or anybody–that he is all wrong. Humans never accept that. Learn where they are RIGHT and the monstrous nonsense will go away at last. I tried this out today at an Earth Day celebration downtown. I yelled at a greenie, and then apologized and told him he had the wrong problem but the right solution and he ended up looking happy.
Get a garden this year–small if you’ve never gardened before. Buy Square Foot Garden book if you are starting out. In any case, go to http://www.sonicbloom.com and read delightful stuff and buy a kit (my only commission is a healthier world). Read the book Cows Save the Planet.
It is time to win the argument.
ladylifegrows April 22, 2016 at 4:02 pm
Gardening that is the question to ask. Do you garden?
I have for years. I retired and (Health reasons) moved to Northern AZ. (to be near my wife’s family) From Oregon. My Wife while in Oregon would look out at the back yard and say “you could grow stuff on Pluto, I would turn to her and in mock panic reply YES BUT YOU”RE TAKING US TO THE SUN!
Needless to say I’m going to have to relearn everything. It will be fun.
And yes I talk to my plants.
michael
“And yes I talk to my plants.”
I hope you get up close and personal with them (no, don’t mean ‘intimate’)
Whispering to them gives them a huge CO2 boost.
AndyG55 April 22, 2016 at 5:14 pm
No need, in the evenings I would lite a outdoor grill. some charcoal and some untreated scrape wood. I would stay up wind. It would warm me and feed my plants.
amazing what you can grow in a small area. I would freeze beans 3-4 types, the wife would make pickles-relish. and of course salsa. a years supply
michael
I think you’ll have fun with cacti and succulents. They don’t tend to be as edible as “traditional” plants, but are so unique-looking.
I will agree that we need to find common ground and talk reasonably. I bonded with a green in my family over nuclear electricity and the need to not harm people by denying the poor power. The most important thing is not to demonize them. They might be ill-informed or simply disagree. However, very few people are worthy of disdain. Most of them are well known here.
I used to have a garden but the growth of surrounding trees has made it impossible to grow anything except moss.
You may still be able to grow shade-tolerant crops (greens, etc.) in table-top beds raised above the surface to avoid invasive tree roots.
Okay we are going slightly off thread, but I think it okay because we are are remembering how much food we can grow in a back yard.
Okay as a lark I have grown corn in plastic garbage cans(4). I got more then I could use but…I rate it as court of last resort. Ear size 50-75% normal size. So ya, you can grow corn in a confined area. Briefly.
Lettuce all types grow well.
The point is if you want to survive a back step or live healthier grow your own veg’s.
My plan is to have year long gardens. Part field part enclosed. Want a tomato? a cucumber? some lettuce? go pick it.
micheal
.
All New Square Foot Gardening, 2nd Edition. No digging, no tilling, and little weeding, plus 100% of the crop in 20% of the space.
And just how have the dire Earth day predictions “been averted”? Aside from some anti-polution legislation, the government hasn’t actually done much.
lol website used in form not even working
Its the last recourse of scoundrels – when all the predictions have failed, and their credibility is on the brink of its final collapse, they’ll spin up some BS about how they “saved” everyone.
What’s really frightening – the unintended comedy of this missive aside – is that he probably will end up a teacher, or even a ‘Professor’. These brainwashed ignoramuses then hand down their bigoted opinions to you children and grandchildren.
As for his professed experience of PR and intention to exercise that in his desired role on campus: given the current evidence he has a great deal to learn and a long way to go. Penning illiterate and offensive letters to strangers with whom you disagree isn’t my idea of a good career move.
There is an entire goldmine worth of good wit written on this posting concerning the subject of this article. It attests to the fine humor (humour in English) and well rounded wealth of knowledge, intelligence and spirit by the usual suspects, and of some of the more obscure but well rounded voices of others, who post their thoughts here on WUWT. Mr. David Corgan, bless his sweet li’l heart, seems to have found himself in the precarious position of having over-stretched his reach far beyond his currently limited ambitions and station in life. Claiming unearned titles, while over stating his claimed capabilities in his professed scientific profession, he has found himself and his statements of fact imploded and splattered upon a steel curtain of superior intellect, great wit and concrete determination by the humble and thoughtful posters and the founder of WUWT, Mr. Anthony Watts, who, in his determination to give equal voice to the ‘haters’ of skeptics, has given Mr. Corgan a seat at the table in this fine forum. May god (or a higher power, or whatever) bless him for his spirit and, in hopes of saving his intellect and soul, we pray for his return to this site in the future as an objective and interested observer and outstanding contributor with a wealth of knowledge and a sincere dedication to truth, reality and the Scientific Method (When he learns of it)… A philosophy which has greatly enhanced mankinds existence and well being upon this Earth and has been, for thousands of years, one of mankind’s greatest triumphs and has taken us to places only dreamt of just a few short years ago, but which, sadly, has been relegated to the less important role where politics, power, and ignorance have become the more powerful influence on society in this era of materialism and selfishness.
Whew!
At least Mr. Corgan is relatively polite and coherent, when it comes to writing hate mail… compared to some of the other hate mail stupidity that Mr. Watts has received and posted.
He obviously didn’t consult
http://www.m4gw.com/
So Earth day averted Global Cooling – but now we have Golbal Warming!
I alsways wondered who was to blame for the warming.
It appears that Governments expended too much money and should stop immediately.
Wow! I have never seen a greenie use that BS angle before, until now. Lets hope it doesn’t catch on
He said in his bio that, “During a vicious November blizzard, I was born to Jolene and William Corgan in a Minneapolis hospital.”
I don’t know his age. So I don’t know what “vicious November blizzard” he’s talking about.
He can’t possibly remember it. He was just born. The weather when he was born also has nothing to do with what he is now.
So he was told about it. Maybe by a fan of “The Storm Channel”?
1991 is the candidate year, 28 inches October 31 to Nov 3.
Hardly my idea of “hate mail” nor a flame. He sounds very mild mannered and reasonable, just hopelessly ill-informed.
I’m a little unclear how being “a astrophysicist” helps him to know how “fragile” the Earth may or may not be. I thought astrophysicists studied stars not ecosystems.
It is quite possible that warnings and campaigns about pollution have enabled great improvements in the past. If we had not acted we’d doubtless have air quality like Beijing by now.
The rest of the warnings seem to have been pretty way off the mark.
As Orsekes pointed out, the Chinese form of government is far more efficient than ours at screwing things up. We should adopt their ways in order to save the planet. /sarc
Anti-pollution legislation has accomplished great things, but it has also followed the old 80/20 rule. So the vast majority of pollution was abated/averted with the first few decades of effort. Now their plans and spending approach infinity, as the molecules of pollution they’re chasing approaches zero.
The actual threat to mankind now is the insatiable and irrational Green movement itself.
I have a feeling that he didn’t read beyond the headline. Government intervention has greatly helped urban air pollution, putting it below levels known in even pre-industrial eras. I saw this article first and was about to support the author. However, all of the predictions in the article were absurd.
The EPA HAS done good work. Let’s not forget that. However, the problem is, as always, gross exaggeration and alarmism on what the problem is and how to fight it. It’s not “we’re all going to die so ban cars”, it’s “increase efficiency and add pollution controls to be able to breathe a bit better”.
If we were honest with each other, we would all be better off.
“…Government intervention has greatly helped urban air pollution, putting it below levels known in even pre-industrial eras…”
I have a hard time believing this claim…especially with CO2 now classified as a “pollutant.”
In any case, government regulation may have helped drive it, but much of the solution was technological advancement, not “…MASSIVE efforts and huge expenditures by numerous governments…” as the asstrophysicist here claims. In most cases, governments probably barely lifted a finger.
Yeah. However, I can tell you that due to a regulation (30 TAC 115 subchapter H to be specific) made in 2005, my plant has decreased its emissions by almost 50% since that time. While the saved resources make it worthwhile in the end, there is no way that we would have made those investments had it not been a regulatory requirement. Most reductions on the industrial level aren’t due to a technological improvement, but boring things like particulate scrubbers, fugitive monitoring, and flare flowmeters. Sometimes you get a new thing, like nitrogen-hydrocarbon separators, but the real impact comes from just dedicated action.
In short, the claims are exaggerated, yes, but with a kernel of truth behind them.
David Corgan (I almost said Billy,)
I ain’t a astrophysicist. What I am (is,) besides almost being a rocket scientist, is a Brain Surgeon. At least, I’m practicing my correspondence course on weekends. Getting better, too.
I’ll make you a special offer, in case your brain is fried, which it might be. You never know. I can make some scary predictions about what will happen to you if you pass up this offer.
It’s a certain prediction that with your condition, you can’t be trusted to make your own decisions. This matter is just too important to be left to no- brain surgeons like yourself.
Come on over, we’ll save a bed for you.
You’ll only feel a pinch (but no worries, you won’t remember it.)
This hate mail is, at best, a ‘C-‘ effort. Mr. Corgan gets points for using polite language and being coherent…for hate mail. He loses points for lack of vituperative, vitriol and imagination. “…shame shame shame on you…” and “You are a villain.”, really? that’s not much better than wagging your finger and saying tsk, tsk. Mr. Corgan needs to do better work if he wants a better grade.
SMC April 22, 2016 at 4:41 pm
This hate mail is, at best, a ‘C-‘ effort.
SMC aren’t you being a little harsh? This thread may by reviewed by his Profs. Giving it a “C”? A poor grade in this forum may effect all his other studies. I beseech you to raise his grade to a minimum of B+ .
A- would would be more helpful for him. Would you please reconsider and ask that you rating be edited?
Its only fair, his (“wine wine”) future is at steak, (Darn I dropped my beer) Have pity.
Your friend
michael
Mike, I thought I was being magnanimous with that grade. His effort lacks emotion, passion and is unimaginative. If he is willing to edit and resubmit his effort, taking into account my criticisms, I will reconsider the mark I gave him.
point set match.
michael.
This isn’t something left over from April Fool’s day, is it? Otherwise Mr. Corgan is so far out in left field as to be right out of the stadium.
‘There are no scientists, or anyone that pays attention to actual data, that doesn’t believe we are rapidly heading for a global collapse.’
Where is he going to get ‘actual data?’ Over half of U.S. data is COMPLETELY MADE UP (realclimatescience.com). The rest has been adjusted.
Suggest you all play the ball, not the ball player. Ad homs on our side do us no good; just stoops to their level. As somewhat here.
AW was right to publish this garbage. It needed no further comment.
Take the high road, not the low road.
“It needed no further comment.”
Sure it does. Hate mail should be graded.
“…What sets me apart, however, are my years of Public Relations experience in the professional world…”
Yes, I can see how he’d be good at public relations…starting out emails with, “Are you insane?”
Come on in, David Corgan.
This is about YOU.. come and talk to us. 🙂