As many of you know especially those of you who contributed to help get me here, I offer my sincere thanks. I’m covering the AGU Fall convention in San Francisco. The day dawned gray, it’s not an uncommon sight in the city
But it soon turned sunny and bright
Registration was light this morning. This may have been due to many people being delayed getting here due to the weather east of the Mississippi. I saw a news report that over 1900 flights out of Chicago were affected.
Along the way, I spotted this sponsorship sign, similar to ones I’ve seen in years past. Notably missing was Exxon-Mobil, though Chevron was there. This is odd, because there was a big AGU stinkeroo with #ExxonKnew earlier this year from climate activists about getting AGU to drop the Exxon-Mobil sponsorship. The board decided they’d keep it, and they were the subject of much derision from the leftists that make up the vocal climate wing of AGU.
So, apparently, AGU either caved quietly, or they were too stung with the derision to dare posting the Exxon-Mobil name as a sponsor on a big poster in registration., or on the 2016 Fall meeting website. Seems pretty hypocritical to me…unless, Exxon-Mobil decided to yank the sponsorship because they just got tired of putting up with a bunch of crybabies. Hopefully I can find out more. SEE UPDATE BELOW.
In other news, some familiar faces were seen being honored this year. Shaun Lovejoy, who has written a number of questionable climate papers gets a nod.
Naomi Oreskes gets the “Ambassador Award” which to me seems laughable, because all of my experiences with her reveal her to be closed minded, hateful, and intolerant. She tries to link climate skepticism with the Tobacco industry tactics, which I find highly objectionable, not just for the sheer stupidity of the argument, but for the fact that both of my parents died from smoking related illnesses. I think AGU erred grossly. In my opinion she doesn’t deserve the title.
And then there’s Richard Alley, who at AGU13, convinced governor Jerry Brown that sea level rise was a huge problem for California. Brown then proceeded to make all sorts of crazy claims, including that LAX would be underwater soon. He got a rude awakening on that one.
This was the scene in 2013:
One of Alley’s slides from 2013 shows a whole new level of imagination:
This billboard suggests that the “shifting landscape” may be a reaction to the election of Trump, especially since Katharine Hayhoe is speaking.
I attended this session this morning, with particular interest to the third presentation. I wondered how they might link climate variability in the southern hemisphere to ice sheet change in the northern hemisphere. Turns out it was just some proxies and models, and the magic word: teleconnection. I think that’s about as valid a word as “ESP”. In other words, no real evidence, just conjecture. I counted several question marks in the conclusion slide, which suggested the authors were reaching. Unfortunately, AGU still has the policy against photos in sessions, so I can’t demonstrate the slim evidence and conjecture they presented. Eric Steig was involved in the paper, ’nuff said.
Today and Tuesday, Michael Mann will give another Manntastic pitch over “attacks” on science while pitching his book. That should be entertaining.
He’s got several sessions. The one on Tuesday says he intends to rally the press.
At least there is free beer again this year.
P.S. Willis and I will be presenting at 1:15 on Wednesday. More on that later.
UPDATE: It seems Exxon-Mobil told AGU they weren’t interested any more. I missed this news from last week. Via Inside Climate News (h/t to Roger Knights)
Energy giant ExxonMobil won’t be a sponsor of the largest earth and space science conference for the first time since at least 2001.
It was Exxon’s decision not to provide any funding for the annual conference, which will be held next week in San Francisco, according to a blog post last week from the conference organizers, the American Geophysical Union.
This news follows a nearly year-long campaign, in which more than 60,000 scientists, activists and others urged AGU to not accept Exxon’s money because they say the company has contributed to the spread of misinformation about climate change. They argued that’s inconsistent with AGU’s mission, position statement on climate change and funding policies.
AGU’s board considered this issue twice this year, voting in April and again in September to keep Exxon as a sponsor.
Starve the beast.
Ahem …. Trump takes office 1/20.
What is 1/20th of a year? On, no wait, that’s the first day of the 20th month, right?
Please don’t use American date formats, it is just stupid and confusing. Either January 20, or 2017-01-20 (it sorts correctly in a list).
Wow… talk about picky. Wally didn’t provide a list of dates – no sorting required.
Even this was too much of a response to pedant.
Although it really would be easier if we adopted the metric calendar.
Personally, I use the Shire calender.
Mike, there is a much more rational calendar. It contains 4 identical quarters, of 30-31-30 days each. That’s 364 days. Then there is “New Year Day”, which comes on New Year’s Day, and isn’t in any month. And then there’s “Leap Year Day” that comes every fourth year between the second quarter, and the third quarter, and also isn’t in any month.
Neither NYD or LD, or LYD if you prefer, is a day of the week. Both are National holidays.
So it’s a perpetual calendar and there are NO Friday 13 s.
G
55th of The Aftermath, 3182 here.
All the best to you and Wiillis Anthony. Are any of the presentations on live feeds? I would like to peek in on some and yours of course.
Cheers!
Ed
Thanks for doing this, Anthony. I know it’s a lot of effort but it really shows in the quality of the info we get here.
You may have noticed that there was an anti-Exxon-Mobil letter recently in the AGU’s publication EOS by Mann, Orekes and Emanuel.
Mann and his cabal were to speak at the Commonwealth Club today. The topic was something like “Is Denialism Destroying the Earth?”
Saw it in yesterday’s Examiner.
For some reason I was reminded of Foghorn Leghorn. To be fair, Oreskes does have some of the characteristics of a diplomat. On the other hand, I have never heard an actual ambassador described as closed minded, hateful and intolerant.
hrc comes to mind
UN Ambassador John Bolton (under Bush II) was frequently accused of just that.
Yes. His lack of diplomacy seriously undercut his ability to get badly needed reforms at the UN. link
How much longer is Chevron going to donate to this function? As they employ lots of geophysicists I can understand their desire to sponsor a major event to support the troops, but there gets to be a point where you draw the line. Also, I tried to find presentations of interest to petroleum exploration-ists, and found very few. Is this a forum for that slice of the geophysics spectra or do these occur in other venues?
The Deepwater Horizon incident ruined BP’s reputation with gullible greenies. Maybe Chevron is trying to fill that void. Lots of business to be had being the gentle oil giant.
I expect they’ll keep going
https://www.chevron.com/corporate-responsibility/climate-change
“Chevron shares the concerns of governments and the public about climate change risks and recognizes that the use of fossil fuels to meet the world’s energy needs contributes to the rising concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in Earth’s atmosphere. GHGs contribute to increases in global temperatures. We apply cost-effective technologies to improve the energy efficiency of our base business operations and capital projects. As we work to address climate risks, we must create solutions that achieve environmental objectives without undermining global economic growth and our aspirations for a better quality of life for all. “
I’m not a scientist, so I’m not an AGU member. If I was both however and was attending the conference, I no doubt would be struggling with the notion of getting Mann to apply his signature to my copy of Mark Steyn’s book “A Disgrace To The Profession” at his book-signing session. I would probably be trying to concoct a way to get him to sign it somewhere on the inside without him actually seeing the title.
I get such nasty thoughts sometimes.
ROTFLMAO
+ 1,000,000 !!!!
You should negotiate with McDonalds about a booth offering entry level jobs for out of work CAGW scientivists. Take a 5% first year salary commission and your financial future would be secure. On second thoughts maybe not, most would probably fail the entry exam, not able to count change without an adjustment.
+1
December 5, “Exxon won’t sponsor AGU”:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05122016/exxon-agu-conference-climate-change-denial
Penguins driving while drunk sounds like a serious problem to me.
Not all of those whose travel plans were affected booked a flight connecting in Chicago, but I am sure there were many…funny to think that climate scientists were confident enough to book a flight through Chicago in December. They probably spent their delays and layover trying to link the snow to climate change.
Free Beer sounds like the best part. Whoopee!
Ya gotta give it to Mann. He knows which side is bread is buttered on. Too bad the buttered side always hits the floor.
Perhaps you could ask them to set up a collection bottle for those in Spain that can no longer afford the cost of energy and are now freezing to death or burning to death from using candles for heat.
If the AGU really cared about AGW and CO2 emmissions, they would hold their meeting on the Internet instead of in SF.
I noticed this story on the decline of polar bear populations is already hitting the press from the conference:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-climate-arctic-idUSKBN14205I
given that sea ice has not yet reached Svalbard or Nova Zemlya or most of Hudson Bay yet, this year is evidence that the decline is a real possibility – the lack of ice will impact denning and/or feeding for the Hudson Bay and Svalbard populations this year (it has been raining not snowing on Svalbard)
Wow, apparently polar bears didn’t survive warmer periods, like the Holocene climate optimum (why do they call it “optimum” if warming is bad?), Minoan, Roman, and Medieval warm periods.
Griff, do you think climate never changed until the Industrial Revolution??
Yes, anyone who wants a Griff-free opinion from a real polar bear expert, head to Susan’s Crockford’s site:
https://polarbearscience.com/
I love this re-phrasing one needs to do to get to what they are actually saying:
“After 10 years of ice conditions we didn’t expect would happen until mid-century (a worst-case scenario we said would cause more than 30% of the world’s polar bears to die – except they didn’t), we have now determined (using a new model and a brand new definition of sea ice specific to polar bears) that by mid-century, there is only a 70% chance that 30% of polar bears will die.”
Follow the pea, folks. Warmunists use the fact that most people are happily innumerate to pound them with fake math.
I checked her site before posting Caligula…
which is why I know there’s a problem if there’s no ice around Svalbard or in Hudson Bay this time of year for the bears…
(and yes, maybe they survived before: it has to have been in low numbers… in the modern world is it guaranteed they survive this time?)
Griff has become so predictably disgusting that I now simply pass over his/her/its comments. It works and I recommend it to all.
Come’on guys. Don’t you feel at least a little bit sorry for someone that goes through life thinking that – not only is the glass not half full – there’s only a few drops of condensation left. I pity anyone that leads their entire life in such a state of hopelessness.
Anthony, thanks for this report, which may be citable in my forthcoming grant-app.
Could you give us an update on your impression of the numbers attending, and whether they are above or below ‘expectations’ of any passing management person?….
You see, I conjecture that the climate of climate-change is now cooling, and your observation could provide me with enough ‘post-normal-proof’ to be able to cadge funding.
Another indicator of ‘the tide’ going out, is the amount of detritus and weird junk that is left stranded. From your observations so far, there seems plenty of it.
AGU is a pitchman’s paradise.
Good to see the Exxon knows how to make their money talk.
Didn’t Dr. Alley used to play shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates? I think he and Mazeroski set the record for the number of SS-2B double plays in a single season. Obviously he took a wrong turn after his playing career ended. Too bad.
Free Beer??? Aren’t all those bubbles in beer CO2? It’s the mass production and consumption of carbonated beverages that is driving climate change. If these people were really dedicated to reducing human emissions of CO2 they would not be handing out free beer.