Villanova University Presents 2019 Praxis Award in Professional Ethics to Climate Change Pioneer Michael E. Mann, PhD

1549991557015From Villanova University Media Room

VILLANOVA, Pa. —The Villanova University Ethics Program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has named atmospheric scientist and well-known climate change advocate Michael E. Mann, PhD the recipient of the 2019 Praxis Award in Professional Ethics. This year’s award will be presented at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 11 in the Villanova Room, Connelly Center, followed by a lecture by Dr. Mann.

Since its inaugural year in 2007, the Praxis Award is given to a professional or academic who exemplifies the highest ethical ideals of their profession or who has contributed to professional ethics scholarship. Dr. Mann is considered a pioneer of climate change and has significantly contributed to the scientific understanding of temperature changes over the past thousand years. He is distinguished professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center.

Dr. Mann was a Lead Author on the Observed Climate Variability and Change chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Scientific Assessment Report in 2001—which was among the IPCC’s many efforts that earned it the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He was organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences’ Frontiers of Science in 2003 and has received a number of honors and awards, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s outstanding publication award in 2002 and selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002.

“The Ethics Program of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences recognizes Dr. Mann for his professional courage, his scientific work, his commitment to defend science against those who seek to politicize the findings of science, and his recognition that scientists do their work in the context of a global and independent reality,” said Mark Doorley, PhD, director of the Ethics Program. “We need science in order to navigate the challenges of that reality; and we need scientists to speak up, as Professor Mann has done—and continues to do—in the present moment.”

The Praxis Selection Committee reviews nominations annually, selecting a recipient who has accomplished one or more of the following achievements:

  • Excellence in fulfilling and embodying the ethical ideals of a profession;
  • Excellence in connecting professional work to a broader understanding of the common good;
  • Excellence in promoting and embodying ethical integrity in a professional field;
  • Excellence with respect to research in the field of professional ethics;
  • Excellence in terms of influence on the field of professional ethics through writing, teaching, consulting and/or professional leadership.  

The event is was free and open to the public.

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SMC
April 12, 2019 6:05 pm

There go the Leftists again. Changing definitions to promote their narrative.

MarkW
Reply to  SMC
April 12, 2019 6:13 pm

The left has always defined right and wrong based solely on whether they benefit from it.

Simon
Reply to  MarkW
April 12, 2019 7:58 pm

“The left has always defined right and wrong based solely on whether they benefit from it.”
Funny I’d say exactly the same about the right. You could certainly say it about those on the right who deny the climate is changing and the impact man is having on the change.

drednicolson
Reply to  Simon
April 12, 2019 8:06 pm

Another salvo fired in the War on Straw.

Admin
Reply to  Simon
April 12, 2019 8:16 pm

Hidden any declines lately Simon?

noaaprogrammer
Reply to  Eric Worrall
April 12, 2019 8:50 pm

Is there honor among villains?

Simon
Reply to  Eric Worrall
April 12, 2019 10:43 pm

Thank you Eric for offering such a perfect example of skeptic dishonesty. You know very well there was nothing untoward going on with the science and yet you peddle this myth long debunked myth.

“Many commentators quoted one email in which Phil Jones said that he had used “Mike’s Nature trick” in a 1999 graph for the World Meteorological Organization “to hide the decline” in proxy temperatures derived from tree-ring analyses when measured temperatures were actually rising. This “decline” referred to the well-discussed tree-ring divergence problem, but these two phrases were taken out of context by global warming sceptics, ”

And it seems they continue to…..

tty
Reply to  Eric Worrall
April 13, 2019 1:42 am

It has not occurred to you Simon, that if treerings are an unreliable proxy in the present they probably also were in the past? It apparently did to Phil Jones which is why he choose to “hide the decline”.

And that is very much “in” not “out of” context.

Jaap Titulaer
Reply to  Eric Worrall
April 13, 2019 3:53 am

“Climategate ‘hide the decline’ explained by Berkeley professor Richard A. Muller”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BQpciw8suk

Prof. Muller is director of the Berkley Earth project.

Simon
Reply to  Eric Worrall
April 13, 2019 12:45 pm

Jaap Titulaer
I am delighted you are a fan of Prof Muller. You will be familiar with what he now says about man’s influence on the warming? If not have a little read….

Reply to  Eric Worrall
April 13, 2019 1:11 pm

“Simon April 12, 2019 at 10:43 pm
Thank you Eric for offering such a perfect example of skeptic dishonesty”

Eric was absolutely honest.
simple simon is dishonest, and is very misleading on Mike’s trick with a common ssimon trick of logical fallacy false strawman.

Tell us ssimon, why did Manniacal graft modern temperatures onto his reconstruction so that he had a hockey blade going up?
A total ethics failure for both of you!

MarkW
Reply to  Eric Worrall
April 13, 2019 7:18 pm

One constant with Simon, there is no lie so decrepit, that he won’t keep pushing it.

The statement regarding “hide the decline” has never been refuted. But you will never get simple to admit to that.

MarkW
Reply to  Eric Worrall
April 13, 2019 7:20 pm

Poor Simple, Is there any logical fallacy he won’t hide behind.
In his mind, if you agree with someone on one thing, that proves you agree with him on everything.

Anthony Banton
Reply to  Eric Worrall
April 14, 2019 7:25 am

“Hidden any declines lately Simon?”

Eric:
As you well know the “decline” was in the deviation of north tree-rings from following instrumentally recorded temperatures during the modern period.
And not in the GMST itself.

“It has not occurred to you Simon, that if treerings are an unreliable proxy in the present they probably also were in the past? It apparently did to Phil Jones which is why he choose to “hide the decline”.”

tty:
And has it not occurred to you that if tree-ring temp proxy data is unreliable for the past then that also casts doubt on the MWP and LIA as well in regard to tree data.
You do agree those two events occurred?
If so you can’t have it both ways.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.researchgate.net/publication/222433927_On_the_'Divergence_Problem'_in_Northern_Forests_A_review_of_the_tree-ring_evidence_and_possible_causes/amp

Reply to  Eric Worrall
April 15, 2019 8:57 am

Anthony Banton:

The fact that there WAS an effort to hide the decline pretty much says it, doesn’t it?

Alan Tomalty
Reply to  Simon
April 12, 2019 8:50 pm

This award to Mann is like giving an award for human rights to a psychopathic killer.

Art
Reply to  Simon
April 12, 2019 10:24 pm

Really??? You’ve actually found someone on the right who denies the climate is changing???

Simon
Reply to  Art
April 12, 2019 10:46 pm

Art
Try reading the full sentence “You could certainly say it about those on the right who deny the climate is changing and the impact man is having on the change.”And yep there are loads here who deny man’s impact. I suspect you are one….

Jaap Titulaer
Reply to  Art
April 13, 2019 3:57 am

Simon: no one is denying that climate is changing. It always has & is. What skeptics contradict (or nuance), with lots of evidence, is to what measure the CO2 created by humans plays a role in it.

As you know quite well, I’m sure.
So stop using those silly talking points.

F1nn
Reply to  Art
April 13, 2019 4:39 am

Simon

I´m not right or left or up or down. So don´t put any labels on me.

Because it´s obvious that you know the truth, would you be kind and show evidence of man´s impact in climate change?
Models are not accepted as evidence. Or your vision of left or right. Or your vision of intelligence relating only in your political wiev.

Ability to think is not dependent of political wiev, as you seem to assume.

Throw the facts on the table, os shut up that nonsense.

Craig from Oz
Reply to  Art
April 14, 2019 8:47 pm

Simon types;

“… deny the climate is changing and the impact man is having on the change.”

The real question here is does Simon actually read this word salad before he presses send?

Simon seems to believe if you add enough conditions to his claim that you will eventually catch people out. The comment was that ‘no one seriously denies climate is changing’ so Simon has added more and more sub clauses.

The problem is that what he is trying to say doesn’t actually make sense. He wants people who both deny change AND deny the effects of man on said changes. Think about this for a moment. Simon is basically double dipping on his original statement.

Let us word him another way: – The Cake is a Lie and no one should slice it.

Why are we even discussing the slicing? We have already established there is no cake. Adding the second clause adds nothing to the discussion and actually confuses the issue. If we need to consider slicing cake then maybe the cake ISN’T a lie. By dragging the conversation into slicing discussion we confuse the issue until the actually point of the original statement is so poorly understood that it can be manipulated for personal gain by whoever is actually still trying to attach importance to a topic everyone else has moved on from.

Moving back to the ‘climate change deny blah blah’ the entire topic is actually much more complex that can be covered in one deliberately poorly worded sentence. For practical example I personally do NOT deny the climate is changing. I am completely sold on the idea. It is getting colder. That for starters screws up the system and this is before we get to the deeper questions like ‘is Greenhouse real?’, ‘why have the models consistently failed?’, ‘Do we all agree CO2 is plant food?’ and ‘compared to all the other things that are affecting the health, safety and happiness of my family at the moment, is ‘Climate Change’ even in my top 20?’

See? Complex questions, and if you are trying to generalise a complex matrix of personal opinions down into simple ‘gotcha’ questions then your own argument is probably already extremely weak.

Or, to cut to the chase, Simon is more than likely trying to hide the decline in Global Warmists.

David Murray
Reply to  Simon
April 12, 2019 11:56 pm

It would be hard to find anyone right or left who denied that climate changes or that man might affect it. There is no empirical evidence that carbon dioxide effects such a change nor an explanation of its physical properties that would allow it.

MrGrimNasty
Reply to  Simon
April 13, 2019 12:48 am

Simon, the systematic manipulation, corruption, concealment, and destruction of climate data, goes way beyond the dubious interpretation of one dodgy email by people determined to exonerate those involved. You would have to be prejudiced in the extreme to refuse to accept that it is rife and manifest.

If the data supported the narrative, there would be no need for this behaviour.

But low-grade arrogant people like Mann have a political agenda and a lust for power/recognition, and so the big (ig)noble lie is perpetuated.

Rich Davis
Reply to  MrGrimNasty
April 13, 2019 4:43 am

Stop offending Simon! He has a right to his religious beliefs.

Reply to  MrGrimNasty
April 13, 2019 2:17 pm

I think this clip explains Mann’s need to feel important. It goes way back to an incident in his early days at University.

https://youtu.be/y74tZv15WOU

Graemethecat
Reply to  Simon
April 13, 2019 12:59 am

True Believers like you have the chain of causation exactly backwards: atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is a function of temperature, not vice versa.g

Bill Powers
Reply to  Simon
April 13, 2019 7:05 am

I have never met a person who considers himself politically right of center that Denies Climate Change and neither has Simon. Disagreeing with a government funded hypothesis on the roll of CO2 to Climate warming and mans contribution is not denial of climate change so you premise is a dishonest one. Which makes you Simon, deserving of an ethics award.

The CAGW hypothesis is to date unproven with substantial evidence that it is make believe. Much like imagining a liar is deserving of an ethics award the dishonest brokers on the left and their brainwashed acolytes imagine boogeymen under their bed. Look close Simon the boogeyman that has take up residence in your bedroom bears a strange resemblance to Michael Mann holding an ethics award.

Reply to  Simon
April 13, 2019 10:56 am

Simon, please remember that “global warming” metamorphosed into “climate change” so that every set of data could be attributed to it. This is a perfect foil since we all understand that the climate on earth has been in a constant state of change for 4.3 Billion years. The adherents want us to now believe that the climate was relatively stable until man began causing changes.

Reply to  Simon
April 13, 2019 11:19 am

“You could certainly say it about those on the right who deny the climate is changing and the impact man is having on the change.”

Can you post a list of anyone who denies climate is changing?

What, exactly, is the magnitude of human impact on climate?

Granted that the climate has been warming since the Little Ice Age, when did natural factors cease?

Simon
Reply to  Sam Grove
April 13, 2019 12:32 pm

“What, exactly, is the magnitude of human impact on climate?”
Really? So unless we can put an exact number on the impact it’s not happening? Sorry but that is just plain foolish. Can you tell me exactly how many people have died from lung cancer from smoking? Using your logic, unless you can, the lung cancer thing is all a hoax.

Reply to  Simon
April 13, 2019 12:54 pm

In fact, we are discussing the actual magnitude, not either/or.

Willingly, I concede to the notions of climate change and human influence, but I am unwilling to concede knowing the future to anyone. There should a test for prognosticators, forecasters, futurist, predictors,and visionaries. At the very least, they should have to disclose their past record for predicting the future.

MarkW
Reply to  Sam Grove
April 13, 2019 7:23 pm

Simple, it’s your side that has claimed that they can discern a human caused signal in the climate noise. If this claim is true, then you should be able to put numbers on the signal.
Since even you admit that they can’t, this is just more evidence that the claim to have discerned such a signal is yet another lie.

Major Meteor
Reply to  Simon
April 13, 2019 3:45 pm

Simon, the climate denier phrase is just another propaganda hit piece. There is no denial that the climate changes. The majority of the sceptics just see no hard evidence that a warmer planet is catastrophic. While we look at science, you look to emotional appeal of the gullible. What I do see is the left looking at this as a way to reach into every wallet on earth. What better tax is there than one that taxes the air we breathe?

Y. Knott
Reply to  Major Meteor
April 13, 2019 4:29 pm

Simon.

Troll.

Reply to  Major Meteor
April 13, 2019 5:13 pm

Thank you for expressing the “Skeptics” loyal opposition’s argument to a religious audience. Great work!

MarkW
Reply to  Simon
April 13, 2019 7:17 pm

Poor, poor Simon.
His case is so weak that he has to resort to lying about what others are saying so that he can sound slightly less incompetent.
There is a grand total of nobody who denies that the climate is changing. Lie #1.
There is a grand total of nobody who claims that man is having no impact on climate. Lie #2.

Your 0 for 2 you poor sod, perhaps you should quite before you fall even further behind.

DayHay
Reply to  Simon
April 14, 2019 8:15 am

Jees, I can find 100 comments on here where folks say us “deniers” DON’T doubt that the earth is warming. Just like it has many, many times over the Holocene. So you are full of crap on that one. But, if you have identified exactly why the temperature rose and fell periodically throughout the Holocene, and explained exactly why the last 50 years are completely outside the bounds of natural variability, please enlighten us Nazi’s.

Reply to  Simon
April 15, 2019 7:53 am

Simon – have you ever posted anything that was actually true – or do you just attack progressively-constructed stereotype-caricatures in good fascist tradition?

I’ll say this – you’re a good go-to example for illustrative purposes.

Reply to  Simon
April 15, 2019 8:54 am

There are only two possibilities when Simon says things like this that are simply untrue – especially after being constantly corrected – he’s stupid or lying.

Although one does not preclude the other – it could be both.

ShinkuToner
Reply to  Simon
April 25, 2019 1:57 pm

You have yet to prove that Man’s fraction of CO2 Emission have anything to do with it when the total effect of CO2 in the atmosphere as a COOLANT and as a radiative feed back is as low as NOISE. If you still feel strongly about this fact you should hold your breath so you would stop contributing to this phantom force.

Carbon Bigfoot
Reply to  MarkW
April 13, 2019 4:47 am

I always suspected that Villanova was only a basketball school—now I’m certain.

john mcguire
Reply to  Carbon Bigfoot
April 13, 2019 10:22 am

Go Wildcats

Aidan Donnelly
Reply to  SMC
April 13, 2019 3:33 am

The above editorial reads like Mann wrote most of it himself, but then that is not at all unlikely

April 12, 2019 6:06 pm

Oh dear…

Ministry of Love.

Rod
April 12, 2019 6:13 pm

“highest ethical ideals of their profession ”
Yep, he has met that criteria in spades.
…it’s just that the profession of CAGW advocacy has different ethical ideals to every other profession.

Reply to  Rod
April 13, 2019 1:57 am

Thus means that also ethics is now redefined, it is all Orwellian NewSpeak

April 12, 2019 6:14 pm

The sad thing is the poor guy might actually believe he deserves it.

BJC70
Reply to  Gunga Din
April 12, 2019 9:43 pm

I’m sure he does.

F1nn
Reply to  Gunga Din
April 13, 2019 5:11 am

Looking at his arrogant impression, which makes him look like “I´m above all”, tells the story.
Camera must be set on the floor so that he can look down. He looks like short and fat guy who wants to show his superiority. He´s in the “who´s the boss” mood.

I really hope to live the day when all this scam collapse.

TomRude
April 12, 2019 6:15 pm

At least we know where NOT to send our kids studying! Thank you!

DocSiders
April 12, 2019 6:16 pm

Villanova just spent their last ounce of credibility on this one.

MM is an appalling individual. He is only a petty political propaganda tool for illicit ends.

It’s time to defund and break up the Accademic-Government Alliance that has corrupted education (and Science)…turning them into thousands of very overpriced socialist re-education centers.

Our Constitution cannot coexist long under this assault.

Richard Partlett
Reply to  DocSiders
April 12, 2019 7:50 pm

Since Climate Gate and the Hockey Stick, one can only wonder why he is held in high esteem in the GW community
I think that MM is clinging to the wreckage of alarmist theories that give you the distinct impression you are being conned
His attitude at various panels is that he doesn’t listen to other well qualified scientists.

Reply to  DocSiders
April 13, 2019 2:46 am

Agreed DocSiders!

I can not think of a more egregious ethics award to villainous infamous miscreants.

besides not accomplishing spit since his original hokey stick graph with Mike’s trick to disguise or hide inconvenient data, Mannaical has spent most of his career attacking scientists because he is unable to debate their findings and data.

In the last few years, Manniacal falsely denigrated Dr. Judith Curry and Dr. Susan Crockford.
Manniacal got caught trying to deny his direct smear of Dr. Curry when she pointed out that he had included the smear in his own submission before Congress.

Manniacal is a co-author of a libellous disgusting attack on Dr. Crockford’s science, person and papers; “Internet Blogs, Polar Bears, and Climate-Change Denial by Proxy

Anyone with influence at Villanova should send them a letter protesting such a disgraceful action by the School.

Reply to  ATheoK
April 13, 2019 6:12 am

This is a great example of the circular nature and irrelevance of such awards today.

The awards have become just another public relations event to promote the school; and to that end, the honoree is chosen by how well known the recipient already is.

It doesn’t hurt if said recipient also advances their ideological agenda.

john mcguire
Reply to  ATheoK
April 13, 2019 10:40 am

It is a measure of appalling ignorance, nothing more…..j

william matlack
Reply to  ATheoK
April 13, 2019 12:59 pm

M. Mann is a disgrace to modern science and public decency. Watch his performance at the senate hearings on climate where he sits and smirks( off camera) along with the odd guffaws as DR. Curry tries to speak. Yup a real piece of work.

Robert of Texas
April 12, 2019 6:17 pm

HAHAHAHAHHAAAA… HAHAHAHHAHAHAAA…

This WAS a joke, right? I really cannot tell anymore.

Gerald Machnee
Reply to  Robert of Texas
April 12, 2019 6:56 pm

April Fool’s day was 11 days ago, or was it????

David
April 12, 2019 6:17 pm

I need to take a beeeeeeeep.

Tom
April 12, 2019 6:19 pm

I was looking for WUWT, and suddenly I was reading The Onion. What happened?

April 12, 2019 6:20 pm

And don’t forget he’s a Nobel Peace Prize winner like Barack Obama.

Jaap Titulaer
Reply to  Joel O’Bryan
April 13, 2019 4:01 am

By the same token: as is everyone in the EU, as Mike Steyn pointed out.

Grahame Booker PhD
April 12, 2019 6:20 pm

Proving once again the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the academy.

John Plummer
April 12, 2019 6:23 pm

One day this will be viewed in the same way we now view the 1936 Time magazine’s man of the year: Adolf Hitler!

Greg Cavanagh
Reply to  John Plummer
April 12, 2019 11:15 pm

Hitler did some pretty spectacular things. His air force was far ahead of everyone else, his navy was above average, and his tanks were spectacular. The use of tactical submarines had never been used in war before, and the invention of the rocket jump started the space age.

He was evil, but a visionary non-the-less.

RockyRoad
Reply to  Greg Cavanagh
April 13, 2019 4:44 am

Calling Hitler a visionary after seeing how he nearly destroyed the world is like aborting every baby for the next 50 years! And if my analogy escapes you, let me be blunt: Hitler was a lot of things, but visionary he was NOT! The man was the absolute personification of evil plus all the deadly sins! Had he even an inkling of vision, he would have gladly jumped off the Eiffel Tower!

F1nn
Reply to  RockyRoad
April 13, 2019 5:31 am

You are right.

But nobody knows where mann´s ethical award could guide this world. If left activists get power, it would be much larger massacre than Hitler could ever dream. And they are trying very hard to achieve that power. UN with ethical mann has opened the door. The movement is worldwide.

It´s all very evil politics.

Mark Luhman
Reply to  F1nn
April 13, 2019 3:44 pm

The left had a lot of power in the twenty century and what did they do just murder 200,000,000 people. Contrary to what you were taught Hitler was a man of the left, just because he was right of Stalin does not make him rightwing as to what ever the misused word means. Compared to Stalin, Hitler’s 12 to 16 million murders pale to Stalin’s 20 to 70 million, of course Mao puts them both to shame his trail of bodies was between 50 to 100 million. Let us hope the present crop of new lefts don’t get true power, I fear they will make Mao look like and amateur when it comes to murdering people.

Reply to  RockyRoad
April 13, 2019 10:08 am

Well now, I hafta personally thank Hitler for saving my life, …… at least 2 or 3 times for shur.

If Hitler had not started WWII on September 1, 1939, …… then tens of thousands of American, British and French military personnel would not have been dying as a direct result of battlefield bacterial infections ….. and a petri dish containing a culture of the fungus Penicillium chrysogenum (penicillin) would probably have remained on a shelf in a laboratory for another 15 or 20 years, ….. which would have meant that hundreds of thousands of young children in the 1940’s and 50’s, ….. like myself, …..would surely have died from bacterial infections that sulfa drugs were ineffective at curing.

So “YES”, …… I’m sure a “shot” of penicillin saved my life at least 2 or 3 times during my adolescent/teenage years.

Penicillin – the fungus that made it possible to have more veterans for Veteran’s Day
Read more http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/nov2003.html

RockyRoad
Reply to  Samuel C Cogar
April 13, 2019 1:15 pm

I would give far more credit to the scientists who developed penicillin rather than the tyrant who stimulated the dire need! And aren’t you forgetting the millions upon millions of people killed in the conlict? Certainly there are inventions and songs and ideas and millions of other beneficial and perhaps revolutionary things snuffed out because of that war!

Reply to  Samuel C Cogar
April 14, 2019 4:28 am

RockyRoad – April 13, 2019 at 1:15 pm

“”

But “DUH”, they wouldn’t have developed it in time to save my arse. And my arse is what I consider the most important.

And aren’t you forgetting the millions upon millions of people killed in the conlict?

So what, RockyRoad, it seems you have forgotten the millions of “new world” natives that were killed by white Europeans.

So, RR, ….. it appears you only care when it is “your ox that is being gored”, right?

Mike Ozanne
Reply to  Greg Cavanagh
April 13, 2019 5:34 am

“His air force was far ahead of everyone else, his navy was above average, and his tanks were spectacular.”

His Air force was not fit for purpose and lost him the war at Dunkirk and in the Battle of Britain. His navy was incapable of supporting his strategic plans after losses in the Norway campaign, and the success of his tanks was due to tactics not technical superiority. The submarines were no longer effective past 1943 and that could have been done sooner but for Ernest King and Arthur Harris. Robert Goddard Invented the liquid fuelled rocket and the resources diverted to the V weapons hastened defeat.

Visionary he may have been but not a competent one.

Y. Knott
Reply to  Mike Ozanne
April 13, 2019 12:44 pm

– Yes indeed. Some examples of how advanced they were…

– His #1 fighter, the Me-109, had 20 minutes of fuel over England and killed more German pilots in takeoff / landing accidents than it did enemy pilots. They fielded the first jet fighter, the Me-262, two years late after Hitler demanded it be used as a vengeance bomber instead; and the Me-262’s engines were good for eight hours total if the pilot did not rapidly increase the throttles and melt the turbines.

– KM Bismarck, which he sent out a’commerce raiding, was effectively an updated WW1 battleship of the High Seas Fleet. It had no cruise turbines so its fuel use was excessive, and it only carried enough fuel for ~8 days at full throttle. Unknown to the sortie’s planners, all the German tankers in the North Atlantic that Bismarck was to have refuelled from (if it managed to escape the RN’s radar cruisers, which they also didn’t know about) were being captured or sunk when Bismarck sortied, thanks to the British reading their mail.

During the happy times of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Russian armaments experts were invited to tour German tank factories – and they complained bitterly that they weren’t being shown the newest and best, like the Pact specified – they couldn’t believe the front-line German tanks were so poor. The Wehrmacht got a nasty surprise when they crossed the frontier and encountered T-34’s and KV-1’s; none of their guns could penetrate them, and once again they had to resort to superior tactics and their 88mm anti-aircraft guns. This was one of the few times a Hitler decree was ignored – he’d ordered all tanks to be up-gunned before Barbarossa (the Mk III’s with the 50mm, the Mk IV’s with the long 75) and the Bureau of Ordnance ignored him.

And speaking of Russia, calling Hitler a visionary is laughable. Hitler decided to help Italy attacking Greece in the Spring, so Barbarossa jumped-off on 22 June instead of as soon in the Spring as the ground dried, and Hitler decided to divert the main effort to the Caucasus to grab the Russian oil fields – and as a result, the drive on Moscow started with snow in the air.

To wrap it up, Hitler’s Three Biggest Mistakes, in order:

1) The Final Solution to the Jewish Question. You’re in a world war, Mister Hitler, and every gun, bullet and wrench might be the one that tips the balance in your favour – so what’s the idea of murdering six million able-bodied labourers? Especially those little old Jewish men with chestfuls of medals awarded by the Kaiser in World War 1?

2) Declaring the Slavs, Poles, Russians &c “untermenschen” and sending-in the Einsatzgruppen on the heels of the army to shoot them all. The Russians were heartily sick of Soviet Socialism, and in several places like the Ukraine, the Germans were greeted as liberators – for which Uncle Joe exacted a terrible vengeance after the war. If Hitler had declared the Poles, Slavs &c as “inferior but worthy members of the great pan-Aryan brotherhood” and restrained the army and SS from committing atrocities against them, he could’ve driven to Moscow in an open-topped car. Instead, the Russians pretty-soon figured out that they were better-off even under Stalin, than under Hitler.

3) Declaring war on the U.S. If he hadn’t done that, the Americans (many of whom hated the British more than they hated Germans) would’ve focused their attention on the Pacific, and left Britain to its fate. But he declared war on America – and Roosevelt (who was nobody’s fool) knew the Germans were a much more present danger than the Japanese, and agreed with Churchill that Germany was the #1 priority.

Visionary? – spare us…

Reply to  Greg Cavanagh
April 13, 2019 1:05 pm

No!

Hitler’s air specialists spent over a decade reviewing the air forces of other countries. When Germany began to build planes for war, they were the world’s experts on the latest and greatest innovations.

Germany started their use of submarines in WWI.
* Improved communications technology leading up to WWII, allowed Germany to micromanage submarine tactics, assignments and attacks.
* Britain responded by immediately returning to convoy tactics to blunt Hitler’s submarines.
* When America finally relented and accepted convoy tactics, U-boat sinkings plummeted. As Destroyers and Air cover improved, U-boat success declined.
* Mr. brilliant Hitler refused to accept Allied capabilities against his submarines and continued sending submarine crews to their deaths.

Many inventions of the Germans during WWII are amazing.
Mr. brilliant Hitler was so thrilled with his rockets of destruction that he lost focus on what he was trying to achieve. Hitler’s failed air assaults against England were guaranteed when Hitler focused on his doom weapons.

Hitler refused to accept development of jet engines, weaponry, etc. because they took resources away from what Hitler was comfortable with. Only when equipment was successfully demonstrated to Hitler did he relent and allow production. Even then, Hitler demanded immense levels of immediate production without lessening other production lines.

Right up to the end of WWII, Germany’s armies were dependent upon horses and walking. Units may have been mechanized, but often their supply chains were not.

Hitler brilliant? I think not.
Germany’s scientists and engineers were brilliant but misled and very misused.

RockyRoad
Reply to  ATheoK
April 13, 2019 1:16 pm

Always the hallmark of a tyrant!

Not Chicken Little
April 12, 2019 6:25 pm

I thought April Fool’s Day was almost 2 weeks ago?

Oh, right, those on the left have so many fools in their ranks, every day is a Fool’s Day for them…

Greg Cavanagh
Reply to  Not Chicken Little
April 12, 2019 11:16 pm

April 1st is the one day of the year they have an inspired and correct thought?

Latitude
April 12, 2019 6:35 pm

…is this like getting a prize in your happy meal

Kenji
Reply to  Latitude
April 12, 2019 7:24 pm

A Participant Trophy for Dr. Mann

Greg Cavanagh
Reply to  Latitude
April 12, 2019 11:18 pm

It does devalue all prizes in my view. Just like calling someone an expert, instant dismissal from me.

bsl
April 12, 2019 6:37 pm

What about his lawsuit?
Surely that’s a sign demonstrating his high professional ethics.

April 12, 2019 6:45 pm

The rot in academia!

joe
April 12, 2019 6:48 pm

Michael Mann should be let go from his university as part of the university’s climate action plan. Given that the science is settled why would we need research? 🙂

Mr Mann could train to be a solar panel snow remover.

Ronald Bruce
April 12, 2019 6:53 pm

This actually says more about the University’s lack of morals and ethics then it says anything about Michael Mann.

Michael Jankowski
April 12, 2019 6:56 pm

Thus is from the Onion, right?

KcTaz
Reply to  Michael Jankowski
April 13, 2019 12:36 am

Nah, it’s from the Babylon Bee, I think.

Tom Abbott
April 12, 2019 6:57 pm

I guess the people at Villanova University never read the Climategate scandal emails where the “ethical” Michael Mann figured prominently.

This is a transparent effort by some at Villanova to pump up the CAGW call to action. It hurts the CAGW cause to have the public think a leading light of the CAGW promotion like Mann is unethical so they try to change the narrative by proclaiming him ethical instead.

Saying it doesn’t necessarily make it so, Villanova. Your ethics award is now as worthless as the Nobel Peace Prize.

Villanova University is indulging in political propaganda with this award.

Our institutions of higher learner are failing the nation with their radical swing to the political Left in every phase of their operations. They are no longer teaching people, they are indoctrinating them with political propaganda.

Dave in Alabama
Reply to  Tom Abbott
April 13, 2019 5:40 am

Exactly correct.

It’s an in-you-face, skeptics moment.

PUMPSUMP
Reply to  Dave in Alabama
April 13, 2019 6:16 am

Indeed. Maybe I’m spotting where the bull is going No 2 more clearly now but there does seem to be a recent uptick in CAGW scaremongering (read as even more concerted PR campaign), in the absence of recent substantive data to support it. Boy, that table is sure taking a pounding.

Steve Oregon
April 12, 2019 6:57 pm

Why not?
Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize.
It’s a funny kind of dirty.

J Mac
April 12, 2019 7:02 pm

Orwellian, indeed!

snikdad
April 12, 2019 7:05 pm

Preposterous!

David Chappell
April 12, 2019 7:10 pm

That’s Villanova University crossed off my Christmas card list.

Jon Salmi
Reply to  David Chappell
April 13, 2019 10:48 am

Let’s just make sure Villanova U. is crossed off eveyone’s donation list.

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