"Scientists" respond to Al Gore (redux)

[Harper_is_Bush]

"Scientists" respond to Al Gore.
Thursday, 22 June 2006
There's a rightwing (Canada Free Press) article circulating widely titled:
"Scientists respond to Gore's warnings of climate catastrophe".
It doesn't actually cite too many scientists, and the ones it does list have some interesting backgrounds.....

Bob Carter. A marine prof fired by the Australian government.
Read what a scientific journalist has compiled on him:
Global Warming: Fair Weather Friends?

Exxon factsheet on Bob Carter:
EXXON FACTSHEET: Bob Carter

Sourcewatch on Bob Carter:
SourceWatch: Bob Carter

And then there is Tim Ball, a man often published in the media sharing his doubts on global warming. He's cited extensively in this article against Gore.
Ball thinks Global Warming will benefit Canada.
Global Warming will Benefit Canada

http://allpoliticsnow.com/content/view/27/1/

He he. Scientists, indeed.

Links abound in the article....

[geomon666]

1. I love that line.

Global Warming will benefit Canada. Well yeah. Halifax is going to be the new Miami Beach and the survivors of the North American floods can come for spring break and have piss filled Corona's.

[greyl]

2. Scientific evidence of our culture's effect on global warming is as strong

as evidence for evolution. These scientists are all fuckers.

Good post.

[Harper_is_Bush]

3. It's amazing how garbage like this makes the rounds while it's

chock full of illegitimate SOB's.

[Pirate Smile]

4. more

"Ball is promoted by the National Center for Public Policy Research ($225,000 from Exxon Mobil), and Tech Central Station (which also receives support from General Motors).
He spent time in 2002 in Ottawa at a conference paid for by Imperial Oil to urge the government not to ratify Kyoto. His credibility is in tatters:
The Global Warming Denial Lobby

Tim Ball's Personal Climate Campaign Continues


Moving along to the less prominently situated names in the article brings us to Dr. Boris Winterhalter, a former marine researcher.
I won't even bother with links on this guy, he's easy.

His argument against the movie is that glacier wall breakage is a normal occurrence.

This is not really an argument against the movie or what it presents, but I guess it's intended to pretend like it is.
All I can say about this person is go see the movie. His objection is empty, because Gore never claims that glacial wall breakage is evidence of global warming. He does talk about glacier retreat, and ice shelf collapse. Boris doesn't address those things, for obvious reasons! "

[Raster]

5. The hit squad can go home. Global warming and human intervention in

Earth's climate is FACT. That's right, FACT. And with that, go FUCK YOURSELF, Michael Crichton. Oh yeah, who's the Danish "scientist" that exxon just loves to quote? Bjorn Dipshit or something like that. He can go fuck himself also.

[SammyWinstonJack]

15. I don't get it. If we, who believe that Global warming is real, are

wrong, what have we hurt? On the other hand, if those who don't believe that Global warming is real and the facts prove them wrong, and as a result we do nothing to reverse it, we are all screwed.

[Raster]

16. Another disconnect for me is THIS IS AFFECTING THE ENTIRE PLANET!

It's not as members of the B.F.E.E. can just take their ill-gotten gains and go home leaving the rest of us to deal. It's almost as if they are acknowledging the situation is dire but they're going to plunder and pillage on the way out. I have trouble with this.

[SammyWinstonJack]

25. I'd say that they are ones who are disconnected and who, as a result

are dragging the rest of us down their disconnected path. See, they are not acknowledging that Global Warming is true. They are in fact, denying it themselves, and allowing their kool aid slupers too believe that we are nuts. I don't know if the BFEE and enablers believe that Global Warming is true, or not. I think they are just greedy bastards, who only think in the here and now, and fuck the future! Crap! :banghead:

[Raster]

26. I guess that's the disconnect for me. It's sooooo obvious we are all

*potentially* in deep doo-doo. I don't understand how some could put their profits above saving humanity.

[Raster]

6. wonder how many of these "scientists" are on exxon's payroll?

[Warren DeMontague]

19. Not all of them.

Some are paid by Chevron.

[Harper_is_Bush]

23. lol! Or Mining or forestry or pesticide or

The new line I have seen a few times of late is "who cares? Liberal scientists are funded by special interests too!"

"Liberal scientists", meaning the ones who dont BS I suppose. The ones with no motivation except the truth.

[Warren DeMontague]

24. Well, as you know, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias"

Thanks, Steven.

[Igel]

7. Carter appears to dabble in climatology, but dismissing

him as simply a marine scientist fired by the government (when 'Australian participation in the project that he was in was suspended') is to misportray him.

Most scientists actively publishing in peer-reviewed journals aren't, He he ... scientists? Nail him for dabbling outside his field of expertise, not for being a productive, tenured, university geologist with grad students who, apparently, still doesn't count as scientist. Maybe not of awesome international stature, but a scientist, not a "he he, scientist." http://members.iinet.net.au/~glrmc/new_page_4.htm

As for the "Fair Weather Friends?" article, it's less about Carter than about him in a kilt and others. The one objectional thing he said he promptly recanted when it was shown otherwise; if the writer intends for us to think s/he's quoting Carter's views, then s/he should. Or at least say he shares the views being quoted. The old bait-and-switch.

On edit: he's adjunct, not tenured.

[Harper_is_Bush]

10. Well, we certainly wouldn't want to misportray these deceitful people.

Oops, my sarcasm shorts are showing. :)

If they're dabbling outside their field and embarking on an anti-global warming crusade using disinformation as a main tool then maybe it's not unreasonable to giggle at their qualifications.
He contributes to the IPA in Austrailia regularily:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Institute_of_Public_Affairs

He spreads the same debunked deceit that other "scientists" spread:
http://ipa.org.au/files/56-3-%20who%20can%20insure%20against%20the%20climate.pdf

Therefore, he deserves no respect and will get none from me.

[Igel]

17. It's just by last night I was tired of

listening to ad hominem fallacies, and wasn't ready to swallow another.

I'm a linguist. And yet I can spot blatant fallacies and truthiness when I see them. The writer was obviously not a journalist, the compiler of the links was obviously not competent outside his/her field (heaven forbid they're actually claiming journalism as their field, that would be scary). I guess they deserve no respect.

Didn't even bother to check the links for the second guy, the first set were a waste of time: two were irrevelant, and the third was misleading. I may waste my time, but at least my time-kills have to have a chance of being entertaining.

[Harper_is_Bush]

18. The first link was a story by a scientific journalist.

Who had intereviewed that Carter guy more than once. I found his story very informative and fair.

The second and third, Exxon facts and sourcewatch respectively.

Methinks you don't realize what we're up against.

[Canuckistanian]

8. I started looking into these "60 Climatologists" myself

The first one I looked at was Dr. Ian D. Clark. Despite his calling himself a "paleoclimatologist", he had spent almost his entire career working for such organizations such as KPMG and the IMF, as well as business think tanks. His bio doesn't even mention climatology.

I want to go through the rest of them and make a chart of actual vs. claimed expertise. It'll be a big project.

[Reckon]

9. Thanks

I shared the info with friends who were buying the anti-global warming propaganda.

[Harper_is_Bush]

12. UR welcome. the global warming denial croud is convincing

Maybe it has somethign to do with all the oil, gas, forestry, mining, pesticide, etc money they get.

It's a double-edged sword for them though. They get the money, they can spread an organized message of disinformation....but, they lose credibility when we point out where their money comes from.

[annabanana]

14. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[Reckon]

22. Thank you

Nice to be on board.

BTW, love your tagline "I pledge alliegence to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the Republic which it defines."

If you don't mind, I'd like to post it on a few message boards.

[Harper_is_Bush]

11. Bob Carter: member of Institute of Public Affairs. Funding:

Funding:
# Major mining companies - BHP-Billiton and Western Mining Corporation;
# Pesticides/Genetically modified organisms: Monsanto; and
# A range of other companies including communications company Telstra, Clough Engineering, Visy, and News Limited;
# Tobacco companies - Philip Morris (Nahan) and British American Tobacco <8> (http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2003/08/11/1060588322537.htm)
# Oil and gas companies: Caltex, Esso Australia (a subsidiary of Exxon) and Shell and Woodside Petroleum; and fifteen major companies in the electricity industry; (Nahan 2)
# Forestry: Gunns, the largest logging company in Tasmania; (Nahan 3)
# Murray Irrigation Ltd - a major irrigation company contributed $40,000.<9>

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Institute_of_Public_Affairs

Think I'll submit that.

[Harper_is_Bush]

13. Morning kick for the global warming deniars. In the balls, that is. nt:)

[Warren DeMontague]

20. Meanwhile, the past few decades have been the warmest in 400 years

Possibly the past several thousand.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/23/WARMING.TMP&type=science

These motherfucking energy industry shills should be ashamed of themselves.

[greiner3]

21. Sometimes I read at the freepers;

And their posts regarding Pres Gore and global warming always have these and other kooky Canadian and Australian scientists, that if you follow the links via their websites, more often than not lead you to some other freeper site that spouts repug shit. At first I was hopeful that the freepers would at least take a moment and examine the available evidence and be able to come to an imformed opinion. Now I know that is a false hope. They believe we (anybody left of Barry Goldwater) are the devil incarnate and we made up global warming so that we can ruin the planet by putting everybody out of work. :rofl:

Oh, and did you hear the one about the NRA accusing the UN of trying to take the little boys penises, oops, I mean their guns, away? The freepers were trying to figure out how many divisions the UN had and they were going to make a stand south of the Hudson river somewhere. :rofl: