Thursday, December 10, 2009

Shooting blanks

The NY Times has remarked on the empty weariness of denial

But the climate skeptics who met inside a stuffy second-floor gallery near this city’s Christianshavn neighborhood on Wednesday displayed at least as much passion for their cause as the environmental activists who have flocked to Copenhagen to push for action on global warming.

“They’ve got us outnumbered,” said Ian Plimer, an Australian geologist, who has interests in several mining operations. “But we’ve got them outgunned.”

concluding with a perfect description of the debate among our friends, the Potty Peer, S. Fred, Dowser Morner and a cast of maybe five others,

Then, as debates over global warming often do, the discussion dissolved into incomprehensible shouting.

Steve Mc is missing a fun party.

FAST MOVING UPDATES from the Rabett Run Crack Reporting Team in Copenhagen, or is that your Rabett Run Reporting Team on Crack? Things are moving fast and it's pretty hard to keep our little bunny butts off the floor. Gareth in the comments tells us

Meanwhile, for an alternative view of the conference, the potty peer is blogging his time in Copenhagen:

The more reflective of the numerous journalists who crowded into our little conference chamber noticed a startling difference between our conference and the panto. There, all was screaming spin. Here, all was calm, rational scientific discussion among the world’s leading climate experts.

I have a feeling that Scrøtüm may have a message on the way soon. Ethon may be required...

Joe Romm has Video with the Potty Peer and his pet making an appearance.




Atmoz awakens and throws Mike Mann under the bus having lifted Steve Mc's patented Climate Audit Whine Generator.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

God how I missed Stevie Mac in that story.

Arthur said...

Umm, do debates among real scientists "often .. disolve into incomprehensible shouting"? I thought the NY Times article was way too gentle on these guys. It was lightly mocking, which I suppose is nice, but still... quoting Plimer on "outgunned"?

Truth about AGW said...

Arthur:

It's easy if they are the only ones willing to use them guns...

Simon Donner said...

"Incomprehensible shouting" is a brilliant term.

Gareth said...

The NYT thinks that the SPPI is a British organisation? Fact check failure alert!

Meanwhile, for an alternative view of the conference, the potty peer is blogging his time in Copenhagen:

The more reflective of the numerous journalists who crowded into our little conference chamber noticed a startling difference between our conference and the panto. There, all was screaming spin. Here, all was calm, rational scientific discussion among the world’s leading climate experts.

I have a feeling that Scrøtüm may have a message on the way soon. Ethon may be required...

dhogaza said...

Well, one would expect it to be calm and quiet when only five people showed up in the audience (apparently that's all that were left when the protesters departed)

CapitalClimate said...

Plimer has "interests in several mining operations":
Yeah, to the tune of literally hundreds of thousands of $AUD per year from at least 3 companies, as the press could have easily verified if they did any actual journalism.
(Today's exchange rate:
$1 US = $1.09 AUD)
Here, let me Google that for you, Mr. NYT Lazy Journalist:
Are you feeling lucky, punk?

P. Lewis said...

Oh, the delicious ironies emanating from the lips of the Mad Monk:

1. That the protesters "know no climate science".

2. That this denialist from the top table of denialists calls the demonstrators "crazed Hitler youth".

Cymraeg llygoden

John Mashey said...

SPPI: as far as I know, we still don't know who funds SPPI, and given its dedication to Monckton, its funding may well be British.

If anyone really *knows*, please tell. We know Rob Ferguson was funded by ExxonMobil at his last thinktank, but this one is unclear.

amoeba said...

With genuine respect to CapitalClimate:

'Plimer has "interests in several mining operations".'

This is demonstrably true, but crucially Plimer has interests that extend to include coal.

Let me Google that for you:
http://tinyurl.com/ybbpqg8

Deep Climate said...

Yeah, yeah. I have a perfectly entertaining Plimer post ready to go, and then McIntyre goes and does this:

http://deepclimate.org/2009/12/11/mcintyre-provides-fodder-for-skeptics/

Never mind following the refs, all you gotta do is follow (and connect) the dots.

silence said...

Something of a hint on where SPPI gets its funding:

The Virginia corporations database (see the Clerks Information System at http://www.scc.virginia.gov/clk/bussrch.aspx ) lists the following directors:
ROBERT E FERGUSON
WM BRUCE GAIR
GARTH R POTER

I'm guessing that "GARTH R POTER" is a typo for Gareth R Porter, and that the two are the principals of the law firm Porter & Gair. This firm has a history of working for the oil industry.

Ian Forrester said...

"Professor Niklas Mörner, one of the liveliest lecturers on the circuit despite his great age, briskly wielded a wooden salad-fork as a pointer"

He must have lost his water glass and was using his fork as a dowsing rod.

silence said...

A slight update. Gareth Porter is (or perhaps was) the International Program Director and Climate Program Co-Director for the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI)

See http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=browse&cat=636 for some information about their board & staff and about their sources of funding.

amoeba said...

Re Capital Climate:
http://deepclimate.org/2009/12/11/mcintyre-provides-fodder-for-skeptics/

McIntyre has indeed belatedly filled in the dots because he's been rumbled, but in the true spirit of a sleazeball, McFraudit 'forgot' to mention the update on the page and the date on the page does not reflect the update. Some of this dishonesty lives on, but I have submitted it for archiving, so no link at present, because one of the puppets might report it to their puppet master.

Unknown said...

At the very least, for those who can't see the col-lOH-sal snark in the letter, is the term 'rodomontades'. Is there a better description of a couple of the "leaders" of the denialist movement?

Best,

D

Word verif agrees: 'herrum'

Gareth said...

Ethon's foreign holiday.

Loads o'liver.

Anna Haynes said...

Late to the party, but (re silence's comments above) it looks to me like Garth R. Porter (attorney, of Porter and Gair) and Dr. Gareth Porter (investigative historian and journalist, author of four books; "Gareth Porter & Janet Welsh Brown, Global Environmental Politics") are separate people, and that the EESI Porter is the latter.