Category Archives: global warming

How FactCheck, Snopes et al try to confuse data manipulation in global temperature data

Snopes, FactCheck and other fact checking type sites love to use weasel works. For example, in the “global warming” or “climate change” debate both attempt to deal with the question as to whether NOAA has manipulated the raw data. Clearly the answer is yes. Yet both sites come out with the answer as now even though they admit that it was “standardized” or “manipulated” in the text.

For example:

“no undue manipulation of temperature data” – FactCheck.org
“NOAA Scientists Falsely Accused of Manipulating Climate Change Data” while stating “procedures for the standardization of which datasets to use” – Snopes

None of this is the language of science. Once you have massaged the data, it is no longer data, but a hypothetical. Sure, models may be good, but they may not be – garbage in, garbage out. And a model is no longer data, it is a model projection of data. Depending on your manipulation, you can achieve many different results.

Snopes continues:

“Karl et al might reasonably be criticized for having been less than rigorous in their data documentation, their findings have been independently verified, “

First of all, if it is impossible to independently verify a revision in data processing. Sure, if you put the same input into the same process, you should get the same output. But the process here is key. If the assumptions used to “standardize” the data are biased or faulty, it doesn’t matter if it is repeatable.

“they also released a revised land record based on data” – “the old NOAA record spliced together warmer ship data with colder buoy data without accounting for the offset between the two; and the new NOAA record puts more weight on higher-quality buoy records and less weight on ship records (versus the old NOAA record which treated ships and buoys equally). ” Carbonbrief.org.

A “revised” data set based on changes in weighting of the data from equal to weighting one that is unequal is purely subjective. It is no longer data, it is, again, hypothesis.

So, when reading the fact checking from many of these sites, watch out for the weasel words to twist a statement into something it isn’t.

Look at the “Did Hillary Clinton Steal $200,000 in White House Furnishings?” article on snopes which they label as “mostly false.” Yet Snopes states at the end of the article:

All told, the Clintons paid back or returned approximately $136,000 worth of furniture, artwork, china and other household items they had kept upon leaving office, with $86,000 of that total consisting of personal gifts they would presumably have been allowed to retain but decided to pay for to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
About $50,000 of the total comprised items they had removed but were later determined to belong to the government. To say the latter were “stolen” is to say more than we know — the removal of the questioned items could have been based a clerical mistake — but in any case an accurate accounting of those items’ worth puts it at only a quarter of what has been alleged: $50,000, not $200,000.

Just be sure to read the words because they could’ve ask the question “Did Hillary Clinton Steal $200,000,000 in White House Furnishings?” And of course as a percentage $50,000/$200,000,000 is de minimis.

How the question is phrased, and how the answer is presented is key.

Did NOAA manipulate temperature data? Unequivocally yes as everyone admits when you read what is written.

Snopes and others tried the same thing with the “Al Gore invented the Internet” claim. By changing the claim from what Gore said to something else, they claimed it was false.

Robert F Kennedy Jr takes the hypocritic oath at Climate Rally

Robert F Kennedy Jr takes the hypocritic oath at Climate Rally. His motto seems to be, it all starts with someone else.

Michelle Fields interviews Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the ‘People’s Climate March’ in New York City and asked him a few questions about his own carbon footprint and whether he would be willing to change it before forcing everyone else to it through the power of government. His answer, that he wouldn’t do so, is quite illustrative:

The hypocritic oath seems to be: first claim what you are doing is harmful, then expect someone else fix it so you can keep doing what you want.

 

Senate ‘Global Warming Impacts’ hearing postponed due to snow

The following Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearings have been postponed due to inclement weather this week:

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a hearing entitled, “Global Warming Impacts, Including Public Health, in the United States.”

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=b3e826ad-802a-23ad-45b8-8fa00c661d62

Global Warming means no snow or cold in RC, RFK Jr.

Great point, read the rest from at the Washington Examiner:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who flies around on private planes so as to tell larger numbers of people how they must live their lives in order to save the planet, wrote a column last year on the lack of winter weather in Washington, D.C.
RFK Jr, 2008:  Recently arrived residents in the northern suburbs, accustomed to today’s anemic winters, might find it astonishing to learn that there were once ski runs on Ballantrae Hill in McLean, with a rope tow and local ski club. Snow is so scarce today that most Virginia children probably don’t own a sled.  http://www.robertfkennedyjr.com/articles/2008_sep_Los_angeles_times.html

Eco-hypocrisy, celebrities and Copenhagen

Check out this article entitled “Taking the Private Jet to Copenhagen“.

Sheryl Crow, John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Aniston, Truie Styler (wife of Sting), Chris Martin (of Coldplay), Barack Obama (flying a St. Louis chef flown 850 miles to make pizza at the White House), Al Gore  are not only eco-crusaders, but all are eco-hypocrits with things like multiple houses, fleets of private jets, and fleets of cars.

Read the article for the details.

Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu says we are “teenage kids”

The American public…just like your teenage kids, aren’t acting in a way that they should act. The American public has to really understand in their core how important this issue is. Dr. Chu, September 21, 2009

When government runs and funds sciences, the sciences are lost.  No more scientific inquiry.  Too much time licking the boots of their masters.  Remember there can be no scientific inquiry when the government controls you.  Government scientist is a contradiction in terms.  Let’s make a few points clear here:

1. You first, Dr Chu.  Then Al Gore, Prince Charles and all the other blow-hards running around in private jets, multiple huge houses (and so many some Members of Congress “forget” about them). You try it first.

2. It is none of your business what we do, this was founded as a free country with strict Constitutional limits of the powers of government.  Dr. Steven Chu needs to read his American History before he continues to spout fascist-socialist nonsense.

3. Fascism, statism and socialism are not what we want here.

4. Double-speak, thought police, might be acceptable in a totalitarian regime, but not in the United States.

5. Look at sunspots.  Read this [Climate modeling], and this [Al Gore’s house], and this [each leader at U.N. Climate Summit has convoy of vehicles].  “Do as I say, not as I do,” seems to be the motto.

We are not children, Dr. Chu.  We are a country of free individuals and taking orders from crack-pots is not in the plan.

Dr. Steven Chu needs to start with examining his history, his facts, and the Constitution.  After he is done all that, come back and talk to us again.  But the next time Dr. Steven Chu speaks to or about the American people, Chu better do it as equals.  An elitist, authoritarian, imperial set of rulers in Washington?  Is that what you want?

Senator Debbie Stabenow says she can “feel” global warming when flying!

Climate change is very real.  Global warming creates volatility. I feel it when I’m flying. The storms are more volatile. We are paying the price in more hurricanes and tornadoes.

Detroit News interview, August 10, 2009, Senator Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) – appointed to the Senate Energy Committee

A few points:

1. Senator, if you are REALLY concerned, STOP FLYING.  Take the first step Senator!  Show us all that you are no hypocrite.

2. There has been no increase in number Hurricanes (see Hurricane.com).  Some scientists even argue that IF global warming were real, the number of hurricanes could drop.  Since 2004 the following 4 seasons have been quite mild.  And see what the NOAA said yesterday here: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090811_tropical.html

3. 2009 has been a mild year for Tornados.  (See, e.g. http://www.examiner.com/x-219-Denver-Weather-Examiner~y2009m4d14-2009-tornado-season-deadly-but-below-average-thus-far).

4. Tens of thousands of scientists disagree about whether global warming is real (see http://www.petitionproject.org/ and see on the US Senate site, http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.SenateReport with more scientists doubting than who wrote the original UN report.).

The citizens of Michigan have elected a real WINNER in Senator Debbie Stabenow!  Talk about being out of touch with reality, “feeling” global warming from an airplane.

I “feel” that Senator Debbie Stabenow has a sub-room temperature (pre-Global Warming room temperature) IQ.  Senator Stabenow, if you are really representing Michigan, look at the number of jobs Cap and Trade (aka Cap and Tax) will cost your state.