‘Climate Denier’: Imprecise, Fallacious, and Hateful

I cover energy issues from a private property, free market perspective

Compare that to the New York Times. CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL read the print edition subtitle. The web headline: “Trump Picks Scott Pruitt, Climate Change Denialist, to Lead E.P.A.” The Times article does not quote any supporters of the pick but does usefully quote Pruitt himself.

“Scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind,” he wrote in National Review earlier this year. “That debate should be encouraged — in classrooms, public forums, and the halls of Congress. It should not be silenced with threats of prosecution. Dissent is not a crime.”

This tale of two newspaper headlines indicates the highly polarized, emotional debate over the physical science, economics, politics, and diplomacy of climate change. But words and terms are powerful things. Precision and civility are needed in light of the confirmation debate set for EPA administrator-designate Pruitt.

More precise, descriptive, and noninflammatory terms need to come to the top in a new policy era. The term skeptic can be joined by critic to designate those wary of what passes for mainstream climate science.

As the climate “consensus” continues to weaken (climate warming is well below model predictions), and natural warming in the post-Little Ice Age era is better understood and appreciated, non-alarmist rather than “skeptic” or “critic” should come to be used more for the Pruitt position.

Global Warming Alarmists Claim A Scalp, Drive Skeptical Scientist From University

COMMENTARY

Global Warming Alarmists Claim A Scalp, Drive Skeptical Scientist From University

Former Georgia Tech Professor Judith Curry, who resigned due to the "craziness" of global warming advocates in academia. (Wikimedia Commons)

Former Georgia Tech Professor Judith Curry, who resigned due to the “craziness” of global warming advocates in academia. (Wikimedia Commons)

Officially, Judith Curry is retiring from the School of Earth and Atmospheric Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. But it’s not because she feels she has nothing left to contribute. She’s leaving the school she once chaired because of the madness that’s infected climate science.

“A deciding factor was that I no longer know what to say to students and postdocs regarding how to navigate the CRAZINESS (her emphasis) in the field of climate science,” Curry wrote in an explanation of her resignation.

“Research and other professional activities are professionally rewarded only if they are channeled in certain directions approved by a politicized academic establishment — funding, ease of getting your papers published, getting hired in prestigious positions, appointments to prestigious committees and boards, professional recognition, etc.”

Curry is a known skeptic of the manipulative narrative that says without a bit of reservation man’s burning of fossil fuel is causing Earth to dangerously warm. She’s even been called a” “denier,” a label that means she hasn’t surrendered to the intellectual corruption that has sullied her field.

Though she’s leaving Georgia Tech, Curry will continue to work in climate science. But it will be in the private sector, which she believes is “a more ‘honest’ place for a scientist working in a politicized field than universities or government labs.”

Curry has seen firsthand how climate science has been bought by a government that sees the global warming scare as a way to seize more control, and by left-wing groups that financially support pro-warming research, which they use justify their big government agenda. While skeptical and lukewarm scientists are often accused of being shills for oil companies, the big money goes to the researchers who keep the climate scare rolling. We’re talking around $100 billion or more by now from the federal government alone since just 2008.

‘Knives Sticking Out Of My Back’: Skeptical Climatologist Dr. Curry Tells Tucker Carlson Why She Left Academia

Climatologist Dr. Judith Curry told Fox News host Tucker Carlson she was so sick of politicization of global warming in academia she resigned from her tenured position at Georgia Tech.

“I’ve been vilified by some of my colleagues who are activists and don’t like anybody challenging their big story,” Curry told Carlson Friday night.

“I walk around with knives sticking out of my back,” she said. “In the university environment I felt like I was just beating my head against the wall.”

Curry, a skeptic that humans are causing catastrophic global warming, announced Tuesday she was retiring from academic life to focus more on her own climate analytics business and blogging. A big reason she decided to leave, though, had to do with the “craziness” of climate science.

 “A deciding factor was that I no longer know what to say to students and postdocs regarding how to navigate the CRAZINESS in the field of climate science,” she wrote in her blog.

“Research and other professional activities are professionally rewarded only if they are channeled in certain directions approved by a politicized academic establishment — funding, ease of getting your papers published, getting hired in prestigious positions, appointments to prestigious committees and boards, professional recognition, etc,” she wrote. “How young scientists are to navigate all this is beyond me, and it often becomes a battle of scientific integrity versus career suicide.”

Curry has been attacked by colleagues for questioning claims made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other scientists who use climate models to claim humans are the main cause of recent global warming.

“There’s far too little funding and effort going into studying natural climate variability,” Curry told Carlson.

“It’s clearly warming, and it’s been warming overall for several hundred years. The key question is how much of the warming, say for the last 50 years, is caused by humans,” she said. “I don’t see a clear signal that it is being caused by humans predominantly.”…

‘CRAZINESS’ in climate field leads dissenter Dr. Judith Curry to resign: ‘I have resigned my tenured faculty position at Georgia Tech’

Climatologist Dr. Judith Curry branded a ‘heretic’ for challenging ‘global warming’ – ‘I was tossed out of the tribe’

Via: https://judithcurry.com/2017/01/03/jc-in-transition/

by Judith Curry

Effective January 1, I have resigned my tenured faculty position at Georgia Tech.

Before reflecting on a range of things, let me start by answering a question that may have popped into your head: I have no plans to join the Trump administration (ha ha).

Technically, my resignation is a retirement event, since I am on the Georgia State Teachers Retirement System, and I need to retire from Georgia Tech to get my pension (although I am a few years shy of 65). I have requested Emeritus status.

So, I have retired from Georgia Tech, and I have no intention of seeking another academic or administrative position in a university or government agency. However, I most certainly am not retiring from professional life.

Why did I resign my tenured faculty position?

I’m ‘cashing out’ with 186 published journal articles and two books. The superficial reason is that I want to do other things, and no longer need my university salary. This opens up an opportunity for Georgia Tech to make a new hire (see advert).

The deeper reasons have to do with my growing disenchantment with universities, the academic field of climate science and scientists.

A deciding factor was that I no longer know what to say to students and postdocs regarding how to navigate the CRAZINESS in the field of climate science. Research and other professional activities are professionally rewarded only if they are channeled in certain directions approved by a politicized academic establishment — funding, ease of getting your papers published, getting hired in prestigious positions, appointments to prestigious committees and boards, professional recognition, etc.

How young scientists are to navigate all this is beyond me, and it often becomes a battle of scientific integrity versus career suicide (I have worked through these issues with a number of skeptical young scientists).

When I first started down this new path in 2010, I published papers that could be categorized as applied philosophy of science (e.g. uncertainty monster, etc). This seemed to be a path towards maintaining academic ‘legitimacy’ in light of my new interests, but frankly I got bored with playing the game. Why go to the extra effort to publish papers, wrestling with reviewers who (usually) know less than you do about your topic (not to mention their biases), having to pay to get an article published some months in the …

Enviro: Trump Sec. of State pick Tillerson Should be ‘Strung Up’ for ‘Fraud’

Via: https://democracynow.org/2016/12/12/trumps_war_on_science_exxon_ceo

Erich Pica is with us. He is president of Friends of the Earth U.S.A.

ERICH PICA: “Rex Tillerson should be indicted for corporate fraud and for lying to the American public, lying to the world, lying to their shareholders. And so, he should be strung up, and the company should be strung up, in the court of law for fraud. And instead, he’s being rewarded by President-elect Trump with perhaps one of the most important Cabinet picks in the U.S. government, the State Department, the head of the State Department.”

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2016 Highlights: Tsunami Of Skeptic Papers & Desperate Attempts To Silence Climate Dissenters

2016 is coming to a close, and I’d like to wish all readers here a very Merry Christmas and all the best for the coming new year.

What follows are some of the main highlights at NTZ in 2016. Overall visitor traffic increased a good 30% since the start of the year. Much of this is due to the hard work of Kenneth Richard who joined as a guest author some months ago.

Kenneth writes every Monday and Thursday. His reviews of the latest scientific literature have gotten great attention. Thanks Kenneth!

2016 Highlights

January: stable Antarctic, GISS’s shady role

Back in January I reported how Dr. Sebastian Lüning and Fritz Vahrenholt wrote about how NASA GISS director Gavin Schmidt had “squandered much credibility” and played “a shady role with the temperature data.” The two German experts went on to say that Schmidt’s “dubious data alterations with the GISS datasets will likely become interesting material for science historians.”

Also we reported how Lüning wrote of 5 very recent papers showing that Antarctic ice is much more stable than originally believed.

February: 250 papers disputing climate alarmism

In February Kenneth Richard made his debut at NTZ, providing a list of over 250 peer-reviewed scientific papers from 2015 casting doubt on climate science! The entire list is here.

Also it was underscored what a folly Germany offshore wind energy truly is. A study we reported on shows that the maintenance costs are 100 times more than the cost of the turbine itself. Little wonder Germans are now forced to pay among the highest electricity rates in the world. Technical problems have plagued the German offshore wind industry, read more here.

March: Glacier retreat, sea level rise slow down

In March we presented new papers showing that glacier retreat and sea level rise are slowing down rapidly. Also read here and here. Claims of rapid sea level rise lost credibility as recent studies indicate only 0.8 – 1.6 mm/year sea level rise.

Moreover, Kenneth Richard published a story here on 500 peer-reviewed papers disputing alarmist claims surrounding climate from the year 2014 and 2015. Looks like the IPCC has got a lot of updating to do.

April: Embryonic, untrustworthy models

We’ve known a long time that climate models are woefully inadequate for making reliable long-term projections, and this

Congress: Obama Admin Fired Top Scientist to Advance Climate Change Plans

BY:

A new congressional investigation has determined that the Obama administration fired a top scientist and intimidated staff at the Department of Energy in order to further its climate change agenda, according to a new report that alleges the administration ordered top officials to obstruct Congress in order to forward this agenda.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R., Texas), chair of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, released a wide-ranging report on Tuesday that shows how senior Obama administration officials retaliated against a leading scientist and plotted ways to block a congressional inquiry surrounding key research into the impact of radiation.

A top DoE scientist who liaised with Congress on the matter was fired by the Obama administration for being too forthright with lawmakers, according to the report, which provides an in-depth look at the White House’s efforts to ensure senior staffers toe the administration’s line.

The report also provides evidence that the Obama administration worked to kill legislation in order to ensure that it could receive full funding for its own hotly contested climate change agenda.

The report additionally discovered efforts by the Obama administration to censor the information given to Congress, interfering with the body’s ability to perform critical oversight work.

“Instead of providing the type of scientific information needed by Congress to legislate effectively, senior departmental officials sought to hide information, lobbied against legislation, and retaliated against a scientist for being forthcoming,” Smith said in a statement. “In this staff report based on lengthy record before the committee, much has been revealed about how senior level agency officials under the Obama administration retaliated against a scientist who did not follow the party line.”

“Moving forward, the department needs to overhaul its management practices to ensure that Congress is provided the information it requires to legislate and that federal employees and scientists who provide that information do so without fear of retribution,” Smith said.…

Dan Rather smears Trump, pitches ‘erecting a monument’ for ‘climate deniers’ to showcase their ‘stupidity’

Former CBS news anchor Dan Rather has come out swinging at the “stupidity” and “folly” of “climate change deniers” and wants to “erect a monument built from materials impervious to the elements and list the names of all the elected officials and others in positions of power today in the U.S. who refuse to stand with the science on climate change.”

The former CBS newsman took direct aim at President Elect Donald Trump for “casting doubt on climate change.”

“When I see him appoint climate change deniers to key posts in his cabinet, I am deeply worried,” Rather wrote.

Rather wants this “monument” for “climate deniers” to be “on the coast – say off Miami – and have its base equal to the lapping waves of high tide. As sea levels rise, the monument will begin to be submerged, at increasingly greater depths. It will become a symbol of the cynicism, stupidity, and folly of our age.” Rather wrote about his proposed monument on his Facebook page on December 13

[Note, it is Rather himself who has to confront his “denial.” See: Dan Rather Still in State of Denial Over CBS Departure]

Rather declared he will be on a crusade fight back against “climate change deniers” by promoting those who voice man-made climate change fears.

“I am determined to bring these voices of reason to light,” Rather wrote.

Rather recently condemned what he believes is “fake news.” See: “Dan Rather on fake news”:

“First a few people, and then a lot of people said, ‘You know what, you can put out completely false things and, especially the way the Internet works, it’ll go viral and worldwide,’” Rather said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. “And the truth has no chance of catching up with it,” he added. “Many journalists, including myself, when we get together over an adult beverage, we talk about ‘What the hell happened here?’” (Also see: Dan Rather: Trump Response to Climate Change ‘Alarming’)

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Climate Depot’s response:

Dan Rather in his retirement seems to have failed to keep up with climate change claims and the latest science.

Sea Level facts: Via page 8 of the new 44-page State of the Climate Report released during the UN Climate Summit in Morocco – November 2016

Sea levels have been rising since the last ice age ended more than 10,000 years