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Friday, May 3, 2013

How Far and Fast Can a Denier Fall?

Sou | 4:53 AM Go to the first of 6 comments. Add a comment
Roy Spencer gave an interview recently, which Dana critiqued very well on SkepticalScience.  Roy should know better than to try to hoodwink people.

It seems the poor old chap has no-one left to defend him except Lord Monckton, in an article on Anthony Watts' anti-science blog, WUWT.

One of Monkton's first defenses of Spencer is that:
The satellites reveal the inconvenient truth that there has been no global warming for approaching two decades.
"Approaching two decades"?  Approaching from how far away I wonder.  Monckton needs new glasses.  Here is what the satellite reveals, using the record from UAH as measured by the self same Spencer that Monckton is 'defending':


Do we need to go any further?  I mean if Monckton gets it so wrong from the start...
Alright, just to give him the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe he had a brief seniors moment.  Let's see what he says next.  Nah, we'll skip the next three paragraphs, which are nothing but insults leveled at John Cook and Dana Nuccitelli and see what he says after that:
Nuccitelli begins by condemning Roy Spencer for saying, “No one knows whether it is currently warming, because we only see warming in the rear-view mirror, after it has occurred.” This truism is characteristic of Roy, who gently nudges the language of climate science in the direction of greater rigor. One cannot measure that it is warming, only that it has warmed.

Yet Nuccitelli, in a fine illustration of that blind faith that TH Huxley denounced in 1860 as “the one unpardonable sin”, asserts that “We absolutely do know that the planet is currently warming”.
I guess if Spencer and Monckton were dropping out of the sky they'd comfort each other by gently nudging the language of physical science in the direction of greater rigour, saying: "Don't panic! No-one knows whether we're currently falling, because we only see us falling in the rear view mirror, after it has occurred."




To paraphrase Monckton some more:

One cannot measure that we are falling, only that we have fallen! 
Oh! And how the 'mighty' have fallen!

'Nuff said!

6 comments:

  1. Well said, Sou! When Monckton comes to your defense, you know you've really screwed up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, once Monckton has given the imprimatur, she's a goner!

      Delete
  2. I have been waiting for this post to appear on WATZ.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sweet critique!

    ReplyDelete
  4. kind of a silly article. Here is what the statellite data really looks like. and yes, the warming we have seen, if any, can be after the fact.... the oceans have a lot to do with it, they have a heat memory.. plus, dont forget, PDOs, and solar events.. so many factors, so little knowledge! http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Roy Spencer of god knows how many fossil fuel industry front groups? Couldn't you have gone directly to Exxon Mobile?

      Delete

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