Galileo, fake authorities and adhominous cowards

Sorry for the pun. This is about an article at WUWT (archived here) which provides another lesson from Denial 101.

His article illustrates:

• double standards
• absence of fact checking (or ignorance of science and history)
• calling on fake experts and
• other logical fallacies.

There's some retired chap (from what I can gather) called Martin Fricke. Ph.D. (nuclear physics) who's now taken up a career as a climate science denier. He can't get published in the scientific literature so he does the next best thing. He writes for a climate conspiracy blog, wattsupwiththat.com.

Martin doesn't write science, says he doesn't know anything about climate science (except that it's a hoax presumably). AFAIK he's another Catholic denier (like Anthony Watts) who objects to the recent papal encyclical,  (click here for other language versions).

Illegitimate "scientists"

Martin claims to be writing on "behalf of legitimate scientists everywhere". He's actually writing on behalf of science deniers at conspiracy blogs. He also claims that "a delegation of the world’s most esteemed specialists in climate science went to Rome for a scheduled meeting" and implies that it was cancelled. I've not seen any reference to any scheduled meeting between Pope Francis and any science deniers, so maybe he's talking about the Heartland Institute visit. Except that wasn't a "delegation" of the world's most esteemed scientists. Instead it was a motley bunch of deniers who made a big show of traveling to Rome to talk to an empty room. From the list here it included the potty peer Christopher Monckton, the 2012 climate misinformer of the year Marc Morano, the leader of the pseudo-religious cult the Cornwall Alliance, and a chap from the CATO list of 100 deniers, called Tom Sheahen whose name deniers can't figure out how to spell.

Double standards - adhominous cowards and fake experts

The double standards comes about because Anthony Watts claims that he doesn't approve of anonymous cowards, yet the only "authority" Martin provides are two of what he calls "two of the most widely recognized top climate scientists in the world" - who he doesn't name. He calls them "Expert 1 Expert 2". Clearly they are fake experts. Together with Martin promoting himself as PhD (nuclear physics), this is a classic case of arguing from authority, though it's worse than that. He's arguing from fake authority (a topical topic).

I call them adhominous cowards because rather than write about science, all "Expert 1" and "Expert 2" do is claim that Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, the founder of the renowned Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, is "fanatical". Translated from denier-speak, that means that he accepts climate science. Okay, so it's not really an ad hominem, it's only name-calling. I just like the pun :)

When it comes to real experts, well Martin Fricke doesn't think much of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. You can check who are current and past members if you click on the links under "Academicians" on its home page. Instead Martin gets his non-science (he didn't talk about climate science itself) from conspiracy blogs like WUWT.

The reason that Galileo is in the heading is because Martin couldn't resist this:

The above mentioned approaches to the pope have been turned away, and a “Galileo-like train wreck” now seems inevitable.

So Martin doesn't just fail science, he fails history. Really, the article was too silly to write much about. I've been waiting for something more interesting from WUWT, but all it's offering are wails and moans that the thermometer at Heathrow Airport must be broken, or it's aeroplanes, or something. Because deniers didn't like one temperature reading from a very hot day during the recent European heat wave. (Yeah, really. There are two articles of protest about that - here and here.)

From the WUWT comments

Bill H - what can I say?

July 17, 2015 at 6:24 pm
The insane left wing socialists have co-opted the Catholic Church for their political power game… Nothing good will come of this. I wonder if the Pope agrees that the earth must only hold 1 million people and that all the rest should be removed?

Nicholas Schroeder lives in a place where all the hospitals, schools, power plants, highways etc are privately owned - not a penny of public funds were used to pay for them.

July 17, 2015 at 6:38 pm
It is/was capitalism that builds/built the hospitals, schools, power plants, highways, cars, food supply, and on and on to the horizon. Capitalism made the modern world what it is today. Consider how the popular option worked so well in the FSU & Red China. Capitalism means we no longer have to work in the fields from dawn to dusk to eke out a bare subsistence.
Without the power and flexibility of fossil fuels Africa and similar countries will continue with poverty, disease, war, famine, etc. for many more decades. Maybe that’s the idea, maintaining a captive, suffering, populace as an excuse for global socialism by the pope, church, government, et al.
It is capitalism that provides all you whiny wankers so much free time on your hands, “It’s sooooo unfaaaiiiiirrrr!!!! Wah, wah, wah, sob, sob.” 

wickedwenchfan is a hard-core climate conspiracy theorist, or maybe a long-lasting Poe (who could tell?):

July 17, 2015 at 6:39 pm
There is no climate science. Only climate fraud. If to become a climate scientist you must acknowledge a Grenhouse Effect, then you can never become a scientist. It is more akin to a qualification in Astrology 

601nan thinks Pope Francis is evil for urging people to care for the environment:

July 17, 2015 at 8:36 pm
“One Day This Pope Will Die, and With Him His Evils on the World.”
The lament of the Vatican Bishops during prayers at the end of the day