Thursday, October 24, 2013

The biosphere is breathing more heavily! Crazy quote of the day.


A quickie today.  Time is short.  Anthony Watts posted a link to a climate disinformation group who've misnamed themselves as the "International Climate Science Coalition". (See this article about them from the Sydney Morning Herald.)  Having a PhD is not a guarantee that you know stuff!  Or probably more accurately, it's no guarantee of scientific honesty.

Ian D. Clark, PhD, Professor (isotope hydrogeology and paleoclimatology), Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada:

“In fact, much of the rise in CO2 is attributed to increased respiration of the biosphere. Our carbon emissions are minor compared to this natural cycling of carbon. There is absolutely no empirical scientific evidence for the increase in CO2 having affected climate.”

Puffing and panting


I was surprised to find that Ian D Clark is actually entrusted with teaching students at the University of Ottawa. Strange! Academic freedom is one thing, but teaching nonsense?  Does anyone keep an eye on what topics he covers?

The above and other crazy quotes from the anti-science coalition is archived here.

16 comments:

  1. One day deniers are arguing about the climate sensitivity, and it's "of course, the world is warming, the question is how fast and how much is anthropogenic".

    The next day they embrace some wild-eyed malarkey from the fringe.

    Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sou, you're (in)famous...from Watts and the Flying Monkey rabbit hole..

    Bob Tisdale says:
    October 23, 2013 at 3:35 pm
    Anthony, what I find really remarkable is that anyone. Michael Mann included, would link a “HotWhopper” blog post as a supposed reputable source for any subject. Like Michael Mann, blogger “Sou” has always been a few tree rings short of a hockey stick."


    Apparently, you're insane, too!

    ~vrooomie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In the golden words of Noam Chomsky - he was describing Greg Palast - "hated by all the right people!"

      (And, in this case too, all the Right people...)

      Consider it a badge of honour, Sou. If you've upset Bob T and Willard Tony you have to be doing something right!... ;-)

      Delete
    2. I'm bemused the way Anthony and other WUWT-ers treat HW. At times Anthony has even put us on the same plane as climate science 'greats'. It would be flattering if I didn't know better.

      As it is it's nice to know the niggles register :)

      Delete
  3. I can see why you quarantine Watts' crap at Archive.is...what a sad bunch of rote lying idiocy from those guys. There is nothing there at all, no ideas, no challenge, no debate, just rejection. Every statement is diversionary or astonishingly dishonest.

    Carter's claim that IPCC scientists ignore natural climate variation surely has to be the most lazy and stupid of lies: I find it hard to believe that motivated rejectionists in Carter's camp would be so unaware of the basic coverage of IPCC reports as to believe, or need to believe, that. Who the hell does Carter think he 'reaching out' to? Complete morons? Or maybe it is impossible to underestimate his intelligence.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carter knows he's adressing the morons, alas those with voting rights.
      Seen him + public during NIPPC presentation in the Hague, three weeks ago. He, and Singer, are clearly putting up a show. Trust me, these lobbyists know better and they are NOT stupid. They are demagogues.

      Delete
  4. CO2 is plant-food and plants are vomiting it up? What's that about?

    I'd hazard a guess that Dr Clark is a person of advanced years. His true friends should look after him better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Emeritus Syndrome," an affliction of geriatric academics characterized by a tendency to wander from one's own familiar paddock and begin eating locoweed, resulting in unpredictable behavior and a loss of inhibitions.

      Delete
    2. No, he's not old. And it looks as if he teaches undergraduates as well has having a few grad students. See the links in my article.

      Delete
    3. Yep, he is young, well educated and well published. With that background he knows that he is lying.

      BTW tenured professors (dunno if he is one) are notoriously hard to get rid of, and for good reason. Usually the system works well, but not always ;-/

      http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/pseudosc/SelfApptdExp.htm

      "Once professors get tenure, it pretty much takes a thermonuclear weapon to remove them. That protection is there because a significant part of our job is to tick people off. We tell them things they don't want to hear, like the earth is 4.6 billion years old, there is a finite amount of oil in the ground, you can't provide government services without taxes, we really did go to the moon, or they didn't learn enough to pass the course. So when a university grants tenure, it basically makes a lifetime commitment. Universities want to be sure that they're tenuring people with a lifetime commitment to staying on top of their fields. The stereotype of the professor who gets tenure and goes to seed has a basis in truth; universities try to avoid hiring people like that. Unlike most jobs where there's a 90-day or six-month probationary period, university professors have to demonstrate sustained productivity for six years."

      Delete
    4. Well it seemed a safe bet. He's going to have to live with this crock of wotsit on his record, and we all know how kind students can be ...

      Delete
  5. Mind bogglingly inane. Where does he think the carbohydrates that ultimately produce the respired CO2 come from? (Hint: It's not absorbed through the roots.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Those who read this pdf:
    http://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/idclark/courses/GEO2334_files/Lectures/Week%2010%20Short%20term%20climate/Short%20term%20climate%20change%202012.pdf
    Know where Ian Clark is coming from.

    Note how he has fallen hook, line and sinker for the COSMIC RAYS! crock. Also note how many of his graphs stop well before 2000. I wonder whether he will also update his slides with the latest from CLOUD: "nope, it ain't cosmic rays responsible for cloud cover changes"

    I feel bad for his students, having finished a course, trying to go elsewhere to get a job in climate science and see people shaking their head and telling them to get up to speed with the basic science first. "But I had a course at Uni!"

    Marco

    ReplyDelete
  7. am i ever glad i transferred from ottawa u to mcgill. yikes. OTOH the geography department didn't have any cranks that I can recall back in the 90s....

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think I've worked out why plants are throwing up their plant-food - it's coming from the oceans, so it's too salty.

    Science is easy.

    ReplyDelete

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