Anthony Watts is hustling off to #AGU16 to stalk scientists, and speculates about Superwoman Sou

For a break from the mass insanity that's taken hold in the USA, here's a short article about some insanity in climate conspiracy land.

Anthony Watts seems to be having some trouble getting enough people to pay him to go to this year's AGU Fall Meeting.  He begged his readers to dip into their pocket again not once, but twice now. Other years he's got people giving him big amounts, but not so much this year when the average gift is around $20. (If you want to help him out you can donate by PayPal.)

As in other years, Anthony says he's going to stalk real scientists while he's there. He's added John Cook to the people he's said (in prior years - here and here) that he's creepily stalking (Peter Gleick and Michael Mann).

This year, Anthony has teamed up with his good friend Willis Eschenbach, who says that Anthony couldn't tell good science from pseudo - not even if he had a year to cogitate. Willis discovered earlier this year that as the world warms, there's more water vapour in the air. It took him twenty years, but he found a data set from RSS that he "analysed". I've already written about that so I won't go over it again.

Today Anthony is touting speculation once again that I'm Superwoman Sou. He wrote about an article at DailyKos by ClimateDenierRoundup. Apparently Willis Eschenbach said to Anthony that: "I suspect the “ClimateDenierRoundUp” is just another one of Miriam’s fake handles." That's wrong but flattering I suppose, and conspiratorial. I wonder what other "fake handles" have been attributed to me? Anthony didn't mince words, and began his article with this:

From the “Kos kids will be Kos kids” department. Willis points me to this Daily Kos article which is hilarious, because obviously the anonymous coward that wrote it somebody who calls themselves “ClimateDenierRoundup” hasn’t got a clue about how real science works, and thinks the angry old hermit in Mt. Beauty, Australia (Sou/Hotwhopper aka Miriam O’Brien) has already “debunked” what we are going to present. Here is a screencap of the article.

Here's the HotWhopper article that Anthony regard as a "debunk" of his poster. (It's not really, because I don't know what's in the details of the poster which I haven't seen yet.)

Anthony got something else wrong, too. He wrote:

What “ClimateDenierRoundup” doesn’t seem to understand, is that anyone who passes the AGU selection committee criteria for sessions can present a paper, talk, or poster about science. They don’t ask for credentials, they are only interested in the arguments being made, how they are presented, and if they have merit. 

This means that anonymous cowards and angry old hermits can even send a paper in for consideration. Oh, wait, they’d have to use their names, and that is the one firm requirement AGU has for submissions.

Obviously, that’s why you don’t see these rant-o-matic types that shoot from the shadows presenting at science conferences. 

Maybe, maybe not. They do write comments in Nature Climate Change and articles at Medium.com.

He's also wrong elsewhere. AGU isn't terribly interested in the arguments being made or whether they have merit, although it does set guidelines for "how they are presented". It does have standards, but doesn't apply them rigorously.  As scientist Raymond Arritt said here:

...it's extraordinarily rare for an AGU abstract to be rejected. I've never heard of it happening in 20+ years of attending and organizing sessions. Policy is clear: "Conveners do not have the authority to reject an abstract."

Rejecting an abstract is a high-level decision that can be made only by the Program Committee (the honchos in charge of the conference as a whole). See https://meetings.agu.org/session-abstract/

In the past there have been some odd poster sessions at AGU Fall Meetings.

From the WUWT comments

Most of the comments so far have been about grammar - me or I. This was followed by a desperate plea from Duncan whose son was shown the film "Before the Flood" and wants to know how to stop schools from teaching children science. While joelobryan falls for and promotes one of the wackiest satanic conspiracy theories that are floating about the darker corners of the web. He's not been corrected, needless to say.

rd50 complained about Anthony complaining about the DailyKos article, asking the impossible of Anthony (to behave like a serious researcher), writing:

November 4, 2016 at 5:28 pm
Please don’t complain now.
You started it, naming Mann etc. etc.
You will be watching, etc. etc.
This is a scientific meeting, like it or not.
Present what you have to present.
I already donated.
I will donate again now.
But please behave as serious researcher.
Get there and present your work.

Apologies to all, but I couldn't resist showing this lowbrow comment from Greg, who wrote:

November 4, 2016 at 6:54 pm
I wouldn’t mind betting Miriam has not had a hot whopper in a long time but probably gets a thrill every time she writes those words.

References and further reading

Guess Who’s Coming to AGU? Watts! Also, CO2 Coalition’s WSJ Op-ed Debunked - ClimateDenierRoundup at DailyKos

AGU Fall Meeting San Francisco 12-16 December 2016 - AGU website

Standards for session proposals and abstract submissions for AGU meetings - AGU website

A33B-0226: Observational Quantification of Water Vapor Radiation Forcing - Abstract of poster session from Anthony Watts and Willis Eschenbach at AGU16


From the HotWhopper Archives

• The water vapour penny precipitates, almost, for Willis Eschenbach at WUWT - July 2016
• It's official: It's not Anthony's job... July 2014
• Anthony Watts' #AGU15 poster on US temperature trends- December 2015
• "Denier, liar, pants on fire" - Anthony Watts goes to AGU again - December 2014
• Anthony Watts goes to AGU Fall Meeting - December 2013