Yes, Mr Spooner, Deniers are Deniers

The Age has printed an opinion piece by John Spooner, a cartoonist, in which he writes about his rejection of climate science.  It was copied and pasted in HotCopper's science and medicine S&M forum.

Spooner has that peculiar form of denial in which he indicates very clearly that he doesn't understand the least bit about what it is that he is denying.  He asks:

What exactly is the relationship between CO2 and temperature?

This one's easy.  CO2 is the 'thermostat' controlling the earth's temperature.  Turn it up and the heat goes up, turn it down and it gets very cold.

Why did the warming trend stop as it did between 1945 and 1975, when CO2 emissions took off? 

Spooner fails again.  The global surface temperature trend is up and has been trending up for decades.  This past ten years have been the warmest on record.  In fact, NOAA reports that it's almost three decades since any month has been cooler than the long term average:

November 2012 also marks the 36th consecutive November and 333rd consecutive month with global temperature higher than the long-term average. The last month with a below average temperature was February 1985, nearly 28 years ago.

More on: Parody or the 'Real Thing'?

What good is the HotCopper discussion board if you can't use it to vent?  Provided one is of the right political persuasion (pun intended), it's almost as good as having your very own blog!

Venting does have its limits though.  The main complaint of HotCopper's operator "Yoda" is that Australia's laws stifle 'free speech' (while he and his moderators delete comments they don't agree with when the mood takes them!).  He says he's "getting ready to move to the USA" where, he presumably and mistakenly thinks, you can say whatever you like about anyone whenever you like.

Source (subs req'd): HotCopper.com

Now you can understand why many HotCopper regulars believe they have free rein when it comes to voicing their discontent with "tall poppies".  And you can take it as given that high up the average HotCopper-ite's list of pet hates is Ben Bernanke.  When they aren't blaming the One World Government, the UN, President Obama or PM Gillard, they blame Bernanke for all the real and imagined ills of the financial world.

Just the same, when some of the regulars mistake this satirical piece on Ben Bernanke (from the famed "The Onion") for the 'real thing' it's got to be right up there with the best of them.

Source (subs req'd): HotCopper.com

No-one could accuse the average HotCopper-ite of being astute :(

Denier Memes: The 'communist-socialist-cultist' conspiracy ...

Among people who reject climate science there is a dominant sub-group who are also conspiracy theorists.  You can easily pick them because they pepper their articles with words like 'scam', 'cult' and 'fraud'.  And among the conspiracy theorists there is a sub-group specialising in 'communist plot' conspiracies.

The origin of the 'reds under the bed' denier meme as it's applied to climate science is unclear. The meme is not restricted to climate science but can be adapted for any topic, such as open source software and even education and art, in fact anything at all to which one objects.  It can also be substituted for or by a "new world order" / "one world government" plot or a "fascist" plot.

Parody or the 'real thing'?

It can be hard for the casual reader to know whether someone is writing a parody or the real thing (see Poe's Law).  Take our Ben for example.  Ben often posts on climate science threads although I don't recall him ever discussing science.  In a few paragraphs on the HotCopper science and medicine S&M forum he mixes well-worn paranoid conspiracy theories (AGW cult) with 'reds under the bed' buzz phrases from the McCarthy era.  If he is writing parody he's kept it up for years without blinking.

Here is a handy list of key words (including frequency) for anyone who wants to emulate him:

socialist/socialism (9), communist/communism (7), cult/cultist (6), USSR (4), AGW scam and cult (3), destruction (2), corrupt (2), children (2), Lysenkoism, soviet, leftist, political, puppet, Gillard, Obama, religious, infiltration, invasion, hoaxers, dictators, hitler*, stalin, lenin, mao, brainwashing, indoctrination, greenie, cesspit, corrupt and complicit UN

In this screenshot I've highlighted some of the 'important' words and phrases.  As you can see, the words can be used interchangeably and work equally well in any or no context :)

Source: HotCopper.com S&M forum 

*See Godwin's Law

Liars in the MSM are called to account

It's good to see more and more people speaking out against lies, odious rants, rampant misogyny and disinformation on the internet, particularly when it comes from 'personalities' and mainstream media. 

Climate Progress has a report by Graham Readfearn about the Australian Press Council findings in relation to lies written by Andrew Bolt and offensive articles penned by James Delingpole (speaking of odious).

More and more people are starting to take action against disinformation of the type The Australian revels in.  Tim Lambert from Deltoid continues to act as a watchdog, reporting its frequent untruths about climate science.  In his latest piece, he writes about a particularly disgusting and false headline in The Australian.

I wonder if it's because as global warming gets worse, science deniers are decreasing in numbers and it's left to the more extreme ratbags to write stuff.

A window on HotWhoppers' view of science

One way of avoiding the reality of global warming is to read sentimental rhymes instead of climate science.

Climate science (a)verse

Pete222 on HotCopper gets his 'information' about climate science from 80 year old rhymes when he's not gazing out his window.  Here on the Science and Medicine forum, Pete quotes a young homesick Dorothea Mackellar to 'prove' all the physics, chemistry, biology, meteorology, climatology and related science of the past couple of centuries is fundamentally wrong.

Source: HotCopper.com S&M forum

A window on climate

And to support his contention, Pete222 offers irrefutable proof of windows:

Source: HotCopper.com S&M forum

Best Science Post - Gold Star Award

Canberra is so cool...

Birdman29 got a HotCopper Gold Star (the thumbs up award for the post most readers agree with) for saying the weather in Canberra has been mild the last couple of days.  As you can see it truly is a ground-breaking science post worthy of the highest accolades and deserves an elephant stamp.

Source: HotCopper.com S&M forum

(So what's a bit of exaggeration between friends?)

Despite the fact that this December hasn't been the hottest December on record in Canberra, so far it's 1.4 degrees Celsius above the long term average maximum.  (If you doubt that HotCopperites think the world revolves around Canberra - just  visit the HotCopper politics forum :D)

HotCopper's message to climate scientists

The message is that climate scientists should quit their field measurements, mathematics, physics, laboratories, computers, satellites, sensors and all the scientific knowledge accumulated over the centuries to date. 

All they need to do is look out Pete's window or sit in the shade in Birdman's backyard and read sentimental rhymes from long ago.

HotCopper Whopper - Meaningless, dumb ...

HotCopper science deniers are all over the place when it comes to climate discussions.  Honestly you have to wonder if they are as much in denial with their share trading.

Take HC44.  He responded to the UK Met office indicating 2013 is likely to be one of the warmest ten years on record with this comment:

Source: HotCopper.com S&M forum

Meaningless, dumb - errr I guess so.

Yes, the 100th warmest would be one of the 100 warmest, but there's buckley's that 2013 will be the 100th warmest. Even so, if someone had said 'one of the warmest' most people wouldn't have expected them to mean the coldest in 100 years.

Let's look at a chart from the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature analysis showing the annual land-surface average temperature.  I've added a line that measures 100 years so you can compare recent temperatures at the right of the chart with those of 100 years or so ago.

The 100th warmest year on record was ... wait for it, about 100 years ago.  It's all because of global warming.  Barring a freak event like a super-volcano, it could well be several thousand years before earth experiences another year that cold. (Click to enlarge.)

Land surface temperature isn't global surface temperature, granted, because it doesn't count the oceans.  So let's look at global surface temperatures as reported by NASA.  The 100th warmest temperature on record was - you guessed it, almost 100 years ago. (Click to enlarge.)

One of the warmest ten years on record

Now let's go back to the UK Met Office.  Did it actually say that 2013 would be 'one of the warmest'?  In fact, the Met Office was much more precise.  Its long term global forecast is that 2013 will not just be 'one of the warmest' it will be one of the ten warmest years in the past 162 years and warmer than this year:

Taking into account the range of uncertainty in the forecast and observations, it is very likely that 2013 will be one of the warmest ten years in the record which goes back to 1850, and it is likely to be warmer than 2012.

I suggest to HotCopper-ites if you are going to try to be 'clever', do it with a bit more finesse and try to give the impression you know something about the topic.  Otherwise your comment comes across as "meaningless, dumb..."!

Have a wonderful holiday ...

HotCopper Whopper for Monday

Tilting at (15th Century) Windmills?

This little gem came to my attention and made me laugh.  Did you know we've been using windmills to generate electricity since the fifteenth century and they've been destroying our health? (Click to enlarge.)

Source: HotCopper.com

Ben isn't too sure whether inhaling thick carcinogenic smoke is harmful or not, but it's a dead cert that a 15th century windmill is health-destroying!

Why call attention to sexism?

A lot of people (though more men than women) think women should just 'suck it up' when it comes to sexism. Not so.

Now some people have it wrong, I'm told (generically speaking).  Disagreement on topical issues (like climate science) isn't sexist or based on sexism or misogyny - at least not in my experience.  If you want to know what sexism looks like, click here.

Janet Stemwedel on her Scientopia blog sums up nicely some excellent reasons for calling out sexist behaviour  Her main points are paraphrased here:

1. To shine a spotlight on sexist behaviour so that more people will notice it and stop assuming people who point it out are making a mountain out of a molehill.
2. To encourage others to take a stand.
3. So when people behave in a sexist way they are made to feel deeply uncomfortable and maybe ashamed (along with those who sit by and encourage it, condone it or allow it to happen). 
4. So that people who call out sexism, instead of being deprived of free speech have their free speech just as vigorously defended as people 'spouting sexist nonsense'.
5. So people who happen to be women can concentrate on their interests rather than being distracted by ugly sexism.

And a couple more thoughts of my own:

I don't care if people are sexist at heart - just don't behave like a sexist dolt especially not to my face.

I love our pluralist society even though that means accepting the fact sexism still exists.  Doesn't mean I should stay silent and cop disgustingly sexist behaviour.

I hope my thoughts will go some way to encouraging colleagues when a man behaves in a sexist manner towards women, to quietly tell him to stop, not close ranks and call women who draw it to their attention "unacceptably outspoken".

HotCopper Denier Classic - Aliens and Ozone

A classic from last year on the HotCopper S&M forum.

A contribution to the S&M forum from Moondoong, the self-described 'busted-ass mining engineer'.  He thinks everything on this list is equally unlikely and not at all 'alarming'.


He equates AIDS (one of the world's biggest killers) and the hole in the ozone layer (a disaster in the making but thankfully being addressed) with an alien invasion and an asteroid striking earth.  Alar did pose a risk, albeit nothing like smoking tobacco.  Y2K was a real problem but not one that mining engineers would necessarily understand.  I don't know what was in his mind when he added magnetic pole shift or solar flares. They happen all the time.  (Does anyone know what Planet X refers to?)

          Source: HotCopper.com S&M forum

About twice as many science and medicine visitors agreed with moondoong (going by the "thumbs up" he was awarded) as thought he was talking through his 'busted ass'.

Yep, that's HotCopper :(