The seven biggest lies of the Climate Change Deniers about the hacked E mails.

[stephendare]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/02/climategate-the-7-biggest_n_371223.html

A few weeks ago, hackers broke into the emails of one of the Climate Research Unit of The University of East Anglia, and climate skeptics have been having a field day making mountains out of molehills about what the emails contain. The verdict on global warming is in -- it's caused by humans and it is happening and nothing in the emails remotely challenges that. However, with the internet abuzz about what has been labeled "ClimateGate," we thought we should set the record straight about the rumors, lies and insinuations about what the emails actually contain -- and what they "prove" about climate change.

"ClimateGate" itself is a misnomer, the nickname should be "SwiftHack" for the way people with political agendas have "swiftboated" the global warming reality. As world attention turns to the climate conference in Copenhagen this December, this email hack acts as a distraction from the huge task at hand of getting world leaders to commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As professor Richard Somerville says, "We're facing an effort by special interests who are trying to confuse the public."

CLAIM: Scientists have manipulated data.

Skeptics have been pointing to an email from scientist Phil Jones where he said he used a "trick" with his data. As climate expert Bob Ward writes, "Scientists say 'trick' not just to mean deception. They mean it as a clever way of doing something -- a short cut can be a trick." RealClimate also explained that "the 'trick' is just to plot the instrumental records along with reconstruction so that the context of the recent warming is clear. Scientists often use the term 'trick' to refer to ... 'a good way to deal with a problem', rather than something that is 'secret', and so there is nothing problematic in this at all."

CLAIM: Scientists had private doubts about whether the world really is heating up.

TRUTH: Combing through over a decade of personal correspondence, which is then taken out of context can seem to prove just about anything. Skeptics have been pointing to one email from Kevin Trenberth, in which he said, "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't." However, this is clear example of cherrypicking quotes. Trenberth was referring to that there was an "incomplete explanation" of the short-term variability of temperatures, but concludes that "global warming is unequivocally happening."

CLAIM: These scientists worked to suppress evidence and deleted emails.

TRUTH: Thousands of emails from over 13 years were stolen, and edited, and have been taken out of context for those with a political agenda. As blogger Jeff Masters writes,

"Even if every bit of mud slung at these scientists were true, the body of scientific work supporting the theory of human-caused climate changeâ€"which spans hundreds of thousands of scientific papers written by tens of thousands of scientists in dozens of different scientific disciplinesâ€"is too vast to be budged by the flaws in the works of the three or four scientists being subject to the fiercest attacks."

As climate czar Carol Brower says, "I'm sticking with the 2,500 scientists [of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.] These people have been studying this issue for a very long time and agree this problem is real."

CLAIM: Scientists have been working to remove skeptical peers from the climate discussion.

TRUTH: Organization politics, disagreement and strife are hardly foreign ideas in university, research and scientific communities. As the blog run by climate scientists Real Climate writes, "Since emails are normally intended to be private, people writing them are, shall we say, somewhat freer in expressing themselves than they would in a public statement." Again, this does not remotely prove any sort of cover-up, and the critiques of these papers were made and debated by scientists PUBLICLY, but perhaps less bluntly than they were stated in the emails.

CLAIM: These emails are the final nail in the coffin for the idea that humans cause global warming.

TRUTH: If the denier's wildest claims were true that are bantered around throughout the Internet, wouldn't nearly 15 years of emails ACTUALLY SHOW some of these insipid rumors to be true?

More from Real Climate: "More interesting is what is not contained in the emails. There is no evidence of any worldwide conspiracy, no mention of George Soros nefariously funding climate research, no grand plan to ‘get rid of the MWP’, no admission that global warming is a hoax, no evidence of the falsifying of data, and no ‘marching orders’ from our socialist/communist/vegetarian overlords. The truly paranoid will put this down to the hackers also being in on the plot though."

CLAIM: This reignites the debate about if global warming is real.

TRUTH: There is strong consensus in scientific community that global warming is real and is caused by humans. The top scientists in the world have just released a new report on the realities of global warming. Kevin Grandia summarizes some of the key points about emissions, melting ice sheets, and rising sea levels. The emails don't change any of this reality.

[buckethead]

Welp. That settles it.

*CARBON CREDITS... GET'CHER CARBON CREDITS!*

^{+Carbon man! Bring'em up here!+}

[civil42806]

ummmmm thats only six actually

[jandar]

Huffington post. Nuff said.

Jones has stepped down. Mann in under investigation by PSU.

Its the typical, you don't believe in AGW, so we will then do everything to discredit you, or call you an asshole. (UEA Scientist did so to a skeptic)

There was code as well Stephen. When you compile it, you can add crap numbers and get the same output as CRU. It was predetermined to be a certain number. Thats the issue here.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/04/climategate-the-smoking-code/

The UK Met office is now re-examining 160 years of climate data because of this. Its not a settled science.

[willydenn]

Standard post from our contributer....

[Johnny]

I just heard an interview on the radio yesterday, a scientist that claims to disagree PARTIALLY with the global warming claims, he said he was a skeptic according to the data he has reviewed. He wasn't even an outspoken proponent of GW being a hoax. He only questioned it (which I thought was what scientists were really supposed to do, question and prove theories). He was telling his interviewer how he was blacklisted from the scientific research circles. He said he received many insults and some went as far as threatening him and his family. He would request documentation for those that advocated GW effects because he was trying to determine, not to disprove or approve as he didn't have an objective other than to find facts. He spoke about one female scientist in particular that flat out told him that she doesn't share her data with those that do not support her cause. He said he has been telling people about this cultist group of scientists that has taken over the scientific world for several years now and no one would listen.

[Ocklawaha]

Here's another Stephen, this spread by the highway lobby and our own COJ and JTA. BUS RAPID TRANSIT, or BRT, is much friendlier to the environment then light rail or streetcars.

BULL SHIT!

A diesel powered bus is ONLY friendlier IF the bus uses hybrid propulsion, which JTA does NOT have at this time. That said, the streetcar must be using power from coal or fuel oil fueled power plants.
So yes, the BRT is friendlier IF all of the perquisites are met, otherwise it is not even close. HELLO JTA-COJ, ELECTRIC STREETCARS vs Diesel? Give me a freaking break. No where did they consider Tidal Hydro Generation, Methane from old land fills, Solar power, wind power or hydro power. Did you know unless the state restores the Ocklawaha River to its original course, (and they SHOULD, thus the name OCKLAWAHA) it will continue to pour over the Rodman Dam just south of Ocala... Hum, millions of gallons per hour and not a single watt of power for our trouble in destroying this incredible waterway. We could tap any of these alternative power sources and be done with the misleading BRT lies. Its the same old club behind this that abandoned the streetcars in the first place. General Motors, Firestone, Standard Oil and Phillips, and of course now JTA and COJ.

What ever your position on Global Warming, Don't buy this HIGHWAY LOBBY myth.

OCKLAWAHA

[civil42806]

I like my highways, lets me travel where and when I want to on my own schedule.  I don't have to worry about how to get from the train station to my actual final destination.

[Ocklawaha]

As the cost of highways and highway maintenance skyrockets, and the price of fuel doubles and doubles again, the pleasures of travel by car will dim considerably. I don't think any of us will really cheer that moment, but it appears to be coming at us like the proverbial oncoming train. Automobiles in some form or other will continue to be the dominant method of travel for the foreseeable future, it's just that the foreseeable vision is definitely getting foggy.

Being ready for any contingency means having a world class transportation system in place now. Jacksonville is far behind the curve on this and needs a huge shove forward. The system that eventually evolves from all of this will probably be a combination of private vehicles, short road trips, commuter rail, light rail, BRT, city Bus and locally at least, DPM/Monorail. Having this new system up and running with the ability to use alternate fuel and power sources should help us deter a collision.

Our future is upon us, and like it or not we can't afford to be "fuelish" about it. Regardless if you believe we produce more toxic waste then Krakatoa or if you believe automobiles can be made to run off of dirty bath water and exhaust only fresh mountain air, we can't keep depending on endless gasoline. We have already paved the square milage equivalent of 7 of our northeastern most states, it has to stop somewhere.

OCKLAWAHA

[Dog Walker]

Steel on steel is still the best deal.  Ock, that's a good picture of brick street in the Tillie Fowler Memorial Park.

[British Shoe Company]

Teal & Steel

[NotNow]

I consider all of these to be separate issues. 

The (rather obvious) dishonesty in the research being done at East Anglia and other schools CANNOT be defended.  There is no scientific reasoning behind many of the actions taken by the senders and receivers of the emails.  Whether the reasoning behind this was political or just old fashioned greed, it is important that our system of research and funding for scientific research be purged of such behavior and policed for the same.  All data, procedures used, techniques,  and research should be preserved and publicly available.  This is easy when such research is publicly funded or funded by a publicly funded university.

It is common sense to reduce any negative impact that we have on our planet.  We should all strive to reduce consumption and conserve natural resources when possible.  I support tax incentives (only, not new taxes) for research in solar, electric, nuclear and other non petroleum technologies.  However, I do not support cap and trade schemes or other artificial tax systems which are usually politically motivated and are not evenly applied throughout the world.  REAL progress will show itself to be both greener AND economically viable, anything that is government subsidized is unsustainable.

I am certainly NOT an expert or even conversational in mass transit, and will "trust in Ock" for advise, but it seems obvious to me that ANY mass transit must go where people want to go.  Airport, downtown (Landing, conventions center, stadium and arena), hotels, retail (Northside's new mall, St. Johns, Avenues, maybe San Marco & Riverside), and beaches. How?  Once again I would defer to Ock but around the world it seems obvious to me that light rail is the answer to most.  We don't need any new technologies and with clean nuclear power plants built across the country our electric trains and cars would be MUCH cheaper and cleaner IMHO. 

Maybe I am ignorant of limiting factors but it seems these things can be done locally without our selling our country out to socialism or taxing our productive citizens to death or selling values out for some political cause.  We don't control the rest of the world, but if we can get energy and conservation in the right balance, the rest of the world will follow.  Feel free to correct my mistakes.

[Ocklawaha]

I consider all of these to be separate issues.  .

I am certainly NOT an expert or even conversational in mass transit, and will "trust in Ock" for advise, but it seems obvious to me that ANY mass transit must go where people want to go.  Airport, downtown (Landing, conventions center, stadium and arena), hotels, retail (Northside's new mall, St. Johns, Avenues, maybe San Marco & Riverside), and beaches. How?  Once again I would defer to Ock but around the world it seems obvious to me that light rail is the answer to most.  We don't need any new technologies and with clean nuclear power plants built across the country our electric trains and cars would be MUCH cheaper and cleaner IMHO. 

I don't know if I'd consider them as unrelated, even those of us that like our cars, can see there is only so much concrete and asphalt a city or state can keep. There is also a HUGE local problem with stormwater run off from our streets leaching spilled fuel products and toxic chemicals into our water. Eating a fish out of the St. Johns river can be considered something of an adventure, eating the same fish out of Moncrief Creek could be suicide.



Your points on transit are excellent, the going where people are going theory is what has cost us a usable Skyway investment, and produced NOTHING. Just as Los Angeles would be crazy to build a Metro-Link train line that ended at Amboy Lake (see photo), Jacksonville lost it's mind when it turned the Skyway away from Water Street and missed the Government Center and Modis. That WAS the plan, but nobody got the memo!

Today we stand at the brink of another leap of faith in a horrible configuration of buildings that will make up our "Transportation Center DISTRICT." We also stand with our hands in our pockets, whistling, while steamship lines consider other ports due to lack of railroad CHOICE in Jacksonville. That same choice would give us the option of operating over track and right-of-way which we should own... "Whistle, whistle, whistle..."

Steel on steel is still the best deal.  Ock, that's a good picture of brick street in the Tillie Fowler Memorial Park.

Love that old street, there was once another one that ran up the west side of the tracks toward downtown that we always called the "old Orange Park Road." As a kid we spent thousands of hours over there playing in Yukon, so you can imagine the warm fuzzys I get from a walk down that memory lane.

Teal & Steel

Love it! Great slogan. Like I teased the black driver of my tour bus yesterday, "Once you go TRACK, you'll never go back!"

OCKLAWAHA