Wednesday
Aug252010
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Cleaning coffee from PC screen
Aug 25, 2010 Climate: HSI Media Jo Abbess has complained about me to Newsnight. This is too funny. As Ms Abbess puts it:
I don’t expect much from it in terms of any kind of sensible, relevant reply...
No indeed.
Reader Comments (115)
I am a semi retired physician. I was trained by a wise man who said "beware of people with strongly held beliefs.......they're usually wrong!"
Seems to apply here.
On Jo's 'About' page we read (last line):
"I seem to fit an easily dismissable stereotype."
Yup.
This kind of thing is what hacks me off about climate science. This comment sums it up completely for me.
"Is Kirsty Wark a Climate Change Scientist ? Does she know anything about Climate Change Science ? Can she possibly dare to offer an opinion about it or question what the Scientists have said ?"
I have begun to hear this more and more from climate scientists, questioning whether they should even be questioned on what they say. She dares to question and dares to offer an opinion because that is our right. If climate scientists wish to put forward the bad or very bad scenarios, what do they expect? They do not rule our lives. They are not our parents. What gives anyone the right to think that they should not be questioned or that a certain section of society should be allowed the right to question?
Also, although I could be wrong, but when you said "we simply don't know" (or words to that effect) you were discussing CACC. Not on just climate change, or as Jo would put it "We have report after report on the clear incontrovertible evidence of Climate Change and its significant impact on the Earth’s biosphere." Which has always happened.
No wonder people will not take them seriously when the goalposts are constantly changed to suit their arguments.
The sense of entitlement just drips off the page. The outrage that their plaything, 'the media', has been used by others who do not belong to the inner circle of believers.
Astonishing arrogance.
As a graduate from Catholic School I quickly discovered the nuns didn't like the priests and the priests didn't like the nuns.
Now it's the Abbess railing against the Bishop. Nothing much changes.
Welcome to the eco-numpties world of conspiracy theories - Kirsty Wark is a denier.
"Burn the witch".
My own take is that Kirsty Wark struggled with the arguements surrounding climate change, she was out of her depth.
As for the scientist who appeared on Newsnight, he struggled just to finsh a sentence - he rambled on into incoherence.
So that's what Jo Abbess looks like. I expected her to be bald and have a beard! ☺
A subject for Josh here?
Jo Abbess and the commenters seem not to have noticed the scientists in the program who all repeated that there is no way to tell if AGW has made any difference to Weather (which was the question the programme was asking). They were just cross, as Stuck-record says, that people with views other than their own have access to the media.
For those who have banged their heads against the brick wall that is the BBC complaints system, one of the commenters on Jo Abbesses page had some useful advice :
" Here are the numbers for standard complaints, though I find that it is usually much more effective to ask for the programme office and speak to the desk staff (or better still the editor involved with the problem piece) directly rather than being fobbed off with someone in a call centre. I have done this myself many times and enjoy putting them on the spot and I think a good grilling from you, Bob, would teach them a lesson!”
... you can usually ask for any programme news editor or a specific journalist through the switchboard.”
BBC Radio Switchboard 0207 580 4468
ITN Switchboard 0207 833 3000
Channel Five Switchboard 0207 550 5555
BBC TV Switchboard 0208 743 8000
Time to use their own tactics against them.
Frankly I wouldn't bother. I think the BBC will find this hilarious too.
I think her summary comment of herself on her website shows deep self knowledge, is quite apt in the circumstances and says it all..
"I seem to fit an easily dismissable stereotype."
Jo is given a fine display of the sort of belief that condemned people to be brut to death for being ‘heretics’, hard unbending and total.
Phillip Bratby wrote
Unfortunately the image shown is of talented American actress Renée Zellweger - who can do British accents rather well (or at least to my antipodean ears)
Phillip Bratby wrote
"So that's what Jo Abbess looks like."
Wears big knickers and still looking for a man?
Sorry Bishop, I wasn't suggesting that we complain about this particular issue, just that there was an alternative mechanism for those occasions which merit it. As you say, this particular complaint is simply laughable.
It's just occurred to me that we have Abbess Jo squaring up against Bishop Hill. :)
"...it’s probably going to get really quite bad indeed". Reminds me of something from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not quite sure what.
Oh I'm disappointed. Perhaps back to the bald and bearded eco-warrior.
Maybe we should complain that none of the environmental journalists are themselves scientists?
At the BBC, environmentalists at the BBC I meant.
Building on the first comment, Carl Sagan is supposed to have said:
"Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves."
The question I would like to pose to Jo Abbess (or anyone else) is:
Is there any weather over the past 1000 years which would today be considered to be inconsistent with (IPCC) scientific projections?
Is there any weather over the past 10 years which would be considered to be inconsistent (from a statistical hypothetical point of view) with any weather we have previously experienced over the past 1000 years?
My own knowledge would tend me to believe the answer is "No" to both questions.
Doooooooomed, we're all doooooomed.....
Be nice to JO...
She believes!!!
I'll find the comment on her website, where she replied to me (remeber She ALLOWS alcoments to apper unlike some websites)
In this cooment, she sincerely thinks we are all doomed..
Also, she does 'listen' a little bit..
When you googled her before. It used to say - Yelling about climate change..
I mentioned this was a bit 'over the top' desperate, and she has changed it...
Taking advice from a 'sceptic'!
Quote, Jo Abbess, in reply to Phillip Bratby, "Global Warming has indefinitely, perhaps permanently, postponed the next ice age."
................ and that is a bad thing??????????????
I make sure I read Jo Abbess every day - it's hilarious.
Such as: "If the world stopped all unnecessary manufacture, production, power generation, transportation and building immediately, we could probably hold the fraction of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere pretty much constant."
And in a Letter to Steve McIntyre:
"Now, I’m not going to get into the numeric, statistical or Scientific details of your posts, as that is the very thing that you want your readers to do, it seems.
Your goal, as it appears to me, is to create a flurry of contention and get people distracted by arguments over mere dots and dashes, thereby derailing their personal progress in understanding Climate Change Science."
Wonderful priceless stuff.
Coffee coming down your nose onto the keyboard stuff.
Jo seems to be taking some stick. Oh dear, what a shame.
On her latest post Jo states:-
"It makes a person look really uneducated when they recite the mantras of Climate Change scepticism and denial. Trouble is, it’s so pervasive and seemingly anodyne when you first encounter it, that many people just fall for it hook, line and sinker."
Apart from the supreme arrogance of the statement - it does underline the mindset of this person. Not a thought about why people look at the facts and make their own mind up – just the statement that “It makes a person look really uneducated”.
Hell hath no fury, it seems, like a 1st degree graduate wannabe scientist with an ego the size of a planet.
Wasn't Jo Abbess the one who declared that Tony Blair could become the spiritual leader of the environment movement.
Does donning a green mantle absolve one's sins, be it corrupt politician, war criminal or sleaze merchant and turn you into a green god?
Or could it be that Jo just has the hots for Phoney Tony - Bridget Jones style?
Perhaps Jo will reveal all on her blog.
I have to agree with Jo. Kirsty has no right to question climate change since she isn't a climate scientist. Then again, since Jo isn't a journalist and has no formal training in either journalism or media how can Jo possibly dare to offer an opinion about or question how any journalist conducts an interview?
/sarc
It makes a person look really uneducated when they recite the mantras of Climate Change alarmism. Trouble is, it’s so pervasive and seemingly anodyne when you first encounter it, that many people just fall for it hook, line and sinker.
Judith Curry's opinion of Jo Abbess in comment 86 here
http://www.collide-a-scape.com/2010/08/11/the-chasm/
Pharos beat me to it..
I let Judith know, that Jo is a CampaigneAgainst Climate Change activist, at 87
Jo is a Campaign Against Climate Change activist
http://www.joabbess.com/2010/04/13/james-delingpole-warmly-invited/
James Delingpole is in the CACC Hall of (sceptics) Shame
http://www.campaigncc.org/hallofshame
George Monbiot, president, includes MP’s and MEP’s !
http://www.campaigncc.org/whoweare
http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/3766
Inclined to manipulate blogs/newspaper commenst sections with their activists.
Sceptic Alerts – CACC
http://www.campaigncc.org/node/384
I got cross enough when I discovered this, after looking around the CACC website, following James invite, that I sent an email to lots of websites, and Andrew Montford let me write up the story as a guest post at Bishop Hill.
http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2010/4/19/skeptic-alerts.html
I thought my article was rather better than James Delingpoles (his was a bit ‘tribal’ imho)
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100035167/get-your-trolls-off-my-lawn-monbiot/
Another spit at the screen funny, from Climate Camp
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/24/twitter-backfires-climate-camp
Twitter backfires for Climate Camp
A day of mass action by the Climate Camp protesters showed how badly Twitter can go wrong.
eg Someone has stolen my "all property is theft" banner from #climatecamp. My mum gave me that for getting 3*A's at Winchester
cont.
http://twitter.com/search?q=%23climatecamp
"Judith Curry's opinion of Jo Abbess in comment 86 here
http://www.collide-a-scape.com/2010/08/11/the-chasm/
Aug 25, 2010 at 1:04 PM | Pharos"
Thanks for the link - I notice Jo shuts up pretty smartish after JC's comment!
I feel sorry for her, seems the cult/religion has done a good job on her and only a de-programmer can help now.
I'm guessing she would be at the front of the queue for the punch, poor thing.
Is Kirsty Wark a Climate Change Scientist ? Does she know anything about Climate Change Science ? Can she possibly dare to offer an opinion about it or question what the Scientists have said ?
So if Kirsty reports on a plane crash she needs to have an air accident investigation qualification ?
Odd
I have to say Jo Abcess comes across as a big-mouthed, hysterical idiot who does her cause no good whatsoever - which makes her a great asset for the realist movement. Keep up the great work Jo!!
The Bishop's is not supposed to comment on climate issues, since he's not a climate scientist?
What about Jo Abbess? From her about page - "My formal education was in Physics, majoring on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Electromagnetics and Electronics. My career has mostly been a mix of systems and software engineering."
If she's not a climate scientist either... what gives her greater entitlement to comment than the Bishop?
Hoist by her own petard?
I do not feel sorry for Jo Abbess. She is unspeakable; a caricature of the preening, self-righteous, climate alarmist bully.
"I seem to fit an easily dismissable stereotype," runs her self-description on her blog. If only that were true.
Dominic
I was just wandering around on Jo's website and came across the following self statement:
"I consider myself a change activist in the field of Climate and Energy, playing various roles in enabling the Social Change that must happen."
So she was just role playing when she submitted her complaint to Newsnight. A political activist. Who cares about what she says? Oh, I forgot; once upon a time she studied heavy-duty physics. Egad! So did I; how embarrassing (for me).
I've met her type a dozen times or more. They latch onto an idea - good, bad, whatever - and hitch themselves to it so tight they cannot get off to the extent where they, in effect, disappear up their own backsides.
They dare not be wrong, therefore anyone who even hints at a difference must be shouted down. Even ignoring opposition is not good enough.
I hope for her sake someone is there when she finally comes out of this state because she is going to need some very, very good friends to hold her hand, believe me.
Andrew - I feel I ought to take back my critcism of your appearance on Newsnight - I think just the fact that you appeared on the programme is enough to have got them spouting green foam from their mouths - you needn't have said a word - just smiled at the camera and they'd be tearing their hair out, screaming! Watchout - they'll be getting their crucifixes out next and the garlic too!
And another thing. She neither thinks nor writes like someone who has benefitted from their training in the physical sciences. Consider the awful mess that is this post on Judith Curry:
http://www.joabbess.com/2010/08/16/judith-curry-reaching-out/#more-6718
If there is an upside to this it is that pharos points us to an excellent thread on collide-a-scape, which is most certainly worth a visit for its own sake, not just to hear what Dr Curry has to say to Jo Abbess.
I note from further poking around on JA's site that she has previous for Bishop-baiting.
Tut, tut.
Dominic
All those brutal and licentious 'deniers' visiting her blog to castigate her, what more could a girl ask ?
I wonder if Jo is taking advantage of the £5 train journey offer from London Eustion to Manchester Piccadilly that is being organised by Campaign against Climate Change (CaCC).
http://www.campaigncc.org/
For £5 Jo will be able to travel with her green buddies on their own special Virgin Trains carriage for a EndDomesticFlightsNow demonstration at Manchester Airport on Sept 4th.
That's really cheap, just a fiver. Manchester has some great shops, restaurants, night clubs and two reasonable football teams.
The only snag is that it is a one-way price. You have to make your own way back to London.
No problem though, Virgin Travel can arrange a domestic flight straight from Manchester Airport back to Gatwick or Heathrow. Might cost more that £5 though.
http://www.virginholidays.co.uk/info/holiday_information/uk_travel_and_airports/domestic_flights/
PS If you are flying out of Manchester on Sept 4th - give Jo a wave.
I found this tosh by Jo Abbess more than a tad too much!
This from another of Jo's diatribes - this time she tries and fails to have a go at Judith Curry -
"For example, I’m sure Dr Judith Curry, accomplished as she is in Earth Sciences, does not remember the entire field, and does not have the tools to look everything up quickly. Which is why she gives shorthand vague, answers on web logs which annoy other people so much :-
http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2010/08/curry_jumps_the_shark.php
I reckon, though, people should give her a break for a while to let her compose herself, and get over the shock of the Anthony Watts “tribe” eating her heart out with steak knives after she published a proper piece of Science."
Far from any of the sceptical collective (hardly a tribe methinks?) "eating her (JC's) heart out with steak knives" - all I have seen is adult and respectful dialogue often amongst people whose views differ.
A far cry from the likes of WMC - "Stoat" and Jo "I'm a graduate" Abbess.
The mean spirited overtones of Jo and WMC simply accentuates the difference between true sceptical science and advocacy. JC as a true scientist has dismissed JA succinctly but firmly. WMC seems to have been caught out at last by Wiki.
The "Bish" is invited to appear on Newsnight.
And the BBC has stopped linking every weather event to AGW.
If only here in the UK it would stop bloody raining, my life would be complete ;0)
What a scary woman. Seriously unhinged.
Apparently Ms Abbess went to Warwick University. In my day, Warwick U was to the left of Tariq Ali's LSE. Is it still the same?
Does anyone have any more information on Ms. Abbess? I hope to God she is not a school teacher.- though it is hard for me to see who else would employ her.
Does it reflect badly on me that I cannot read the things on her site for more than a minute or so? I worry that I've lost my ability (if I ever really had it) to look at other sides of an issue.
I just posted this ....
Great read (your book) BTW.
Jo you have 'blown it' with just one sentence this one...
"The Earth was cooling down until about 1880. That trend was broken by manmade Global Warming and has not been resumed".
1880 was the tail end of the 'little ice age' (LIA)... The LIA followed the 'Medieval warm period' (MWP)... and yes it WAS worldwide.
ALL THAT HAS HAPPENED is that the temp. has gone back up to ALMOST where is was before the LIA happened.
If you don't know this fact you don't know your stuff... and if you do know, you are being disingenuous to say the kindest. Either way you have blown it...
This is of course is what the book on the Hockystick is about... the MWP and the LIA had to go so that what was left showed we had 'unprecedented warming ...
The climate changes... that's what it does best !!!
Dr C & Bernie
Jo Abbess claims she is doing a Masters degree in Climate Change Management ( if she succeeds in passing the examinations for this year). It's good to know that managing the way the climate is changing is in safe (sane?) hands. We can all sleep easily.
See http://claverton-energy.com/pipermail/windenergy_claverton-energy.com/2010-April/000096.html
I'm sure I read somewhere that she only just scraped through her degree with a pass, but I don't want to denigrate one of the world's intellectual greats. ☺