Saturday
Feb182012
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill NZ Science Media Centre hides the evidence
Feb 18, 2012 Science Media Centre The Science Media Centre's press release on the Heartland documents has yet to appear on their website, but as readers here know, it was posted up by their counterpart organisation in New Zealand - I gave a link a couple of days ago.
Not unexpectedly, the New Zealand Science Media Centre has now taken down the story and you get a 404 if you try to visit today. However, as I said, this was not unexpected, and I took the precaution of sending the URL to Webcite. If you want to see the story, it is here.
Reader Comments (24)
They wouldn't be ashamed of anything, would they?
Prof Davies' quote is great:
"It has been obvious to objective analysts for some years now that there are organised and well-supported campaigns to undermine the findings of rational science, especially in the climate change area. If this is a leak of genuine documents from the Heartland Institute, it would provide interesting detail about some of the methods of one organisation, and confirmation of some of the personalities involved."
We've been saying the same thing about CRU for years.
Yeah, the rash of hastily "updated" articles, press releases that appear and disappear in a different form, 180 turnarounds, and 404 pages is just the thing you would expect from the mainstream side that has truth and honour as its credo. Isn't it?
You didn't want them to leave the smears out there, did you? Taking them down before any one else sees is a good thing, right?
Granted: an apology would be nice.
But moving away rather than "moving on" is a step in the right direction
Ah, yes that old conspiracy meme about vicious, well-funded and organised armies of climate skeptics.
How important it is to the Leftists to believe themselves as the heroic little guys, defending Gaia against the rapacious capitalists, backed by nothing except their pure-hearted fervour!
And, er, multi-million dollar organisations like WWF and Greenpeace, big media such as NYT, BBC, ABC and a host of dreary non-productive NGOs...
Pouncer
Who are you addressing?
The Bish says "as I said, this was not unexpected" and is documenting his expectations being borne out. I would too if I were proven right - it's a nice feeling ;)
I say its the way they do it, scrabbling around in the hoping they can shape the memory hole as they go along that is crappy and needs our full unwavering attention. Especially since these are the very people who puff themselves up as morally superior at every opportunity they can.
A bit more self documenting so the uninitiated can see where they have come from is more what a real mensch would do in my opinion, but that is bit of a stretch to expect from anyone I agree. If they had done due dilligence they could have made a fairly good job of hurting HI but they didn't, they shot their wad, and I think it is good to document their shame.
Then there's this howler from Bob Ward:
"I think most parents would be horrified to learn of an organisation that is attempting to influence their children’s education to promote its own agenda."
As if such organizations as WWF, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and IPCC are not attempting to influence children's education to promote their own agendas?
Of all Bob Ward's sterling qualities, being able to see the beam in his own eye is not the most notable.
Jack Maloney
Like so many things in life, it's all a question of perception, isn't it?
Ward, like thousands of other believers (correction: that should be 'millions'), doesn't see the irony. If it's for the cause — AGW, the environment, Islam, Catholicism (and I speak as a Catholic), Atheism, Communism, the EU — then up to a point the end justifies the means. If we do it to further what we believe in then it's fine; if others do it to further a cause we don't believe in then it's wrong/evil/sinful.
Some may have better grounds for their beliefs than others; some of those beliefs may be more tolerant of dissent than others. At the end of the day, "they would say that, wouldn't they?"
But, taking Ward's statement at face value, I agree with him. It's just that you are never this side of hell freezing going to convince him that pouring the pro-AGW arguments down children's throats is also a form of propaganda — even if they're right .
Here's proof that the AGW propaganda is false: http://bobtisdale.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/figure-102.png
This truly massive cooling of the North Atlantic means GHG-AGW < <natural cooling. Because this cooling was preceded by warming, that had to be mainly natural too.
Conclusion, CO2 climate sensitivity is much lower than the IPCC claims. My view is that it's near net zero.
Yet the media clearly thinks the docs are genuine. The real question now is whether they show that HI broke tax laws. [Snip - manners]
The typical quotes of "well-funded" and "well-supported" are particularly interesting as the context is the Heartland documents, which show a total expenditure of approximately $1 million a year on climate change issues.
I wonder if Bob Ward has comparable figures from Grantham?
If they "thought they were genuine" they wouldn't have rewritten the articles at BBC/NYT/Graun with get-out weasel words - would they?
[Calm down please]
FG,
You're stuck on two days ago. Most of the articles since have simply assumed the docs are genuine including the memo. I've read all 421 of them.
Of the msm stories, that is.
Here's proof that the AGW propaganda is false: http://bobtisdale.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/figure-102.png
This truly massive cooling of the North Atlantic means GHG-AGW < <natural cooling. Because this cooling was preceded by warming, that had to be mainly natural too.
Conclusion, CO2 climate sensitivity is much lower than the IPCC claims. My view is that it's near net zero.
Feb 18, 2012 at 2:52 PM | mydogsgotnonose>>>>
[RKS invites you to discuss Nikolov and Zeller's Unified Theory of Climate at the unthreaded
http://bishophill.squarespace.com/unthreaded/
]
Would someone please post a URL for these memos. They are being discussed but those of us who do not followe this issue daily can have a hard time finding the originals
RKS
I'm going to delete your comment shortly because it's off topic. If you can copy and paste it to the forum or unthreaded that will be fine.
That would be msm as in "liberal msm" would it?
I see the Guardian is using a new interesting technique of openly referencing sources known to be withdrawn by their authors:-
In a letter that was published on Friday and then subsequently removed, more than 30 leading health professionals and scientists from the US, Britain, Australia and New Zealand called on Heartland to come clean..
....... sort of "now you see it - now you don't - but believe us it was pretty bad stuff".
[o/t]
I see over at the Guardian that the article that kicked this all off is still taking comments and its interesting that even AFTER the news of the memo being fake that the creationists are still banging on as if it was a real HI document.
Then again, this is going to be how it is...to the creationists who believe in Mann Made Global Warming (tm) with their heart and soul it doesnt matter. They WANT the memo to be true, therefore, to them, it will be true!
Mean while, in the real world, my power bill is going through the roof thanks to Mann Made Global Warming (tm) causing temperatures to plummet!
Mailman
"Dave Reay, Senior lecturer in Carbon Management, University of Edinburgh"
God Almighty. For an assortment of reasons, Scottish universities have jettisoned their former pre-eminence. No student with half an ounce of sense wants to go to Edinburgh or Aberdeen, these days, but these were among the greatest universities in the world, within the last two or three decades.
"Senior lecturer in Carbon Management". Do me a favour.
Owen Morgan, it is indeed sad to watch the decline of distinguished traditions of learning in Scots universities. Destruction is much quicker and easier than construction, unfortunately.
On topic, I have heard from my spies - friends and family - that a great struggle is going on in the NZ government and bureaucracy (including the scientific bureaucracy) about the CO2 scare. What has been reported here is a symptom of that.
I am not entirely convinced that the 404 is intentional, as the SMC link to that page from their "Heads Up" article which can be found here
(click on the Heads Up link).
The Heartland Story is second after the Earthquake anniversary story.
Note that there are links to DeSmogBlog and Hot Topic on this page. These are 2 activist sites that have been running smear campaigns against Heartland and also the NZCSC, which has received some Heartland funding for delegates to attend the Bali conference. The NZCSC has, it should be noted, a pending court case against NIWA to do with the "seven station series" temperature record.