Category: Bait & Switch

Bait & Switch : Urging action on Climate Change as a channel to guide people in promoting technologies, products and services (which may actually not be really effective in dealing with Climate Change).

Richard Black Poses Solved Challenge

Post author By Jo
Post date November 3, 2009
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In his web log of 30th October 2009, Richard Black issues a challenge :-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2009/10/climates_magnetic_attraction.html

Magnetic attraction of climate ‘scepticism’

Richard Black
Friday, 30 October 2009

There’s been interest on this blog and elsewhere about a meeting organised on Wednesday by Piers Corbyn, the independent UK weather forecaster who argues that the sources of modern-day climate change lie in magnetic interactions around the Earth rather than greenhouse gas emissions on it.

So – a genie to your Aladdin, though emphatically not all-powerful – I thought I’d go along.

Held at Imperial College London – Mr Corbyn’s alma mater – the meeting featured presentations from Northern Ireland’s famously “climate-sceptical” environment minister Sammy Wilson, botanist and ex-BBC TV nature presenter David Bellamy, and a handful of academics – as well as from Mr Corbyn himself.

Tags Climate Change, denial, Deniers, Sceptics, Skeptics

Bad Science Bait & Switch Carbon Capture Climate Change Non-Science The Data

Everyone Should Read This

Kevin Grandia of DeSmogBlog in Canada, kindly sent me a copy of the new publication “Climate Cover-Up” for review last week, which plopped through my letterbox, postal strike notwithstanding, on Tuesday.

It took me until yesterday evening to read the whole of James Hoggan’s book in snatches on the train and Tube, and it contained information about Climate Change denial that made my hair curl.

Everyone should read this book.

Tags Climate Change, denial, Deniers, Sceptics, Skeptics

Bait & Switch Climate Change Media Political Nightmare

Climate Chains

The Competitive Enterprise Institute in the United States of America wants to save the bottled water market.

It also wants to try to convince people that Climate Change policy is bad news, against Freedom, and based on fear.

There will be a new film, charmingly entitled “Climate Chains” with a whole new palette of Climate Change denial and policy refusal arguments, so it would be well worth watching it when it comes out, to help us work out how to nip these myths in the bud.

https://climatechains.com/

https://www.globalwarming.org/2009/09/17/climate-chains-trailer/

https://www.climatechains.com/about.html

https://www.cascadepolicy.org/

https://www.cascadepolicy.org/recommended-reading/

Tags Climate Change, Deniers, Sceptics, Skeptics

Bad Science Bait & Switch Climate Change Media Non-Science The Data

Horrible Headlines

Last year I complained to Roger Harrabin of the BBC by electronic mail regarding what I considered to be an unhelpful headline to an online article concerned with Global Warming. I also criticised the way that part of the article was written, as it had the potential to be misinterpreted.

Some of the people who read this web log who are in personal communication with me will know what happened next, but I’m not going to go over it again at this juncture, suffice it to say that a person or persons unknown reported the electronic mail exchange to a group of people who self-style as “Climate Change sceptics”, after which I found myself curiously infamous, and found it best to lie low for a while.

Even after this furore, why do we continue to see horrible headlines ?

Tags Climate Change, Deniers, Sceptics, Skeptics

Bad Science Bait & Switch Climate Change Media Non-Science

The Hudson Tunnel

The computer equipment you are at this moment using relies on an effect known as “quantum tunneling”, delivering an energy payload across a seemingly inpenetrable medium.

It is, if you like, a subversion of the apparent macro-scale laws of the universe. Nothing is quite what you think it is.

Tags Climate Change, Media

Bad Science Bait & Switch Climate Change Non-Science The Data

Patrick Michaels : The Skeptical Propagandista

Post author By Jo
Post date October 11, 2009
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***************** College, University of ****************
MSc ******************************* programme
Year : 1 : Course Module : Climate Change

Reading Task : 6th October 2009

Read : Michaels, P.J. (2009) : “Global Warming and Climate Change”.

In : Cato Handbook for Policymakers (ed. D. Boaz, 7th edition). Cato Institute, p. 475-485.

Available from :-

https://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb111/hb111-45.pdf

1) How does he explain the observed periods of warming in the IPCC record?

Michaels states : “human activity has been a contributor since 1975.”

Tags Climate Change, Deniers, Global Warming, Sceptics, Skeptics

Bait & Switch Big Picture Climate Change Social Change Unsolicited Advice & Guidance

Sceptics Are People, Too

In answer to one of my many raging, almost apoplectic, detractors, I have written this.

Since I believe that sceptics can be people, too, I’m going to respond to you, even though I think you’re being unfactual, and I feel you’re being unreasonable.

Some of the science that needs to be presented is the psychology of denial.

People who deny the science of Global Warming do so because they don’t want their life, wealth and freedom to be interfered with.

They feel they deserve liberty. But anybody who lives in any kind of community, especially in an urban environment, is not free at all, and never can be.

Tags Climate Change, Deniers, Sceptics, Skeptics

Bad Science Bait & Switch Big Picture Climate Change Media Non-Science Political Nightmare Social Change Technological Sideshow The Data Toxic Hazard

Good Faith Can Move Mountains

Post author By Jo
Post date September 30, 2009
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Image Credit : Icecap

The British Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband has admitted at the Labour Party Conference that there are low commitment levels to dealing with the causes of Global Warming :-

Tags Climate Change, denial, Deniers, Global Warming, Sceptics, Skeptics

Bad Science Bait & Switch Big Picture Climate Change Non-Science The Data Unsolicited Advice & Guidance

James Delingpole Is Most Definitely Misguided

Post author By Jo
Post date September 29, 2009
41 Comments on James Delingpole Is Most Definitely Misguided

My attention has been turned, once more, to the writing of James Delingpole this week.

https://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100011716/how-the-global-warming-industry-is-based-on-one-massive-lie/

This article, in my view, contains a number of pieces of misleading information, which in my view should be re-framed into their proper context by the author.

Tags Climate Change, disinformation, Global Warming, journalism, Propaganda, Science

Bait & Switch Burning Money Media Nuclear Nuisance Nuclear Shambles Pet Peeves Technological Sideshow

A Subsidy By Any Other Name

Post author By Jo
Post date September 27, 2009
No Comments on A Subsidy By Any Other Name

There’s the real world. And then there’s “Daily Telegraph world”, a fantasy mindscape, it seems to me.

In yet another piece that seems to be written for the sole purpose of attacking wind power, massaged in under the banner of standing up for the fuel poor :-

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/6236920/Taxing-the-fuel-poor-to-bolster-subsidised-companies-is-a-waste-of-energy.html

is this outstanding piece of reporting about Atomic Energy in the United Kingdom :-

“Nuclear, by contrast, is unsubsidised.”

Tags Atomic Energy, economics, Energy, fission, Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power

Bait & Switch Climate Change

Letter to James Delingpole (2)

Post author By Jo
Post date September 27, 2009
1 Comment on Letter to James Delingpole (2)

Dear Mr Delingpole,

When I politely enquired of you recently regarding your qualification to pronounce on Climate Change science, I did hope that you would reply to me in a similarly polite manner.

After all, we’re both professionals, in our own ways, aren’t we ? And it would be unsporting to be rude or underhanded, wouldn’t it ?

Tags Climate Change, Deniers, Sceptics, Skeptics

Bait & Switch Climate Change

The Unemotional Jeremy Clarkson

Post author By Jo
Post date September 27, 2009
No Comments on The Unemotional Jeremy Clarkson

According to The Peoples’ Jeremy Clarkson, and the IPPR, the facts appear to show that people are “bored” with Climate Change.

https://www.ippr.org/pressreleases/?id=3724

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/6233221/Jeremy-Clarkson-People-are-bored-of-climate-change.html

Tags Climate Change, Jeremy Clarkson

Bait & Switch Behaviour Changeling Big Picture Climate Change Contraction & Convergence Geogingerneering Media Meltdown Pet Peeves Political Nightmare Renewable Resource Social Change Technological Sideshow The Data

Everybody Dance Now !

Dancing with Bicycles

Whenever you hear government ministers or public figures telling the people that technology will save us, remember this : the word “technology” is synonymous with the word “business”.

“Technology” is Big Engineering, and this is what is done by large companies and corporations. Large organisations that make profit by selling manufactured products and Energy always have a surplus set aside for their communications budgets, and that includes persuading government people that their business is invaluable and needs promoting.

Tags Climate Change, Communications, Greenwash, Propaganda

Acid Ocean Bait & Switch Big Picture China Syndrome Climate Change Emissions Impossible Low Carbon Life Political Nightmare Unutterably Useless Utter Futility

Richard Black Hijacks Debate

Post author By Jo
Post date August 28, 2009
2 Comments on Richard Black Hijacks Debate

Environmentalism has trudged a long, winding, often silent road, with many cul-de-sacs of defeat, desperation and despair.

In the last few years there has been a raising of the collective consciousness about how many problems are interrelated with an obscure corner of gas chemistry, which offers grave prospects for the whole of Life on Earth.

Ecologists and treehuggers of all varieties have started to gather round the camp fire of Climate Change, finding that people will pay attention to the destruction of Nature if they pay attention to their own fate first.

Bait & Switch Big Picture Burning Money Carbon Capture Carbon Commodities Emissions Impossible Energy Revival Nuclear Nuisance Peak Energy Peak Oil Pet Peeves Technological Sideshow

Big Energy : Fighting for Survival

Post author By Jo
Post date August 22, 2009
No Comments on Big Energy : Fighting for Survival

The Carbon game’s up : within 40 to 70 years the Petroleum empires will be gone. Even with massive new investment, Hydrocarbon production will be peaking. With supplies of Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and yes, even Coal, starting to fall away, a crucial sub-plot will begin to play out.

Bait & Switch Carbon Capture Climate Change Cost Effective Pet Peeves Technological Sideshow Toxic Hazard

Clean Coal : Dirty Joke

Seven reasons why “Clean” Coal is dirty, dangerous and wicked, but not funny in the slightest.

Bad Science Bait & Switch Big Picture Burning Money Climate Change Geogingerneering Growth Paradigm

Bjørn Lomborg : Climate Joker

Post author By Jo
Post date August 14, 2009
No Comments on Bjørn Lomborg : Climate Joker

In his own, special, blond, way, I feel Bjørn Lomborg is as dangerous as Martin Durkin. They both act like incarnations of The Climate Joker in my view, showing different capricious sides to the destructive force of mankind’s inhumanity to man (and beast and tree).

Acid Ocean Bait & Switch Big Picture Climate Change Cost Effective Emissions Impossible Geogingerneering Technological Sideshow

Cloud Ships. Yes, But…

Geoengineering. Sounds great. Treat the Earth like one big motoring machine, get under the hood (bonnet) and tinker with it.

But what if actually this is the equivalent of putting the Planet on a life support system ventilator, and the plug could be pulled at any time ?

How sustainable are some of the Geoengineering proposals ? Are they guaranteed to work ? Won’t they have knock-on side-effects ? Are they reversible if they prove unhelpful ? And how much will they cost ?

Bait & Switch Big Picture Burning Money Carbon Capture China Syndrome Climate Change Pet Peeves Technological Sideshow

China Laughs at Carbon Capture

Post author By Jo
Post date August 7, 2009
No Comments on China Laughs at Carbon Capture

Whenever one exchanges words with a representative of the British Government regarding Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), if one deigns to risk asking such a question as “why is the UK spending so much time, effort and resources on CCS demonstrations ?”, the usual, much-trodden answer is “because we need to lead China on this”.

Bait & Switch Big Picture Burning Money Energy Revival Media Nuclear Nuisance Nuclear Shambles Peak Energy Peak Oil Pet Peeves Technological Sideshow

Nuclear Drive : Barbecue Country

Post author By Jo
Post date August 7, 2009
No Comments on Nuclear Drive : Barbecue Country

A number of media outlets have been skewered and grilled one more time in the last fortnight by the Nuclear industry and it’s paid-up or paid-to fans. It feels like the poor lamb hacks have been gambolling and frolicking too close to the fire.

Just getting a Press Release in the papers is not equivalent to convincing a critical mass of people to support your energy technology of choice. It’s like roasting and toasting a very dodgy piece of carcase/carcass and adding hot pepper sauce to hide the bacterial slime.

Even recruiting a senior former British Government Minister to the radioactive cause is not sufficiently influential for a good portion of the electorate. That’s like pulling some Amazon-killing soya-fed dead cow out of the freezer and finding it’s several years too old to eat.

Nuclear Power has a bad track record, and the last couple of years have been near-on laughable.

Bait & Switch Big Picture Burning Money Carbon Capture Climate Change Emissions Impossible Pet Peeves Technological Sideshow Utter Futility

Ed Miliband : Coal Captured

Post author By Jo
Post date August 7, 2009
No Comments on Ed Miliband : Coal Captured

The Public Opinion No is a Government Policy Yes. Carbon is Zero Carbon. Coal is Clean. Sounds like Doublethink to me.

As Orwell put it : “The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them….To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies…”

Bad Science Bait & Switch Behaviour Changeling Big Picture Climate Change Emissions Impossible Energy Revival Low Carbon Life Non-Science Pet Peeves Renewable Resource Social Change Vote Loser Wind of Fortune

Wind Turbines Give You Apoplexy

Post author By Jo
Post date August 4, 2009
No Comments on Wind Turbines Give You Apoplexy

Reactions to the article “Wind Turbines Give You Spots” is encouraging, if contentious. Looks like we’ve mined a thick vein of dispute. Could a simple, happy, smiley Public Relations campaign to promote Wind Power counter this ? I think not !

Bait & Switch Big Picture Burning Money Climate Change Cost Effective Low Carbon Life Technological Sideshow

Wind Systems Are Go !

Little boy and girl engineers across the globe are starting a lifetime of fascination with wind turbines, playing with Trademarked miniature construction kits :-

https://hertenberger.co.za/?p=4831

https://legosip.blogspot.com/2009/04/120409-lego-7642-garage-7686-helicopter.html

Durable plastic toy manufacturers can see which way the wind is blowing, even if rich landowners, Mr-Deal-or-No-Deal [1] and certain members of the CPRE [2] cannot :-

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5850681/Wind-farm-to-be-built-on-borders-of-Peak-District.html