17 February 2012
People Who Live in Glass Houses..
Posted by Dan Satterfield
I tend to steer away from politics in this space, but this issue goes directly to science education in the classroom, and therefore it’s fair game.
Update: Several of the top climate experts (Dr. Ben Santer, Michael Mann and others) who have been the target of Heartland’s smear campaigns have written an open letter in the UK Guardian here.
I wrote a blog post about a pamphlet full of pseudo-science sent to me (and hundreds of other on-air weathercasters) over a year ago. It was, in a scientific sense laughable, and you can read that post here. Unfortunately the propaganda in the pamphlet was repeated by quite a few weathercasters. Fast forward to this week and the news that someone stole private documents from Heartland that put them in a rather bad light. Theft is theft, and this is no more legal than the theft of thousands of private emails from climate scientists two years ago.
The Heartland claim that the weather stations in the U.S. are not acceptable is not supported by the science. Heartland is paying more money to spread this kind of disinformation through a California blogger.
Heartland has screamed foul, which rings a bit hollow, since they were the ones that tried intently to make something out of the climate emails. This failed of course because there was nothing there and EVERY investigation into those who wrote them said so. Those who live from one conspiracy theory to the next will not accept that, but most reasonable people do. The press certainly accepts it, because they gave a big yawn when a new batch of these emails were released recently. It actually had the opposite effect than the thief hoped. Most of the press articles pointed out that all of the claims that Heartland promoted were shown to be false.
Heartland claims that at least one piece of the stolen material is faked, but the documents that seem to be real show that they are paying California weatherman Anthony Watts (who was behind the pamphlet sent to weathercasters) money to keep riding that train, even though the track was washed away by the facts. Watts has apparently confirmed this regardless of the veracity of the released documents from Heartland. Even more concerning is the project to produce a curriculum funded by fossil fuel contributors to confuse students on the issue of climate change. This is apparently being produced not by someone with a background in atmospheric or climate science but an adviser to the fossil fuel industry.
American students are falling ever more behind in math and science, while more and more teachers are reporting they get grief from parents and even administration over basic science like evolution or climate change in the classroom. In science, there is the peer-reviewed literature and scientific method. Anything outside of that may be the other-side but it is not science. It’s belief. There are plenty of subjects students can take to study political and religious beliefs, but they have no place in a science classroom.
The connection between those who manufactured doubt on tobacco smoke and those who are doing the same on climate science is detailed in a book by Dr. Naomi Oreskes.
A number of other bloggers who I greatly respect have written on this issue. Below are links to their thoughts on the matter. Many of these people have backgrounds in science.
Richard Black at The BBC (The BBC remains one of the best mainstream media outlets for accurate science reporting)
John Cook at Skeptical Science
Peter Sinclair has embedded a video that shows the close connection between Heartland, and other think tanks with those who claimed cigarette smoking was not dangerous. In many cases it’s the same campaign, and the same handful of scientists involved with manufacturing doubt on tobacco and climate science. Read Naomi Oreskes for the amazing details on this.
Note: Heartland says it was duped into emailing the private documents to someone, and they could release that email if they wish to show that some of what was sent by the thief was doctored. Comments are open as always, but be prepared to back up your claims, (esp. with anything to do with climate science) and do not waste your time name calling. I will not approve those kind of comments.
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.
This is the first year of my life, I’m 55 years old, that I have been unable to ice skate on natural ice here in Ohio. We gave up on river skating over two decades ago but were able to use farm ponds up until a few years ago. We started flooding parking lots because the ice was too thin on the ponds. This year was too warm for even that trick. Getting too old for kid’s sports anyway…
#DenialGate can be squashed by better General Public access to simple visual global data. “Just Science” app has this is.gd/eBsHrp
Dear Dan,
I am sorry to say that it appears you too, have been the target of the same kind of smear for the same reason. I have no words that you can post for the kind of people who engage in this immoral endeavor. I also spent a large portion of my adult life planning and fighting in wars to ensure the free flow of oil to protect the US and global economies. Those wars will be unending until we have the capability to provide our own energy from internal sources. Natural gas seems to be a better cleaner more secure next step For many of our vehicles but I don’t see us getting any closer because the infrastructure costs are high. Unfortunately the cost of wars to keep Saudi oil wells secure and Straits of Hormuz open will be even more
expensive. Middle East oil will run out eventually so we must eventually come up with a solution. A solution will not be achieved by character assignations on good men like you, but by a rational national debate to develop a transition strategy. I see none of that in today’s political climate. We must find a way to get beyond our political impasse. The war plans are not pretty. The Mideast oil fields are going to become a nuclear hazard zone. No amount of Carrier Battle Groups or Black Ops can stop it. It will eventually happen if we as a nation do not get
ourselves together. The leadership on both sides of the aisle have known the consequences for decades. Americans have the ability to decide to push aside those politicians of all parties who only seek to achieve their own ambitions of power regardless of cost to the common
good. It is time reason and civility return to The United States of America.
When the Climategate emails were first hacked, a few people asked how Heartland would react if it were there emails that were released and how it would differ from their crowing about the wonderful person who hacked the scientists emails.
Looks like we now know and unsurprisingly enough they’re reacting exactly the way that was predicted–that is, opposite to how they reacted to the scientists’ email release.