ABC attacks philanthropist for old skeptical email. UPDATE Is it a sackable offence?!

UPDATE: A new ABC version of this story asks if it is a sackable offence for an energy company chairman to send an email praising The Skeptics Handbook years in the past before he was appointed? NSW Labor thinks so.

Click to download the PDF

The NSW Labor spokesman for Energy, Adam Searle, has described Mr Massy-Greene’s stance as “disturbing” and is calling for him to clarify his views or resign.

“If he is a climate change skeptic then his position as chair of publicly owned electricity businesses is untenable”, says Mr Searle.

“If Mr Massy-Green won’t resign, the Baird Government, which appointed him, needs to sack him.”

Amazing. Just to have ever sent an email praising the skeptics handbook years before he was appointed.

Are you now, or have you ever been a skeptic?

__________________

Streisand Effect coming

Nearly 7 years ago Roger Massy-Greene sent an email around to around 200 VIP’s with a link to the Skeptics Handbook saying “the best piece I have seen on global warming, and helps to explain what has so far been a very confusing debate.” Mr Massy-Greene later became chairman of […]

Czech translation of the Unskeptical Guide to the Skeptics Handbook

The Guide to the unSkeptical Guide to the Skeptics Handbook (Czech translation)

Who would have thought?

SkepticalScience.com has a Czech translation of their attempt to debunk the Skeptics Handbook. And so, as the wheel turns, we have a Czech translation of my debunking of that debunking:

My most sincere thanks to Mirek Pavlicek.

He’s a fast man!

The original English version:

The Guide to the Unskeptical Guide to the Skeptics Handbook.

And I’ve done up an PDF version of the original English language debunking for those who want to have a printed copy to sit side by side.

I would not have guessed the Czechs would beat me to it.

7 out of 10 based on 3 ratings

Finally! The long awaited Italian Translation

Click to download The Italian Translation of The Skeptics Handbook

Dario Buso has finally accomplished a task I’ve been looking forward too for a long time. The Italian Translation of The Skeptics Handbook is here ready to be sent to all your friends among the 62 million speakers of Italian around the world.

He has done a marvelous job of putting it all together, along with help on the in-depth and careful review work done by Guido Botteri and Patrick. It’s just another example of the remarkable productivity of exasperated people. Citizens who won’t let the half-truths and distortions stand unopposed.

As always these things take a team (all up, involving people in six countries).

Dario writes:

Guido and I would also like to mention the final review by Colonel Guido Guidi, an Italian Army weather forecaster who manages and presents some weather forecast programs on national RAI TV channel. Col. Guidi also keeps a very informative blog in Italy on the status of the global climate, as a skeptic of the AGW hypothesis. He’s our Anthony Watts “made in Italy”…

Guido’s Italian blog is Climate Monitor.

The 15th translation of The Skeptics Handbook.

7.4 out of 10 […]

Thai Translation – The Skeptics Handbook

The volunteers keep coming. Please take a moment to appreciate how much work it takes to do a proper translation, to check it, to edit it, and to edit and arrange the artwork. Then take another moment to think of old friends and contacts who might find it interesting, and e-mail it on. Thanks.

The reach of our global human network is changing polls.

Thanks to Weeraboon Wisartsakul for his expertise and patience.

See www.wwisartsakul.wordpress.com for his Thai blog.

Thanks to Jimmy Haigh for the double-checking and help.

Click on the image to download the pdf.

Volunteers have translated the first Skeptics Handbook into German, French, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, Turkish, Portuguese, Danish, Japanese, Balkan, Spanish, Thai, Czech and Lao. The second Skeptics Handbook is available in French and Turkish. See all posts tagged Translations.

10 out of 10 based on 3 ratings

Spanish translation of Skeptics Handbook I

Spanish Translation – The Skeptics Handbook I

I am delighted to announce that finally, after drafts have been sent between three continents, the Spanish translation is ready to share. With over 330 million native speakers of Spanish, I expect it will be one of the most popular of all the translations.

Download the 1.2Mb emailable version.

Thanks especially to Víctor González García in Mexico, who did most of the work and coordination, and with editing help from Pepe Salama in Spain.

Please send links to this page or to Pepe’s blog page to your Spanish speaking friends, so they can download copies from either site. And consider PePe’s page as the main home for discussion of the Handbook in Spanish.

There is a larger 7Mb version here for printing.

All translations and versions are available on this page.

Volunteers have translated the first Skeptics Handbook into German, French, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, Turkish, Portuguese, Danish, Japanese, Balkan and Spanish. The second Skeptics Handbook is available in French and Turkish.

10 out of 10 based on 3 ratings […]

Skeptics Handbook permeates Copenhagen

Part II of Climate Change Gone Dutch. This is one of the best advertisements I’ve seen yet for The Skeptics Handbook. Seeing footage like this gives me a warm glow. Thanks atomkerman. Priceless!

It’s 5 minutes and the fun starts at 2:00 mins. (Cue ominous soundtrack). Introducing… the dreaded skeptic — a faceless trench coated “mafia” man who surreptitiously leaves a copy of The Skeptics Handbook on the table for … (gasp)… anyone to read. How dangerous. Friends of the baseless theory do what they always do, try to hide the graphs from public view. But the insidious copies are out there… people are reading them… the clock ticks.

10 out of 10 based on 2 ratings […]

4. Carbon dioxide is already absorbing almost all it can

Here’s why it’s possible that doubling CO2 won’t make much difference.

The carbon that’s already up in the atmosphere absorbs most of the light it can. CO2 only “soaks up” its favorite wavelengths of light, and it’s close to saturation point. It manages to grab a bit more light from wavelengths that are close to its favorite bands, but it can’t do much more, because there are not many left-over photons at the right wavelengths.

The natural greenhouse effect is real, and it does keep us warm, but it’s already reached its peak performance.

Throw more carbon up there and most of the extra gas is just “unemployed” molecules.

This graph shows the additional warming effect of each extra 20ppm of atmospheric CO2.

8.6 out of 10 based on 72 ratings […]

Consensus? What consensus?

How many scientists does it take to prove the debate is not over? More than 30,000 scientists have signed The Petition Project. More than 9,000 of them have PhDs (not that that proves anything about carbon, but it does prove something about the myth of “consensus”). The petition’s wording is unequivocal:

“There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.” Source: www.petitionproject.org

The Petition Project is funded by donations from individuals and run by volunteers. It receives no money from industry or companies. In late 2007, The Petition Project re-did the petition to verify names again.

AGW says: Everyone knows the petition is bogus and filled with duplicate and fake names.

Skeptics say: Name 10 fakes.

8.5 out of 10 based on 11 ratings […]

Pub questions

From the first Skeptics Handbook (p 14-15). The very short answers to questions you might get in a bar, or in the media tent at the UNFCCC. Point 1 below was the single most popular riposte from supporters of the greenhouse theory at COP 13 in Bali.

1. How can so many scientists be wrong? Most scientists are not wrong, but they’re not studying the central question either. Instead they’re researching the effects of warming — not the causes. Whether orangutans in Borneo are facing habitat loss tells us nothing of what drives the weather. Likewise: wind-farm efficiency, carbon sequestration, and insect-borne epidemics. Warm weather changes these things, but these things don’t change the weather. Consensus proves nothing. It takes only one scientist to prove a theory wrong. Theories fit the facts or they don’t. Instead of saying “Which side has more PhDs?” a better question is “Where’s the evidence?” Once upon a time, the masses thought the world was flat, that no machine could fly, that the sun went ‘round the Earth.

The only thing we know for sure about climate change is that big government-funded committees […]

The tenth translation – Balkans (Bosnian-Serbo-Croatian)

Thanks to Dr. Mensur Omerbashich for translating the Handbook into the common languages* of most of the Balkans: Bosnian and Serbo-Croatian. Mensur is a theoretical geophysicist from USA with PhD from Canada, who also is a certified court interpreter in Bosnia.

Send this link to your friends in the former Yugoslav republics. This translation will be understandable to Bosnians, Croatians, Serbians, Montenegrins, including most of Slovenians, Macedonians and Kosovars. Around 25-30 million people.

Mensur suggested that ideally someone could volunteer to do localizations into Croatian proper, or Serbian proper.

There is a larger 5Mb version for better printing here.

* I use the term “common language” loosely. There is so little agreement about it, I gather there is not even a proper name of this “language”. It’s more a overlapping common collection of several languages, sometimes referred to just as BCS or Bosnian/Serbo-Croatian. (Correct me if I’m wrong).

10 out of 10 based on 3 ratings

Clouds dominate everything

Al Gore describes how carbon dioxide beats up Mr Sunbeam and stops him leaving the atmosphere. But he “forgot” to mention that clouds reflect around a quarter of all the sunlight that hits the earth. Those beams of light travel all the way from the sun to get bounced off into space when they are just a few kilometers from the ground.

Any change in cloud cover makes a major difference. The IPCC assumes clouds respond to warming, but clouds could easily drive the warming.

7.8 out of 10 based on 8 ratings […]

Japanese translation

Yet another victory for grassroots action. Here is the first Asian language translation of The Skeptics Handbook.

Email it to all your Japanese friends!

The Japanese translation has been provided by the International Access Corporation (IAC), a research and consulting company specializing in energy sector issues and headed by nuclear engineer, Tomohiro Yuki. As a long term skeptic of the man-made climate change theory, Mr. Yuki believes that this publication will be welcomed by the people and policymakers in Japan who are increasingly demanding a more balanced debate about climate change.

I hear that Mr Yuki is very well connected in science, government, business and media circles in Japan. He has been an active global-warming skeptic over the last 2-3 years and has amassed a large audience for his emails.

I also hear that, in spite of Japan’s public commitment to climate change regulation, in private conversations with policy makers, apparently real doubts are starting to be expressed. (That was even before the ClimateGate revelations.)

With Copenhagen a few days away this is the perfect time to spread copies of the Japanese translation especially for the bureaucrats sitting on the fence.

10 out of 10 based on 4 […]

Former Member of Parliament Refused Entry with Skeptics Handbook

This morning Graeme Campbell, former Member of Parliament for Kalgoorlie, was waiting outside the Senate entrance to Parliament House. He has a full cleared security pass, but he was refused entry by the The Black Rod of the Senate. Security tried to take the copies of The Skeptics Handbooks, effectively confiscating Campbells private property. When Campbell pointed this out, they returned them, but would still not allow him in. They bluffed and told him he would be barred from all entrances. He walked around to The House of Representatives door where, as was his right, he was allowed in, and with those books.

What has The Australian Parliament come to when a former elected Member of Parliament is blocked because of the books he carries?

How dangerous can these books be? The Skeptics Handbook I & II are armed with graphs and cartoons and scientific references. But the Rudd government doesn’t want people to see them. The Theory of Man Made Global Warming is based on bluff and bluster. Only censorship and bullying can keep the other side of the story at bay.

10 out of 10 based on 4 ratings […]

Skeptics Handbook II! Global Bullies Want Your Money

Finally, Part II in the Skeptics Handbook series – the bluster and bluff, the deceit, and the money. Enjoy & Share.

It’s unthinkable. Big Government has spent $79 billion on the climate industry, 3000 times more than Big Oil. Leading climate scientists won’t debate in public and won’t provide their data. What do they hide? When faced with freedom-of-information requests they say they’ve “lost” the original global temperature records. Thousands of scientists are rising in protest against the scare campaign. Meanwhile $126 billion turned over in carbon markets in 2008 and bankers get set to make billions.

7.6 out of 10 based on 8 ratings […]

Portugese translation: Manual dos Céticos

Fantastic. Just out of the blue — I had no idea it was coming — a team in Brazil has created a Portuguese translation. They contacted me when it was all done and finished. It’s remarkable. Thank you!

It’s home is on the fake climate site. (Click on the image to go straight to the pdf.) But I have a copy here as a back up.

Thanks especially to Professor Ricardo Augusto Felício (University of São Paulo – Brazil) and and Marcel Ligabô, Secretary. They’ve done a very professional job.

9.8 out of 10 based on 4 ratings […]

The main “cause” of global warming is air conditioners. p7

The headline is tongue in cheek, but the message is serious.

Look at these pictures of NOAA’s U.S. temperature stations. These thermometers on the ground have recorded faster temperature rises than sensors on satellites and weather balloons.

Lucky heat doesn’t rise off asphalt…

Things may have looked different at this site in 1909.

9.9 out of 10 based on 7 ratings […]

The Handbook spreads to Turkey

Turkey, where the local climate is normal and where nothing unusual happened in the time since the green bandwagon hit the road, signed on to Kyoto and will most likely sign on to the Copenhagen compromise, Kyoto II. So there is a need to spread the word about that the science the media won’t mention, hence The Skeptics Handbook

A 2007 survey showed that even in Turkey some 70% of people are familiarized with the theory that carbon affects the climate, which shows the remarkable reach of UN propaganda1. The UN may not have any evidence, but they have widespread influence. The Politburo would be impressed.

Like most politicians, the Turkish representatives wouldn’t mind another excuse to tax everything that moves while being hailed as heroes (I ‘ll save you. Let me spend your money!). And with potential EU membership acting like a carrot with gold plating, there are reasons for Turkey to accept agreements it may not otherwise have chosen to.

It’s a country caught in a patchwork of third world unmechanized farming and modern megopolis development. Pop music has arrived in a big way; mass produced electronics goods are finding markets; and satellite and cable […]

The unwarming world

Click for a larger (powerpoint size) image

The world has not warmed since 2001.

10 out of 10 based on 2 ratings […]

Skeptikerens håndbok er her!

History will record that a dedicated team of experts offered their services for free to help rescue science from the coming of a second dark ages (or at least from the clutches of politicians pursuing Nobel peace prizes). Here’s another example of people wanting to do their part to spread the word.

8.8 out of 10 based on 4 ratings […]

Manuel du Sceptique Climatique

Parlez Vouz Francais? The French version of The Skeptics Handbook is released! Send it to your friends who speak French; send it to your friends who don’t speak French but would like too, and send it to schools in the hope that students might learn logic and reason in their language classes, because they probably won’t learn it in science*. […]