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Title: Global warming fraud: the tide begins to turn
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URL Source: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/j ... fraud-the-tide-begins-to-turn/
Published: Oct 12, 2010
Author: James Delingpole
Post Date: 2010-10-14 12:39:14 by Capitalist Eric
Keywords: None
Views: 10175
Comments: 19
Funny business, blogging. Sometimes, you put up a post you personally think is genius and no one gives a damn. Other times, you put up a post you imagine is fairly routine – and suddenly the internet goes mental. US physics professor: “Global warming is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life” definitely belonged in the latter category. I claim no credit for it. All I did was print, verbatim, a resignation letter written by a distinguished US physics professor Hal Lewis to the American Physical Society. Possibly I helped give it legs by singling out the juiciest quote in the letter and putting it in the headline. That’s all. The true hero of the hour is Professor Lewis for having the courage to stick out his neck and say what so many thousands of other scientists around the world would dearly love to say too: that the global warming industry is a scam and sham. But they can’t because, like all of us, they have to make a living. I’ll leave it to a commenter called Scotchman to explain how it works: No surprise here. Don’t know if any of you are scientists but climate change is a bit of a standing joke in the science community. Want funding for a study of, say, UK swan populations? Sorry old boy, no money. Well, in that case I would like to conduct a study into the effect of climate change on UK swan populations. Certainly, how much would you like? Trouble is it distorts the research. The scientist’s objective is to stay in a job, publish papers and run a research team. Process takes precedent over results, a bit like modern policing and medicine really. And if you wondered how much money is involved, here is Roman Column to explain: The professor wrote: “…the money flood has become the raison d’être …” Let me present some figures below to see why “flood” was not an exaggeration (extract from http://sciencespeak.com/MissingSignature.pdf) “The Money Connection So what is going on here? In time-honored journalistic fashion, follow the money: - The amount of money spent on anti-AGW activity by organizations is around US$2 million per year, primarily from Heartland. - The amount of money spent by pro-AGW organisations on research is about US$3 billion per year, about 1,000 times larger. It mainly comes from big government spending on pro-AGW climate research and on promoting the AGW message, and from the Greens. - Emissions trading by the finance industry was US$120 billion in 2008. This will grow to over US$1 trillion by 2012, and carbon emission permit trading will be the largest “commodity” market in the world—larger than oil, steel, rice, wheat etc. Typically the finance industry might pocket 1% – 5% of the turnover, so even now their financial interest matches the spending on pro-AGW activities and soon it will vastly exceed it. And here’s a physicist Phillip 2, putting Professor Lewis in context: I too had a long career as a physicist and I met Prof Hal Lewis at a conference in 1976 (my career was not as long or as eminent as his). I will never forget the talk he gave after dinner one evening. He spoke for an hour without any notes and was truly inspiring; the room was packed and all there were enthralled. A scientist of honour, honesty and integrity. He is one of the last survivors of the great physicists of the second half of the 20th century. His words of wisdom should be widely disseminated and heeded. “climate scientists” are not scientists in comparison to him. And here’s another REAL scientist (as opposed to a “climate scientist”) – a geologist this time – from NZ called Geodoug: Good article. I am a geologist and a 40yr member of AusIMM and find that they also will not take a stand on this matter. All geologists are aware of climate change episodes in the geological past, frequently of much greater magnitude than that occuring at present. Problem seems to be that pressure is coming to bear on scientific societies world-wide not to speak out. And as the NZ govt has ratified the Kyoto Protocol etc, just 2 weeks ago we were made subject to additional Emissions Trading Scheme taxes on all fuels and energy supplies. It just goes on ………… !! These were characteristic of the unusually high quality of comments this blog attracted from all round the world, often from first time visitors. Hal Lewis – who has now joined the advisory committee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation – struck a chord. As Realfreedom noted: I think this is just the beginning. All credit to Harold Lewis for his honesty and for the having the courage to state his position. It is indeed one of the greatest scams to have been perpetrated by the scientific community, albeit under incessant political pressure. Watch out for the mass exodus – it will only take a few more respected (and brave) figures to open the flood gates. Then it will be highly entertaining to read all the excuses and as they fall over themselves retreating. I know personally many scientists (teachers) who feel under pressure not to decare ther position for fear of reprisals. There will be a good business opportunity in rewriting text books in the not too distant future, as there was when the Piltdown Man hoax was exposed and all the science text books had to be changed accordingly. I think Realfreedom is right. And the people who ought most especially to take notice are our political class. In Britain, we are stuck with a terrifyingly undemocratic situation in which all three of our main political parties are committed to throwing more and more taxpayers money into the Great Climate Change Lie Machine. When taxpayers finally wise up to what’s going on (H/T Nick Mabbs) - and this fantastically damning film on the Wind Farm scam by MEP Godfrey Bloom should help - they are going to be very angry indeed. I don’t think any of us need kid ourselves any more that “going green” was just an insincere pose David Cameron adopted in order to “detoxify” the Tory brand. Make no mistake, the Eton Grocer is as ideologically committed to the eco-fascist doctrine as Chris Huhne, Ed Miliband or, indeed, his avowed idol Al Gore. [Quote from Dave Cameron, overheard: "I had a meeting the other day with Al Gore: God, he knows his stuff!"]. And perhaps more importantly – as Bloom’s film reminds us – it’s vital that Dave’s father-in-law Sir Reginald Sheffield makes as much money as possible by building lots of wind turbines on his estates. It’s no coincidence that by far the most popular comment was this one from Cheshirered: “It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist.” Says it all in one paragragh. Are you listening, Mr Cameron, Mr Huhne, Mr Clegg, et al? Or perhaps you ’scrupulously honest’ politicians deliberately choose not to listen, eh? In which case you’re as bad as the rest of ‘em who are in on this outrageous racket. Is it just me, or do I feel a Tea Party style revolution coming on?
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#1. To: Capitalist Eric (#0)
"The APS adheres to rigorous ethical standards in developing its statements," the statement says. "Neither the operating officers nor the elected leaders of the society have a monetary stake in [climate-change] funding." The statement adds that, because relatively few APS members conduct climate-change research, the vast majority of the society's members "derive no personal benefit from such research support". APS press secretary Tawanda Johnson told physicsworld.com that the society released the statement to defend its reputation in the face of the accusations. Gavin Schmidt, a climate physicist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, denies Lewis's claim that research in climate change is congruent with financial gain. "People don't get paid to get results," he says. "Funding pays for postdocs, graduate students and equipment." Schmidt adds the issue raised by Lewis is "a manufactured story" to make people believe there is some discontent in the profession.
#2. To: go65 (#1)
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestIn response to Lewis's letter, the APS took the unusual step of issuing a public statement on Tuesday. The society says there is "no truth to Dr Lewis's assertion that APS policy statements are driven by financial gain," adding that the "specific charge that APS as an organization is benefiting financially from climate-change funding is equally false".
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