You can also look it up, this is one of the coldest years in history, this past year.
Sean Hannity • Completely getting his facts wrong on how warm it is this year. Media Matters (which is admittedly a liberal site, BTW) points out that Hannity has repeatedly said that this is one of the coldest years on record – facts not backed up at all by the NOAA, NASA and Britain’s Met Office. Data from all three says that it’s one of the warmest years on record. We wonder what crow tastes like. source
The UEA response has been frankly pathetic. It was informed by Real Climate of the hack on 17 November but only reacted two days later when journalists caught on to the story. It refused to confirm whether the emails were accurate or not and, for a long time, refused to comment at all.
Climate Outreach and Information Network founder George Marshall • Discussing the University of East Anglia’s weak response to the hacked e-mail controversy despite the fact that the e-mails don’t reveal any sort of conspiracy. He argues instead that it’s merely been integrated into longstanding skeptic opinions. “The speed with which the emails have been cut apart and fed into existing storylines is remarkable,” he notes. He also notes the timing is extremely suspect. source
This is not a smoking gun; this is a mushroom cloud.
Climatologist Patrick J. Michaels • Describing his feelings on a bunch of private e-mails ganked from a British university’s computer server. The belief of skeptics? These e-mails prove that the scientific community is overstating the global warming threat for their own gain. The University of East Anglia confirms the hacking but says they can’t confirm the accuracy of the e-mails sent. Source
Yesterday was a big day for climate change. The percentage of people that believe in global warming has been falling quickly in the U.S. But that isn’t stopping 350.org (which stands for the parts per million they consider the safe upper limit for our atmosphere) from promoting the heck out of itself. Here’s a few photos from Flickr.
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An unexpected GOP offshoot is pushing for a climate bill. While Republicans in Congress are largely angling for big businesses in the climate change debate, a number of groups that don’t traditionally line up with liberal causes are pushing for changes that protect the environment. The National Wildlife Federation’s senior vice president for conservation, Jeremy Symons, noted that climate change was affecting their sport. “If you go out and hunt at the same time in the same season and the same place every year, then you understand the changes that are happening,” he said. In other words, they’re Teddy Roosevelt Republicans. (Those still exist, apparently.) source
Inconvenient for Al Phelim McAleer, co-director of “Not Evil Just Wrong,” a right-leaning film refuting Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” happened to be at Gore’s first Q&A in four years, Gore stumbled through McAleer’s question. Then McAleer’s mic was cut. Hm.
Fox & the GOP in bed?White House Communications Director Anita Dunn made a harsh-tongued accusation against Fox News this morning, calling them the “communications arm of the Republican Party” and saying Obama treats talking to them like a debate.
It’s about … deathLast week, Keith Olbermann devoted a show to the health care debate. He prefaced it by saying that the debate was “about … death.” And he goes on, and on, and on. And a lot of it is pretty good and substantial. (Watch the whole thing here.)
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Full of jerks who hate science. When millions of businesses band together under one massive umbrella to fend off scientific theories with lots of evidence, expect people like us to take notice. The massive business lobby, trying to avoid tightened emissions regulations, wants to have the Environmental Protection Agency to hold a trial on man-made global warming. We hope, just like the Scopes trial, it’s a circus. source