A sudden craving for Froot Loops » « I get email…from Stuart Pivar!

The righties get their scientific misinformation from Breitbart, the Daily Mail, the Drudge Report, and James Delingpole

This is what we’ve come to already.

The house science committee, chaired by Republican Lamar Smith, is citing an article in Breitbart written by James Fucking Delingpole. It’s a story built on a collection of lies first published in The Daily Mail.

The Washington post calls it “dubious and deceptive”, and has published an article rejecting the claims, Earth’s temperature has not plunged at record clip and nationwide record cold not coming. The scientists I know are dumbfounded.

I actually read Delingpole’s article, and even though I’m not a climatologist, I could see how thickly the bullshit was being slathered. Here’s the kind of nonsense he’s slinging.

This is why there is such an ideological divide regarding climate change between those on the left and those on the right. The lefties get their climate information from unreliable fake news sites like Buzzfeed.

Wrong. This lefty gets his climate information from published, peer-reviewed science.

A sudden craving for Froot Loops » « I get email…from Stuart Pivar!

Comments

  1. numerobis says

    The lefties get their information from buzzfeed, the righties make shit up from whole cloth.

  2. Nullifidian says

    The promise of the internet was enormous. It promised to bring about a new age, where knowledge, (which is equivalent to power), would be freely available to all. It promised to usher in a new age of enlightenment & equality.

    Instead of that, it has been a medium for criminals to esploit: hackers to steal your identity & then your money, scammers to trick you out of your money, & fake news-mongers to steal your fundamental freedoms, & wreck our world.

  3. geral says

    Embarrassing. The committee has the power to summon every planetary scientist employed by the Federal government to interview but they choose to tweet nonsense. We’re fucked, aren’t we?

  4. says

    For whatever good it may do:

    Here’s a link to contact information for the committee, in the event that anyone wants to tell them that their Twitter account promoting climate change denialism and harassing people traumatized by climate change* is unacceptable: https://science.house.gov/contact .

    I called the main contact number, which went to voicemail since it was after business hours in DC. I got a “this voice mailbox is full and cannot accept new messages” notice, which tells me that (1) that others have called and (2) Congress really needs a better voicemail system.

    So I sent them notes both publicly via Twitter and less-publicly via their email contact form; emphasizing that climate change denialism and harassment are both unacceptable. I identified myself as a planetary scientist, which I am. Those with other relevant credentials may want to mention them when contacting the committee.

    *The operator of the account did so in a different tweet than the one PZ quoted above.

  6. Silver Fox says

    It’s December 1 and I went out today in shorts and short sleeves. Yeah, I know, it’s Virginia, but still, except for the autumn colors, it doesn’t feel right at all. Could be due to El Nino or is it La Nina? (I get confused) but if this keeps up I may have to donate my winter coats to a museum. In years to come little kids will be asking, did people really wear stuff like that in February?

  8. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Poked around a little on the internet. Global temperatures are still rising from what I can see. The EPA web site shows this (for now).
    I’ve noticed a couple of things related to climate change. The first is that summer nights seem warmer than the past as predicted. The second is that it takes longer for the maple trees to lose the last of their leaves since we first moved here thirty years ago. Our first frost used to happened late October/early November, with a hard frost (about 20F) by the first of December. This year, our first frost was late November, and we haven’t had a hard frost yet.

  9. What a Maroon, living up to the 'nym says

    So where does the insurance industry get their climate information?

  10. Nullifidian says

    Brian #6, I know. I figured everyone here would know too. I didn’t want to write down what we all know.

  11. wzrd1 says

    Nullifidian #2, the knowledge is out there, largely lost in the extremely high noise to signal ratio.
    I’ve found that Google Scholar helps to dispel much of that noise, as does using accredited educational sites.

  12. says

    miles links, anecdotes do not replace and/or disprove scientific findings, but when they agree with them, they can be used as a way to personally connect with those finding and communicate those findings to others.

    Your grudge against Nerd is noted.

    My anecdata are as follows:
    2015 was warmest year on record. I expect 2016 to be even warmer because the apple trees around here (CZ, 700 m above sea) did not lose leaves until first frost mid November. We have no snow. Usualy around here first frost comes in september and all trees lose their leaves mid October. And the most bizzare thing – my fig tree in glasshouse not only did not lose leaves until November, but it actualy bore ripe edible figs until November. Normally it stops growing in September, glasshouse notwithstanding.

    These are little local signs that the global climate does indeed change.

  14. magistramarla says

    Here in South Texas, I took pictures of the irises that bloomed in my front yard on September 19th. It seemed very odd to have strictly springtime blooms in the fall. Just last week, a lovely white rose bloomed in the yard of one of our neighbors.
    We are finally getting some cooler temperatures this week, and a very chilly rain today. I’m glad of this, since those pesky mosquitoes will finally be gone when we go for walks.
    It may be anecdotal, but many people from many different locations are noting changes in the weather for their locations. Even some conservatives are noting that odd weather is happening around them.
    I think that these anecdotes will multiply as the effects of climate change become more noticeable.