Fully un-sceptical
John Cook of Un-Skeptical Pseudo-Science is at a “climate Q & A” tonight which is, quote, “brought to you by sustainme on behalf of Lane Cove Council”. Sustainme, I think, is a firm of “sustainability consultants” from what I can gather, so that kind of sets the tone.
In front of a (no doubt friendly and sympathetic) audience of twenty or so, Cook will bust all the filthy deniers myths, just like wot ‘e does on ‘is web site, innit?
He’s even got a companion puff piece on ABC Environment (where else) illustrated with a photo of the real Mythbusters:
Tonight, I’ve been asked to present a climate myth busting evening at Lane Cove in Sydney. However, instead of giving a prepared talk with a slideshow, the organisers plan to break the audience up into groups who will select the most persuasive climate myths they’ve heard. I will then attempt to debunk the myths. To add a little edge to the evening, the audience will vote to determine whether the myths have been successfully busted or not.
It feels a bit like going back to school and sitting exams. I don’t know what questions will be asked and I’ll be graded afterwards. Except this time, the examination and grading will occur in front of an audience. The result will depend not just on knowing the science but also successfully negotiating the psychological pitfalls and backfire effects. The evening could be a highly engaging, interactive and educational experience. Or it might be a train wreck. Either way, bring popcorn! (source)
You can guarantee the “myths” will all be the so-called “myths” of realists, rather than the thousands of myths perpetrated by alarmists.
Here are a few such alarmist myths, which you can bet the farm Cook won’t be busting tonight:
- That Un-skeptical Pseudo-Science presents a balanced view of the current state of climate science, not a smug partisan sycophantic repetition of IPCC propaganda
- That all those computer models can make accurate projections of climate 100 years from now, not hopelessly incomplete and flaky and which couldn’t predict their way out of a paper bag
- That the IPCC is a fair and balanced organisation, dispassionately reviewing climate science, and not a hopelessly compromised and politicised organisation that made up its mind CO2 was to blame before it even began work back in 1990
- That grey literature is just fine and dandy, as long as it helps The Cause
- That WWF and Greenpeace are reasonable and balanced organisations which can appreciate both sides of the climate debate, so they should be entitled to write half of the IPCC reports
- That climate scientists understand the magnitude and sign of all climate feedbacks to at least two decimal places
- That CO2 swamps all natural climate drivers, including the Sun (we don’t know how, it just DOES, OK?!!)
- That Henrik Svensmark is the devil incarnate, but James Hansen is the model to which every climate scientist should aspire
- That consensus scientists uphold the highest standards of integrity and Climategate was “all taken out of context”, and not that they were caught red handed fudging data, deleting emails, skewing peer-review and avoiding FOI requests
- That Peter Gleick is not guilty of scientific misconduct and possible criminal deception and is just a valiant whistleblower (© MeDog’sGob)
- That sceptics really are better funded and better organised than the entire Big Green movement bankrolled by national governments and the UN
- That Al Gore really knows what he’s talking about and his film was a balanced scientific documentary, rather than a bad fairy tale
- That global warming really does cause everything you could think of on this list (and plenty more besides)
- That black really is white, if you look at it long enough
Readers are invited to submit in the comments other “myths” that Cook wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot barge pole.
Australian Climate Madness 
Surely he can’t be as vile as his photo suggests…can he?
That’s John ‘Sanitizer’ Cook ? What a dweeb !
the guy is a complete buffoon…and his facebook page is a real hoot…
That there is a “greenhouse effect” – which is the biggest myth of all. During the day – you know the time when energy is flooding in – any fool can tell the atmosphere actually cools the Earth’s surface – not the opposite as the idiot “climate scientists” claim.
Their claim the Earth would be minus 18 without “greenhouse gases” is completely debunked by the fact the Sun heats the Moon to ~120 degrees C during the lunar day and not ~5.6 degrees C as claimed by the “geniuses” that run Wikipedia – see Greenhouse Effect on Wikipedia.
Climate “scientists” and their fanbois deny reality all the time.
My proof ? See Greenhouse Effect on Wikipedia where they deny reality of Moon = 120 degrees C by using wrong science to calculate a theoretical temperature of 5.6 degrees C and dismissing disagreement with their brilliance.
There is no greenhouse effect as postulated by these clowns.
Weirdest blanket I’ve ever seen.. one that intentionally takes heat from the surface and conveys it by convection to higher altitudes.!!
The atmosphere is a cooling/regulating system, NOT a blanket !!
As for the lower clouds.. obvious ! If there is slight warming of the Earth’s surface (probably by the Sun’s activity), then there is a slight rise in evaporation, thus a slight increase in water vapour content (humidity). As this slightly more humid air rises by convection or other means, the dew point (the point at which condensation takes place) is reached at a slightly lower altitude.
Its all part of the REGULATION MECHANISM that is the Earth’s atmosphere.
ps. The main movements of heat within the atmosphere are conduction (includes air movement), and convection. (radiation takes precedence once there is little or no air, ie in space.)
Changes in a trace level gas have ABSOLUTELY NO EFFECT on these mechanisms.
Instead of preaching to the converted in the affluent, trendy, leafy, Lower North Shore suburb of Lane Cove, where the median house price is $1,407,500, I’d like to see Mr. Cook take his myth-information lectures to the working class Australians.
Why doesn’t Cook visit … say, Mount Druitt, in Sydney’s west, where the median house price is $358,000.
Perhaps Cook likes to choose his audience. He might realise that working families are more concerned with paying their electricity bills than any sustainability crap!
“It happens. People believe that they’ve got to do a job, they’ve got to take on an ideology, that they’ve got a life to lead; they’ve got to survive, a job to do, it’s every day inch by inch, little compromises, little ways of telling yourself this is how you should lead your life and suddenly then these things can happen.” – actor Ralph Fiennes, about the character he played in Schindler’s List.
He is an embarrassment to Australia and the Human Race in general.
That smarmy self-righteous look is very similar to Simon Sheik’s (from GetUp your nose)