International Journal of Inactivism

cite as: F. Bi. 2008. Falsifiability, falsification, and conspiracy theories. Intl. J. Inact., 1:34–36

Via Eli Rabett and James Annan, I hear that climate crank Roger Pielke Jr. kept asking the question,

What observations would be inconsistent with climate model predictions?

Annan says that Pielke Jr. repeatedly ignored the answers provided, though that’s not quite true — sometimes Pielke Jr. did acknowledge a prediction in the form of a betting game, but he’d immediately whine that the bet’s unfair, and then flip back to ignorage. Go figure.

Falsifiability vs. falsification

Despite this, inactivists have been reciting the “global warming’s unfalsifiable” line as if it’s some super-duper refutation of the global warming theory. Over at Crooked Timber, Brett Bellmore asked the same dumb question:

What global temperature behavior over the next 10–20 years would convince you that global warming wasn’t in the cards, and that maybe you should buy stock in thermal underwear, and move closer to the equator?

I could’ve mentioned all the stuff about climate sensitivity, solar activity’s correlation with temperatures, etc. but that’ll probably just fly over his head. (more…)

cite as: F. Bi. 2008. Unstoppable Angry Scientists! Intl. J. Inact., 1:33

Via Hot Topic: the “Heartland 500” debacle has finally entered the mainstream media! The New Zealand media, to be precise. And there are now 5 more angry scientists!

(I’m quite sure the Heartland Institute isn’t going to try suing all the media outlets to stop this story… but in case they do, I’ve made archives of the Hot Topic post, the New Zealand Herald article, the Hard News item, the Radio New Zealand coverage, the Stuff.co.nz story, and last but not least the Radio NZ’s Morning Report podcast (where NZ inactivist Owen McShane offers a short defence of the list — though for this one, you probably want to download the 1.2MB, 3′ 12″ MP3 from the original site instead…).)

Heartland’s response?

So, what’s Heartland Institute’s “response” to this whole thing? Well, get this: (more…)

cite as: F. Bi. 2008. Goracle vs. Giblets. Intl. J. Inact., 1:31–32

ITEM! One of the world’s leading climatologists says that the targets for CO2 reduction set by the IPCC are far too high to stop global warming. According to James Hansen, at the current target of 450 ppm polar ice would eventually melt entirely, raising sea levels by 75 meters and radically transforming the planet. But would all this happen fast enough to save Obama by turning voters’ attentions from the devastating “Bittergate” scandal, or will the destruction of the coasts merely cede the nomination to Clinton by leaving Obama with nothing to work with but Hillary’s natural constituency of embittered midwestern gun-toting god-freaks? Giblets World News will have more on this breaking story as it develops!

– Giblets

The problem

Yo ho ho, the earth’s climate is going to pot, the facts on climate change are being distorted, and… mainstream media journalists are worried about how not to offend climate cranks’ sensitivities! And also worried about issues such as missing white women, and Jeremiah Wright, and Lindsay Lohan stripping totally naked.

Obviously, with so many pressing issues facing our world, it’s hard to get the mainstream media to pay any attention to the nonsensical “500 Scientists With Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares” list, or the Heartland Institute’s hilarious response to the scientists who want their names removed from the list. (I’d have thought that anything involving 50+ angry scientists has to be a good story, but that’s just me.)

So, what’s a freedom-hating pinko like me got to do? (more…)

cite as: F. Bi. 2008. Heartland Institute silently modifies old press release. Intl. J. Inact., 1:29–30

So, what’s the latest development in the train wreck that’s the “Heartland 500” list? Well, check out the following sets of web archives. The following snapshots of the relevant pages were taken by yours truly on 2 May and 30 Apr:

• the 1 May 2008 press release. announcing the addition of 100 names after the publication of Unstoppable Global Warming;
• the 14 Sep 2007 press release announcing the original list of 500 scientists; and
• the list proper.

Now, I’ve taken another snapshot of the pages today (4 May), and here they are:

• the 1 May 2008 press release;
• the 14 Sep 2007 press release; and
• the list itself.

Notice something? Well, dear readers, the list of scientists remains unchanged and is still titled “Co-Authors”… and the contents of the pages are exactly the same on both occasions… except for one thing. (more…)

cite as: F. Bi. 2008. “Heartland 500″ list still suppressed by inactivists. Intl. J. Inact., 1:28

Larry Solomon informs us that William Connolley is the Second-in-Command to Al Gore the Great Satan:

Next to Al Gore, William Connolley may be the world’s most influential person in the global warming debate. He has a PhD in mathematics and worked as a climate modeller, but those accomplishments don’t explain his influence [...]

Dang, and I thought Gore’s right-hand henchman was James Hansen.

William Connolley’s opinions [...] count for a great deal at Wikipedia, even though some might not think them particularly worthy of note. “It is his view that there is a consensus in the scientific community about climate change topics such as global warming, and that the various reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) summarize this consensus,” states his Wikipedia page, in the section called “Biography.”

You know, Mr. Solomon, you really should report on the “Heartland 500″ list, which of course completely debunks Connolley’s ill-informed “opinion” that “there is a consensus” on the reality of global warming. I mean, if it’s possible to find lots of scientists doubting the global warming theory, by making crap up postulating grand Bolshevist conspiracies which are only visible by looking for hammer-and-sickle patterns on cereal flakes… then the “consensus” must be pretty shaky, no?

Talk about the Heartland list, won’t ya Solomon?