tlambert

Congratulations to Chris Mitchell, editor of The Australian who has won an award from the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association for journalism that promotes their interests: In congratulating Chris Mitchell, APPEA's Chief Executive Belinda Robinson observed that "over the…

Remember when Tim Blair's commenters combined to take on a six year old boy? And lost. Now Blair and his commenters are taking on a Nobel Physics Prize winner. On physics. US Energy Secretary Steven Chu, one of the world's greatest minds, believes painting roofs, roads and pavements white will…

John Quiggin categorizes those that reject climate science into Tribalists, Ideologists, Hacks and sufferers of Emeritus disease. Speaking of hacks, Bob Burton has discovered some more about Pat Michaels funding: [New Hope Environmental Services], which he wholly owns, describes itself as "an…

Jeff Sparrow has some pictures of the climate panel at the Sydney Writer's Festival. It was very popular and many people were turned away when the room filled. I'm afraid that there doesn't seem to be a recording available. David Spratt and Sharon Beder's talks were based on their articles in the…

That's the sound Ben McNeil's point makes as it sails way over Andrew Bolt's head.

Time for another open thread.

OK, Greig, you have your own thread. Please post all of your comments here. And everyone else, please post any responses to Greig here. The blog software does not allow me to move comments to another thread, so I will delete comments that don't obey these rules and it will be up to you to repost…

The United Nations Environment Programme and the World Health Organization have announced new projects to test methods for fighting malaria with less use of DDT: Ten projects, all part of the global programme "Demonstrating and Scaling-up of sustainable Alternatives to DDT in Vector Management",…

On page 287 of his error-filled book Ian Plimer claims: The Arctic was warmer than now between 1920 and 1940. This is reflected in the sea ice and the local climate.[1473]" [1473] Benestad, R.E. (2002) I. Hanssen-Bauer, T.E. Skaugen and E.J. Førland: Associations between the sea-ice and the local…

Andrew Bolt is giving our little panel at the Sydney Writer's Festival some free publicity, describing it as "That baaing sound of writers debating" and as an "ABC-style "debate"". Which is odd, because he's on the ABC all the time and this panel is Bolt-free. And while I was turning over the…

Sydney Writers' Festival 2009: Stories from the Climate Change Front: A Forum and Launch of Overland 195 Saturday, May 23 2009 15:00 - 16:00 David Spratt, co-author of Climate Code Red, Dr Sharon Beder, author of Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism, and Deltoid science blogger…

Remember how Ian Plimer claimed that he could not recall where his dodgy figure 3? Well now he has resorting to lying about the source. In a talkback radio debate (about 4 minutes from the end) with Steven Sherwood, Plimer claimed that the graph came from page 21 of Klimafakten, a book published…

Ian Enting has been checking the claims Ian Plimer makes in his error-filled book. His list of errors and other problematic claims is here. [Link updated to version 1.7]. He's found plenty that I missed. For example: p 409: New Orleans sunk rapidly by about 1 metre in the three years before…

Ben McNeil investigates Andrew Bolts claim that Ian Plimer's error-filled Heaven and Earth has 25,000 copies sold or ordered: Indeed, if a non-fiction book has 25 000 copies sold in Australia it is a massive blockbuster. I was suspicious when reading through the SMH book section the last couple of…

Harry Clarke It is not wrong to challenge orthodoxy anywhere but the work of Plimer is unscientific and both irresponsible and dangerous - he has provided a social diservice. The extensive publicity he has received has had an entirely undeserved impact. Forget Plimer, read the science. John…

Time for more open thread.

One of Ian Plimer's claims is that the IPCC ignores astronomy, so it's interesting to see what an astronomer thinks of his book. In today's Australian, the blue moon continues with a review of Heaven and Earth by Michael Ashley: Plimer probably didn't expect an astronomer to review his book. I…

Wednesday was an unusual day at the Australian, with two pro-science pieces published. First, Leigh Dayton, their science writer, raises some scientific objections to Ian Plimer's book. Plimer will, no doubt, continued to deny the existence of these problems: Plimer also repeats the inaccurate "…

Gavin Schmidt has caught Christopher Monckton in yet another fabrication. Monckton published graphs that purport to show that temperatures and CO2 concentrations haven't followed IPCC projections, but the IPCC projections Monckton plots are fictional. Schmidt graphs the actual projections, and…

The Australian has a printed a response by Plimer to some of the criticism he has received. Plimer opens with: In Heaven and Earth - Global Warming: The Missing Science, I predicted that the critics would play the man and not discuss the science. Then he proceeds to play the man and not the ball…

One of the favourite tactics employed by the Australian in its war on science is quote mining. See, for example, Kininmonth's effort this week. Not surprisingly the Australian's Cut and Paste column is a big on quote mining. For example Environment Minister Peter Garrett, on ABC1's Lateline on…

A recent peer-reviewed scientific paper in Malaria Journal by Yukich, Lengeler, Tediosi, Brown, Mulligan, Chavasse, Stevens, Justino, Conteh, Maharaj, Erskine, Mueller, Wiseman, Ghebremeskel, Zerom, Goodman, McGuire, Urrutia, Sakho, Hanson and Sharp compared several large vector control programs to…

Adam Morton asked Ian Plimer where his dodgy Figure 3 came from (my emphasis): Some of his critics say they are surprised that a former head of the University of Melbourne geology department, with more than 120 published papers to his name, would include unsourced graphs in his book. Asked where he…

On his column in the Financial Review last week, John Quiggin wrote about those who think global warming is some sort of hoax: While most media outlets give at least some space to these conspiracy theorists, the central role has been played by The Australian. Not only its opinion columnists (with a…

Looks like it was Pilmer night on the ABC. First, he was on Counterpoint, ABC's anti-Science show, as you would expect from his previous appearance, everything he said, no matter how outrageous was uncritically accepted. This time he blamed the Antarctic ozone hole on CFCs coming from Erebus. (…

Time for a new open thread.

It is fire scientists for talking to the media: Leading Government scientist Jim Salinger, an international pioneer in climate change research, has been sacked for what he says is talking out of turn to news organisations. Looks like the denialists in ACT are running the show. More discussion at…

On page 19 of Heaven and Earth we find Plimer making this remarkable claim about one of the authors of the IPCC's 2nd Assessment Report's chapter on the impacts of global warming on health: Other authors were environmental activists, one of whom had written on the health effects of mercury…

I agree with Barry Brook that Ian Plimer's approach to climate science in Heaven Earth is unscientific. He starts with his conclusion that there is no "evidential basis" that humans have caused recent warming and that the theory that humans can create global warming is contrary to validated…

Today was the day of the Big Push in the Australian's war on science. They published two news stories that distorted scientists' views on Antarctic ice, a long piece promoting "silenced" Ian Plimer's denialist book, an absurdly over the top piece from Christopher Pearson about how Plimer's book is…