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« In which I go beyond the pale | Main | JG-C is worried »
Saturday
Dec192009

Smearing at long range

A few days back I mentioned the attempts to connect Steve McIntyre to big oil by pointing out that he had once given a talk at a think tank that had once received a donation from an oil company.

I'm not sure everyone believed me, but there's another hilarious example of the same thing today, with a connection being "revealed" between McIntyre and the Russians. Speaking of James Delingpole's story about the Institute of Economic Analysis, who have accused the Met Office of cooking the temperature books, Unity has this to say.

What Delingpole failed to disclose was the series of connections linking the Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) to a number of Western right-wing economic think tanks and, through those think-tanks, to a number of high profile global warming deniers and, through one of these, directly to Steve McIntyre.

I can't help but be reminded of the old saw about everyone being connected to  everyone else in the world by no more than seven links of association.

(Declaration of interest - I know a guy who works on an oil rig. That's my credibility shot then.)

 

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  • Response
    Declaration of interest - I know a guy who works on an oil rig. That's my credibility shot then. - Bishop Hill muses on how any link to Big Oil however tenuous means that your climate scepticism can be ignored by the AGW True Believers....

Reader Comments (22)

Quote: Declaration of interest - I know a guy who works on an oil rig. That's my credibility shot then.

Yeah, well, yesterday I bought a tank of gas. Guess I'm out, too.

Dec 19, 2009 at 8:39 AM | Unregistered CommenterTed Carmichael

Actually, it's "six degrees of separation" I think :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation

Dec 19, 2009 at 9:17 AM | Unregistered CommenterMichal Gancarski

Yeah - well I work for an oil company. And last week I gave a presentation on global warming, how cap & trade could affect our business, and then we had a brainstorming session on how to reduce emissions.

Of course, when we say "reduce emissions" we mean "increase emissions", and the favourite suggestion was to eat babies and burn puppy dogs.

Dec 19, 2009 at 9:21 AM | Unregistered CommenterAndrew

I'm all right then. I know someone who knows someone who works at the Met Office. Mind you I used to know someone who used to work for the Coal Board. But he's dead now so am I OK?

Dec 19, 2009 at 10:41 AM | Unregistered CommenterPhillip Bratby

Truly bizarre.

Wading through the tortuous list of links that eventually connects Steve Mc. to "the Russians", are we sure they didn't just mean "directly teleconnected" to Steve McIntyre?

Dec 19, 2009 at 10:55 AM | Unregistered CommenterSean Inglis

Oh dear - Not only do I live and work in "Oil Capital of Europe" (Aberdeen) I also have dealings with instrumentation suppliers that als supply the oil industry. I must be a total shill,

Dec 19, 2009 at 11:51 AM | Unregistered CommenterKnockJohn

If connections to oil exclude people Dr. Pachauri and Al Gore should be ejected from the scene forthwith.

Dec 19, 2009 at 12:31 PM | Unregistered CommenterGareth

I read your blog and since we know you are connected to the oil industry, I must be connected too. Damn I thought I could at least trust myself.

In fact my 9 year old is connected to me too. Bloody oil industry! From now on, I'll be suspicious of everything she does.

Dec 19, 2009 at 2:22 PM | Unregistered CommenterTDK

I drove past a Shell station the other day . . . I didn't buy any gas but I did think about getting a car wash . . .

Call me guilty by association as well.

Dec 19, 2009 at 2:56 PM | Unregistered CommenterFred

Lets see if I can tie everyone of the Climatologists at CRU to Big Oil companies. I expect this will be a long and torturous bit of investigation, so here goes:

"The CRU was founded in 1971 as part of the university's School of Environmental Sciences. The establishment of the Unit owed much to the support of Sir Graham Sutton, a former Director-General of the Meteorological Office, Lord Solly Zuckerman, an adviser to the University, and Professors Keith Clayton and Brian Funnel, Deans of the School of Environmental Sciences in 1971 and 1972.[4][5] Initial sponsors included British Petroleum, the Nuffield Foundation and Royal Dutch Shell.[5]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit

Ok so it wasn't htta hard to find that Big Oil funded the founding of the CRU.

Dec 19, 2009 at 2:57 PM | Unregistered Commenterboballab

Bob, splendid find. We can now dismiss CRU without further thought.

Dec 19, 2009 at 3:21 PM | Unregistered CommenterJeff Wood

"Initial sponsors included British Petroleum, the Nuffield Foundation and Royal Dutch Shell." ROTFLMAO priceless.....

Dec 19, 2009 at 3:30 PM | Unregistered CommenterHoi Polloi

Also remind them that cap and trade was invented by the late Ken Lay, CEO of ENRON.

Dec 19, 2009 at 5:26 PM | Unregistered CommenterChris

Chris, you beat me to it.

Dec 19, 2009 at 6:16 PM | Unregistered Commentersgi

And I know James Delingpole, so that rules me WAY out.

Dec 19, 2009 at 10:21 PM | Unregistered CommenterJames Delingpole

Unity doesn't like disagreement either. I got in one post before I was blocked. Typical "progressive" behavior. Seems to me that a large part of Climategate was about the same kinid of behavior.

Dec 19, 2009 at 10:51 PM | Unregistered CommenterJim Owen

Actually, it's the Mafia behind it all.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/14/fraud-europes-cap-trade-red-flag-critics-say/

Dec 19, 2009 at 11:04 PM | Unregistered CommenterDon Pablo de la Sierra

I heard that Steve McIntyre once drove his car to Starbucks where they use an electric coffee maker hooked into the hydro grid which undoubtedly has a coal fired generator somewhere. Fred Singer and Richard Lindzen also use electricity. Do I have to connect the dots?

Dec 20, 2009 at 6:17 AM | Unregistered CommenterR Day

"…the favourite suggestion was to eat babies and burn puppy dogs." No, no, no, Andrew, that's the wrong way round - you eat the puppies and burn the babies. (Memo to self: renew membership of King Herod Society).
Seriously, though, I too have received large cheques from oil companies. I'm rather surprised because at no time did they evince the slightest interest in my views on AGW. Are they psychic?

Dec 20, 2009 at 9:29 AM | Unregistered CommenterDisputin

Did this guy really write that???

Hilarious.

He lists the labyrinthine path to Steve M and then after showing how INDIRECT his connection is, finishes by telling us "directly to Steve McIntyre."

It is either directly (as at the last phrase) or convoluted (as in the rest of the damned sentence), but not both.

...Al Gore is a Republican, since he had connections to one of them somewhere, at some point in the past, via some blog on some web site on some server somewhere in the known universe, where his name was referred to obliquely, which directly links him.

Dec 21, 2009 at 3:25 AM | Unregistered CommenterSteveGinIL

There was a popular music hall song about being connected to Royalty. It went something like "I danced with the woman, who danced with the man, who danced with the lady, who danced with the Prince of Wales."

Dec 21, 2009 at 11:45 PM | Unregistered CommenterVincent Shand

Quite delicious.

It has been an eye opening year, and this blogger looks forward to another one, just as action packed. A prediction, as the AGW theory continues to burn and fall to the ground (oh the humanity) the personal invective will become even shriller and sillier.

Does anyone REALLY believe in it any more ?

Saluations from the Antipodes.

Dec 23, 2009 at 10:49 PM | Unregistered CommenterAyrdale

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