Bishop Hill AGU prioritises the unethical over the critical
Apr 13, 2014 Climate: Sceptics Greens Amy Ridenour of the National Center for Public Policy Research in Washington DC has discovered what many have known for a long time, namely that the American Geophysical Union is a grossly politicised body that will tolerate no criticism of the global warming orthodoxy.
Her discovery came about after reading a post by weatherman Dan Satterfield on his AGU blog. This cited approvingly the these-people-must-never-work-again blacklist "study" of Anderegg et al. Ms Ridenour was surprised to find that to leave a comment linking to Roger Pilke Sr's critique of that paper was considered unacceptable conduct, but Mr Satterfield helpfully emailed to explain why he had done this:
I do not publish links to junk science papers/sites. This is not a platform for you to publicize junk science.
So there you have it. In the AGU's world the unadulterated unethical woo of an obscure postdoc is OK, but linking to the comments of a much-published climatologist is not.
Doesn't that just tell you everything you need to know about the AGU?
Reader Comments (18)
Yes tells me everything I already knew. This is a battle of ideology versus science and the ideology is agwt.
Klimate Katastrophists are going for broke, determined to impose totalitarianism because that's the only way they can stay on top. The start is to remove employment rights from 'deniers'.
It's all getting rather "Soviet" isn't it?
Remove those who don't parrot the Party line from employment and if they still question the orthodoxy, say they are mentally ill.
How long before we have "reeducation camps"?
For a view of the future, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Yezhov
Observe carefully the behavioural development of the psychopathic personalities in charge of our fake climate propaganda.
The envirolobby are going into overdrive because they are losing. Even the IPCC reports are diaphanous if you look beyond the political flim flam. Today's report has the usual doom and gloom but advocates going for gas in the medium term. This not only spikes the green guns regarding fracking but also gives them the necessary time to retire, write a book on the folly of it all and get their pension.
Did any of the leading figures of Nazi Germany ever change their minds about what they believed?
When CAGW first started making news, I was sure it was a flash in the frying pan. Yet CAGW has been going on for so long now, I'm beginning to realy believe the reeducation camps will in fact materialise.
If there is is madness in crowds, and if power corrupts absolutely, and if authority remains strong by remaining united; Then we may well be heading for a new type of world war. It has been a slow train wreck so far, I hope I'm not around to see the boiler explode.
We already have re-education camps in the UK. They're called teacher training colleges, the Civil Service and the quangos. Some of it has been privatised to large parts of the energy industry, where a condition of promotion to senior positions is to be able to spout climate mantras convincingly to be able to hob-nob with the right quangocrats and politicians. Re-education has also been subcontracted to our principal broadcasters and news outlets. It is all pervasive, like propaganda in North Korea.
the phrase 're-education camps' is appearing more frequently these days, and in using the term you're in good company...
"The horrors of the manipulation of education that we experienced in the great genocidal dictatorships of the twentieth century have not disappeared; they have retained a current relevance under various guises and proposals and, with the pretense of modernity, push children and young people to walk on the dictatorial path of "only one form of thought".
[moving away from script speech] “A week ago a great teacher said to me… ‘with these education projects I don’t know if we’re sending the kids to school or a re-education camp’…”"
http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-on-clerical-sexual-abuse-not-one-step
You have to congratulate Satterfield on his religions zeal , its just a shame he does not put as much effort into his day job nor any actual science.
This is completely in line with the AGU giving Peter Gleick a role in their ethics leadership.
It will be interesting to use the corruption of the AGU as an example of how a tiny group of extremists and faux experts can damage a formerly credible organization.
TL:DR - Stupid individual blog's moderation policy, not censorship by the AGU.
I see it more as Dan's attitude and not the attitude of the AGU. Dan's blog is one of many hosted on the AGU website.
Does the AGU monitor and control the output of all the blogs or does it allow others to use it with a bit of status gained in using the high profile and name of the AGU. The latter most likely.
There will be the usual t&c that the blogs don't reflect the opinion of the AGU, but also that the blogs should not denigrate the AGU or bring it into disrepute. The latter can only happen if the blogs actually hosted something and someone complained. Removing it means there is nothing to complain about and the AGU don't want to get involved with each blog's moderation policy as they might as well remove all because of the workload involved.
Yes and no, SBML. At the end of the day, there is implied acceptance by the AGU simply by allowing such a stifling policy to reside on their website, whether their terms explicitly accept it as their own or not. Were the AGU concerned about actual science, the blog owner would be warned, then shut down should his policy continue. They are not, and hence, he is allowed to continue to tarnish their name (as if that is possible) through association.
Realistically, does anybody take the AGU seriously anymore? I sure don't...
Mark
Take AGU seriously? As the source of the imfamous "97% of climate scientists" - 75 AGU members responding "Yes" to Illinois reseachers Doran & Zimmerman's Question 2 - a soundbite still quoted by Presidents and Prime Ministers - it should be very concerned how it is being used.
Turnedoutnice, shouldn't that be Kool Klimate Katastrophists?
Re-education is something of a misnomer, no? It implies that there was any education in the first place...
Dan was chief weatherman at one of our TV stations here in Huntsville for about 20 years. He is a fantastic weatherman and one of my favorites ever. However, he was constantly slipping his religion into the forecast. I went a few rounds with him in email, which was enough to learn that there would be no reasoning with him. He professes a complete faith in peer-review and refuses to consider anything that is not. However, he is very quick to dismiss peer reviewed articles that don't advance the party line. Dan is a true believer and always will be.
I went to the AGU website to see what climate scientists may have rejected Amy Ridenour's comment. My finding
http://blogs.agu.org/about-the-blogosphere/ Welcome to our network of blogs about Earth and space sciences, hosted by the American Geophysical Union, the world’s largest organization of Earth and space scientists. Most blogs in this network are written by independent scientist-writers; two—GeoSpace and The Plainspoken Scientist—are written by AGU staff (with occasional help from collaborators and guest bloggers).
Amy's nemesis, Dan Satterfield, worked as a TV meteorologist for 33 years and am the Chief Meteorologist for the CBS affiliate WBOC TV in Salisbury,MD. I’m a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Meteorology (Atmospheric Physics) and have a Masters in Earth Science. Dan's blog, Wild Wild Weather Page, has been online for 15 years and is the only AGU blog specifically dealing with weather/climate. He seems to be the only one at the AGU blogs qualified to comment on the climate science done by members of the AGU, but his education does pre-date the satellite era, climate models, AGW, etc.
The Plainspoken Scientist appears to be the collective work of a number of AGU staffers:
Olivia Ambrogio is an AGU Strategic Communications Specialist and coordinator of AGU’s Expert Outreach Network. Has Ph.D. in biology from Tufts University, and am now living in Washington, DC and blogging. http://beastsinapopulouscity.blogspot.com/
Nanci Bompey, AGU Public Information Specialist – Writer. Write and edit press releases and blog posts about newsworthy scientific papers published in AGU journals and presented at AGU meetings. BA (Colgate) in Chemistry (2000), pharmaceutical industry, Masters of Science (Northwestern), Journalism (2006).
Mike Osborne is a science content producer with Worldview at Stanford University. Mike is a climate scientist-turned-science producer. He holds a PhD in Geochemistry from Stanford, a BS in Geology from UT-Austin, and a BA in Criminology from UM-Missoula. He founded and produces the Generation Anthropocene podcast. http://worldview.stanford.edu/about AGU’s 2013 Mass Media Fellow, a program that helps young scientists cultivate communications skills to effectively share science with general audiences. Osborne will spend his summer at KQED-QUEST, part of KQED public media in Northern California.
Francesco Fiondella communicates science for The International Research Institute for Climate and Society; Rebecca Fowler tells stories about the research happening at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Francesco Fiondella is an "experienced science writer and visual communicator" (http://francescofiondella.com/#e85/linkedin). Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Columbia University, Brown University, Murdoch University, but not degrees listed. Rebecca Fowler is a science communicator based in New York City who "works directly with Earth and ocean scientists to create innovative outreach projects that share their research endeavors and discoveries with a wide audience". Portland State University:MS in Leadership in Ecology, Culture & Learning. Skidmore College: BA in Anthropology, Studio Art. Creators of the Climate "Models" Pinup Calender.
Mary Catherine Adams, AGU Public Information Specialist
Posts at Geospace are often written students from the University of California Santa Cruz Graduate Program in Science Communication. Other authors include:
Geospace written by Alexandra Branscombe. According to her personal website (http://alexandrabranscombe.pressfolios.com/), Alexandra Branscombe is "a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with bachelor's degrees in life sciences communication and conservation biology.
Guest blogger David Hosansky is the media relations manager at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) in Boulder, Colorado.
The new boss of it all: Alexandra Shultz has joined the American Geophysical Union (AGU) as the organization’s director of public affairs. Shultz is a senior policy specialist with extensive experience in strategic communications and grassroots campaigns as well as a broad knowledge of environmental, climate, and energy policy and science. She previously spent eight years at the Union of Concerned Scientists, where she most recently served as the legislative director for the climate and energy program. Prior to her tenure at the Union of Concerned Scientists, Shultz served as director of legislative and regulatory affairs at the Mineral Policy Center (now Earthworks), and as a staff attorney at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (now Environment America). She earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Vassar and her Juris Doctorate from Pace University Law School, with an emphasis on environmental law.
It really makes you wonder what fraction of the money spent of climate science is being spent on research and what fraction is being spent on communication/propaganda. 50:50? No wonder they haven't made any progress on narrowing the possible range for ECS in the last 30 years.
As a student member of AGU, and have been for several years, I have noticed a definite change in the last few years to a very propaganda-oriented feel. A couple years ago they instituted the Science Communication award at their annual Honors ceremony, and I think it's gone to climate oriented journalists. I used to get emails regularly urging me to do my duty and spread the word - about CAGW - until I marked them for Spam.