Sunday, July 3, 2011

Finnish Cinema's Relevance To Climate Change

LAST WEEK 50-or-so "academics" signed a group letter demanding that Christopher Monckton be shunned and silenced.

Here are most of the signatories, with some notes and links about their specialties and credentials.

If a person is to be judged by his enemies, Monckton looks very good indeed.

Winthrop Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, Australian Professorial Fellow, UWA
Alene Composta’s soulmate. Yep, this guy can spot a fraud when he sees one.

Prof John P. Abraham, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, University of St. Thomas
Neither in Australia nor Australian.. He is an American academic in Minnesota and suffers from a severe Monckton fixation. He writes to those whose research is challenged, asks what they think of Monckton and then posts their responses, which mostly amount to repeating their original claims. By Abraham’s standards this amounts to “refutation.” He and Monckton trade lawyers’ letters and threaten to sue each other. Abraham has a dog in this fight and it’s an ugly, self-interested one.

Natalie Latter, PhD Candidate, UWA
Student. Hoping the global warming schtick lasts long enough to get her career established. Her background is political science, not climate science.

Mike Blanchard, PhD Candidate, UWA
Another pol-sci type specialising in “governmentality”. Whatever that may be, figure it involves higher taxes and a lot of more of being told how to think and behave.

Prof Michael Archer AM, Evolution of Earth & Life Systems Research Group,
Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales

David Hodgkinson, The Hodgkinson Group
“Climate change” consultant with own firm advising clients how to handle climate-change legislation – legislation he pushes, along with climate scares, as an associate professor of law at UWA, which should be ashamed of its Vice-Chancellor Alan “Gag the Man” Robson.

Dorothy Bishop, Adjunct Professor of Psychology, UWA
Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology, Dept of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
Spends a lot of time close to Lewandowsky. Evidently it’s catching. Everything she knows about climate she learned studying the development of language skills in children. Why not cut out their little tongues at birth? It would stop them voicing disquieting opinions in later life. Knows all about academic empire building. Curiously, she has blogged with great passion about grant snaffling and its deleterious impact on research and academic integrity. Somehow overlooks “climate science” as a prime example of this folly.

Melinda Trugden, PhD Candidate, UWA
Botanical collector when not signing petitions demanding an end to coal use in WA.

Prof. Peter Newman, John Curtin Distinguished Professor of Sustainability,
Director, Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute, Curtin University
Just bagged a $1 million grant to study “the future of roads and biophilic urbanism.” He is also a “celebrity speaker”. It is not know if sceptics have raised a petition to have his speechifying silenced, but it might not be a bad idea, given what is good for the goose etc etc

Sanna Peden, PhD Candidate, UWA
Specialist in the representation of the Salvation Army in Finnish cinema. And no, that is not joke.

Philip Keirle, PhD Candidate, UWA
Want to know how late-19th century American youths were encouraged to wash their hands? Phil’s your man. See Building Sanitary Citizens. Phil has formerly written of Supressing Laughter To Build Character. He has now moved on to suppressing free speech.

Ullrich Ecker, Assistant Professor, School of Psychology, UWA

Prof Steven Sherwood, Co-Director, Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales
Finally, a proper climate scientist. We know this because, while acknowledging “exaggerations” in An Inconvenient Truth, Sherwood reckons the movie’s message is “important and on target.” One rule for Fat Albert, another for Monckton.

Dr Mark Edwards, Assistant Professor, Business School, UWA
Believes current methods of determining Gross Domestic Product do the environment a grave injustice and insists governments must embrace “meta-regulation in order to “guide our economic behaviour towards more sustaining and enriching national goals.” If you are still inclined to take Edwards seriously, bear in mind that he writes for Andrew Jaspan’s little site, The Conversation. No need to take him seriously any longer.

Adam McHugh, Lecturer, School of Engineering and Energy, Murdoch University
Wants no new coal-fired power stations and seeks legislation to stop bailouts of plant operators. The government should “divest itself of coal fired assets sooner rather than later” – not to privatize them, but in order to close them down for good. With all the power stations shuttered, McHugh sees WA turning to “options such as flywheels, compressed air and batteries [which] need to be carefully considered.”
   
Dr David Robinson, Lecturer of History, Edith Cowan University
Robinson, who modestly notes that he is has bagged “a tenure-track lecturing position at Edith Cowan University” is superbly qualified to hold forth on matters climatological. His specialty is modern African history.

Dr Kerrie Unsworth, Associate Professor, Business School, UWA
Believes groupthink is a swell idea, except when too many meetings raise “the yuck factor”. Has yet to snaffle a climate-related grant, but can be expected to do so when she can find a way to link her specialty, organizational sociology, to polar bears or, in view of her desire to see Monckton silenced, the dangers of free speech.

Dr Sky Croeser, Lecturer, Department of Internet Studies, Curtin University
Let Sky describe herself: “My dissertation looked at the opposition to genetically modified crops in India to filesharing, the free and open source software movement, and copyright activism, and understands these battles in the context of the broader movement for globalisation from below.” Those file-sharing maize crops can be such a nuisance! Will work on her own literacy if a grant arrives.

Prof Kevin Judd, School of Mathematics and Statistics, UWA
Has sat on panels with Lewandowsky. No further explanation needed.

Dr Kayt Davies, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Edith Cowan University
Specialty: an ethnographic study of women’s magazine editors. Will hemlines rise with the mercury? Can Brad and Angelina turn down the thermostat? Smart summer salads all year round? Davies is your go-to gal for those topics.

Esmeralda Rocha, PhD Candidate, UWA.
Resident climate change expert at UWA’s School of Music.

Jenny Kent, PhD Candidate, University of Technology Sydney
After launching her career in solid waste, she has switched to climate change. Not much of a move when you think about it.

Stephen Owen, PhD Candidate, University of Newcastle
The Thinking Woman’s Yobbo”, as he describes himself, is an aficionado of modern Japanese literature, hence his authoritative tone on climate issues.

Alana George, Research Consultant, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney
Compiles and edits the weekly UTS staff sustainability network e-newsletter. She aspires to one day be placed in charge of wiping down the sink in Institute for Sustainable Futures tea room.

Cynthia Mitchell, Professor of Sustainability, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney

Edward Langham, Senior Research Consultant, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney
As Fiji’s former climate guru, Langham has seen first-hand why governments sometimes need the freedom to gag troublesome sorts – you know, those who beg to differ about little things like democracy and free speech.

Caitlin McGee, Research Principle, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney
Architect Caitlin appreciates the opportunities of a career in climate change: “The service that I am most familiar with is actually the cheap drinks."

Prof David Karoly, School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne
Said the recent dry spell was “the first drought in Australia where the impact of human-induced global warming can be clearly observed.” Hydrologist Stewart Franks took him to task about that and other claims. Meanwhile, since there was probably insufficient time to knock off a group letter demanding Franks be silenced, the ABC obligingly applied the gag by interviewing Franks and then discarding the tape.
Hey, if every other news organization refused to cover Monckton’s trip, there would be no need for protest notes.

Dr Tim Stephens, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Sydney
He is a lawyer. His lips are moving. He regrets that Monckton also enjoys that freedom.

Prof Jane McAdam, Director of Research, Faculty of Law, University of NSW
Cares deeply for refugees – and is even more appreciative of big grants to study where all those “climate refugees” are coming from. Except they haven’t been.

Dr David Mallard, Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology, Charles Sturt University
Drum contributor. Also known to have been in contact with Lewandowsky. Believed to be infected.
 
Prof Alex Coram, Winthrop Professor of Political Economy, UWA
Writes a lot about Marxist theory, but has some interesting sidelines. He helps out behind the counter at David Hodgkinson’s (see above) climate consulting shop, and there is also time to get ready for those climate refugees. – the ones that aren’t coming – with the likes of Jane McAdam (see above). Golly, you might almost think there is a climate industry being assembled. Just don’t say as much out loud or the participants will demand that you be silenced for questioning their lofty motives.

Tim Highfield, PhD candidate, QUT
Draws graphs and charts about what Australian political bloggers get up to, Compares this with French political bloggers and …. draws more charts and graphs 

Kathryn Healey, PhD Candidate, University of Queensland.
Engineer who worked for alternative energy outfit Wind Prospect. Why would a person with a wind and solar background want to silence someone who sees that line of business as a scam?

Dr Clare Lloyd, Lecturer, Internet Studies, Curtin University

Prof Roger N Jones, Professorial Research Fellow, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University
Climate pimp and proud vulgarian. 

Dr Markus Donat, Research Fellow, Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales
Trying to link catastrophic weather events to climate change. So far, more hole than donat

Dr Alex English, Research Fellow, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University
Sino the times! Unconstrained by nasty little things like democracy and niggling eruptions of free speech, China is transforming itself into a green paradise – a development our very own Dept of Climate Change wants Australians to know about. That is why English is getting by on a paltry $400,000 grant to chronicle the Great Green Leap Forward. His employer is chuffed about English’s talents as a rainmaker, as it notes in its 2009 annual report: “External research income was $1,576,000 in 2008, up 14% on 2008. A major component of this amount was $400,000 received from the Department of Climate”

Dr Katrin Meissner, ARC Future Fellow, Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales
Believes she can save the world by appearing on Hungry Beast and shouting “motherf***er” at viewers whose taxes pay the show’s production costs and salaries. Behold! The current face of serious, settled science.

Dr Iain White, Senior Lecturer, Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Ecology, University of Manchester, UK
Capitalism has a fatal flaw: It applies technology to problems, rather than forcing the masses to change their behaviour.

Jason Sharbanee, PhD Candidate, UWA
Looking into the reasons drunks don’t make sober, rational decisions. Hint: They’re pissed most of the time.

Isabel Rossen, PhD Candidate, UWA
Has a Facebook page. Likes cider. Nothing else. Full-blown climate expert.

Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Director, Global Change Institute, University of Queensland
The Reef  is dyingand dyingand dyingand then dying some more. (if you skip that bit about there being “no evidence of consistent, system-wide decline in coral cover”.) Ove Hoegh-Guldberg’s career is thrivingand thriving …. and thriving all over again.

He will collect neither prize nor grant for services to free speech, as Anthony Watts explains: “WUWT readers may remember Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from when I had a tussle with him during my speaking tour in Australia in Brisbane. Then, the good professor thought his opinion so important, that he disrupted the meeting and hogged the microphone. However, we let him talk, and he had the audience for several minutes.”
The Coral Catastropharian gets to speak his piece. Monckton needs to be silenced and ignored.

Dr Terence J Edwards, Distinguished Teaching Fellow, Center for Petroleum and Energy Research, UWA
This grant list has the look of real science, but not about climate change.

Xavier Goldie, PhD Candidate, ANU
Former NZ Greens candidate for the seat of Te Atatu, assured voters he “does not engage in character assassination” – except if the target isn’t a catastropharian. Monckton should be doubly offended. Xavier, a large and hairy botanist who enjoys the company of other large and hairy men, swears that gay couples deserve equal rights. But Xavier, what about gay couples who are also climate skeptics? Hmmmm 

Dr Rose Andrew, Visiting Scientist, College of Medicing, Biology and Environment, ANU
Immersed in her studies of sunflowers that grow on sand dunes, Rose also favours uprooting the right to be heard.

Chiara Pacifici, Research Associate, Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute, Curtin University
Quote: “Having been in the real estate industry for over 16 years, I strongly believe real estate professionals have an important role to play in optimising the flow of information on sustainability … This lead me to create the Green Gurus website and develop educative workshops for the Real Estate Industry so that I could share my experiences and help others take advantage of the many financial, environmental and social benefits sustainability has bought me.”
Chiara now runs seminars for land sharks. Heavy emphasis on that free money governments are handing out to save the world, one subsidised showerhead at a time.

AAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHH! There are another 10-or-so signatures on the letter but, quite frankly, the will to plough through the remainder has vanished with the morning’s rain.

That means the Professor can still do 18 holes and, if recent form holds, file today’s scorecard with the club handicapper. Back a bit later with a few thoughts on vested interests.

32 comments:

  1. The way you take the piss out of these ostentatious buffoons and other idiots in the public arena always makes me smile.

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  2. I missed out on the WA section of Monckton's tour since I was working in the bush. The missus tells me it was covered on Foxtel News and apparently was a real zinger. If anyone has the clip can they please post it on U Tube and drop a link ?

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  3. Coming as I do from a billabong on another planet, I cannot effect all those fancy link thingamajigs, let alone links within links. The Professor, a veritable master of the links, may be inclined to snip this due to its length from the tee to the cup. However, that gaggle of "academic" teat suckers now on Monckton Watch,has fired me up and prompts me to cite a few lines from David Solway's article, available online at pajamasmedia.com.

    "Barring something like a miracle - the recognition among the general population of the socialist dystopia in the making and the brainwashing of the young needed to bring it about - the prospects for the West will be unrelievably bleak. Recognition is the prerequisite for action; for example, the implementing of David Horowitz's Academic Bill of Rights as laid out in Reforming Our Universities, the abolition of tenure or the cashiering of those whom Kimball identifies as "tenured radicals" on the grounds of dereliction of duty or, in extremis, the selective defunding of the liberal academy which may appositely be described as a funded liability.

    In the latter event, apart from those institutions capable of passing a genuine fairness test, only hard science, technology, medicine, business and some professional faculties would be retained. Wise leadership and legislative oversight will be required to restore the university to its original purpose. But if the political will is lacking to effect such changes, whether comparatively moderate or necessarily drastic, we will have no choice but to accept the inevitable. The paradigm of the ideological universities of the German 1930's will be transplanted into the the new century."

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  4. Professor Bunyip

    Another interesting link on "tenured radicals":

    Garnaut was invited to present on his Final Report by Stephan Lewandowsky, Winthrop Professor at the University of Western Australia’s School of Psychology. Lewandowsky is also "founding co-principal" of Shaping Tomorrow’s World, an environmental activist group funded by a UWA grant. His colleague, fellow psychologist (and ex-politician) Winthrop Professor Carmen Lawrence, is on its editorial board.

    http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2011/7-8/professor-garnaut-s-magical-mystery-tour

    Alice (in Warmerland)

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  5. You deserve a medal for that bit of research. My brain started to melt after reading about 15 entries. How you managed to get as far as you did is beyond me.

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  6. Thank you Professor, you have made my day. The Emperors of Climate Science and free speech have no clothes - and no integrity. Well said indeed.

    Real Deal

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  7. Well done Professor. A very interesting read. So a bunch of academics, a small subset of whom are involved in climate science, think they should decide who is allowed to speak on the campus of a university that enjoys significant public funding. Sceptics pay taxes too. And unless I missed something, not one has any association or position with Notre Dame.

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  8. Great article -- thanks for the effort, Stanley.

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  9. Some of your best work here Bunyip.

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  10. Another brilliant piece from Chief Inspector Bunyip. Thank you for giving up some precious time which you could have spent otherwise.

    xxx

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  11. I'm proud to see Western Australia represented so strongly on that list. Yes indeed. And Santa Claus is Buddha.

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  12. Bunyip,

    Mate you could open a new bird life preserve with that list.

    Mind you that Avian Bird Influzenza, also known as Lewandowskyitis appears not to have been quarantined.

    I want none of them parrots in the wild or on me shoulder.

    What a funny old flock.

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  13. You were away far far too long!
    Please do not do it again.
    Posts like this one restore my oft blighted sanity.

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  14. Thank you. So these are some of the 1000's of scientists who support cAGW?

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  15. The list is like a "Who's Who" of characters found in that cantina scene in Star Wars...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSRwzP23ifI

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  16. Are they in the TEA Party? They sound overwhelmingly white.
    andycanuck

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  17. I wonder how many 10s of millions have been and are wasted in Australia's universities since the GW hysteria hit our society.

    When GFC2 hits it will all get weeded out.

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  18. Excellent work Professor. I will bookmark this list and keep referring to it next time I hear an academic denounce someone or try to raise another scare about some imminent disaster. No doubt there will be more clowns to add to the list as time goes by.

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  19. Many thanks for this. Striking the number of PhD candidates. They may be aspiring academics but currently are students, not academics. So the general lack of integrity revealed applies also to the claimed number of alleged academics calling for the ban. They are also rather short on scientists of any sort.

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  20. Publishing and ridiculing this list is another low point in the appalling level of public discussion in Australia. I don't know why it is these days that the Right are reduced to promoting showmen like Monckton and conspiracy theories about the left taking over the world.

    Why not address the concerns of this group instead of childish attempts to "name and shame".

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  21. Now that's research.

    Just goes to show what a joke the education industry has become and how dumbed down and useless a Phd is nowadays.

    "Tenured radicals.....",excellent.

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  22. Thanks, Prof. That was inspiring. The future of our nation, however, is sadly not so.

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  23. YOu've coined some terrific terms here, Maestro!

    "climate pimp"
    "catastropharian".

    Now, as a bit of a mistress of linkage myself, can I recommend a great site:
    www.kitmanTV.blogspot.com

    Full of juicy docos and speeches about Leftism adn jihad.

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  24. Noall Says,

    What I find most frightening about these climate shysters is their willingness to embrace propaganda and deceit to achieve their ends. These are the same tactics the Communists used to seize and hold onto power. This Communist mentality is still living amongst us unfortunately. All we can do is expose it and challenge them on every lie that leaves their lips.

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  25. Nice, but now could you not quote this?

    Natalie Latter's current research,

    "Phd thesis on the intergenerational and global ethical dimensions of climate change."

    The funny (read sad) thing is when the tide finally turns the same people will be screwing us all over with intergenerational and global ethical whats-its of the climate change scam.

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  26. You going to do an expose on Monkton too?

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  27. What, no face shots of these thermomongers? These nutters need to be publicly identifiable and derided at every opportunity.

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  28. Just wondering, if they had fixed an ozone layer! They have charged us a lot for different gas in all fridges but... no results at all! :-(

    Can't trust them!

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  29. I just want to add my thanks for the effort that went into this post. Very enlightening, and must have been dreadfully tiresome.

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  30. Outstanding. You deserve one of those lucrative research grants. Don't like your chances though...

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  31. Folks, perhaps there is climate change, yes folks it is getting cooler, part of the 800 year cycle. As for humans contributing, huh !... that is a joke, the earth does it larger and better than any collective human intervention can. Now, on carbon dioxide, it is a shame some of the supposed
    brains who want to silence Lord Monckton did not study science. CO2 is a vital part of our air intake into our lungs. Try living on pure oxygen, I am sure there are some of out there who would like to see the 50 signatories do exactly that. And staying with teh science theme, CO2 is vital for all plant and vegetation growth. It is called Photosynthesis. For the slight of brainers out there, plants require CO2, water and sunlight to exits and flourish. My trees and garden has flourished with all these ingredients and is very healthy indeed. So, who are these so called large polluters that "lame duck Gillard" seems to be waffling about. Shame she never studied science, I can only guess she was studying Latin or something lame dead language like that to become a barrister. Latin !!!
    They seem to be ever so hell bent on pushing forward to have an emissions trading scam as soon as possible. Now, with this comes a very nasty surprise, I read the Copenhagen treaty, yes, Australia must sign over its sovereignty to the United Nations , a warm and fuzzy feeling I think not. I do understand that they are some sort of communistic front, who I do suspect want all the so-called rich countries t o pay for all the poor countries.
    So, let's see if I got it right. We tax big business to pay for their nasty evil deadly carbon dioxide (no mention of Carbon monoxide or methane from various farts) and tax them but good, but what about the humans? We all put out CO2 when we breathe don't we, how many CO2 do we put out ?. There are wikipedia pages that cover that and the figure is very very large, measured in millions of tonnes of CO2. Go and look it up, I did and was blown-away by the huge figures.But hey, no one is taxing humans for contributing C)2, an important ingredient in the plant growth cycle. Folks, to proceed with this folly is a NO-BRAINER, it really is malignant dumb. Shame on all you 50 mutants for lacking in the scientific presence to know you are lying .
    Folks, seriously, if you want communism, then move to China, they embrace it for all it's worth.
    And while on communist, go to google, type in fabian society and save it , read it fully to get the gist of what it really is, then go to google and type in Australian Fabians, wow....it's a who's who of the labor party !
    and not stopping there, the greens I always thought were dodgy, well go to any greens web site, there is a direct link to the Australian Communist Party. Now how do you feel about that ? all warm and fuzzy ? I think NOT !

    The Master has spoken
    ===================

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