An Honest IPCC Scientist Warns His Colleagues: Don’t Dismiss ‘ClimateGate’
by Jim LakelyThe 13th Annual Energy & Environment Conference, held in Phoenix Feb. 1-3, isn’t the sort of place where global warming “deniers” are exactly welcome. In fact, by my observations, the skeptical caucus at the event consisted entirely of: James M. Taylor, a senior fellow for environment policy at The Heartland Institute; Keith Lockitch, a fellow of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights; and me. All the other attendees spent their time discussing how the U.S. government — or, even better, a “global government” — needs to compel us all to live “greener” lives through schemes like cap-and-trade. Environmentalists are a bossy and power-hungry lot.
Lockitch gave a presentation arguing free-market economies are better positioned than socialist societies to deal with any severe weather events caused by climate change — and was called a “denier” and compared to a shill for “Big Tobacco” for his trouble. Taylor got off a little easier, receiving only scoffs and curious-to-annoyed glances for asking inconvenient questions.
But that’s not to say we were the only people to question the assumptions of the attendees who believe the “science is settled” on global warming. Perhaps the greatest challenge came from one of their own — renowned climate scientist William Sprigg — who urged his colleagues to stop treating the ClimateGate scandal as irrelevant noise promoted by “deniers.” In an amazingly telling moment, green energy consultant Andy Van Horn, who introduced Sprigg, admitted he’d never heard of ClimateGate until Sprigg suggested it a few weeks ago as a topic worthy of discussion. (Who are the real “deniers” again?)
Sprigg, adjunct research professor in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona, believes the planet is on a potentially dangerous warming path and atmospheric carbon dioxide is to blame. He also led the technical review of the first global warming report issued by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1990. Clealry, Sprigg is no “outlier” or “rebel,” but one of the most respected and “mainstream” scientists in the field of climatology. So it came to a bit of shock to the audience when Sprigg expressed concerns about how contrarian scientists are treated with contempt by many of his colleagues.
It’s not right, he said, that the game is rigged to keep skeptics out of peer-reviewed journals. It violates the scientific method to refuse to release raw data so others can test your theories. And it’s a big mistake to keep defending the likes of infamous “Hide the Decline” emailers Phil Jones and Michael Mann. The very credibility of the entire discipline of climate science is at stake, Sprigg said, and it’s time to stop ignoring this fact. As one might imagine, this all did not go over very well in the audience — who were undoubtedly expecting to hear a lecture ratifying their view that ClimateGate was no big deal when they saw Sprigg’s topic on the agenda.
I recorded Sprigg’s remarks on video for Heartland, and (from what I could tell) mine was the only camera in the room. The footage below features Taylor — who is also managing editor of Environment & Climate News — asking Sprigg what he thinks the future holds for the wholly corrupted IPCC. Sprigg nodded as Taylor referred to “mounting scandals” at the IPCC and then responded:
“There will be some reform. I think there are going to be big changes in the peer review process for the IPCC. There will be — there are — calls for the head of [IPCC Chairman Raj] Pachauri. Some of my colleagues have written letters saying that he needs to be taken off the job.”
In his 24-minute lecture, Sprigg also:
- warned of a growing perception that “the IPCC is biased, conflicted, [and] pushing political agendas.”;
- called for a new climate research agency supported not entirely by the government, but in conjunction with the private sector;
- and declared: “We need to stick to our scientific principles,” and “improve our peer preview process, and expand the stakeholders’ role to keep us all honest.”
It was a remarkable presentation, one that The Heartland Institute has summarized with commentary in the video below. One gets the feeling Sprigg has put himself on the path to pariah status among the true-believers of global warming, But this honest scientist deserves praise from all sides of the debate for demanding politics, group-think and a desire to control our lives through government mandates not replace scientific rigor.
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[...] The Sundries Shack: Is There Any Honest Global Warming Evidence? James G. Lakely, Big Government: An Honest IPCC Scientist Warns His Colleagues: Don’t Dismiss ‘ClimateGate’ No Runny Eggs: Yet Another Inconvenient Truth? Motor City Times: News Roundup: Democrat Draconian [...]
So long as he means what he says and says what he means (unlike Mr. Obama and others) I am in total agreement that Mr Sprigg deserves our support and gratitude. If his comments are really just a smoke screen to encourage skeptics to believe that the 'true' scientists have seen the error of their ways but in actuality intend to continue to do "science" as they have in the past, he surely deserves a heaping helping of scorn.
I can tolerate, and even welcome, those who totally disagree with my own views when they are honest and forthright, as Dr. Spriggs seems to be. Indeed, I admire them for their unique intellect that serves as a check on my own occasional flights of fantasy. Oh that there were more researchers like Spriggs! Think of the wonderful things we could unveil about our universe! Unfortunately, he seems a lone sheep among wolves intent on returning the human race to stone-age fanaticism.
"global warming helps shallow people feel socially activated."
sorry – this guy Sprigg may be quite a singular maverick, but when i was growing up, they told me that the soviet union was coming to get us. they told us the ice age would be here by the 90's. they told us that the ozone was disappearing so fast we'd all be dead before the turn of the century.
and now we are having one helluva cold winter while they fly private jets back and forth to conferences patting each other on the back saying, "gee, whatta great scientist you are cuz you agree with me! let's get over to the open bar."
it's fascinating that they got this far with this charade.
The science is settled. Algoresux!
We'll see…we'll see! If they do what they say…will Al Gore disappear into some remote place in Tennessee, never to be heard from again?
Where is Al Gore?
The easiest way to disassociate yourself with this movement is to criticize it. When the whole Global Climate Change castle comes tumbling down, as it inevitably will, all the true believers will have shot their whole careers and reputations. I think this guy sees it coming and is not abandoning ship so much as arranging to be thrown overboard to salvage his reputation as a credible scientist. As the motar continues to crumble watch and see if more of these clowns start to do the same thing.
Being eaten by polar bears if we're lucky.
I think you sell Sprigg a little bit short, snoooooozn. But time will tell. This is the only video of his remarks at the conference, and if he comes out criticizing the fair representation of his remarks … then I'll re-evaluate his intentions.
But from what I know of Sprigg, he's a man of great scientific integrity — even if I disagree with his conclusions.
The number one thing Professor Sprigg could do to redeem the environmental industry is to block the unelected EPA dictatorship that is chugging forward. These EPA people, who think we are all morons and that they know best, will drag the U.S. economy down to a USSR level and will, thus, starve a bunch of people around the world. They'll say it isn't their fault. But Professor Sprigg has the credibility to stop them. Scientific development is founded on replication and (which he didn't mention) the application of ground truthing for models. Replication may be possible if the fraudulent, biased data is used again, but if accurate ground truth data is compared to the models, the modeling results and predictions have not held up. The perpetuation of the EPA dictatorship (and accompanying carbon credit train robbery) based on models not matched by ground truth data would seem to be criminal, no? Professor Sprigg can save his field of research, not to mention his country, by standing up to these EPA people.
I think you illustrate my point. He may be an honest scientist who has been taken for a ride and now realizes it. Instead of just saying that ( it would tarnish his rep if he lets on he was fooled ) he takes the opposite side and starts to practice honest science again.
America used to be full of people who created things of value. Now it seems, many would rather create problems to non-existant 'causes' and not do a lick of real work and get paid handsomely to do it. Bullcrap.
Puuhhhleeeaaase! I would love that. We can use his science fiction novels we pick up at the Dollar Store to start our fires. I live in Virginia Beach. We had 8 to 12 inches of snow last weekend. Last time it snowed that hard here was about 10 years ago and then about 10 years before that when I was in HS. I'd leave my car running at night to help warm the planet but I can't afford all that gas.
Sunlight: I don't think Sprigg has the power to call off the EPA. He's just a professor at UofA. It'd be nice if he took his logic to the next level, however, and argued that now is not the time to re-order the globe around a theory that has more than a few holes in it.
But he does appear to be trying to save his scientific discipline from the politicians, bureaucrats and power-grabbers.
Well, at least that's something. It's a start.
FLASH!!
This Brand New Video Blows a Huge Gaping Hole in Obama's Cap and Tax Scheme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVm5-6H_sH4
If you ever lived in SoCal during the '70s with its almost-opaque brown air, you'll know that the environmental engineers have done a superb job in many ways. Also, site clean-up for tanks, plants, etc. has kept our water supply from being either unusable or needing very expensive purification. I think the people who have gone away from actual technologies and projects and into the concept of govt confiscation through carbon exchanges have gone off the track.
How's that global warming treating you today, Washington? – have to go all the way back to 1922 to beat today's snow record. Happy shoveling and scraping to you! I'd send a few hand warmers, but then, I think I'll keep them for the next Southern California ice age.
UofA is a fantastic school. Very well respected in several fields. If Professor Sprigg speaks out loudly, it will be impossible for the EPA to ignore him. He will empower others to come out of their labs for a minute and get the discipline back to the project by project success they have so ably accomplished, rather than standing by while their EPA rulers pursue their goal of being master of the universe.
Couldn't agree more, Sunlight. The environmentalists never acknowledge how far we've come. It's never enough — always on to the next scheme. In California, one cannot build a new house with a wood-burning fireplace in it. Why? Because such things emit small particulate matter. Doesn't matter that fireplaces contribute an infinitesimal amount of such particulate (especially compared to diesel trucks). They contribute, so they are banned … and another freedom is sacrificed to the green weenies.
Oh, if only that were true, but history shows that these weasels never suffer from accountability. There once was an alarmist in the 70's crying about the coming ice age. Now, he's the head of NASA's climate study department.
this is a well written article but from my ever humble perspective, these scientists have destroyed their own credibility. inch by inch, foot by foot. the fact that monsieur van horn claimed that he'd never heard of climategate speaks volumes.
"whom the gods would destroy they first make blind."
Thanks, Mike. But Sprigg deserves credit for what he said. It might be a case where it's too late to steer the Titanic away from the ice berg … but he's trying.
I remember in law class the prof told us my freedom to swing my fist ends short of touching your nose.
I couldn't careless what they believe. If it is coyote flatulence or kitty litter jacking up CO2. Believe what you want but do NOT touch my wallet. It seems rice paddys are huge emitters of CH4. That doesn't give me the right to tax Chinese rice farmers.
As the OP suggests the climate change "crisis" seems to have been created to justify the formation of a world government. They needed a boogie man to frighten the populace into surrendering their freedoms for a false sense of security. Create enough fear and paranoia and people become so anxious they will, without a second thought, sign over their every possession to prevent what they perceive to be the end of the world.
I think we are about due for a change in terms. It started out at Global Warming then became Climate Change. I think it needs 're-branding' . I would like to suggest we now refer to the phenomenon as
Carbon Regulated Atmospheric Perturbation
The EPA is not going to get away with mandating anything.If anything the EPA will be done away with! Americans are not going to put up with this bull shit any longer. I'm not talking about |'' people of America '' I'm talking about real pissed off Americans! You hear us Pelosi!
What ever happened to Al Gore, is he home counting his money, shopping for a new plane, haven't heard from that big bag of hot air lately?
"The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic" — H. L. Mencken.
it's funny – i spent a portion of my life making a living trading options and stocks. i always was amazed at the propensity of many reasonably intelligent traders to follow the herd….blindly.
after all, they all went through the same type of M.B.A. program.
they liked to go to lunch with each other.
they vacationed in the same place.
after awhile, their decision making processes lost all true rigor. all they ever did was reinforce each other's notions about the future of price discovery.
ultimately – as shown by the recent collapse of the debt and equity markets – the lack of rigor is suicidal in true analysis and decision making.
now, i've come to regard the scientists involved in the promotion of global warming in the same way. they are caught up with the herd.
when there are no truly independent voices being heard in any community, watch out.
“We need to stick to our scientific principles,” and “improve our peer preview process"
Your field is not based on science. You have no scientific principles. You take flawed data, fudge it a bit to make a computer model, put an artificial multiplier on the substance that seems to offend you, neglect the effects of the largest green house gas of all "Water Vapor"….then fudge your model yeat again that gives a result that you want.
When someone questions your model, you can't produce the mathematics behind it, and you won't provide the data you used. You also can prove the data was even valid as you really can't say how, when and where it was collected or provide a chain of custody for said data.
You cherry pick the data points you want, and discard the ones that do not fit your expected result. Sharing your cherry picked data does not help anyone, and is not the truth.
Scientists take a shot in the dark, and try to disprove their own conclusions. Then they admit the data does not support the theory, change the theory, and try again. Most discoveries come from a failed hypothesis. A scientists would be all to happy to be "wrong". You learn nothing from a success, but you learn everything from a failure.
You guys start with a desired result, and fudge the data to re-enforce your shot in the dark.
You do this for many reasons, the largest one being the more dire the prediction, the more likely you will get more funding.
You are simply a joke.
well put.
i also applaud your sense of taste. i too am a devotee of south park.
i nominate you for "lucid comment of the day."
"when there are no truly independent voices being heard in any community, watch out."
Words to live (and protect your freedom) by.
Climate Change gravy train. Are you angry about this obvious RICO Act fraud and the national media's complicity in the cover-up, misinformation, reframing and misdirection of the issue and the related “carbon derivatives” market Obama’s Administration is spinning up? Why pay for propaganda? Take responsibility and take action. STOP all donations to the political party(s) responsible for this fraud. STOP donations to all environmental groups which funded this Global Warming propaganda campaign with our money, especially The World Wildlife Fund. DEMAND they take you off their donors’ mailing list. They have violated the public trust. KEEP donations local, close to home. MAKE donations to Oklahoma’s Senator Inhofe, the only politician to stand firmly against this obvious government/media coordinated information operation (propaganda) targeted at its own people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bdneX1djD
http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/815592...
Just as Obamacare has nothing to do with actual "health" care but government control, Cap and Trade has NOTHING to do with the climate…Just more government control and taxation !
P.S.: Can anyone tell me where I can apply for a "GREEN" Job??????????
The gong noises were way over the top though!
Sprigg is correct. If the climate change proponents want the skeptics to accept global warming theories, they need to let their research and data be challenged. They need to realize that they are their own worst enemies by taking a "damn everyone who doesn't believe us" approach. Government cannot permanently dictate a response.
we can only hope.
Right on, MessengerBoy. I've seen critics over at the YouTube home for this video take shots at me … and miss the whole point. Sprigg is trying to save his discipline. Hysterical shouting and bullying tactics are not very convincing.
(Hmmm. "What's Google have to say about fat farms and loonie bins in HickStick, Tennessee?")
I like that one.
I would echo the sentiments of jjauregui above. I am a resident of the state of Oklahoma and we have two good senators–James Inhofe and Tom Coburn. Both have stood strong and resolute against the insanity in Congress.
But Senator Inhofe has withstood much ridicule and contempt from the "intelligent" among us because he has done his homework on the global warming nonsense and has fearlessly challenged anybody who was willing to debate him on the subject. (Often, his detractors won't even dialogue with him.) Plus, at the recent conference in Copenhagan (the one where Pelosi spent millions of our dollars so she and her friends could drink and eat and arrive in style), Jim Inhofe was also in attendance. He was there to rebut the cheerleaders for the movement. BUT he paid his own way and covered his own expenses. We, the taxpayers, did not pay one dime to get him to Copenhagen.
May 2010 and 2012 usher into leadership many more Inhofes and Coburns.
Amen, Patriotsarise. Inhofe deserves praise for not letting up on the pursuit of real truth on AGW. It's hard to believe we'd be as close to the truth — and as relatively far away from cap-and-trade disaster — if not for Inhofe's doggedness.
[...] G. Lakely, Big Government: An Honest IPCC Scientist Warns His Colleagues: Don’t Dismiss ‘ClimateGate’ Flopping Aces: Latest Shoe in the Global Warming Hoax Drops Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Global [...]
Please read the Press Release from the IPCC here: http://unfccc.int/files/press/news_room/press_rel...
Another meeting set for MAY!! While we are all roused up about elections they will be busy in Germany making long extended plans for us.
Also, did you read that India is forming their own climate research center. They are not bowing to the ICCP or their very own Dr R.K Pachauri. Read the latest here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/clim...
What a bunch of suckers we are.
[...] Have these green nuts bothered reading the paper lately? [...]
Oh, and Sprigg is an honest man? I'm sorry, I don't see that at all.
Can anyone explain to me why the so-called scientists pushing the climate change agenda are not climatologists, meterologists or in many cases not even scientists? Pachauri is a railroad engineer and many of the comments I see proclaiming the new religion are economists. I don't believe the aim here has anything to do with climate change but all to do with power and how to grab it. In a world where there will be fewer resources to divide up due to an exponential increase int he population, the wannabe masters of the universe are trying to brainwash the population into giving up those resources voluntarily rather than go through the bother of wresting food, energy etc. from them. Whatever happened to ZPG? Let's stop the population growth, and get all the true believers off our collective back.
[...] Dont dismiss Climategate, Don’t trust the weatherman’s forecasts, Scientists behaving badly, Ban free speech, Western civilisation is NOT in decline, [...]
Inhofe, My Hero
patriotsarise, I have said for the last few years I might just become an Okie because of Inhofe & Coburn.
They make me proud to call them neighbor every time they speak out.
How in the Hell can a little state like Ok have these two GIANTS as representatives,while we here in the
Lone Star State have whiny Kay & the ever increasingly tepid Cornyn, both jokers. Disgusting.
Seconded
[...] G. Lakely, Big Government: An Honest IPCC Scientist Warns His Colleagues: Don’t Dismiss ‘ClimateGate’ Flopping Aces: Latest Shoe in the Global Warming Hoax Drops Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Global [...]
[...] [...]
H.R. 4572
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h11...
Amend the clean air act to get the EPA out of regulating greenhouse gases.
[...] There’s no doubt the ad is funny, but one is left to wonder what Audi’s purpose was? I’m still a bit flummoxed. Did Audi intend to produce a screed against the Green Police as a way to appeal to those who are fed up with years of constant eco-scolding? One would think not, since the “punch line” is that if you own a clean-diesel Audi, you get to drive right through a green checkpoint. But the other 40 seconds of the one-minute spot dovetail nicely with the growing fatigue and skepticism the public feels about the “green” initiatives of government — especially in the wake of the ClimateGate scandals. [...]
[...] There’s no doubt the ad is funny, but one is left to wonder what Audi’s purpose was? I’m still a bit flummoxed. Did Audi intend to produce a screed against the Green Police as a way to appeal to those who are fed up with years of constant eco-scolding? One would think not, since the “punch line” is that if you own a clean-diesel Audi, you get to drive right through a green checkpoint. But the other 40 seconds of the one-minute spot dovetail nicely with the growing fatigue and skepticism the public feels about the “green” initiatives of government — especially in the wake of the ClimateGate scandals. [...]
[...] An Honest IPCC Scientist Warns His Colleagues: Don’t Dismiss ‘ClimateGate’ [...]
[...] [...]
[...] [...]
Hi there! Wonderful concept, but can this truly perform?
MONIKA
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