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Wow. Just Wow. Desperate Deniers Sink to All-Time Low to Smear Uber-Vindicated Penn State Climate Scientist

By Joe Romm on Nov 13, 2011 at 8:40 pm

http://games.gearlive.com/blogimages/head_asplode.jpgClimatologist Michael Mann works at Penn State.  Penn State is going through a horrific and inexcusable child-sex-abuse scandal.  Ergo….

Yes, two of the top climate science deniers on the web, Steve McIntyre at ClimateAudit and Anthony Watts of WattsUpWithThat, actually went there.

Nobody should be shocked about Watts.  Last year, when a demented, violent individual, James Lee, held people hostage at gunpoint in Maryland, Watts wrote this amazing headline:

And the first line of his post was “Well, you filthy readers, see what happens when we don’t acquiesce?“ He has still never retracted this.  Watts is a guy who just a few weeks earlier had demanded that others on the web “dial back the rhetoric.”

But it was Steve McIntyre at ClimateAudit who launched this smear Thursday (click here if you have a strong stomach).  As long-time Climate Progress commenter MapleLeaf wrote at the long thread on this at DeepClimate:

No words can describe my anger at this uncalled for action by McIntyre who is knowingly trying to capitalize on (and benefit from) the suffering and pain of sexual assault victims. Absolutely disgusting in the extreme.

I can almost understand why McIntyre and Watts made such a desperate attack.  They’ve utterly lost the argument on the merits.

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Special Topic

Wielding Assault Rifles, Police Arrest Chapel Hill Occupiers Of Building Left Derelict By Developer

By Brad Johnson on Nov 13, 2011 at 7:18 pm

A special ThinkProgress breaking news report from Chapel Hill, NC.

Police arrest Occupy Chapel Hill activists at derelict Chrysler building. Raleigh News & Observer.

Wielding assault rifles, about 20 police in riot gear stormed a derelict commercial property in the heart of Chapel Hill, NC, on Sunday afternoon, arresting activists who had taken over the space the night before. According to the Raleigh News & Observer, dozens shouted, “Shame! Shame! Shame!” as the arrests were made. The Chapel Hill Transit bus used to transport the arrestees had a Wells Fargo ad, prompting the chant, “Who do they serve? Wells Fargo! Who do they protect? Wells Fargo!”

Watch amateur video of the arrests:

The occupied building on Saturday night.

Members of the Occupy movement had marching from the Carrboro Anarchist Bookfair to enter and occupy the 10,000 square foot building, the former University Chrysler-Plymouth dealership at 419 W. Franklin St., on Saturday afternoon. Banners reading “Occupy Everything” and “Capitalism left this building for dead, we brought it back to life” were displayed in the windows and roof. By that night, about fifty people, many of them self-identified anarchists, stood in front of the building or milled through the open garage door into the cavernous space. One person set up a computer and projector system, playing Jean Luc Goddard’s capitalist critique Tout va bien. Another handed out flyers to passersby going to local restaurants and bars, explaining this “experiment” as an extension of the Occupy Wall Street movement:

All across the US thousands upon thousands of commercial and residential spaces sit empty while more and more people are forced to sleep in the streets, or driven deep into poverty while trying to pay rent that increases without end. Chapel Hill is no different: this building has sat empty for years, gathering dust and equity for a lazy landlord hundreds of miles away, while rents in our town skyrocket beyond any service workers’ ability to pay them, while the homeless spend their nights in the cold, while gentrification makes profits for developers right up the street.

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Special Topic

Hawaiian Guitarist Wears ‘Occupy With Aloha’ Shirt While Playing For Obama, Other World Leaders

By Zaid Jilani on Nov 13, 2011 at 1:56 pm

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum is currently being held in Honolulu, Hawaii, bringing together many of the world’s leaders in both the public and private sectors. Last night, APEC held a gala attended by President Obama and his wife in addition to a number of other world leaders.

Hawaiian guitarist Makana, who had previously played at the White House in 2009, was slated to play at the gala. Rather than play his normal routine, Makana decided to make a statement. He opened his suit jacket to reveal a shirt that read “Occupy Aloha.” He then proceeded to play a protest ballad title “We Are the Many,” wherein he blasted corporate lobbyists and called on Americans to occupy “the streets.” He played this protest song for 45 minutes in a room full of the world’s elite.

He later uploaded a video where he talked about why he did what he did, including some footage of him playing for the world leaders. Watch Makana’s video:

“It was an incredible experience to sing those words to that group of people,” said Makana.

Climate Progress

Clean Energy Has Highest Documented Rate of Return of Any Federal Program, But the WashPost Cluelessly Smears the Effort

By Joe Romm on Nov 13, 2011 at 12:32 pm

The National Academy of Sciences concluded in 2001 that a handful of clean energy technologies returned about $30 billion on an R&D investment of about $400 million.  The United States is an amazing venture capitalist when it comes to clean energy R&D.

But the all-Solyndra, all-the-time stenographers of the status quo at the Washington Post put out this context-free nonsense:

If you read the Post article (wearing multiple head vises), you’ll see that Mufson and the Post don’t understand the first thing about venture capital nor have they done even the minimal amount of homework on the myriad major independent studies of the value of clean energy research.

You’d never even know from the article that most private sector VC investments go bankrupt or have no positive return.  It is a risky business that investors put money into for the few really big wins.  You’d never know that VC  investments are judged by their portfolio return — and by that criteria you would have to say that federal clean energy investments are wildly successful.  I reviewed the data on this in a 2008 post, which I’ll update below.

First, though, let me quote from the Post:

An Energy Department report in 2008 estimated that the federal government had spent $172 billion since 1961 on basic research and the development of advanced energy technologies.

What does Washington have to show for these investments? And should the government even be in the business of promoting particular energy technologies?

Some economists, executives and financiers — as well as Energy Secretary Steven Chu — argue that the government must play a role because certain technologies have non-financial benefits, such as producing fewer greenhouse gas emissions or easing U.S. reliance on foreign oil.

Actually, experts support clean energy investments because they have such huge financial benefits, as we’ll see.

But first, the following chart from that report shows just how grossly misleading the Post’s attack is:

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Security

Bachmann Wants Iraqis To Pay ‘Several Million Dollars Per Life’ For Every American Who Died In Iraq

By Ian Millhiser on Nov 13, 2011 at 12:05 pm

In an interview this morning with Meet the Press’ David Gregory, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) repeated her claim that the Iraq should pay America for the privilege of having their nation invaded and occupied for most of the last decade — and then doubled down by calling for Iraq to pay millions of dollars for each American killed in that country:

It’s over 800 billion dollars that we have expended [in Iraq]. I believe that Iraq should pay us back for the money that we spent, and I believe that Iraq should pay the families that lost a loved one several million dollars per life, I think at minimum.

Watch it:

It’s important to understand exactly what kind of burden Iraq has already shouldered because of our presence there. Iraq did not ask to be invaded by the United States, and the Iraqi people have wanted American forces out of their country for a very long time. Estimates on the number of Iraqi civilian casualties due to our presence in Iraq vary from just under 35,000 to well into the hundreds of thousands, according to a 2008 Congressional Research Service report, but there is little question that tens of thousands more Iraqis would still be alive today if not for our decision to invade their country.

The families of these Iraqi men, women, and children suffer just as deeply as the families of the nearly five thousand American and other coalition troops who died in this unnecessary war. If the families of people who died in the Iraq war require compensation, than the Iraqi victims have at least as strong a claim to compensation as the Americans who died in this ill-conceived invasion.

Bachmann’s broader proposal would also add a crushing fiscal burden to these casualties and to the already staggering cost of rebuilding Iraq’s many destroyed cities and towns. In 2010, Iraq’s entire gross domestic product was only about $82 billion per year. So requiring the Iraqi people to pay the over $800 billion Bachmann claims they owe us would mean that every single Iraqi man, woman and child would have to turn over every single penny they earn from now until about 2021.

The Iraq war is a tragedy. It is a tragedy for the American and other coalition troops who died in a war that never should have occurred in the first place. It is a tragedy for the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians who lost their lives to our invasion, and it is a tragedy for the millions of Iraqis who now have to pick up the pieces in their war torn nation. Bachmann’s proposal to ignore the suffering of the Iraqi people and force every single Iraqi into a decade of serfdom would only compound this tragedy.

Yglesias

What We Can Afford

By Matthew Yglesias on Nov 13, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Steven Pearlstein writes that “The global financial system teeters on the edge of collapse because European politicians refused to tell citizens of their crumbling economies that they could no longer guarantee them ‘la dolce vita’ – the sweet life – they had come to expect.”

There’s something to this, but consider how rich Italy is after ten years of stagnation followed by a severe recession and a non-recovery:

If we’re literal about it, Italy in 2011 can afford more than Italy in 1998 could. And it can afford a lot more than Italy could afford in 1988 or 1978. There’s a real fall in Italy’s ability to afford stuff relative to where it was five years ago, but insofar as by “la dolce vita” we mean something Italians have traditionally enjoyed, it’s as affordable today as ever. The economic problems we’re seeing—in Europe and the United States—are about the rate of change, not the absolute level of living standards.

Special Topic

Fox Panel Bashes OWS As ‘Toxic,’ ‘Marxist,’ ‘Anti-Democratic And Un-American’

By Marie Diamond on Nov 13, 2011 at 11:47 am

This morning on Fox News Sunday, conservative panelists did their best to smear and discredit the 99 Percent Movement. Pundit Bill Kristol called the protests “un-American” and “fundamentally undemocratic,” despite the fact that recent polls show that they are supported by a majority of Americans. Kristol even complained that the world “occupy” was itself Marxist.

Fox anchor Brit Hume called Democrats’ support of the movement “toxic” to centrist voters who decide elections:

HUME: To most middle-of-the-road voters, those who decide elections, Occupy Wall Street is toxic…She [Nancy Pelosi] said it’s focused, and I guess it’s brought some attention to the issue of income inequality, which will be a big Democratic talking point in this election cycle, but I think they need to get away from these Occupy Wall Street protesters as fast as they can.

Watch it:

Hume’s claim flies in the face of most polling about public support for the protests. For instance, according to the CBS/New York Times poll taken just one month after the start of the first encampment in New York, 43 percent of Americans said they agree with the movement. Another poll for the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found a similar level of support. Most importantly, in both polls, support for the movement was stronger among independent voters.

In short, the goals of Occupy Wall Street have already captured the support of the voters in the middle of the political spectrum, and its themes of income inequality, unemployment, and corporate corruption have already begun to change the discussion.

NEWS FLASH

Bill O’Reilly’s book on Lincoln assassination banned from Ford’s Theater | Salon’s Justin Elliott reports that Rae Emerson — the deputy superintendent for the official National Park Service bookstore at Ford’s Theatre — “has recommended that Bill O’Reilly’s bestselling new book about the Lincoln assassination not be sold at the historic site ‘because of the lack of documentation and the factual errors within the publication.’” Speaking about his book, O’Reilly said he didn’t want to write another “boring history book.” Thus, he produced what the Christian Science Monitor calls a “sensationalized, suggestive, and overly simplistic” tale of Lincoln’s life.

Update

O’Reilly asserted on his TV program that Ford’s theater will, indeed, be stocking the book, despite “four minor misstatements” and two typos.

By Faiz Shakir on Nov 13, 2011 at 11:26 am

NEWS FLASH

Koch-Funded Scientist Who Believes In Global Warming Is Coming To Congress | Richard Muller, the contrarian physicist who led a Koch-funded study that confirmed the accuracy of temperature records smeared by “Climategate,” is presenting his results at a Congressional briefing on Monday, November 14. The briefing has been organized by the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, Rep Ed Markey (D-MA). Markey was the chair of the House global warming special committee, established by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and disbanded by Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). Also appearing are leading climate scientists Ben Santer, research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and William Chameides, Dean of Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Vice Chair of the National Academies’ Committee on America’s Climate Choices.

Related Posts

By Brad Johnson on Nov 13, 2011 at 10:44 am

Climate Progress

Utility CEO on Solar: In “3 to 5 Years You’ll Be Able to Get Power Cheaper from the Roof of Your House Than From the Grid”

By Climate Guest Blogger on Nov 13, 2011 at 10:41 am

CEO of NRG Energy:  The fundamental issue of our day [is] climate change….  The people who were opposed to climate change legislation used one of two tactics. They either said, “Well, we don’t believe it’s happening.” Which, of course, is just a bald-faced lie.

Or the second part of the one/two punch is, “We can’t afford to do anything about it because a synonym for the word “green” is “expensive.” But looking forward, electric vehicles will be far cheaper to operate than internal combustion engine vehicles. And solar panels on the roof will provide power more cheaply than taking power from the grid.

That’s from a Yale Environment 360 Interview of David Crane, the CEO of one of America’s’s largest electric utilities.  It produces power for some 20 million U.S. households, and over 90% of NRG’s power comes from natural gas and coal.  But Crane says the future — the near future — will be different.

Climate Progress has written a number of articles on the sharply declining cost of solar photovoltaics (see “Solar is Ready Now: ‘Ferocious Cost Reductions’ Make Solar PV Competitive“).  It’s good to hear from a leading utility executive that the facts on the ground bear our analyses out.

Here are more excerpts from this remarkable interview, including his discussion of “democratization of customer choice” and the key role of electric vehicles:

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE OR COMMENT

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