Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Roy Spencer admits he knows nothing about climate science

Sou | 7:06 AM Go to the first of 2 comments. Add a comment

Usually there's something new to comment on from denierland. Anthony may still be in recovery or catch up mode after his big three days at the denier festival in Las Vegas last week. Or maybe he's licking his wounds after Wondering Willis Eschenbach made his scathing attack on WUWT.

About all that's been posted at WUWT is a barking mad rave in a guest article (archived here) - but I don't recommend it, not even for laughs. Plus an interminably long video of some boring speeches by deniers at Las Vegas. Here's the archive but I don't think it shows the video - if anyone would bother watching it.

The only thing worth remarking on was something I saw in the comments. John Whitman says:
July 14, 2014 at 8:29 am
Concluding question by Roy Spencer in his ICCC9 talk, “So, given all this evidence … why aren’t scientists advocating producing MORE carbon dioxide?
Roy Spencer’s answer to that question and the final statement of his talk, “The driving force behind the global warming debate isn’t science”.
- – - – - – -
Thank you Roy Spencer for contributing to critical analysis of the climate science issues.
I agree that the driving force behind the global warming debate isn’t valid science, but it is what Feynman characterized as the ritual mimicking of science; it is, in his words, a “cargo cult ‘science’. ”
Also, I suggest that it is an attempt to make science subservient to pre-science ideology; an attempt to make science subservient to mere myth.

After reading that I decided to flick through the video myself. I came across these gems.

Roy Spencer says he knows "almost nothing" about global warming

The first one is where Roy Spencer claims that he doesn't have a clue about global warming. Why he was asked to speak about it in that case is anyone's guess. He was introduced as "an extremely credible source"! Remember, this is someone who supposedly has a Bachelor of Science in atmospheric sciences and a PhD in meteorology and who is a professor at a university, monitoring global atmospheric temperatures. Yet he says he knows almost nothing about global warming. He's been blogging about it for umpteen years and he's written books about it and he still knows practically nothing. He should do another course, don't you think? A primary school student would know more about it than he does.

Source: WUWT

How strong is it? Someone tell Roy - it's caused a 0.9°C rise in temperature in Australia so far - that's how strong it is. It's caused all of these changes around the world - that's how strong it is:

Data sources: NODC/NOAAPIOMASNASA (GISTemp)CU Sea Level Research Group University of Colorado

What's it caused by? It's primarily caused by rising CO2, Roy. You should know that.

Whether it makes severe weather worse. Yes, it has made downpours more intense, it's made heat waves worse and it's made some droughts worse, not to mention fires and floods. And we ain't seen nothing yet. Just wait - there's lots more "worse" to come.

When it started. It started when humans started multiplying in numbers large enough to make a difference - way back when. It accelerated in the industrial revolution and really took off in the mid-twentieth century when we started pouring much larger amounts of waste CO2 into our air.

When it will end. It won't end any time before we stop using our air as a rubbish dump. Some time after that, there will be an equilibrium point reached where the energy coming into earth from the sun is balanced by the energy going out to space. That will be a long way off.

Whether it's "good" or "bad". On balance it's bad, Roy. It's not good to meddle with nature the way we have. To alter the balance so dramatically.

Why aren't scientists advocating we produce more CO2 emissions?

There's more. Roy put up a number of shonky charts, including his own faked up chart that I've written about before - here and here. But I bet you're wondering if the question in John Whitman's comment was posed by Roy himself or a clueless member of the audience. Well here's your answer:

Alleged cause of warming? Alleged? Roy - what rock have you been living under? Nature gobbles up half of what we produce, so it's alright to keep adding more and more to the air? Has he even heard of ocean acidification? Does he not realise that the bit left in the air is causing global warming? More rapid than probably any time in the past umpteen millions of years.

And look at his question at the bottom. Can you believe it? I wouldn't have if I didn't see it with my own eyes.

At least he got the next slide right. There is no "debate" about the fact that we are causing dangerous global warming. Any notion that there is a 'debate' is pure fakery put about for political purposes by disinformers like Roy Spencer and his mates at the Cornwall Alliance and the Heartland Institute.

Source: WUWT

Sheesh they are a bunch of deluded old men. (There were almost no women at the denier festival, except in a servile capacity).

Source: WUWT


  1. "What's it caused by?"

    Well Spencer let me present a man that used to know this stuff - Roy Spencer himself.

    "Skeptical Arguments that Don’t Hold Water"


    Have Roy lost all his memory in a terrible accident lately? Maybe he can refresh his memory by reading his own blog.

  2. Roy knows that God did it otherwise he wouldn't have signed that phoney theology Cornwall Alliance thing.



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