See no evil - by Richard... Monday, July 05, 2010

See no evil - by Richard... Monday, July 05, 2010

A Dutch inquiry into the UN's climate science panel has found "no errors that would undermine the main conclusions" on probable impacts of climate change. This is the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), which was asked by the Dutch parliament to carry out an inquiry after two mistakes were identified in the IPCC's 2007 report.

This has made Richard Black of the BBC ahappy man as he joyfully reminds us that theSunday Times "was recently forced to apologise for claiming that IPCC projections on die-back of the Amazon rainforest were unsubstantiated."

It is interesting how these so-called "informed" reporters cut themselves off from the mainstream in order to make such fatuous comments, as this has been all over Google ever since wepublished the source of the IPCC's claim on the Amazon. With even the most superficial of searches, he could not have missed it.

In the meantime, we have discovered a photograph of the chairman of the PBL studying the evidence on the IPCC's errors, using a vital piece of equipment which he was then to pass along to Mr Black (top left). This is how they line themselves up for the fall - thus equipped, they cannot see it coming.

Comment: Moonbat thread

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An apology too far - by Richard...

In his latest publication, Dennis Ambler writes that anyone following the climate issue will know there has recently been an apology in the UK Times newspaper, (June 20th), recanting from a story that it had published in January this year, sharply criticising the IPCC's claims about threats to the Amazon rainforest. The apology was surgically dissected by Christopher Booker in his Telegraph column on June 26th and there has been widespread coverage and commentary across the web. 

In a considerably less well-reported statement, Ambler adds, the UK Daily Telegraph had in turn apologised two weeks earlier, to the Tata Group, for comments made in an article published in December 2009, by Christopher Booker and his co-author, Dr Richard North. The article related to Dr Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, enumerating his various business activities and challenging his chairmanship of the IPCC. 

At the time, Dr Pachauri demanded an apology and hinted at legal action if none were forthcoming. I am not aware of any such response, so it was somewhat of a surprise when an apology did appear this month in the Telegraph, not to Dr Pachauri, but to the Tata group, who felt they were maligned by comments in the Pachauri article. 

"What is the background to this and why did the Telegraph apologise?" Dennis asks. And to find out (some) of the answer, you need to read this document. It would be unwise of me to comment – in public, at least.

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An interesting little spat - by Richard...

In grand isolation in my mill oop North (I really, honestly do live in an old mill – i.e., factory – called Croft Mill), polishing my clogs and shovelling coal out of the bath, I was blissfully unaware that the Great Egg Saga has excited heated passions in the breasts of Iain Dale and Europhile commentator Nosemonkey.

So heated has this become that Nosemonkeyhas appended this comment to Iain's blog:

I think the reason people are so annoyed is that you pretend to be some kind of leading blogger, yet are happy to unthinkingly regurgitate print media stories without even doing the most basic of secondary checks.

Hell - you think that the Liberal Conspiracy story was written by Sunny Hundal, and dismiss it on that bases (sic). (It isn't, as anyone who bothered to follow the link would know.)

Is that really how far your research extends? Dismissing sources you dislike or disagree with out of hand while instantly believing any old rubbish that confirms your prejudices?

This is getting really terrifying, when "arch Eurosceptic" North and Europhile Nosemonkeyagree, and not just on the eggs issue. As Tim Fenton at Zelo-Street points out, the whole affair shrieks of the usual MSM laziness. Thus, it is always disappointing when the blogs dive in and uncritically ape the media – more so when the Great Dale does it.

That is actually where we are in agreement with a wide range of other bloggers, which transcends ideology (not that we have any, you understand – our stance is that we are right and everybody else is wring). To be politically effective, the blogosphere must break free from the MSM comfort zone and forge its own identity. In this, by wallowing in that comfort zone, the Dales of this world have become part of the problem.

Comment: A Euromyth bites the dust

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Liar, liar! - by Richard...

"We don't expect to be lied to," says Robert Feldman, professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts. "And often, people are telling us what we want to hear: that we are doing a good job, or that we've been successful. The liar is trying to lie successfully and we want to believe them, so we do. There are no obstacles."

In a piece which reflects on whether lying is an in-built part of human nature – a necessary survival stratagem.

What would be really interesting in this respect would be an examination of cultural attitudes to lying – why, for instance, Indians such as Rajendra Pachauri are practiced liars and why others find it difficult to accept that they are being lied to, even in the face of incontrovertible evidence.

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