Friday, August 14, 2009

A Nice Takedown of the Carlin AGW Denial Paper

If you've seen all the hullabaloo about the Alan Carlin paper on global warming, here's a nice take down. It reveals that Carlin:

1) Is not a scientist
2) Did no research
3) Lifted cherry-picked and erroneous commentary from denialist sights.
4) Presented data collected by scientists to support a conclusion those very same scientists deny.

Sound familiar? It's the standard behavior of creationists as well. Denialists of a feather...

Be sure to pay attention to the analysis of the graphs from about the 4 minute point of the youtube clip, where the Carlin's dishonesty is thoroughly exposed. As always, the denialism devil is in the details.

3 comments:

alex said...

Eh, maybe we're all denialists of some sort. I still think you're an "Obama is a liar" denialist.

ScienceAvenger said...

What I deny is that the claim that "X is a liar" is worthy of much attention. It is childishly simplistic, as are so many arguments coming from the right these days. This is one of the traits of partisian Republicanism that can be directly attributed to their anti-intellectualism. Never mind the details that matter in the real world: what they lied about, in what context, based on what principles, and the evidence that what was said constituted a lie and not a mere mistake or misstatement. Pretend reality is binary, and therefore all mistatements are equal, to try to win political arguments. If you think Obama's "57 states" comment warrants the same level of intellectual/moral condemnation as the 10 dumbest/most dishonest things Sarah Palin ever said, I'm looking at you. When the Nazis show up asking if you have Jews in the basement, you lie. Gee, I guess that makes you a liar.

Grow up. Life is not as simple as you so desperately want it to be. I'd be happy to entertain the notion that Obama lies about things he shouldn't lie about, it's just that:

1) This isn't a political blog per se. Unless there is some humor or science involved, I'm not that interested in it. I didn't blog a lot about Sarah Palin because it was politics, I did so because it was so comically absurd and frightening.

2) Too many GOPers trust sources that I consider completely unreliable, and I dismiss their claims on that basis. If you can't back your case with something that isn't from a GOP politician, Drudge, or Foxnews,
I'm looking at you.

and

3) "Politician Lies" is about as interesting a post title as "Player in Violent Sport Arrested for Violence". So is "Politician's Actions Deviate from His Campaign Promises"

So sorry, I'm not in denial about anything. I've just accepted unpleasant facts of life that you haven't. My intrigue with Obama had little to do with my opinion of his honesty, and that hasn't changed much. With apologies to the "Sunscreen" composer:

Prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old. And when you do, you'll fanatasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, and politicians were noble

Troublesome Frog said...

I think that now might be a good time for a game of Spot the Real Scientist