Tag: NZCSET

The Carter Controversy

The strange case of the cranks who think that suing scientists is the way to make warming go away — or the New Zealand Climate “Science Education Trust” versus the National Institute of Water and Atmosphere Research (NIWA) — grinds on like a modern day Jarndyce and Jarndyce. The NZCSET (being Barry Brill, Terry Dunleavy, Bryan Leyland, all leading members of the Heartland-funded NZ Climate “Science” Coalition) have helpfully put their submissions to the High Court on their web site, and I stumbled on something interesting. Bob Carter provides a sworn affidavit in support of the NZ CSET case, in which he says:

I, Robert Merlin Carter, of Townsville in Queensland, Australia, research professor, make oath and say:

2. […] I receive no research funding from special interest organisations such as environmental groups, energy companies or government departments.

The Heartland Institute’s budget document, as presented to its January board meeting and recently made public, includes the following table of payments slated for key players in Fred Singer’s Not the IPCC project:

BudgetNIPCCCarter

Bob will receive US$1,667 per month in his role as a co-editor of the next NIPCC report, due out in 2013. A cynic might ask if Bob’s sworn statement to the High Court is entirely compatible with his Heartland funding. I am sure that Professor Carter did not intend to mislead the Court by representing himself as a disinterested commentator on climate matters. But he did swear his affidavit a month before the Heartland budget document was made public…

A Christmas cracker for the cranks

The National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) released details of its recalculated New Zealand temperature series last week and in the last couple of days Richard Treagold and the Climate “Science” Coalition have issued statements in reply. And what a contrast they provide: Bryan Leyland for the NZ C”S”C is all bluster, demanding the resignation of the NIWA chairman and a declaration that the new series is “not valid” (whatever that means). Treadgold, meanwhile, describes the NIWA study as a vindication of his original “report”. One hopes they attend different carol services, because they’re clearly singing from different hymnals.

Lets review events to date, and see what the latest NIWA report really demonstrates…

Continue reading “A Christmas cracker for the cranks”

NIWA’s new NZ temperature series: plus ça change…

NZtempsoldnew.png

Earlier this afternoon NIWA released its recalculated NZ temperature record [full report], and as expected the changes from the “old” seven station series are more or less negligible. The trend over the last 100 years is identical, 0.91ºC per century, as the graph above shows. There are minor differences in some years, and larger ones at some stations, but the net effect to is confirm what we already knew: New Zealand warmed significantly over the last century. Commenting on the new report, NIWA CEO John Morgan said:

“I am not surprised that this internationally peer reviewed 2010 report of the seven station temperature series has confirmed that NIWA’s science was sound. It adds to the scientific knowledge that shows that New Zealand’s temperature has risen by about 0.9 degrees over the past 100 years”.

I’m not surprised either. But I confidently predict that the NZ Climate “Science” Coalition and Richard Treadgold will still find something to whinge about. After all, they’re trying to sue NIWA to have the original seven station series declared invalid. Now it’s been replaced — by something that looks rather similar. Which just confirms how shonky their original complaint and their subsequent silly suit really were. (More on this later, when I’ve had a chance to read the report in detail).

I’ve been wrong before

It appears that the crank pantheon has a new hero: John O’Sullivan — the “world’s most popular Internet writer on the greenhouse gas theory” and the man unafraid of getting everything wrong. The last time we encountered him, he was getting everything wrong about the New Zealand Climate “Science” Coalition’s attempt to take NIWA to court. In his latest piece — Royal Society Humiliated by Global Warming Basic Math Error — he’s getting everything wrong about CO2 and, surprise, his piece is being touted round the crank echo chamber — Delingpole’s blogged it, Morano’s linked to it, and poor old Treadgold’s repeated it verbatim. According to O’Sullivan, an article by an obscure Canadian scientist proves that:

Top international experts prove British numbers on carbon dioxide are wrong. Royal Society blunder grossly exaggerates climate impact.

Oh really?

No.

Continue reading “I’ve been wrong before”

NIWA v Cranks 4: Shoot out at the fantasy factory

Earlier today a Hot Topic reader drew my attention to this article: Legal Defeat For Global Warming In Kiwigate Scandal, which Nigella Lawson’s father’s secretly-funded Global Warming Policy Foundation chose to feature on its web site. What’s “Kiwigate”, he wanted to know?

Turns out it’s the NIWA versus NZ Climate “Science” Education Trust court case, launched back in August. It also turns out that the article in question is wrong in just about every material respect, and possibly libellous to boot. And the source for this farrago? A post by Richard Treadgold at his Climate Conversation blog, where he claims (in characteristically long-winded fashion) that in NIWA’s “statement of defence” (the document supplied to the High Court as a response to the NZ CSET’s “statement of claim“) NIWA “formally denies all responsibility for the national temperature record (NZTR)“. Well, not quite. Let’s look first at the “Kiwigate” piece…

Continue reading “NIWA v Cranks 4: Shoot out at the fantasy factory”