Friday, October 23, 2009

Various Oil, Coal, and Chemical companies sued for not being superstitious

From The Jurist Blog:

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled that 14 victims of Hurricane Katrina have standing to sue companies for allegedly contributing to global warming , which they claim played a role in increasing the severity of the hurricane. The court found Friday that the plaintiffs had presented enough evidence against the oil, coal, and chemical companies named in the complaint to allow the class action lawsuit to proceed.

In related news, from various media outlets:
Little Bethany Hackensnot, of Buffalogump ND, has been placed under house arrest for stepping on a crack and breaking her mother's back.
Based on legal advice from Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell, owners of a New Orleans gay bar have been sued for attracting The Wrath Of God, which usually manifests itself in the form of hurricanes, floods, fire, and earthquakes.
Mildred Hacktooth, of Booger Den, Mississippi, is facing a lawsuit for failing to restrain her black housecat, Doctor Midnight. It seems that Doctor Midnight crossed a neighbors path, and three days later the neighbor failed to win the lottery.
Despite eleven straight years of the globe failing to warm properly, despite evidence that people used to farm in Greenland, despite evidence that Chicago used to be covered by a freakin' iceberg, despite the wildly fluctuating temperatures of the last few billion years, they're still trying to make money off of the Global Warming Scam.
I thought that hurricanes (or their absence) were "weather", not "climate". Aren't they trying to have it both ways with this lawsuit?

Abasi Ubuntu, of Kenya, recently shot Ms. Aluna Amanali following the untimely death of his cow. Evidence later revealed that Ms. Amanali was a witch.

Superstition pics came from here and here and here and here.

10 comments:

Cedric Katesby said...

Despite eleven straight years of the globe failing to warm properly...

Ah yes, the "global warming stopped in 1998" P.R.A.T.T. point.

...despite evidence that people used to farm in Greenland...

Vikings! Rough tough he-men wearing fur. Plus the hats with the funny horns. P.R.A.T.T.

...despite evidence that Chicago used to be covered by a freakin' iceberg, despite the wildly fluctuating temperatures of the last few billion years...

Yeah. The planet's climate has changed before.
Scientists already know that.

However, the global scientific community has tried to make it clear that global warming is happening, that we are responsible for it and we have only a short window of opportunity to do something about it.
That's why American scientific communities (not isolated Phds peddling books and op-eds) have been trying to alert the US Senate.

Cedric Katesby said...

I thought that hurricanes (or their absence) were "weather", not "climate". Aren't they trying to have it both ways with this lawsuit?

Good question. If you want to know more about it then do what I always do.
Get your science from actual science sources.

Not some no-name blog.
Not the news media.
Not some coffee-table book.

Go to the people who actually know what they are talking about because..they do the work.
For example, NCAR?

Sew daze said...

Hmmm...No name blog......

The Whited Sepulchre said...

http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2006/07/a_skeptics_prim.html

I think that un-PRATT's most of your issues nicely, Cedric.

One of the primary reasons that there is only a short window of opportunity? IT'S NOT GETTING WARMER ! ! ! IT'S NOT GETTING COOLER ! ! ! AND THE DEMOCRATS AREN'T GOING TO HAVE A FILIBUSTER-PROOF MAJORITY AFTER NOVEMBER 2010. Hence the closing of the opportunity window. If they're going to loot the treasury again, they gotta invoke the Fierce Moral Urgency of Now.

Please excuse me for shouting.

One other thing I'd like to throw into the mix here. I don't have the background to seriously evaluate Warming, Cooling, Change, or whichever condition we're currently going to have an uproar about.
I do, however, have the background to raise red flags when the topic switches from Warming to Change. A whole lotta bet-covering is going on, as discussed to death on previous posts.

The earth has warmed before. We don't KNOW why. It also cooled off. We don't KNOW why. We're fairly sure that one day it will be engulfed by the sun. That's about it.

In the meantime, we have people who want to move the means of production to state control. They're using the AGW non-crisis to help accomplish this. It really is that simple.

You know why I don't believe in hell? Because nobody else does. If someone believed that hell existed, he would spend every waking hour trying to keep people from going there forever.

If Al Gore, Tom Friedman, The Teleprompter Jesus, or anyone else believed that our behavior is going to cause the earth's temp to seriously Warm, Cool, or Change in a bad way, in a way worthy of major government intervention, these 3 con artists would move out of their mansions. They wouldn't travel in something as wasteful as a car or an airplane. They would lower their carbon footprints to ZERO.

They haven't done this. They arne't going to do this.

I have a slight level of respect for people who wear tinfoil hats to keep aliens from reading their brain waves. My respect level drops when they sometimes forget to wear their hats.

The three gentlemen in question don't even pretend to behave as if their behavior affects the weather. Excuse me, the climate. They never have, and they never will. (BTW, people in Tennessee are still publishing Gore's electric bills. The perpetual motion machines he's installed on his house aren't very effective.)

Physician, heal thyself.

One last word about religious skeptic no-name bloggers who dare to throw dead cats into the AGW Cathedral Of Warm, Cool, Change....we're winning.

The Whited Sepulchre said...

Forgot my link.

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/10/23/poll-americans-more-skeptical-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/

Dr Ralph said...

WS -- regarding your link to the poll stating fewer people believe in global warming: elsewhere, a Harris poll from last year shows more people believe in the devil, hell and angels than believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution. There are also a sizable number of folks who believe in ghosts (44%), UFOs (36%), witches (31%), astrology (31%), and reincarnation (24%).

A revealing quote from the Harris poll (emphasis added by me):

'Slender majorities of all adults believe that all or most of the Old Testament (55%) and the New Testament (54%) are the "Word of God." However, only about a third of all adults (37% and 36%) believe that all of these texts are the word of God.

Interestingly, only 26% of all adults believe that the Torah is the word of God, even though it is the same as the first five books of the Old Testament. Presumably many people do not know this.'

What can we deduce from your poll and mine? Only that there are a lot of ignorant yahoos in the world, and asking their opinion on most stuff doesn't count for shit.

Cedric Katesby said...

I think that un-PRATT's most of your issues nicely, Cedric.

Why?
Seriously, why?

Have you even READ the link you provided?
Who the hell is Warren Meyer?
Why does he get to tell you what to believe about science and yet NASA and the rest of the scientists on the planet do not?

I am not a trained expert on the climate.

Wow. There's a surprise.
NOT!

To the inevitable charge that as a
non-practitioner, I am not qualified to write this paper --I believe that I am able to present the current state
of the science, with a particular emphasis on the skeptic’s case, at least as well as a good reporter might...


(Groan)
Who cares?
Nobody should get their science from a reporter either.
NCAR? Ok. AGU? Sure. Royal Society? No problemo.
Check out any scientific community on the planet. They are all good.

I don't have the background to seriously evaluate Warming, Cooling, Change, or whichever condition we're currently going to have an uproar about.

So...you throw yourself into the arms of Phoenix small business owners who majored in physics?
That's a really bad decision to make.
Garbage in, garbage out.

If you have gripes about the Theory of Evolution, who are you going to call? A dentist from Texas?

I do, however, have the background to raise red flags when the topic switches from Warming to Change.

So that's the big clue for you?
Going from global warming to climate change?
Did it ever occur to you that maybe there's no nefarious double-talk going on? Perhaps there's a perfectly sane and mundane reason to go from one term to the other.
No need to invoke a conspiracy, just ask NASA.

Do you know the reason why you have to go to people like Warren?
It's because you have no choice.

If you try and get your science from actual scientific communities then the illusion fades away.

One last word about religious skeptic no-name bloggers who dare to throw dead cats into the AGW Cathedral Of Warm, Cool, Change....we're winning.

Yeah. Creationists say the same thing about fighting the religion of Darwin. Disinformation campaigns that play upon the ignorance of a largely scientifically illiterate public are very effective. That's why people engage in them.

The Whited Sepulchre said...

Doctor,
Glad to have you back, sir. I was hoping that another rousing Are We Warming? Cooling? Changing? debate with Cedric would roust you from your lair.

As you well know, it's difficult to disprove a superstition. It's frustrating when the superstitious make their choices known by their votes.

Fortunately, in this case, The Great Unwashed are doing a bit of scientific research on their own. They're sticking their heads out the window and looking at the thermometer.

Cedric,

http://easyopinions.blogspot.com/2009/03/dispelling-global-warming-myth.html

Also, last Saturday, Al Gore either flew or drove to Virginia.

http://blog.algore.com/2009/10/virginia.html

Cedric Katesby said...

Fortunately, in this case, The Great Unwashed are doing a bit of scientific research on their own.

No. They are play-acting at doing scientific research.
Real science has nothing to do with opinion polls.
The general public can't spot real science from fake science.
Intelligent Design, anyone?

If there really is "scientific research" that challenges global warming then why do they not successfully defend their ideas in the scientific arena of peer-review?
Somebody has come up with something new about hurricances?
Cool.
Get it published in a science journal. Let the NCAR read it.
Don't present it to your bible study group, that the wrong venue.

They're sticking their heads out the window and looking at the thermometer.

And creationists look at themselves in the mirror and say "I didn't come from no monkey".
That's not science. If you want to do science, you have to be prepared to do some actual work. Lots of work.

Cedric Katesby said...

Let me tackle that last bit again.

The Great Unwashed are doing a bit of scientific research on their own. They're sticking their heads out the window and looking at the thermometer.

Such a method is indeed used by people when they talk about climate change.
It doesn't work.
It contributes nothing to our scientific understanding of climate.
In a cooler year, sure, the deniers will have the upper hand in the "I just stuck my head out the window" brigade.
However, that cuts BOTH WAYS!
Reality does not read opinion polls.


In a hotter year, the "I just stuck my head out the window" brigade will switch sides and lean the opposite way.

People are like that.
It's understandable and appeals to "common sense".
It's also happens to be a very bad method that will give you the wrong information and mislead you.