The list of 400 was a melange of the usual suspects with a number of people with no scientific backgrounds. Not to forget the power of quote-mining to finalise the list.
The new list is online here (warning 257MB pdf)
The conservative Prison Planet website has an article on it already, with a preview and some quotes.
As i'm sure in the blogosphere there'll be enough attention going to the release (Deltoid seems to be first), i'm gonna stick to having a closer look at one single name on the list, because i suppose not everyone speaks the Dutch language.
Prisonplanet writes :
“Gore prompted me to start digging into the science again and I quickly found myself solidly in the skeptic camp…Climate models can at best be useful for explaining climate changes after the fact.” - Meteorologist Hajo Smit of Holland, who reversed his belief in man-made warming to become a skeptic, is a former member of the Dutch UN IPCC committee.
Hans Jolmer (Hajo) Smit runs a blog called freewriter.nl and also made a guest post on GroenOpWeg in which he has given some comments on the subject of global warming. Let's start by having a closer look at what he writes at his website:
- About the Ofcom-regulation about the movie The Great Global Warming Swindle, he writes (my translation, my emphasis) :
Apparantly the movie TGGWS reached it's goal to start an earnestly polemic and, as we know now, a non-misleading one towards Al Gore's movie.
Given the fact the movie consists of no more than misleading arguments, Smits remark is painfully inaccurate.
- Smit's post on the Dutch political party PVV :
PVV announced on Monday to be "shocked" that 70.000 students "have wrongly been told that the North Pole is melting" and "that there is an alarming climate change going on"Smit's conclusion on this text of PVV is (my translation) :
"Our children have to learn to spell and to do calculus, and not that some pitiful polar bears are living on melting ice because we are taking the airplane to go on holidays" said MP Martin Bosma in a question in parliament to the deputy-minister of education.
"Education has to be neutral and should not mingle with unproven theories. The climate problem is an issue, just like acid rain, in ten years noone will talk about anymore. It's a pity it's costing billions" Bosma says.
[therefore] i say with all my heart : vote PVV ! For a better climate and a better economy. Nonsense kills us and the whole climate-story indeed is nonsenseHe ends his post with saying "do you still doubt the climate problem, then watch this video's" :Professor Fred Singer on Climate Change Pt 1
Professor Fred Singer on Climate Change pt 2
Auch.
People who don't know the S. Fred can p.ex. try checking out Desmogblog. Singer is a man who's made a career of nay-saying, no matter the subject.
I'm not go in full detail on Smits other posts, because i suppose that the picture is starting to get clear.
- Kannibaliseren op oud klimaatnieuws
Smit refuses CNN's claim that the arctic ice is in it's second lowest minimum (after the 2007 record) and claims the arctic ice has grown with 9 %.
A fact he thinks not to be very important (and i'm not necessaritly disagreeing on that) but he writes :
“Polar bears resort to cannibalism as Arctic ice shrinks” in plaats van het enige juiste: “Zeeijs noordpool weer 9 procent gegroeid”.In the quote, he says the only correct title for the CNN-piece should've been :
"Arctic ice grew 9% again".
Which he supports by linking to Wattsupwiththat which ran this post. Whereas it's clear that 2008 is clearly following the downward trend that can be seen in arctic ice, and 2008 will have the second lowest ice-extent in the records. Comparing single years has nothing to do with climate science.
- Trendbreuk berichtgeving klimaatverandering?
blogger Bart Verheggen already has some posts on it :Does the deltacommision exaggerate ?andDeltadictator
Hajo Smit ends with quoting Hans Labohm, the Dutch contrarian libertarian who is one of the libertarian think-thank The Heartland Institute's global warming experts.
Given the fact the Heartland Institute is one of the most intellectual dishonest players in the climate change field, it's not really an honor to be called an expert by this thinkthank. Not the best source to quote imho.
His fifth post is a link to this clip that claims temperatures drives CO². In yet another post he presents the lay reader this skeptics handbook by Joanne Nova on "childrens level" (allover his blog, Smit is incredible arrogant) : well, Smit is correct to say the level in that paper is a disaster. It's very odd that someone with a degree isn't able to see linking to such a thing is ruïning your credibility.
In his guestlog on GroenOpWeg, Smit claims the debate isn't over as is proven by websites like Joe d'Aleo's Icecap and the even more infamous junkscience.com by Steven Milloy. Two sites that have not been known to be the most reliable sources in the world (follow the links). To say it politely.
Later on in the article he links to David Archibald's claim CO² is good for you and agrees with the infamous Australian Lavoisier group. Once again sources with very low reliability.
i wouldn't call Hajo Smit's opinion on climate change all that important.
His fifth post is a link to this clip that claims temperatures drives CO². In yet another post he presents the lay reader this skeptics handbook by Joanne Nova on "childrens level" (allover his blog, Smit is incredible arrogant) : well, Smit is correct to say the level in that paper is a disaster. It's very odd that someone with a degree isn't able to see linking to such a thing is ruïning your credibility.
In his guestlog on GroenOpWeg, Smit claims the debate isn't over as is proven by websites like Joe d'Aleo's Icecap and the even more infamous junkscience.com by Steven Milloy. Two sites that have not been known to be the most reliable sources in the world (follow the links). To say it politely.
Later on in the article he links to David Archibald's claim CO² is good for you and agrees with the infamous Australian Lavoisier group. Once again sources with very low reliability.
i wouldn't call Hajo Smit's opinion on climate change all that important.
