I took the bizarre predictions of arctic ice recovery from the “Watts Up With That” blog as a topic for this week’s video. One reason was because, after prominently featuring unhinged forecasts of ice extent recovery,
“Conclusion : Should we expect a nice recovery this summer due to the thicker ice? You bet ya. Even if all the ice less than 2.5 metres thick melted this summer, we would still see a record high minimum in the DMI charts.”
the Watts blog had been strangely silent on the matter, as ice in the real world continued the ongoing death spiral.(see Joe Romm’s illuminating take here)
You can watch the video here
Apparently prompted by my video, Watts has finally addressed the snafu, with some ire directed at yours truly for bringing it up.
Watts has a history with the Climate Crocks, that I’m sure he’d like to forget.
In the summer of 2009, I did a summary of Watt’s assertions that US temperature station data was inaccurate and misleading, and compared it to a comprehensive review by Tom Peters on of the NOAA National Climatic Data Center.
see here:
Watts was upset enough with my timerity, that he initiated a so called “DMCA takedown” of the video, claiming he was concerned about my fair use of copyrighted material, and just helping to protect me from myself.
The DMCA block is a ploy frequently used by hypersensitive authoritarians, like the Church of Scientology, to censor YouTube critiques they find embarrassing. This was, of course, a major no-no for the vast majority of the internet community, and the video ended up being mirrored at sites all over the web, and exposure was vastly increased.
Most peculiar was Watt’s further spinning off into an orgy of late night googling, investigating everything about me, including going so far as to include creepy musings about my family that many people found way over the top.
It was my introduction to the dark and vindictive side of the climate denial blogosphere, a place where sane mortals rightfully fear to tread – but I couldn’t help but take note of Watt’s insane hubris this past summer, and wonder if he was ever going to get around to acknowledging reality. Now he has, so that’s a gain for everyone.
There’s little more satisfying in the climate ‘debate’ than watching Watts squirm and wriggle as a result of his idiocy being exposed. Another bullseye, Peter! 🙂
P.S.
> …creepy musings about my family that many people found way over the top.
Indeed. That was revolting and told us something fundamental about Watts’ character.