Climate deniers - skeptical of facts, but not of the skeptics

By Libby

I expect the usual suspects, who just can't seem to grasp the difference between the weather and the climate, will be jumping on this latest allegation of climate data tampering.

The IPCC falsified data showing a sea level rise from 1992-2002 according to Dr. Nils-Axel Morner, former head of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics department at Stockholm University in Sweden. In an interview by George Murphy, Morner cites various examples of falsification of evidence claiming sea level rises.

McQ advises that we "be very skeptical and require a very high level of proof, not conjecture, before agreeing to open your wallet." I assume that means we should be skeptical of the majority who take climate change seriously since he notes with a hearty heh that Mörner isn't at all impressed with the computer models used.

Too bad the deniers don't use the same level of scrutiny on the skeptics before they wholehearted embrace their findings. A quick google reveals the old professor has a quirk of his own and may well have his own reasons for alleging improprities. They're rectangular, usually green and fit in a wallet.

Axel-Morner claims to be an expert in "dowsing," the practice of finding water, metals, gemstones etc. through the use of a Y-shaped twig. Axel-Morner's attempt to prove his dowsing abilities is chronicled by James Randi, the well-known myth buster, who has offered the longstanding One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge.

Listed as an "allied expert" for a Canadian group called the "Natural Resource Stewardship Project," (NRSP) a lobby organization that refuses to disclose it's funding sources. Two of the three Directors on the board of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project are registered energy industry lobbyists and senior executives of the High Park Advocacy Group, a Toronto based lobby firm that specializes in “energy, environment and ethics.”

Yeah, that bit about ethics made me chuckle too.