Via Judith Curry, I learn that the President of the United States, talking up the enviro-bureaucracy's latest throttling of the economy, actually stood up in public and said this:
The effects of climate change are already being felt across the nation. In the past three decades, the percentage of Americans with asthma has more than doubled.
Is President Obama suggesting a link between asthma and "climate change" - ie, CO2, or "rising" temperatures? If so, it will be news to any actual scientist. Since 1980, obesity rates have tripled in America. Is that also due to global warming? Should Burger King and Dunkin' Donuts be required to post Michael E Mann's hockey stick on every supersized soda?
That's what Dr Mann's science has done to the climate debate: He helped make it profoundly stupid, and, judging by the President's speech, it's going to take a while to recover its marbles. That's one reason why yesterday I launched my shameless attempt to get Mann, whose defamation suit against me is now in its fourth year, to amend his complaint to the DC Superior Court yet again and this time demand the death penalty - for having the impertinence to publish a book full of what other scientists say about him:
"A Disgrace to the Profession":
The World's Scientists - In Their Own Words - On
Michael E Mann, His Hockey Stick
And Their Damage To Science
Volume One
Thank you to everyone who's eagerly snapped up the book. My hand was a bleeding stump by the close of business yesterday, but I'll be starting anew with the autographs bright and early this morning, ahead of my radio stint with John Oakley. And I'm enormously grateful to all of you who've swung by to pick up a copy. This book is an important element of my campaign against the litigious Dr Mann - not just in the obvious sense that its profits go toward the cost of this legal battle, but in the more crucial sense that it's part of my pushback against the malign effects of his rotten science.
Here's a first reaction to my little tome from Anthony Watts, proprietor of the invaluable Watts Up With That:
I remember when Mann decided to sue NRO and Steyn for defamation, and despite all the laughing at the time there was this prescient thought from Dr. Judith Curry:
"Mark Steyn is formidable opponent. I suspect that this is not going to turn out well for you."
Well, Part 1, or should I say, Volume 1 of that prediction is now in press. It's a scorcher, hilarity, and a tale of science and politics gone awry all in one.
Steyn realized the word of a political pundit like himself can only travel so far in certain circles, and in a brilliant move, he has gathered a compendium of what other scientists have to say about Mann's work on the "hockey stick". And of course, he's had it illustrated by Josh. My favorite is Mann as Yoda, wielding a hockey stick rather than a light saber [see top right]...
I'll give Steyn credit, he strives for some balance here, but there's just so few positive reviews that he could barely fill that chapter, much like there were no amicus curiae briefs filed with the DC Circuit Court on Mann's behalf.
Very true. Mann claims he's taking a stand for science, but apparently science has no interest in taking a stand for him. Do check out the whole of Mr Watts' post, including this comment from one of his readers:
Just reading through the foreword and contents gets one smiling and laughing.
The text reads easily and yes it is hard to stop; as one sentence leads so naturally into the next sentence that choosing where to actually stop is hard.
Oh, and one more comment, from a reader who's way past the contents page:
I received my (pre-ordered) copy Saturday afternoon and finished it around midnight the same day. It was just that hard to put down.
The striking thing is how little use even those who agree with him have for Mann. And the number seems to be shrinking daily.
Meanwhile, my co-defendant Rand Simberg writes:
I suspect that Professor Mann is going to be very sorry he poked that hornet's nest. Steve Milloy has been tweeting devastating excerpts.
He has. Just go to Steve's Twitter feed and keep scrolling down.
They're also chewing over the book across the Atlantic at Bishop Hill. I liked this comment:
Just finished Chapter 3 - I think this is going to be a game-changer in the Climate Wars.
Mark's racy, readable style accompanied by [Josh's] visual humour is going to reach a lot of people who might struggle with the technical intricacies of climate fraud.
Maybe this will begin to compensate for the absence of critical journalistic commentary on the most expensive & fraudulent boondoggle ever inflicted on the world's taxpayers.
He might be being a bit optimistic there. On the other hand, my book hasn't been out 20 minutes and its title is already a Yahoo question:
Is Michael Mann a disgrace to his profession?
Just to clarify one point from over at the Bishop's joint, right now the book is available exclusively in paperback from SteynOnline. It will be out in eBook (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, etc) and in paperback from Amazon and the usual outlets at the end of this month, but we thought we'd let loyal SteynOnline readers get an express check-in on their summer reading.
Needless to say, you do a little light book-plugging, and the planet's Mann-boys - all three of them - come out to to play. The book's not even available yet at Amazon, but already Russell Seitz, without reading it (it's what Anthony Watts calls a hockey-style "proxy review"), has swung by to give it a drive-by demolition
The Greatest Gathering of Scientific Authorities Since Marie Antoinette Dined Alone
That's an odd way to describe the scientist who coined the term "global warming", and the inventor of the Gaia hypothesis, and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, and the proponent of the Mobile Polar High, the Chief Scientist of the UK Met Office, the President of the Royal Statistical Society, etc, etc. But whatever gets you through the night, dearie.
If I were as insecure as Michael E Mann, I'd be throwing a big queeny fit and demanding Russell be banned from Amazon. But every chap needs a hobby, so, if Russell wants to go ahead and file six or seven more reviews under fake names, be my guest. Mr Seitz makes the additional complaint that the book, which he hasn't seen, is full of "ninety year olds". Actually, there's many fetching young men in there, if that's so important to you.
As I said yesterday, if Mann were to prevail in court, it would be the worst setback for freedom of speech in this country in half-a-century - as even the ACLU, The Washington Post, NBC News, The Los Angeles Times and the rest of my new best friends well understand. So I thank you again for your early show of support for this book. And, if you'd like a personally autographed copy, please click here.
~Correction: Yesterday I referred to the former IPCC chairman and eminent sex fiend Rajendra Pachauri as Rajendra Pantsdowni. I regret to say that the same unfortunate typing error appears to have crept into the index of "A Disgrace To The Profession". We will make every effort to correct it for the next printing ...but then again we might forget. New Zealand reader Roger Dewhurst, who seems to be a bit of an old colonial hand, writes to point out:
Mark,
I like Rajendra Pantsdowni! But I prefer Rajendra Tookadhoti. But if you need a ruder alternative one day, feel free to use it. Dhoti being the traditional male clothing of the Indian villager and tooka for lift or raise in low class Tamil. For those who would understand it the latter would be much ruder.
I am reminded of the Malay saying "durian jatoh, sarong naik" referring to the supposed aphrodisiac properties of the durian (fruit) and the normal Malay clothing. Jatoh translates as fall and naik as raise or lift.
Roger Dewhurst
Hmm. If you'll forgive me mixing Tamil and Malay, Mann thought it was hockey stick tooka, but it's hockey stick jatoh.
~There are other ways to support Mark's pushback against Big Climate, if you're so inclined:
1) STEYNONLINE GIFT CERTIFICATES
You can buy a gift certificate starting at $25 (and soaring way up from there), for yourself or your friends and family. The gift certificates have no expiration date, so if, in ten years' time, your favorite nephew has a sudden burning desire for $100 worth of Mark's disco CD, it'll still be valid. Alternatively, if you want to buy a certificate and sit on it until Mark wins the case, that works, too.
The gift certificates are available online here. Alternatively, US and Canadian customers can make a telephone purchase by calling (866) 799-4500 toll free from 8am to 3pm Eastern time on weekdays.
Aside from "A Disgrace To The Profession", he's written lots of other books, on free speech and much more. They're available individually or as part of various special offers.
3) EXCLUSIVE STEYN vs THE STICK TRIAL MERCHANDISE
Our "Steyn vs the Stick" and "Clash of Sticks" designs are available both on mousepads and coffee mugs and as T-shirts and sweat shirts.
