Joe Romm at Climate Progress does a wonderful job here of deconstructing the insensible blathering of AccuWeather long-range forecaster Joe Bastardi, a man who dismisses climate change as "this red herring of an issue."
Amid his ravings, Bastardi complains that "many of the high circles out there with alphabet soup in front of their names" consider him "stupid," a contention that Romm generously refutes, saying:
"For the record, I don’t think he's stupid. Stupid people rarely rise to a position of influence necessary to cause as much damage as Bastardi does."
Romm is right about so much, it seems churlish to argue with him on so trivial a point. But read Romm's post and ask yourself: If Bastardi doesn't suffer from terminal stupidity, what other pathology could explain his twisted position on climate science?
Democracy is utterly dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. In promoting climate change denial (and often denying their responsibility for doing so) industry has done more than endanger the environment. It has undermined democracy.
There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness.
Comments
What olcanic eruption?
Bastardi mentions " as the warm Arctic and blocking are not a result of the el nino, but probably the excess SO2 shot into the Arctic atmosphere (the stratosphere) by major high latitude volcanoes" There has not been a major high latitude eruption producing SO2 at high latitudes Reviewing the list at http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/bulletin/contents.cfm?issue=3411 - So what is the supposed origin?
Probably
David Phillips
Richard for years, I have listen to David Phillips Senior Climatologist for Environment Canada go out of his way to say this weather event was not caused by climate change and that weather event was not caused by climate change. Fine you can't pin any particular event on Climate Change. But for a "Senior Climatologist" I've never once heard him discuss Climate Change. As the mouthpiece of weather/climate in Canada and someone the media go to regularly what the hell is his problem?
Joe is both stupid and dishonest
Accuweather is a nest of deniers and tea-partiers who'd love to see Sarah get to be president so that the gov't-owned National Weather Service would be disbanded (The owner of AccuWeather actually tried but failed to do just that under Dumbya). That way, the American public would have to get all it's weather information...for a price of course...from AccuWeather. Great scam eh, if I must say so. I've been leaving comments on their global warming blog for about a year now. I think they've banned me because they say I'm a member of a cult(ask me if I care).
Nail, meet hammer
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. This is the charitable way to explain Bastardi.
Is AccuWeatherGuy Joe Bastardi Stupid or Dishonest?
Short answer:
probably both.