Tuesday, July 21, 2009

That's One Confused Denier: Marc Morano Employs Pro-Hindu Young Earth Creationist Talking Points To Refute Global Warming!

Several days ago, this headline appeared on Climate Depot, a climate change denial site run by Republican Alpha-Hack Marc Morano (the guy behind the Swiftboat smear):It links to a post from a blog post re the Oronteus Finaeus Map, which purports to show Antarctica

...as being largely ice-free with flowing rivers and a clean coastline. Some of the mountain ranges pictured on the map have only been recently discovered.

...thus disproving the theory of man-made global warming. Except that the map, which isn't a particularly accurate portrayal of Antarctica in the 1st place, has long been employed by anti-evolutionists, ancient UFO buffs, and other assorted nut-jobs in support of their various conspiracy theories and hobby-horses. Notably, it turned up in the 1996 NBC program The Mysterious Origins of Man, narrated by none other than Charleton Heston. From Talk Origins:

Although MOM was anti-evolutionary, it was not advocating scientific creationism, even though some of the "experts" and arguments are familiar to readers of scientific creationist literature. Instead, just as scientific creationism is an attempt to use science to support fundamentalist Christianity, MOM is apparently an attempt to use science to support Hinduism. Much of the material in the program is based on the contents of two books[....] by Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson, both of whom appeared on the show and are members of the Bhaktivedanta Institute, a branch of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Not surprising that the map


...probably based on the drawings of Portuguese sailors, and possibly depicting Australia rather than the Antarctic, should get pressed into service in the anti-AGW cause. Unfortunately, not surprising either that Morano should choose to highlight the kind of gibberish that has sprung up around it.

But I guess when your target audience is the Fox News crowd.

12 comments:

Climate Depot said...

Interesting background on map. That is why I put "claim" in headline. I try to cover the whole spectrum at Climate Depot. Climate Depot Reports, the public (and Big City Liberal) decides. :)

Regards,
Marc Morano
www.ClimateDepot.com

bigcitylib said...

The whole spectrum from bad science to pseudo science to creation science.

Climate Depot said...

Now, now. Keep it nice.

I even cover the rants of Joe Romm, so give me some credit!!!
I also cover UN IPCC scientists dissenting from IPCC! Check out today's edition.

Also covered is NYT giving a fair and balanced article on solar influences on climate.

bigcitylib said...

The magnesium guy? He's probably on the list of IPCC reviewers, which means he asked to look at the docs and comment. Richard Courtney did the same thing, and he's just the PR guy for Brit Coal. I'm making the same request next round and will almost certainly be accepted. And I nearly flunked highschool.

Climate Depot said...

Wow. A serious show of disrespect for vaunted UN IPCC! Courtney has responded to your cut and past "smears" many times.

As for the "magnesium guy", according to another report he is a IPCC "lead Author." See: http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_12854537

bigcitylib said...

Well, he is in the report:

http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/meeting/pdfiles/Sydney_Par_20051217.pdf

...although he doesn't look to have any knowledge of the modelling. And he doesn't look like a lead author:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:IPCC_lead_authors

Congrats, though, in this case you are only 93% bullshitting.For you thats an improvement.

Climate Depot said...

Such hostility from you. Tripp is listed as one of U.S."author" of his section. He appears to be more than just expert reviewer.

Perhaps you should try to be more civil with your comment posters.

bigcitylib said...

Yes he is an author, hence your relatively low score on the bullshit meter in this case.

And I am not hostile. In fact people say I am always smiling.

Adrian Ludwin said...

He's a lead author on the inventory of carbon emissions. He's not a lead author on any of the assessment reports (eg the TAR or FAR), nor does he appear to have been involved with these in any way, including as a reviewer (please let me know if I'm wrong). Therefore, we can only assume that he has no more insight into the reports than any other interested layman.

As for the map, it looks crazy.

Ti-Guy said...

I wonder if Morono really believes his own exultations of "fairness" and "balance" when it comes to science?

That only works on FoxNews rubes, Marc. For those of us who get to watch Outfoxed on our network television periodically, it's a bit of joke.

Éric said...

Considering contemporary maps usually include sea monsters and show California as an island, I'm surprised anyone would consider any map drawn in that time period as anything but mostly wrong.

Ti-Guy said...

Considering the total snake-oil salesman Morono is, I'm surprised anyone even pays any attention to him at all. Even his tone (Wow! Disrespect! Hostility! Incivility!) in this short discussion was remarkably smarmy.