Outrageous: NOAA demands $262,000 fee for looking at their ‘public’ data

Hard to believe this isn’t made up. Either NOAA are completely incompetent at record handling, which ought to be a scandal in itself, or they want to hide the data, derived from publicly funded research, from the public. Either way, this stinks.

Watts Up With That?

Eric Worrall writes: It looks like NOAA have found a new way to stifle FOIA inquiries from the public. According to Steve Goddard, NOAA have just demanded a $262,000 administrative fee for zipping up a few raw data files.

Steve Goddard has published a scan of the outrageous fee demand he and fellow FOIA requestor Kent Clizbe received from NOAA administrator Maria S Williams. The letter, sent on March 17th, demands $262,000 by March 24th, or further communication – otherwise Maria says they will consider the matter closed.

https://stevengoddard.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/fee-notification-letter-2014-001602.pdf

The NOAA staff directory lists Maria Williams as the Chief of Staff Support Services Branch. https://nsd.rdc.noaa.gov/nsd/pubresult?LNAME=wil

For the full story read Steve’s post – https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/freedom-isnt-free/

As an IT expert with over 20 years of experience, my expert opinion on the claim by NOAA that it would require $262,000 to gather up a few computer files and send them to Steve is…

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Richard Tol’s Excellent Summary on Why 97% of Scientists Do Not Agree

It continually amazes me that so many people still think most scientists believe man is the significant driver behind global warming.

I have lost count of the number of times John Cook’s 97% consensus paper has been debunked but this latest post by Richard Tol provides an excellent summary of the key points.

http://richardtol.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/now-almost-two-years-old-john-cooks-97.html

My Favourite quote is in the conclusion:

If you want to believe that climate researchers are incompetent, biased and secretive, Cook’s paper is an excellent case in point.

I could not agree more.

Climate FAIL: Gallup poll shows global warming concerns dead last

I wonder what the results would look like “properly” homogenised?

Watts Up With That?

Climate message only reaching the already converted – Americans worry least about global warming

Eric Worrall writes:

Gallup Inc., the management consultancy famous for its well known and widely trusted opinion polls, has published a summary of environmental concerns, which make grim reading for anyone hoping to spark public interest in climate scare stories.

The poll summary is divided between Republicans and Democrats, and compares responses in the year 2000, vs responses in 2015.

Amongst Republicans, the percentage of people who are worried about climate change has plummeted, from 29% to 16%.

Amongst Democrats, concern has risen, but only slightly – from 48% to 52%.

According to Gallup, the implications of this finding;

“Americans’ concern about a series of potential environmental threats remains on the low end of what Gallup has measured over the past 25 years. Last year’s increased worry proved temporary, rather than the start of a trend…

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Power Conference Scotland debate on energy security and supply: Don’t panic – yet!

h/t Linda Holt – Scotland Against Spin

A few interesting quotes from the recent conference which referred to:

a major politico-economic debate erupting south of the border over a think-tank report that claims subsidised renewable energy may become the biggest policy disaster in modern British history

Greg Laden, and his ‘cowardly unethical asinine foolhardy pig-ignorant act’

This is a guest post about the execrable Greg Laden, and his calls for firing Dr. Willie Soon without having one iota of proof of his assertions. I’ve had run ins with this fool before, where I point out he’s lied about me, and even considered taking him to court for libel. In this episode, […]

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/01/31/greg-laden-and-his-cowardly-unethical-asinine-foolhardy-pig-ignorant-act/

Science Lessons for Secretary of State John F. Kerry

A good summary on the basic physics and recorded data that John Kerry is so (happy to be) ignorant of.

Watts Up With That?

 Guest post by David Middleton

Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s recent remarks on climate change at the Atlantic Council were so scientifically illiterate that I find it difficult to believe that he managed to barely get a D in geology at Yale University.  As a US citizen and geoscientist, I feel it is my patriotic and professional duty to provide Secretary Kerry with a few complimentary science lessons.

Let’s start with some basics

So stop for a minute and just think about the basics. When an apple falls from a tree, it will drop toward the ground. We know that because of the basic laws of physics. Science tells us that gravity exists, and no one disputes that. Science also tells us that when the water temperature drops below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, it turns to ice. No one disputes that.

So when science tells us that our climate is…

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‘Gardening Leave’ Helping Veterans Heal

Tea Plant by Linda Compton McDonald

An inspiring video about the ability of plants to support the healing of veterans.

Since 2007, the charity Gardening Leave has championed the healing power of plants to bring relief to veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.

But the tie between plants and the military goes back much further than that and is now being explored in a new art exhibition.

My friend Linda McDonald contributed her painting of a Tea Plant to this project. Linda is an amazing person who does an incredible amount for charity. You can see more of her work here:

http://www.lindacomptonmcdonald.co.uk

Watch the video here.

Better a pleb than a denier!

According to the BBC, “the police officer at the centre of the “plebgate” row has accepted £80,000 in damages from Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31729808

So what was all the fuss about?