Subsidized AGW Alarmists Steal Iowahawk’s Photoshop Idea
In an earlier Pointless Post, I commented on this picture from an Iowahawk gem:
It’s all well and good when a satirist photoshops a flood into a photo, and even better when he drops one of the stars from MulletsGalore into the faux water.
It’s less funny (or is it?) when a federally subsidized program, the US Climate Change Science Program, does the same thing (minus the mullethead). Anthony Watts scrutinized their draft report, and took them to task:
The draft document reads more like a news article in many places than it does a scientific document, and unlike a scientific document, it has a number of what I would call “emotionally based graphics” in it that have nothing to do with the science.
In a follow-on post, Watts finds something odd about this picture from the USCCSP report:
Where's the guy with the mullet?
Pretty clean flood, isn’t it? Where’s the inevitable debris? Watts found it on a commercial stock photo site, under the caption “Got Flood Insurance?” On that site is the photographer’s description:
Photo of house under several feet of graphically-rendered flood waters.
I’m not commenting on the science behind the report, if indeed it contains any such thing. We all ought to be concerned about is that the USCCSP gang is wasting our tax dollars to whip public opinion into a photoshop-fueled frenzy, thereby punching their own meal-ticket in the process. If the science justifies the program, spare us the pathos and false images, people.
Finally, here’s the saddest quote from the report:
This Synthesis and Assessment Product described in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) Strategic Plan, was prepared in accordance with Section 515 of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (Public Law 106-554) and the information quality act guidelines issued by the Department of Commerce and NOAA pursuant to Section 515 <http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/iq.htm>). The CCSP Interagency Committee relies on Department of Commerce and NOAA certifications regarding compliance with Section 515 and Department guidelines as the basis for determining that this product conforms with Section 515. For purposes of compliance with Section 515, this CCSP Synthesis and Assessment Product is an “interpreted product” as that term is used in NOAA guidelines and is classified as “highly influential”. This document does not express any regulatory policies of the United States or any of its agencies, or provide recommendations for regulatory action.
Doesn’t it?
Iowahawk should sue. At least he remembered to photoshop in some debris.
