Monday, July 28, 2008

Andrew Bolt: Dumb-arse Pt. XVCIICXI

Or should I rename this post: Why I should not cut and paste false data from other people’s sites, among other mindless errors.

OK, last post on Bolty for a little while.

Bolt posted some crapolla a while back that was supposed to, along with other equally senseless rants, make the (far) right wing of the Liberal party sit up and take notice. That, they did. The Libs are now split down the middle, with a slide into irrelevance seemingly inevitable as the denialists slowly gain ascendancy.

No surprises there.

Bolt’s schlock was torn to bits. It ain’t exactly rocket denialism.

Bolty fought back, posting yet more graphs.

And here’s where our lessons begin today, folks.

Lesson 1: Don’t cut and paste a graph based on what is well known to be false data. You tend to look like an idiot.

Bolty’s graph:



A graph based on the real data:



Not only were Hansen’s scenarios plotted incorrectly, the old incorrect version of RSS satellite temperature data was used. Eli has the details of this sorry episode. That graph’ll probably catch many a denialist yet, I’d wager.

Lesson 2: Don’t plot silly graphs that used two massaged Y axes to prove or disprove whatever it is you’re on about.

Like this:



Isn't it amazing how the slope of the [CO2] increase almost exactly lines up with the temperature!

Oh, hang on. That’s a graph I plotted with real data. It’s meaningless. It proves or disproves nothing.

Just like Bolt’s:



The relationship between [CO2] and temperature over time is a little too complex (and a little too easy to misrepresent) for our dim friend. I’m not even going to bother going on about natural variation masking rising temperatures over short periods. Or cherry picking start years. You all know what the go is.

Then there’s the posting of a 2001 IPCC graph as this year’s. Or Solar graphs and PDO graphs that show virtually no correlation with temperatures ever the past 60 years (if you actually bother to look). I could go on and on...but nah, I ain't going to bother with that either.

All I can say is, thank the FSM that the people Bolty has some influence over are no longer in power. Australia's certainly a better place for it.