Five stages of denial
I’ve been reading a bit about denialism, in the context of the epic and ridiculous climate change bet threads that have taken way too much space on this board (yes, this is another one and yes, I am guilty of keeping it alive, but hopefully this one will be the end of it). Wik, for instance has a good page on denialism where they talk about AIDS deniers, climate change deniers, Holocaust deniers and evolution deniers and the similar tactics they use to justify their denials in the face of reality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denialism#Climate_change
So its time to analyze the stages of denialism, as shown through the climate change bet threads.
First, the bet was a very simple bet, a bet on whether NASA’s global anomaly for 2015 would be 0.83ºC.
May 11, 2015
So in order to win the bet, all the temperature has to do is hit 0.83ºC anomaly for the year of 2015, correct?
http://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/
If that's the chart you're saying will hit 0.83 at the end of 2015, we definitely have a bet.
What could possibly go wrong?
Stage 1 - The Conspiracy Theory
June 17, 2015
Moviefan learns that the year is an El Nino year, starts worrying, then learns that NASA has updated their charts, something they do quite regularly, this time it works in my favour but as NASA notes in the FAQ, it happens and sometimes temps go up and sometimes down.
Does data processing make temperature data warmer?
It can go either way. Almost half of NOAA's corrected data are cooler than the original records. NOAA's corrections of temperatures over the oceans —**done to compensate for changes in methods of observing the temperature of water at the surface of the ocean —**reduced the warming trend in global temperature.
http://climate.nasa.gov/faq/
Moviefan then accuses NASA and NOAA of fraud, runs the numbers through the rigorous denier math model and tries to have the bet changed to 0.86ºC instead of the agreed upon 0.83ºC.
Sorry, but Enron-style accounting doesn't qualify as an actual temperature increase.
..
The adjusted bet is 0.86 degrees Celsius. Take it or leave it.
You have until the end of Sunday to decide whether or not you are taking the adjusted bet.
Stage 2 - temporary acceptance
June 17, 2015
Moviefan is accused of trying to weasel out of the agreed bet by changing the terms, finally agrees to continue the bet on its original terms.
In any event, it's settled. The bet that you and I made on May 10, 2015, stands.
Stage 3 - NASA’s numbers hit 0.84ºC, Moviefan breaks his word.
Dec 20, 2015
NASA’s published numbers hit 0.84ºC for year, movefan comes up with a super convoluted attempt to go back on his word that he would honour the bet as it stood.
https://terb.cc/vbulletin/showthrea...obal-warming&p=5429544&viewfull=1#post5429544
He tries to argue that instead of using the live and continually updated chart we bet on, we should use only the first 5 months of the year and only use old numbers he copied from some denier site. This is his first attempt to break his word. He tried to cherry pick only old data that only included half of the year.
Stage 4 - False Experts
Dec 22, 2015
Moviefan refers to a TERB poll to decide whether whether he won the bet. The bet was based off NASA’s published 2015 global anomaly, taking a poll is irrelevant as a final decision is irrelevant when you can just click on the link to the chart that Moviefan chose and read the number NASA published. This was his second attempt to break his word that he would honour the terms of the original bet.
https://terb.cc/vbulletin/showthrea...-warming-bet&p=5461425&viewfull=1#post5461425
Stage 5 - Moving the Goal Posts
Jan 23, 2016
NASA comes out with the final number for 2015, 0.87ºC. Moviefan runs the numbers through his denier math filter and comes out with a third different number, 0.89. This time he gets his new numbers by moving the goal posts. He took a bet on the change between 1995-2015 and argued that the final number should also include his interpretation of 2014’s numbers as well. This is moviefan’s third attempt to break his promise to honour the bet, and his third attempt at the math with his third different number.
https://terb.cc/vbulletin/showthrea...-warming-bet&p=5456590&viewfull=1#post5456590