Apologies for the hiatus, reader. It’s been an emotional day. I was deeply affected by a new puff piece about Stefan (né Esteban) Lewandowsky on the ever-credible Royal Society website.
If you had to name one word you associate with Lewandowsky, what would it be?
That’s right: scientist.
But his RS bio page—titled Stephan Lewandowsky: Scientist, Carer, Parent—reveals so much more to the prominent cli-psy figure. Stephe isn’t just a professional Improver of Knowledge. He’s also a parent; a parent who cares for, or about, someone or something.
I haven’t always agreed with everything Stevan says. If we’re being completely honest—and I like to think we have that kind of relationship, reader—I’ve always thought of him as the mongrel bastard of a foolish knave crossed with a knavish fool.
But now, for the first time, I’m brought face to face with Lewandowsky, abu binat. Father of daughters. Where once I saw a quack, now there stands a quack who’s managed to reproduce.
I swear, I had no idea everybody’s fave knool had motile sperm. This changes everything.
A warning, though—don’t click the link if you’re feeling hormonal. I lost my shiznit and wept openly when I got to this quote:
“[L]ife is no longer a circus but a never-ending series of airline tickets.”
Apparently Steve is a devotee of the Harrison Ford School of Carbon Correctness: minimize your footprint by spending as little time on the ground as possible.
Something about the sheer banality of Lew’s problems hits you in the gut. It suddenly occurs to you that he’s a human being, just like you or me or any other climate denier.
But without the obscene fossil-fuel-funded salary, obviously. He has to do it all on a Professor’s pay check.
I don’t know what that’s worth in the UK, but before he fled there he eked out an existence Down Under for many years. In a wasteland still haunted by the legacy of Howard’s War on the Intellect, our climate-hyphenated Professors have to make ends meet on a base rate of $190,000 per annum. (Stefen was fortunate enough to be a Winthrop Professor, which added another twenty grand or so; it wasn’t much, but every little bit helped.)
The remarkable juggling act he’s pulled off—scientist, carer, Australoamerican Dad—would be hard enough for the average person, but for a university academic like Steven there’s the added problem of somehow paying for three months of holidays. Every. Single. Year.
And believe me, vacations aren’t cheap on a continent that inspired the phrase ‘the tyranny of distance.’
What a monster I’ve been. If you’ll excuse me, I have a couple of hours of GIFs to delete.
Climate Scepticism 
If only Leonardo di Caprio would fund a Chair of Climate Wibble at Omaha College…..the competition between Lew, Cooky and the fraux scientists (Ken and do) would be intense.
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ROTFLMAO.
Paul Mathews links to a paper on how people respond better to climate messages if communal action is emphasised rather than individual action.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160505085721.htm
Dr Lew thinks WE should be acting on CO2 but the only we in this equation is the urine he’s extracting at our expense.
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I thought that Brad must have made that up, but no, the academic superstar who is so concerned about climate change really did say that thing about airline tickets.
It must be demoralising for you Brad. You put so much effort into trying to make him look a fool and then he does a better job of it all by himself.
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Tut. Another nasty hit piece on a decent human being just trying to scrape a living together writing nasty hit pieces on other human beings. With his offspring scattered across the globe, you can’t fault him for putting aside worldly concerns about climate change and his massive carbon footprint in order to continue to visit them to show that he really cares. I bet he’s even saving all those airline tickets in order to use as confetti at one of their weddings. Bless.
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I also forgot to mention that he offsets each and every flight by buying a return ticket.
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This is an appalling post. I demand that ATTP puts a rejoinder on his site instantly
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Quote from the puff piece:
“I currently focus on the potential conflict between human cognition and the physics of the global climate, which has led me into doing research in climate science and climate modelling as well as in cognition.”
Truly a remarkable man. Worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize in Psychology for being the only PhD Psychologist to have performed research in climate science and climate modeling. Being only a mere psychologist, just imagine the learning obstacles he had to overcome while making the transition from rat maze designer to climate modeler…not to mention becoming competent in the ‘physics of the global climate’. An amazing feat IMO.
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Dave L,
we truly live in a Second Renaissance. When a cartoonist with an undergrad degree in solar physics (which, as we all know, has no effect on the climate) can write a climate science textbook, the future of polymathy is Limitless.
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On a serious note – if people who are as determined to push CAGW as Dr Lew can’t think how they could reduce their emissions by doing their job another way, who do they think could do better? It’s a fundamental arrogance about the importance of their own life and a dismissal of the lower orders. All those plebs are wasting energy but MY travel is essential.
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Well, I suppose the UK did in the distant past send at least some thousands of ‘convicts’ to Australia as a means of punishing the indigenous natives.
It seems only fair that the compliment is returned with accumulated compound interest.
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There remains a veiled question lurking in the background that has not been addressed: What was the purpose of The Royal Society’s puff piece on Lew?
My (sinister) speculation is that Lew has garnered so much positive publicity among the alarmists that The Royal Society wants to reward him as well as to maintain his name in the public’s eye. Perhaps some kind of a promotion or prestigious award may be in the planning? One thought: How about an honorary PhD in Climate Science? Then he could talk the talk and walk the walk; he would possess genuine credentials as far as the propagandist media was concerned. Why, with an honorary PhD in Climate Science, he could even become a ‘lead author’ for the IPCC. This might be a drum worth beating.
Anyone else care to speculate?
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Sure Dave, but only
respectedqualified climate psychologists like Lewandowsky are allowed to infer nefarious intent [NI] on the basis that something must be wrong [MbW]. When we do it, it’s conspiracist ideation.LikeLike
michael hart, ouch. By that measure the US may one day decide to launch Al Gore at us.
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Lewandowsky is currently abroad (Spain, Granada) at a psychology conference he helped organise, at an organisation he is senior in – 1000’s attendees (not climate related)
Social events are rather good,
http://www.psychonomic.org/featured-content-detail/one-week-till-PSGranada16
Flamenco evening opening night, Gala dinners, and a evening trip to the Alhambra tonight
#PsGranada16
Psychonomic Society @Psychonomic_Soc
#psGranada16 what no wine with afternoon tea?
Psychonomic Society @Psychonomic_Soc May 6
#psGranada16 lunch includes … Umm … Red wine. Afternoon sessions look very promising.
————–
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Dave L, I think the reason for the promotion might be more prosaic: his RS minion figured out in conjunction with John Cook’s SKS coding buddy on how to work the timeline plugin into the Royal Soc website html.
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Just a thought. How can you Pingback to a future time? Do you drive a deLoresn?
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Don’t be silly. Time-travelling deLoreans are at least 20 years away, say scientists. The thing that’s holding us back is getting the doors to open along the z-axis. At the moment, I’m afraid that remains firmly in the realms of science fiction.
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