Russell Cook Demonstrates Lack of Credibility

A tip of the hat to Dave James for alerting me to the following comment by Russell Cook.

Debunking the Heartland Institute's hatchet man, Russell Cook, is both fun and easy. But, it does take time and I have a very full plate. That means spending time on his inane drivel is time away from something more productive. I need a reason to do that and, sometimes, I find it useful. Cook is a little man who wouldn’t amount to anything important if not for the Internet. But, that’s the world we live in and little people who are given a large forum find it possible to have an impact. The fact is climate change is already the most serious issue of our day and is only becoming more so. Russell Cook is not a serious person, but he, and others like him, have an effect that we need to pay attention to.

[UPDATE: In the comments Cook made in his posting about my 25 so-called errors, Cook states (referring to Heartland:

They do know of my history of challenging letter writers and article commenters to show readers where the proof exists indicting skeptics of corporate corruption, and they sometimes suggest places where I can pose those challenges, but I receive no instructions on what to write.

Here Cook is admitting to doing the dirty work for Heartland.]

So, let’s look at his comment below and review it for credibility and accuracy. Below is a comment Cook made in a recent article by the anti-science team of Tim Ball and Tom Harris. As soon as people showed up to point out the factual errors in it, Cook showed up.

Russell Cook ·

Institut européen d’administration des affaires

Here's a bit of an aside on this Tom Harris-commenter Dave James situation: Over at a blog which James is seen frequenting in its comment sections, the blogger accused me ( http://dialoguesonglobalwarming.blogspot.com/.../russell... ) of among other things, fitting a pattern where I supposedly was at Harris' beck-and-call to defend him. I count 25 errors in that blog post here http://gelbspanfiles.com/?p=5509 , but that is another story. What I would suggest to readers is a simple test of that particular accusation, in relative comparison to what the actual situation is: Place the name Tom Harris and mine within quote marks in a single Google search window, and see how many times I supposedly 'come to Tom's defense.' Then do a similar search, but substitute the name Dave James for my name. Again, put his within quote marks which narrows the search to only his name and Tom's. The results are most fascinating.

The larger lesson is more critical - how often do we see pushers of the notion of catastrophic man-caused global warming resort to various forms of character assassination ('he's not a climate scientist / 'he's a paid industry shill' / 'his religious/political leanings/education level taints his viewpoints' etc) as a means of marginalizing opposition, instead of conclusively demonstrating how skeptics' science assessments are refuted? How often do we also see false premise attempts to deem the issue a 'settled science' via worthless references to a so-called consensus (scientific conclusions have NEVER been validated by a 'show of hands') or via worthless appeals to authority (science societies' proclamations are pointless if influential members having control over public relations statements have been misled or have political agendas to promote, and if the proclamations do not reflect many of their own members' viewpoints).

What Tom Harris attempts to do is make up for the lack of reporting by the mainstream media about the skeptic side of the issue. While the skeptic side doesn't call for the censorship of comments such as those coming from folks like Dave James, his side does not benefit from having the appearance of having dedicated stalkers who follow Tom Harris around the internet with comments ranging from unsupportable assertions about Harris' positions to outright accusations about taking industry money to lie. But don't ask James about the latter problem; ask Al Gore to provide us ALL with the evidence he has against ANY skeptic climate scientist over that specific accusation. Deer-in-the-headlights ambush opportunity for intrepid reporters, anyone?

In his first line, Cook states, “fitting a pattern where I supposedly was at Harris' beck-and-call to defend him.” Please notice this comment was made on an article by Tom Harris and Tim Ball that was receiving comments by people showing where Harris is factually incorrect. In other words, Cook is denying he runs to defend Harris by running and defending him. Really!

[UPDATE: I am currently working on reviewing the so-called 25 errors I made in my posting concerning Cook. One of his comments was:

Tom Harris writes op-eds and letters-to-the-editor that I am totally unaware of, but he has alerted me via email to a few where he knows I would have some fun challenging his critics to prove he or others are paid by 'Big Coal & Oil' to lie.

While stating he is not at Harris' beck and call, he simultaneously states he is at Harris' beck and call. Great logic.]

The bigger issue is that Cook is well known for showing up when the comments get too difficult for Harris to deal with. Cook comes in and uses his favorite approach – “it’s not real until I say it is” in an attempt to counter the science. I can’t recall even one instance where Cook actually produced any science or data to support his arguments. I would be interested in anyone pointing out to me any instance where he did.

He next states I made 25 errors in a blog post about him. I’ll review that one in detail in a post.

Then, he makes one seriously flawed statement that really demonstrates his lack of credibility:

The larger lesson is more critical - how often do we see pushers of the notion of catastrophic man-caused global warming resort to various forms of character assassination ('he's not a climate scientist / 'he's a paid industry shill' / 'his religious/political leanings/education level taints his viewpoints' etc) as a means of marginalizing opposition, instead of conclusively demonstrating how skeptics' science assessments are refuted?

WAIT A MINUTE! What he’s doing is describing the actions of the denier community and doing it at the same time! He actually starts by stating “pushers of the notion of catastrophic man-caused global warming” before accusing people of character assassination. For those of you not familiar with this, the common form of this statement is to call people who accept the science ‘alarmists.’ This is an effort on the part of the denier community to marginalize the science and anyone who accepts it. He then follows up by claiming that pointing out someone, who professes to be an expert on climate science, is not, in fact, a climate scientist is somehow character assassination. Wow! And, I bet Cook actually believes that line of reasoning.

And, pointing out someone is a paid shill of the fossil fuel industry is not character assassination. If someone is going to make statements to the public and claim they are an unbiased source of information, then the public has a right to know that the person in question is, in fact, not unbiased at all. When a person is paid to promote an agenda, that person is a paid shill. Tom Harris, Tim Ball, Russell Cook are just three examples of a plethora of people who fit this description and fail to advise readers of their affiliations to the very industry they are promoting.  

And, I find it very interesting to see him make comments about political and religious viewpoints. This is very much the tactic taken by the deniers, not the science community. I cannot even begin to estimate how many times I’ve been accused of being a liberal Democrat or a Hillary-lover. And, you should see the spectrum of claims about my religious beliefs. All from people who have no knowledge whatsoever of either. And, I’m not the only one. I routinely see this tactic taken by deniers when they attack pro-science people with claims anyone who supports the science of being “extreme leftists” or “Hollywood elites.” This doesn't even include the amount of vulgarities hurled by the deniers at pro-science people. No, character assassination is something the deniers do. Cook can’t put this one on the pro-science people.

As for demonstrating how “skeptics’” science is being refuted, the fact is that deniers very seldom even attempt to produce any science. They typically merely attack the IPCC or Al Gore or Michael Mann or make political/religious attacks, such as the ones mention above. But, when they do, it is routinely and easily shown to be false. The very fact of the matter is that there is no science to support the claims of the denier crowd. None! Yes, the science really is settled and anyone who tells you differently is not telling you the truth. I even went so far as to offer to pay anyone $10,000 of my own money to anyone who could produce any such science and no one could, out of hundreds of submissions (many duplicates) could do so. And, unlike similar denier challenges (which inspired me to make my challenge), I posted all original submissions and showed why each was invalid. Many denies claim that it was rigged because I was the judge. Well, I’ve offered to pay if anyone can show how any of my decisions were invalid. They are right there for everyone to see. If it was rigged, it would be easy to show it, so why hasn't anyone done so? The offer still stands. You can see all submissions and my responses here.

Once again, we see Russell Cook has zero credibility.

Let’s continue. He next attacks the consensus. This is an area that is great concern to the denier community and that level of concern can be traced back to the Luntz memo from the George W. Bush administration entitled “The Environment: A Cleaner, Safer, Healthier America.” See the a copy of the entire memo here. http://www.motherjones.com/files/LuntzResearch_environment.pdf. Luntz stated (page 137, 7^th page down) (emphasis original),

Voters believe that there is no consensus about global warming within the scientific community. Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. Therefore, you need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate, and defer to scientists and other experts in the field.

You can see, Cook is sticking to the blueprint by claiming there is no consensus. But, it is real and you can read about it here, here and here, for starters. Notice how Cook uses his favorite tactic here – “It isn’t true until I say it’s true and I didn’t say it’s true, therefore it isn’t true.” You can tell by his language it infuriates him that there really is a consensus. This consensus has not only been confirmed with multiple studies, but has even been confirmed by deniers themselves. Read about it here. 

 

And, Cook continue with his zero credibility in the last paragraph, stating,

“What Tom Harris attempts to do is make up for the lack of reporting by the mainstream media about the skeptic side of the issue. While the skeptic side doesn't call for the censorship of comments such as those coming from folks like Dave James.”

Oh, beautiful. One of the things I keep documenting is how often comments providing refuting documentation get flagged and deleted by the deniers. They censor so much you could describe it as a plague. If fact, you can’t voice any dissenting opinion at all on many of denier sites without it being deleted. So, Cook is being less than honest on that issue. 

[UPDATE: In Cook's posting about my 25 so-called errors, Cook stated in a comment:

Since I periodically look at Keating's blog as a matter of curiosity, I found his then-proposed 6/28/17 letter-to-the-editor (archived in original form here http://archive.is/Iid5o ), and I alerted a DNT editor to it as yet another potential opportunity to challenge people like Keating to prove their assertions. The editor replied to say Keating's publication of it at his blog violated the newspaper's requirement about having first-publication exclusivity to such pieces, and he asked Keating to delete his blog post, which Keating did.

In other words, Cook is admitting to trying to censor my letter. Fortunately, it didn't work. The Duluth News Tribune published my letter.]

Concerning Tom Harris, if Harris actually produced any valid science there wouldn’t be any comments showing his errors. I have documented Harris’ efforts to deceive and mislead the public with false logic, deception and outright lies. You can read all about Tom Harris here and see for yourself. Don’t take my word for it, let Harris speak for himself.

What we have seen in this comment is that Russell Cook has less than zero credibility. In fact, like his buddy Harris, he is a paid shill, taking money from the Heartland Institute to promote their anti-science agenda. One of the things Cook is obsessed about is Ross Gelbspan. Gelbspan was an accomplished reporter and won the Pulitzer prize while with the Boston Globe, but he has since retired. Today, he writes an occasional blog post. So, Cook is either obsessed with a retired guy or a blogger. Take your pick.

I’ve spent a lot of time on this guy, but it’s for a purpose. Russell Cook is representative of so many of the anti-science trolls that it’s useful to examine his nonsense so we can combat it wherever we see it.

In a future post, I’ll review Cook’s claim about my 25 errors. It’ll be fun.