Fish Gotta Swim, Birds Gotta Fly, and Peter Gleick Gotta Lie

Published July 6, 2013

With apologies to Oscar Hammerstein, I ain’t “lovin’ dat man of mine.” And why would I after the crimes Peter Gleick committed against the Heartland Institute in the Fakegate scandal? But is sure is fun to point and laugh when the admitted fraudster and thief does a face plant on his genius grant.

The disgraced water scientist, fake climate expert, and president of the Pacific Institute Tweeted out the following pic and comment on July 1:

That Tweet included a link to a story at MNN (Mother Nature Network) claiming that hot temperatures — 110 F in Kuwait that day — were responsible for melting the traffic light. The “genius” Gleick apparently thinks temperatures of 110 F can literally melt traffic lights … without wondering why it only melted one half of the traffic light, and why traffic lights in Phoenix and Las Vegas right now have not all been liquified. It was hotter in those American cities that day than it was in Kuwait.

It’s hard to tell if Gleick was just not using his brain — in which case, the MacArthur Foundation should demand its grant money back — or if he was willfully trying to pull a fast one on low-information Americans. Well, consider how easy it was for Heartland friend Joanne Nova to find and share a wider shot that quickly and obviously solves the “mystery” of the melting traffic light:

car-burning-traffic-lights

Obviously, this was not the work of global warming. So which is it with Gleick? Was he duped, or was he trying to dupe the public? Actually, it’s both. After Gleick was subjected to a barrage of tweets that pointed and laughed at his stupidity, Gleick tweeted this:

You get the idea? What idea? That typical summer temperatures in Kuwait — and Phoenix and Las Vegas and, say, Riverside, California — can actually melt traffic lights? Yeah, we get the idea, Gleick. You continued to defend the bogus image even after your deception was revealed. That’s called continuing to lie.

But any hot port in a storm, eh? Weather isn’t climate … unless some run-of-the-mill heat wave can be combined with a vehicle fire to convince the gullible that Chicken Little is right — the fish, the birds, and that man of mine are all gonna melt.

Speaking of Chicken Little, here’s a picture I took of him during the winter:

frozenchicken

Cold enough for you? I tried to revive the poor guy, but he was already belly up — and with freezer burn, to boot. This tragedy was no doubt the result of some odd combination of events — such as being bred, plucked, processed, and shipped in a freezer truck to the supermarket — not just air temp. But you get the idea! Global cooling is really happening, it’s man’s fault, and IT WILL BE OUR DOOM!!!

Where’s my genius grant? I’m at least smart enough to know a joke and a hoax when I them.

[HT: Joanne Nova and Anthony Watts, especially for his original and inspirational take on the “genius” theme.]