On Thursday afternoon (Nov. 13), the White House’s vaunted social media squad invited Americans to go on Twitter, Facebook, Vine, or Instagram and pose questions about climate change to the president’s science advisor using the hashtag #AskDrH. Said the White House blog:
“Dr. John P. Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, wants to answer any questions that you have about climate change — what it means, how bad it actually is, and what we can do to fight it.”
Wait a minute! Holdren will answer “any questions that you have about climate change” … but only if they conform to the notion that human activity is causing a climate crisis, and restricting human activity by government direction can “fight it.” I think the White House misspelled “any.”
As it turned out, this was not going to be a “live” social media event anyway. At some point in the future, we’re told, someone at the White House is going to hand pick a few questions Holdren to answer “on camera” for YouTube. As of Sunday evening, Holdren has provided no answers. Maybe that’s because the White House social media experts are having a hard time sifting through the wreckage of their ill-conceived campaign and finding the very few that conform to Holdren’s alarmist point of view.
The #AskDrH hashtag was hijacked by folks who had real, pointed, and scientifically based questions for Holdren. They also had a bit of fun at Holdren’s expense. I haven’t counted them all — that’s impossible, because new questions keep coming in, even days later — but it’s safe to say that … um … at least 97 percent of questioners don’t believe in man-caused global warming, and want Holdren to explain some inconvenient truths.
If he’s serious about his mission as “Science Advisor” to the President of the United States, he should address some of the many very serious questions on the science. The Heartland Institute has a long-standing challenge to Dr. Holdren to debate a skeptic climate scientist, and we threw that in to the #AskDrH stream many times.
Challenge to #AskDrH: Public debate w/skeptic #climate scientist on the data: http://t.co/ojOEFGOlZK Pick time, place. Do you accept? — Heartland Institute (@HeartlandInst) November 16, 2014
No answer, so far.
Twitchy on Thursday, just hours after the call for questions went out, reported on the #EpicFail of the White House’s latest effort to rally public support around the climate crisis meme. If they were surprised that the vast majority of questions would be actually challenges on the science — as well as Holdren’s long public record of wildly goofy and wrong predictions about the climate — the person in charge of social media at the White House should consider another line of work. Perhaps barista.
Go here to see all the #AskDrH questions on Twitter. (You will have to scroll down, and down, and down …) Here are some of our favorites:
Wil these guys ever learn? #AskDrH: The President’s Science Advisor Is Answering Your Questions on Climate Change http://t.co/UePLJle7aU — Adam Curry (@adamcurry) November 13, 2014
Why does the @WhiteHouse use junk science numbers to shoot themselves in foot w/Climate Control? #AskDrH ex http://t.co/xBP10P85P0 — MedicalQuack (@MedicalQuack) November 13, 2014
#askDrH What is relevance of Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds? pic.twitter.com/X7VQB4nKFA — Euphonius Bugnuts (@EuphoniusNuts) November 15, 2014
#AskDrH @hockeyschtick1: @EcoSenseNow @MarkBoslough e.g. The entire Ordovician ice age occurred with CO2 levels 6X higher than the present — William Tireman (@AnswerIsFusion) November 16, 2014
#askdrh please comment on report from Nature, Tropical storms not intensifying. http://t.co/OyRqSLVrwv — Ima Debatin’ (@ImaBannedd) November 16, 2014
Dear #AskDrH Why did you predict a new ice age in 1971? pic.twitter.com/oCZRfydTc4 — Steve Goddard (@SteveSGoddard) November 13, 2014
Was your claim abt losing all WINTER Arctic ice sea the stupidest utterance ever by a Pres. science advisor? #askDrH http://t.co/nGQgd5Welx — Tom Nelson (@tan123) November 13, 2014
Dear #AskDrH The @EPA says that heatwaves were much worse in the 1930’s Why are you claiming otherwise? pic.twitter.com/Ix5tgfu6kQ — Steve Goddard (@SteveSGoddard) November 13, 2014
#AskDrH What was the climate control knob during 70s ice age scare and why did it switch to CO2 during AGW scare? How does that even work? — Euphonius Bugnuts (@EuphoniusNuts) November 15, 2014
Dear #AskDrH Why did @NASA recently tamper with their own temperature data to make it appear to be warming faster? http://t.co/UdKNrH2fum — Steve Goddard (@SteveSGoddard) November 15, 2014
Dear #AskDrH Why is Antarctic sea ice extent at a record high in 2014? — Steve Goddard (@SteveSGoddard) November 15, 2014
Arctic Viagra Dooms Alarmists http://t.co/dU1GZoZvsx via @SteveSGoddard #ClimateChanges #Alarmism #G20 #AskDrH #AGW? pic.twitter.com/iFY9mTeuPf — JWSpry (@JWSpry) November 15, 2014
#AskDrH Since IPCC admits it doesn’t understand solar effects on climate, how can they be ruled out and man blamed to >95% certainty? — Euphonius Bugnuts (@EuphoniusNuts) November 13, 2014
Dear #AskDrH, Why is Arctic sea ice extent at its highest level in over a decade? http://t.co/apKtP6HQkP pic.twitter.com/1lZ0OmnfAs — Steve Goddard (@SteveSGoddard) November 15, 2014
#askDrH do you & @DavidSuzuki both not realize that climate occilates on its own and has for billions of years? pic.twitter.com/iHthnOAjJo — Alaina Fraser (@FraserAlaina) November 14, 2014
#AskDrH how do you answer those using the 18+ year warming pause, Antarctic ice gain and normal Arctic ice to cast doubt on #ClimateChange? — Malcolm Bell (@malcky) November 13, 2014
#AskDrH If the science is settled, then why does the data have to be constantly “adjusted”? — WilliamTeach (@WilliamTeach) November 16, 2014
#askdrh why did the UN IPCC not post a ‘best’ estimate of climate sensitivity as they have previously? Is it because it keeps dropping? — Ima Debatin’ (@ImaBannedd) November 15, 2014
#askdrh Comment please: pic.twitter.com/cIm5JcF7we — Ima Debatin’ (@ImaBannedd) November 15, 2014
#AskDrH Why should we believe absorption & emission spectra in a lab jar dominate heat transfer in the troposphere? — Euphonius Bugnuts (@EuphoniusNuts) November 15, 2014
#AskDrH Do you plan to actually respond to the very real allegations of data tampering? — Matthew Ozarko (@MattOzarko) November 16, 2014
#AskDrH Why did Hugo Chavez get a standing O at Copenhagen Climate conference when he said capitalism must be destroyed to save climate? — Euphonius Bugnuts (@EuphoniusNuts) November 13, 2014
If you and Obama had complete control over US energy policy, how many Americans would survive a typical winter? #AskDrH — Tom Nelson (@tan123) November 14, 2014
repost #askdrh Comment please pic.twitter.com/39ALZz8OOa — Ima Debatin’ (@ImaBannedd) November 15, 2014
#AskDrH Will a red checkered onesie and cup of hot cocoa keep me warm during this Global Warming cold wave? pic.twitter.com/2y4lCQgkCF — John (@ATXright) November 14, 2014
#AskDrH ~ when #ClimateChange hysteria permanently deflates, what will be the next, most promising green crusade? “Running out” of water? — Tyler Dunford (@tydunford) November 13, 2014
Learn more about what’s really happening to the climate from the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC). These scientists have examined the data — that actual data, not the “gamed” or “adjusted” data to fit a long-standing political outcome.
Read the Climate Change Reconsidered series, which amounts to some 3,000 pages (and thousands of citations from the peer-reviewed scientific literature) showing that there is no human-caused climate crisis. And also visit the archive page of The Heartland Institute’s nine international conferences on climate change, featuring 197 speakers since 2008.
Jim Lakely is the Vice President and Director of Communications of The Heartland Institute.
