Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Rejected? Request for Steele's CA temperature graphs provenance


I have made a second 'official' request to Mr. Steele to provide support for his claims, in this case I want to know the provenance of the temperature graphs he uses to support his claim California has not been experiencing any unusual warming these past decades.  (For the first request see here)

I did find out that his Yosemite National Park temperature graph is a fraud in that the information it displays doesn't agree with the data at the Western Regional Climate Center (For the details see: http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2014/12/yosemite-np-mystery-temp-graph.html).

Steele's four California (Yosemite Nat'l Park, Lake Tahoe, Mt. Shasta and Cuyamaca) temperature graphs all have the same homemade look and feel and I believe it's very fair to ask: 
Who compiled those graphs?
What is the source of the data used when creating those graphs?

Considering the wind Mr. Steele expends preaching about "civil dialogue"; the wisdom of Carl Sagan and Mark Twain; and the standards scientists need to hold themselves up to - it seems to me, it's all decidedly one-sided.  That is: "do as I say, not as I do."

For example in Mr. Steele's essay "Blinded by Beliefs: The Straight Poop on Emperor" paragraph #12, he remarks: "Mark Twain again provides insight to why bad science so easily goes viral having written, “In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from others.” And apparently scientists suffer the same second? hand folly."

But try to apply that to Mr. Steele and he responds with silence or veiled threats (here), but no serious engagement regarding the questions at hand.  

Since, Mr. Steele makes much of his connection to San Francisco State University (he's an instructor at their Sierra Nevada Field Campus) lending him an air of authority he milks for all it's' worth, I had decided to include his boss in my quest to get Mr. Steele to respond.  I do this for two reasons,  A) being a nobody I prefer witnesses when dealing with intimidating characters,  B) I figure that San Francisco State University has certain academic standards they expect their instructors and professors to uphold - but who knows, I may be wrong.

Director Blair wants none of it, Mr. Steele remains silent, legitimate inquires remain unanswered, and me, I'm going to keep doing the best I can with what I have.  Here I share the most recent email exchange.


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From: Peter (citizenschallenge)
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 1:10 PM
To: Jim A. Steele
Cc: John R Blair; Four Corners Free Press
Subject: Requesting Mr. Steele's CA temperature graphs provenance

Mr. Steele (and Mr.Blair),

In Mr. Steele's YouTube Climate Horror video "Penguins, Polar Bears and Sea Ice by Jim Steele" and also in "Jim Steele's IEEE Presentation Part 1: Climate Sensitivity and Drought: Landscape Changes vs CO2" (among other venues) Jim uses California temperature graphs representing Yosemite National Park, Lake Tahoe, Mt. Shasta and Cuyamaca.  

Those temperature graphs offer no indication of their source, nor does his narrative offer any hints.  I have tried to uncover their provenance with no luck.

I request that you share the following information:

What is the source of the data used in those graphs?
Who compiled those graphs?

Your cooperation would be much appreciated.


Sincerely, Peter (Citizenschallenge)

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John R Blair  8:11 PM, Jan 13, 2015

Dear Peter:

Please do not include me in your correspondence with Mr. Steele. I cannot answer your questions. I do not have access to that information. My relationship with him is only that he is an instructor of a workshop called Bird Identification by Song at the Sierra Nevada Field Campus. If you have questions about that workshop or about the Field Campus then I am happy to oblige.

Thank you for your consideration.

J.R. Blair
Director, Sierra Nevada Field Campus

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Peter (citizenschallenge)  9:09 PM, Jan 13, 2015

Director Blair,

I will not be able to honor your request, and before long I will be copying the president of San Francisco State University on future correspondences since there will be more inquires coming.

Sincerely, CC

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Peter (citizenschallenge)  9:12 PM, Jan 13, 2015

Furthermore,

Please note your Mr. Steele continues to ignore my requests for reasonable citations regarding his many claims.

It would be nice if you held him to the same high standards he preaches about!

Sincerely, CC

3 comments:

Catmando said...

Steele was challenged over at HotWhopper on his reading of a paper on temperatures in Texas that clearly did not say what he claimed it said. Steele could not bring himself to admit he was wrong. My guess is that the source doesn't really exist. Up to Steele to prove me wrong.

citizenschallenge said...

I just received an interesting challenge from an "Anonymous" at Years of Living Dangerously the creepy side of the internet debate and it's simply too timely not to share under this post.
Anonymous writes:

"Actually, Mr.CC (wrong name previously - Steele is who I'm writing) has checked your numbers and graphs with the numbers and graphs from the Western Regional Climate Center. the WRCC holds the official climate data so yes, being a scientist and working at the WRCC, I have to ask...where do you get your data? You shouldn't get angry because people question you. [on Years of Living Dangerously the creepy side of the internet debate"]
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Why should I be angry? Besides, please notice I'm not the one presenting homemade temperature graphs. And when I do present data I clearly display its source!

"Steele is who I'm writing" - so are you claiming to be Mr. Steele or writing this on his behalf? You also say you work at the WRCC? Which office? You say you've checked the numbers with the WRCC? Is that a fact?
Then why not share some of those details??

But, funny that, I have checked with WRCC a couple different times - they tell me a different story, please refer to: Steele's Yosemite Nat'l Park mystery temp graph? (12/2/14)

And most ironically just today I received another email from them responding to my second inquiry:

January 23, 2015 | 1:40 PM (9 hours ago)
And I quote:

"First - Mt Shasta’s record began Aug 1986 then no data from Nov 1986 till Jan 1988 so … long term, didn’t really start till Jan 1988.  Where he is getting his data from the early 1900 is beyond me.  Perhaps he is putting a few stations together to create a graph with a long term record, who knows.

Because of this, obviously the numbers are wrong.
As you can see from the table I provided, these numbers don’t match up.
I didn’t make a graph but one could easily…

Second - what is Minimum RAW vs Adjusted mean?

I don’t get what this guy is trying to prove..?"

Service Climatologist
Western Regional Climate Center
Desert Research Institute
2215 Raggio Parkway
Reno, NV  89512-1095
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So how about it?
Where's your WRCC evidence?
Perhaps you can explain why Mr. Steele won't respond to my direct email asking him about his source?

citizenschallenge said...

I thought about that question:
I don’t get what this guy is trying to prove..?
After giving it some thought I answered:
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"Thank you for the information, it's helpful.

As for what Mr. Steele is trying to prove?
Nothing at all.

He's happy just to play his part in keeping people confused, apathetic and hostile to accepting scientific reality along with the obligation to start seriously addressing the problem we've created for ourselves - which would result from such an appreciation.

Thanks for all your help."