2015 Annual Hockey Stick Awards

February 23rd, 2015 by Roy W. Spencer, Ph. D.

hockey-stick-awardI attended the 28th annual Hockey Stick Awards ceremony, which was held Sunday evening in Dubai, where top climate scientists and scientist wannabes from around the world were honored for their contributions to saving humanity from itself.

As has been the tradition each year, the “Stickies” ceremony was held in an exotic and far-flung destination that requires long-distance travel, helping to highlight the negative impact that excessive fossil fuel consumption has on the environment.

The award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role was again shared by Al Gore and Rajendra Pachauri for their portrayal of concerned citizens who warn the world of environmental destruction due to excessive consumption by everyone except themselves.
Gore-Pachauri-award
The latest in their Inconvenient Truth franchise, entitled Two Inconvenient Sleuths, has stunned the world with compelling footage of massive Greenland glaciers calving into the ocean, which of course seldom happened before the automobile was invented.

michael-mann-awardThe award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role went to Michael Mann for his spot-on portrayal of the victim scientist, persecuted by global warming skeptics at every turn. His most recent movie, Persecuted Mann VII, has been widely acclaimed. Film director Michael Mann (no relation) made a brief move toward the stage until he realized he was not the intended award recipient.

Best Achievement in Film Editing went to Bill Nye and Al Gore, for their high school level science experiment short film which purported to show warming in a glass bowl injected with pure carbon dioxide, which has been applauded as “convincing” and “inspiring” despite its physical impossibility.

The Best Faux Journalism award was given to the New York Times’ Justin Gillis, whose portrayal of a radical environmentalist posing as an unbiased reporter in Green Hornet at The Times has received some critical reviews as being “too transparent”. The ceremony was briefly interrupted when Jon Stewart stormed the stage, demanding the Faux Journalism award be given to him instead.

I would report on the other award presentations except that I fell asleep during Al Gore’s acceptance speech, which I am told ran over 2 hours and included 115 Powerpoint slides.


46 Responses to “2015 Annual Hockey Stick Awards”

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  1. Johan says:

    After academia aspiring for a career as a writer of satire ? 🙂

    • my wife assumes that everything that comes out of my mouth is satire. Causes problems sometimes.

      • Dale A. Monceaux says:

        Even more reason to support Johan’s suggestion.

      • Clay Stiles says:

        That is probably a safe position for her. Less confusing to think that everything you say is satire. That leaves it up to you to starighten her out when it really matters!

      • JohnKl says:

        Don’t worry, everything emitted from the mouths of Al Gore, Bill Nye and Rajendra Pachauri will likely prove to be a joke. Unfortunately, the millions forced to suffer from ever restricted access to abundant planetary hydrocarbons won’t be laughing as a few western and mid-eastern potentates lock-up access to Earth resources ideally available to all. When will Isis and AlQueda be provided some enviro-fascist acclaim for their part in POPULATION CONTROL…?

        When will the GREEN NAZI prize be handed out?!!! Hopfully never but I’m afraid it will be sooner than anyone expects.

        Have a great day!

  2. geran says:

    Dr. Roy, you outdid yourself this time. SUPER hilarious!

  3. wyoskeptic says:

    Two thumbs up, Dr. Roy. A good spoof. A very good spoof.

  4. smithy says:

    Love it! Keep up the good work Dr Spencer.

  5. Ben Palmer says:

    It ia well known that high CO2 concentration in crowded spaces leads to sleepiness. QED.

  6. Mike Bromley the Kurd says:

    Thw Stickies? 115 slides? Delightful satire.

  7. boris says:

    If Maurice Strong could only arrange to get Al Gore an honorary degree from Peking University. To carry on the intellectual tradition of Chairman Mao!

    • JohnKl says:

      Mao has an intellectual tradition? If you encounter mush move on! If you encounter steel retreat! All the lefty stuff, just so much babble.

      Have a great day!

  8. richard says:

    hmm- seems that Gore and Pachauri have other things in common below the belt.

  9. Stephen Richards says:

    Roy, you could have made a model of an open hand and awarded gropers of the year at the same ceremonies.

    • yeah…I decided to not go there.

      • Shawn Torgerson says:

        You really should have, lol. I’ve read everything on here (including comments) for the past 4-5 years, but I rarely comment myself. Just would like to say that I really love this site and admire your work in the field, Roy. Keep it going. Through reading an insane amount of books on climate (and columns, and reports, etc…) I’m pretty close to where you are at in understanding the current debate and science. I’m hoping more level headed people in the future will drive the general opinion instead of the current mindlessness that dominates the culture. Best wishes and success in getting your view out to the world.

        Shawn

  10. JohnKl says:

    What strikes me when I view images of Al Gore, Bill Nye and Rajendra Pachauri has to be their cultivated faux media images as apparently a set of cartoon characters from 1960’s child cartoons. Al Gore looks like some Clark Kent captain planet enviro-savior, Bill Nye like some neurotic science nerd and Rajendra Pachauri like Johnny Quests Hindi friend grown-up to apparently like his friends save the planet from the capitalist exploiters all the while of course lining their own pockets at the expense of the poor and marginalized. The cartoon nature of the trendy trio should be fit for ridicule. That so many seem fit to follow them likely spells collapse of civilization unless the population of morons can be culled from the population. Of course if that happened who would seek power?

    Have a great day!

  11. bassman says:

    Roy, Joking aside, I think your community should address the Soon story that broke over the weekend. After all, he was pushing the “its the sun” argument pretty hard. Commenters here are obviously free to talk about that idea even if peer reviewed science continues to reaffirm that solar variation isn’t a significant factor (less than 10%) in recent warming. This is compared to what Soon, with undisclosed fossil fuel money, was saying (sun could be be more than 66% of warming). Here is a new article looking at Soon’s “its the sun” argument.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/02/23/no-the-sun-isnt-driving-global-warming/

    By the way, I feel sorry for Soon. I mean that. He should have just taught at a community college if he couldn’t get research money from reputable sources. There is great dignity in teaching. Now, he will be thrown under the bus. Yet the fossil fuel companies, politicians and think tanks that supported his debunked research, called on him to testify over thousands of more qualified climate scientists and gave him money will continue to exist and wield influence. They are the ones who should be removed before Soon is.

    • Gras Albert says:

      Bassman,

      A little birdy tells me your comment, which doesn’t discuss Roy Spencer’s “Hockey Stick Awards” post, but which instead try to discredit the post by talking about anything but what’s in it.

      When I heard that I said to myself, “No commenter at Roy Spencer’s blog can be that pig ignorant or wantonly scurrilous.” Am I right? “No,” I said, “the commenter must be writing about two common fallacies used by those who deny science. The genetic fallacy and the non sequitur.”

      When confronted by an unpleasant result, non-scientists in the blogosphere love to encourage the genetic fallacy, which is when they try and get their audiences to believe that the origin of a truth is false because of that truth’s origin. I know you’ll have difficulty believing this, Bassman, but this strategy actually works! People are so gleeful at the possibility that they don’t have to confront the truth that they leap at the chance to turn the discussion to money or politics. Shameful and more than a little sad, no?

      And then there’s the non sequitur that falsely accusing a man of not checking off a box on a paper submission form therefore invalidates the results of that paper. Embarrassing that anybody would believe such a thing. But it happens!

      I know you know these things, Bassman, but I had to say them because I wanted to share my misery over the shoddy state of science these days.

      Incidentally, isn’t it wonderfully cheering news that the results in the “Why models run hot” paper show that multitude of the-end-is-nigh forecasts are very likely exaggerated?

      with apologies to Willie Briggs 🙂

      In 2012 the Sierra Club took in $97,757,678 and its Foundation took in $47,163,599. The Environmental Defense Fund listed $111,915,138 in earnings, the Natural Resources Defense Council took in $98,701,707 and the National Audubon Society took in $96,206,883. These four groups accounted for more than $353 million in one year.

      Which one pays you to post here, Bassman?

    • Bart says:

      Straw men and ad hom – yeah, that’s a winning scientific argument.

      • crakar24 says:

        Bart,

        I could not agree more but unfortunately that is what passes for scientific arguement now days.

      • crakar24 says:

        Here is a good example

        http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-change-researcher-Wei-Hock-Soon.html

        I cant read the “evidence” as i dont have an up to date browser (i will look later) but the WATTS story

        http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/02/23/greenpeace-enlists-justin-gillis-john-schwartz-of-the-ny-times-in-journalistic-terrorist-attack-on-willie-soon-miss-target-hit-smithsonian-instead/

        Claims there is no evidence, perhaps you could add your opinions.

        Cheers

        • Bart says:

          My opinion is that it is an argument for people who have no other. As the old admonition to aspiring attorneys goes:

          When the facts are on your side, pound the facts.
          When the law is on your side, pound the law.
          When neither are on your side, pound the table!

          What you are seeing is some world class table pounding.

        • Bart says:

          PS: It is a myth that Big Oil is against AGW. By far, most petrodollars are going to support the AGW proponents. Why? Because they are safe and secure knowing there is no “alternative” energy source that will ever really compete with them, and the AGW meme allows them to hamstring their real competition in coal.

          Soon accepted support from oil concerns for completely unrelated research. Meanwhile, UEA has major backing from Shell and BP.

          http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100020304/climategate-peak-oil-the-cru-and-the-oman-connection/

          It’s all a scam to deflect attention away from the failure of the AGW hypothesis to project anything close to the actual observed temperatures.

          • crakar24 says:

            Hi Bart i just had a look at the “small sampling” on offer by greenpeace (actually its 59 of 131 pages which i would consider more than small but these people have never been good at estimation).

            Anyway i would have thought the “small sampling” would have not only established the basic case against W Soon but also a couple of nails for the coffin thrown in aswell.

            However the 59 pages are nothing but abstracts and the like with a couple of funding contracts signed by the Smithsonian and not W Soon.

            Not only that but all the abstracts have been co authored ergo green peace are not only accusing W Soon of unethical behaviour but all the co authors as well.

            I can smell a big fat law suit coming their way due to defamation and damages, the irony is if they win they will probably get a bigger payout than the funding they received LOL

          • Ron C. says:

            In attacking Dr. Soon, green journalists display a quite stunning world view. Behind their writings you can see their logic:

            Climate scientists are paid to publish results supporting Global Warming.
            Dr. Soon’s results don’t support Global Warming.
            QED Dr. Soon is paid by those against Global Warming.

            Seeing all the fame and fortune going to true believers, they can not imagine a scientist motivated by his own integrity. After all, in their view, all published results are bought and paid for.

            Green journalists attacking Dr. Soon reveal their operating assumption: Climate science is totally corrupt. . .well, 97% corrupt.

    • Shawn Torgerson says:

      The real money is in the field of going along with the current consensus. Is that you, bassman? I would think there is much better access to $100 billion than to $17 million (numbers are a few years old, but likely the ratio is still the same). Argue the science and stop with the ad hominem attacks, please. It only discredits you.

  12. Beta Blocker says:

    Bassman, do you think the PBS television program Nova should stop accepting money from David H. Koch since he is not a ‘reputable source of funding’ as you would define it?

  13. jimc says:

    Wait a minute. This story is a hoax. The hockey stick debuted in 1999 (2006 in the movie). Can’t be the 28th annual awards.

    • crakar24 says:

      Thats a very good point and i am glad someone brought it up, i believe in the interests of openess and honesty this requires clarification.

      The cult’s original awards ceremony was held in 1987 and was then known as the “Jimbo’s” in honour of their founding father and spiritual leader James Hansen.

      In 1996, Jimbo was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and it was then that Jimbo developed his obsession with coal, gas, tar and Daryl Hannah. He wanted to radicalise the cult, stage protests and the like but the elders disagreed and they parted company. Since then he went from strength to strength winning award after award and was last seen being led away in handcuffs (along with Hannah from the white house).

      In 1997 it became known as the “Moonies” in honour of Ban Ki Moons tireless efforts in getting all the stupid nations of the world to dign on to the Kyoto protocol.

      In 1998 it became known as the “El Nino’s”, when questioned as to this particular name the cult stated “despite the good work from Moon the year before our rank and file were leaving in droves because reality was closing in and then along came the great El Nino of 98”. During this year the cults membership swelled to record levels so they decided to honour this natural event. They also stated the spanish translation into “Little boy” was simply a coincidence, the smut novel written by the cults expert on railways did nothing to quell the rumours, rumours that still persist to this day.

      In 1999 the cult keen to take advantage of this lucky turn of events commissioned a little known graphics art student to produce an artists impression of future temps if the great El Nino persisted for eternity. The intention was to simply maintain the momentum for another year but not even in the cults wildest dreams could they have predicted what has transpired since then.

      And so from then to this day it is known as the Stickies in honour of that graphic arts student.

      Cheers

    • Roy Spencer says:

      facts don’t matter. Only feelings. And it felt like the 28th annual awards to me.

  14. Bohdan Burban says:

    For spoof, the recently released movie “Kingsman – The Secret Service”. The baddie (played by Samuel Jackson), is a demented AGW zealot out to stop global warming by any means. It’s hilarious British humor.

  15. H. Clay Daulton says:

    Dr. Spencer,

    Perhaps this would be a good time for you to do a little lesson on how use of time series arithmetic charts showing steady annual PERCENTAGE growth can result in severe hockey-stick appearances at certain scales and why semi-log charts are so much better because they eliminate misleading appearances of escalating whatevers. If you have already done this, forgive me for having missed it.

  16. bev says:

    This from Reuters:

    “Pachauri quits U.N. Climate Panel after sexual harassment claims.”

  17. Don Aitkin says:

    Very droll. I was worried for the first few lines …

  18. Thanks, Dr. Spencer.
    Fantastic spoof. Now I can say I did not completely miss the Oscar thing.

  19. Travis Casey says:

    Great piece Dr. Spencer.

    I look forward to your comment on the targeting of the “list of seven” by US Representative Raúl Grijalva, since your great associate, Dr. Christy is included. It is clearly an attempt to discredit anti-alarm climate scientists and it is sickening.

  20. Gunga Din says:

    😎 Stick it to the Mann!

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