Another Cute Lefty Hoax

This time on Global Warming.

An emailer to Blue Crab Boulevard “tipped” the blogger to a hot new website, supposedly written by academics, that shatters the theory of ‘manmade global warming’:

I’m not going to publish the link, but the sender(s) constructed an elaborate website, complete with editorial, article, contacts, logo, etc. A couple of things set the alarm bells ringing…

Gaius, of Blue Crab Boulevard did a little investigating, and soon discovered the truth:

The site is five days old. There is no Daniel Klein at the University of Arizona. There is no search engine presence for a Climatological Department, Okinawa University. Cyberium.co.uk is a web designer that appears to work on “green” things pretty much exclusively. And there appears to be someone with entirely too much time on their hands and an agenda.

At least One blogger appears to have been taken in by the hoax, for a few hours, but then quickly updated.

Rush Limbaugh fell victim, as well.

Roy W. Spencer, PHD, a Principle Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, whom Rush consulted about the research findings, tried to warn Rush before he went on the air, but his email was unclear, and he blames himself for the confusion. 

Spencer noted:

David’s views on life are quite interesting. These include “There’s no such thing as evil”, and he lists as one of his heroes, “anyone and everyone who stands up for freedom, social justice and the environment against power, greed and capitalism!”

The website, “Journal of Geoclimatic Studies” is now down, or I would link to it, myself.

The whole idea of the hoax, of course is to make man-made global warming skeptics look foolish. You email a conservative about a very professional looking website that purports to debunk man made global warming, and see if they take the bait, so they can laugh and point fingers later on.

This is nothing more than a “Moby”, but on a much grander scale.

I would submit that hoaxes, like this, just make the hoaxsters, like David Thorpe look foolish.

But what is a pathetic, and foolish hoax to one person, is an “impressive web-based spoof”, to another.

H/T: Gateway Pundit