Just when you think the Palm Beach County Tea Party can't sink any deeper into the quicksand of gullibility, it brings in another clown act to prove you wrong.
Last time around, it was an uproar over a mythical U.N. plot to subvert local government via mind control. This time, crackpot science is on the menu.
See also: Tea Party: Let's Rewrite the U.S. Constitution!
This week's joker is one John L. Casey, president of the Space and Science Research Corp. and CEO of the International Earthquake and Volcano Prediction Center -- both outfits conveniently located in Orlando, just down the road from Disney World.
Casey, with a CV spotty as a case of measles, describes himself as "a former White House space program adviser, consultant to NASA Headquarters, and space shuttle engineer." He claims an M.A. in management from Webster University in St. Louis and a B.A. in physics and mathematics from "JSU" -- whatever and wherever that is.
Claiming to be the "foremost institution in the United States dedicated to communicating the need to prepare for the new cold climate epoch" (a dubious honor), Casey's Space and Science Research Corp. has, according to its website:
led all climate research companies in alerting the White House, Congress, and the maintsream [sic] media to the ill-effects of the next climate change predicted by the SSRC and other international scientists to be decades of potentially dangerous cold weather.
Casey's International Earthquake and Volcano Prediction Center came about, according to the SSRC website:
Because of the respect [Casey] had earned in his climate research in September 2011 he was asked by a group of the world's best geologists in earthquake prediction to bring them together in a new company to help save thousands of lives each year by predicting the most dangerous earthquakes in advance, a never before achieved objective.
Casey's work has never been published in a peer-reviewed academic journal, only self-published on the internet. He told New Times that's because "the importance of the findings and conclusions mandated the widest public dissemination possible, which the web supplies."
(Spreading the news of global cooling is so urgent that, in an April 28 letter to the White House, Casey warned President Obama that "African Americans, other minorities, and the poor will suffer the most because of the new cold era and your climate policies. This assertion is supported by the fact that a large percentage of these citizens are largely dependent on the US government for food, which we will start to run short of as the cold starts to damage crops.")
When New Times pressed Casey about his avoiding scientific journals, he cited their "limited space," "lack of expertise," and the "history of bias by some journals to publish anything that does not support manmade global warming."
University of Miami climate scientist Dr. Benjamin Kirtman told New Times this about Casey's work:
It looks to me that Casey is confused about global dimming, which actually seems to be in a reversal... As for the "global cooling" Casey is arguing for, all evidence is to the contrary. Indeed, ocean heat uptake has continued to steadily rise since the 1950s, and there is no plausible physical process (including changes in solar output) that would end this trend in the near-term (10-30 years). Casey's "Summary Climate Assessment" has some unsupportable statements. For example, Casey's assessment states that "Integrated Global Atmospheric Temperatures continue to show a long term COOLING trend that began in 2007. (100 year trend)." This is untrue (by far, 2001-10 is the warmest decade since the 1850s) and it is not mathematically possible detect a 100-year trend with seven years of data. The assessment goes on to state, "The rate of oceanic temperature decline has been slightly reduced over the past year but is expected to continue its long-term decline." This is also untrue -- July 2014 ocean temperatures are the warmest on record.
On the topic of Casey's rationale for avoiding peer-reviewed journals, Kirtman was brief: "This is the usual nonsense associated with individuals who are afraid their work cannot withstand peer review."
(We also sought comment on Casey's work from climate scientists at Yale University. A media rep there replied: "Unfortunately no one has the time for those clowns. There's too many of them.")
As for Casey's expertise on earthquakes and volcanoes, UM marine geoscientist Dr. Larry Peterson told us:
I'm afraid I can't be of much help. You asked for my thoughts about what's on the IEVPC website having to do with earthquake and volcano predictions, but that's way outside my expertise. Nonetheless, I forwarded the message to two other faculty here, one an earthquake seismologist and the other who does volcano monitoring by satellite, and they said they had never heard of any of the principles or those listed as Associated Scientists. They preferred not to comment further, and I don't think anything more needs to be said.
Our discussions with global cooling/earthquake/volcano expert John L. Casey ended on rather a wan note.
Casey asked us to "help in the SSRC mission of alerting the public to prepare for the coming cold epoch" and join him in "educating the public about the Earth's real climate status versus what we hear from the U.N. and the U.S. government."
We replied that we "would feel more confident about joining in your crusade if you could provide more detail about your work as 'White House space program adviser, consultant to NASA headquarters, and space shuttle engineer.' Function? Dates? Superiors? Supporting documentation would be helpful."
To which Casey responded "I wish I had more time for our dialogue, but I don't see it going anywhere, at least not to the extent of helping the SSRC mission. It appears we are at an end point... I wish you the best in your future endeavors."
John L. Casey speaks to the Palm Beach County Tea Party tonight and tomorrow, to the Jupiter chapter on Monday, September 1, and to the Boca Raton chapter on Tuesday, September 2.
Fire Ant -- an invasive species, tinged bright red, with an annoying, sometimes-fatal sting -- covers South Florida news and culture. Got feedback or a tip? Contact [email protected].
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