http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kXkWXSXRA

This celebration of silly nerdiness is what makes me enjoy their videos so much. And often they manage to put some interesting factoids in their videos.

As they enjoy talking about interesting factoids they created several spin-off channels where they solely do this. One of them being the recently created channel SciShow which already has over 93,000 subscribers.

I was thrilled when on they uploaded a video about climate change and global warming. As I knew it would be funny and filled with accurate information. And they didn’t disappoint:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Jxs7lR8ZI

A perfect example of how you communicate science to the masses.

We’re teaching our kids class warfare. Where are we, Communist China?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9cGYRz-6sQ

When this came to my attention I already said that Fox taking the Muppets serious was beyond me. It’s why I found the satire response from Conan so fitting to this situation.

But now Miss Piggy from the Muppets has chipped in on the accusations from Fox Business:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8YhED4IgQA

QUESTIONER: Question for Kermit. Kermit, everybody who’s seen the film loves it. It’s suitable for kids, it’s suitable for parents. But I’ve got to ask you how you felt when — I think it was Eric Bolling from Fox News said it was pushing a dangerous liberal agenda and trying to brainwash children [unintelligible]

KERMIT: Oh, yes.

[laughter]

QUESTIONER: [unintelligible] horrible.

KERMIT: It’s so dangerous. I’m so afraid! No, you know, it’s a funny thing. They were concerned about us having some prejudice against oil companies. And I can tell you that’s categorically not true.

And besides, if we had a problem with oil companies, why would we have spent the entire film driving around in a gas-guzzling Rolls Royce?

[laughter]

JAMES BOBINS (director of The Muppets): He’s got a point.

MISS PIGGY: It’s almost as laughable as accusing Fox News as, you know, being news.

[laughter and applause]

KERMIT: Boy, that’s gonna be all over the Internet. You are in such deep water.

MISS PIGGY: Yeah. Yeah, if they take what I say seriously, they’ve got a real big problem.

[laughter]

KERMIT: Wow.

It’s a strange day when Miss Piggy actually makes sense.

The scientific discussion has long since moved on from whether we are causing the increase in our planets temperature to fine tuning what effects this will have. We know it is happening, we are responsible for it and we are now in the process of finding out that we have been underestimating it.

Yet, the so-called sceptics have managed to delay action, very effectively spreading misinformation. A considerable amount of misinformation comes from the blogosphere, where familiar and long-debunked claims about climate change are repeated time and time again.

Case in point, Anthony Watts with his website Watts Up With That:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wbzK4v7GsM

Being called out does not stop him from spreading obvious misinformation.

So how does he manage to still hold on to the trust of his readers?

The reasons are many, and have lot to do with the mindset of a science denier, but he does have his methods for creating the illusion of legitimacy. One of these methods is gaming the internet vote for certain dubious “science blog” awards.

When Watts won the 2011 Bloggie Award in the category Best Science Blog, he gave full credit to his loyal readership:

This was truly surprising. According to the Bloggies Facebook page, WUWT has been named the first ever winner of the Best Science Blog category (new this year for the Bloggies), beating Wired and Boing Boing, both of whom have way more reach and traffic than we do. I suppose it demonstrates the loyalty of our readers.

These awards are won by popular vote, rather than merit. Those that rouse or manufacture enough support, can engineer a win in the submitted category – in this case resulting in “science” awards for a blog that routinely misinforms on scientific subjects and even slanders scientists.

Watts is at it  again for the 2012 Bloggies:

Well, it is that time of year again. You can nominate your favorite blogs for top honors in the 2012 Bloggies Awards. As many know, WUWT won last year in the Best Science Blog category. This year, Science and Technology blogs have been combined into a single category, so the competition will likely be stronger.

I also followed up on his advice and joined in to vote, which also meant I had an interesting opportunity. If you submit nominees for the Bloggies you can indicate that you are interested in being selected as a one of the 200 randomly selected voters who choose the finalists.

And I was selected as one of those 200 voters. Thanks to this I am in the possession of a ballot to vote for the finalists and a list of the candidates for “Best Science or Technology Weblog”. For your convenience I’ve marked the ‘sceptic’ sites in orange and the actual science sites that report accurately on climate change in green (order as they appeared on the ballot):

• mashable.com
• bishop-hill.net
• techcrunch.com
• judithcurry.com
• drroyspencer.com
• motls.blogspot.com
• freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula
• wattsupwiththat.com
• real-science.com
• whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com
• gizmodo.com
• noconsensus.wordpress.com
• climateaudit.org
• climatedepot.com
• badscience.net
• tallbloke.wordpress.com
• blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy
• geekmom.com
• engadget.com
• joannenova.com.au
• skepticalscience.com

The listing is flooded with sites spreading misinformation on climate science, just one site on it that is dedicated to combatting the misinformation on climate, and two that from time to time highlight mainstream climate science and call out denialism. It’s an indication of the (often “astro turfed”) swarming behavior that often allows climate deniers to punch above their actual weight.

How should the pro-science community counter this?

The above lists of candidates will be distilled into a list of finalists, five of them in total. On February 1st, everyone will be able to vote for the finalists. This is your chance to help an actual science blog to win this category.

Mark this date in you agenda, and go to the Bloggies website to let your voice be heard.  Go to your favorite climate science site and notify them so they can spread the word – and join me next year to submit your favorite science sites.

It might not seem a big thing to do, but it is important to stop misinformers from getting awards that they can use to legitimize the misinformation they spread. The majority of the population support the proposed changes for dealing with climate change, even when they might not believe that we are the cause – since most of those changes are needed in any case to compete technologically, and provide a less toxic, more livable planet for our children.

Let our voices be heard.

Image by Joel Pett

Big sites like YouTube, Facebook or even small start-ups can be shut down by a company accusing them of publishing copyrighted material.

No court, no judge, nobody checking if someone actually did something wrong.

Because of this I have signed the petition by AVAAZ. Will you help to stop this?

Today could be the day we save the free Internet. 

The US Congress was poised to pass a law allowing officials to censor access to any website around the world. But after we delivered our 1.25 million strong petition to the White House, it came out against the bill and with public pressure at a boiling point even some bill backers are switching sides. Now, the Wikipedia – led blackout protest has rocketed the public campaign to the top of the news.

We are turning the tide. But the dark forces of censorship are trying to revive the bill right now. Let’s bury it for good today. Click to sign this emergency petition to save the Internet now and if you’ve signed already, to email, call, Facebook, and tweet Congressional and corporate targets. Then send this to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet_action_center_b/?vl

The bill would make the US one of the worst Internet censors in the world — joining the ranks of countries like China and Iran. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) would allow the US government to block any of us from accessing sites like YouTube, Google, or Facebook.

We got the White House to switch sides and now our global campaign and the growing public pressure is forcing Congress to abandon the bill. Last weekend, Senator Cardin, who cosponsored the legislation, announced he will vote against it! Then six prominent Republicans penned a letter requesting that the bill be shelved. Now the lower house vote is reportedly on ice.

Just days ago we were told it was impossible to stop the corporate censorship cabal, but now this is at a tipping point and amazingly we could win! Let’s stop US censorship today. Sign this emergency petition to save the internet now and forward it to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet_action_center_b/?vl

This US legislation could infringe on all of our freedoms. But if we win, we will show that when people unite with one voice from all over the world we can stop the abuse of power anywhere. We have brought this bill back from the brink. Now, if we amplify our voices today, we can put an end to the most powerful Internet censorship threat that the world has ever seen.