Yes and astronomers control the stars

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

It turns out the hurricane was caused by meteorologists.

Trump suggested the Biden administration’s response had been lacking and planned in partisan ways that caused Republican voters be abandoned and left “Americans to drown”, particularly in North Carolina after Helene. “They’ve let those people suffer unjustly,” he said. His comments have received bipartisan criticism, including from some local and state Republican leaders in affected areas.

Remember how Trump dealt with hurricanes? Throwing rolls of paper towels at people? Ignoring Puerto Rico altogether?

Meteorologists tracking Milton have been beset by conspiracy theories that they are controlling the weather, even by using a nuclear explosion, and have faced death threats.

“I’ve never seen a storm garner so much misinformation, we have just been putting out fires of wrong information everywhere,” said the CBS meteorologist Katie Nickolaou. She added: “Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes. I can’t believe I just had to type that.”

Ok but will throwing vulcanologists into volcanoes stop eruptions?

Comments

6 responses to “Yes and astronomers control the stars”

  1. What a Maroon Avatar
    What a Maroon

    And then there’s this from the Washington Post:

    “Yesterday, my mother told me I needed to do ‘deep research’ because everything I know and learned about hurricanes is wrong,” University of Miami climatologist Brian McNoldy, who has long tracked storms in the Atlantic Ocean, wrote on X. “I can’t even process the ignorance and brainwashing.”

    Momsplainin’?

    But, hey, “the wind, the wind, the wind is, the wind”.

  2. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    Well that’s going to make for interesting family dynamics!

  3. Sackbut Avatar
    Sackbut

    Meteorologist James Spann faces fury for debunking wild hurricane conspiracy theories

    Alabama’s most respected meteorologist, James Spann, recently expressed frustration over a “society full of hate, anger, rage, and the inability to think clearly,” following an onslaught of negative responses after he attempted to debunk hurricane-related misinformation. Spann took to Facebook earlier in the week to share his concerns after encountering a wave of false claims about Hurricane Milton, which developed in the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall in Florida. His post, as first reported by AL.com, urged his followers to stop spreading misinformation.

    Among the wild claims Spann addressed were conspiracy theories, such as the assertion that “the moon has disappeared and was nuked by the government,” and that hurricanes were being steered by “chemtrails.” He also highlighted other baseless claims, like the notion that federal agencies were manipulating weather patterns to influence the upcoming presidential election or imprisoning relief workers.

  4. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    Oh yes the moon! I’ve been wondering where that went.

  5. Your Name's not Bruce? Avatar
    Your Name’s not Bruce?

    Ok but will throwing vulcanologists into volcanoes stop eruptions?

    Only if they’re virgins.

  6. Rev David Brindley Avatar
    Rev David Brindley

    Ok but will throwing vulcanologists into volcanoes stop eruptions?

    Italy tried it with seismologists after a 2009 Earthquake.

    Six Italian scientists and a government official have been sentenced to six years in prison over statements they made prior to a 2009 earthquake that killed 309 in the town of L’Aquila.

    A year-long trial came to a close today (Oct. 22) with the verdict, which alarmed earth scientists worldwide.

    “I hope the Italians realize how backwards they are in this L’Aquila trial and its verdict,” Erik Klemetti, an assistant professor of geosciences at Denison University in Ohio, wrote on Twitter, adding that the verdict was a “terrible precedent.”

    According to prosecutors, the scientists and official downplayed the risks of a large quake in L’Aquila, Italy, after a series of tremors shook the city in early 2009. On April 6, 2009, a magnitude-6.3 quake hit, killing 309 people. L’Aquila’s medieval architecture led to numerous building collapses during the quake. [See Photos of L’Aquila Earthquake Destruction]

    It took Judge Marco Billi just more than four hours to reach a verdict, according to the BBC. The scientists were found guilty of multiple manslaughter.

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/italian-scientists-get/

    The convictions were overturned 5 years later, showing that Italians at least can reason, albeit slowly.

    I lived through the Christchurch earthquakes and the 12,000 aftershocks. There was a bloke called Ken Ring who was well known for long range weather forecasts based on Lunar cycles. Thousands of Kiwis wouldn’t plan any outdoor event until they’d looked at his predictions, and they all swore by his accuracy. Then, who got into the earthquake prediction business, predicting that Christchurch would have another, bigger earthquake on March 20, 2011. He urged mass evacuations, but fortunately caused only a minor panic among a few easily led folk.

    Ring’s more recent renown (or infamy) rests on his prophecies after the Christchurch earthquake of September 2010. Ring claims to have correctly predicted that quake and also the horrific shake of 22 February 2011, which devastated the city and in which 185 people lost their lives.* The moon was full on 18 February, and Ring had suggested the quake risk would be high in the days around it. For this he received both acclaim and derision.

    For months, Ring had also been predicting a heightened risk of quakes or other extreme events on 20 March — the date of the next full moon, which would also be at perigee, the point at which the moon in its orbit is closest to earth. Ring’s suggestion that people should leave Christchurch to avoid disaster sent its own shockwaves through the community. On the day itself, the New Zealand Skeptics Society pointedly hosted a celebrity-studded lunch at a cafe on the top of the Port Hills. Later that evening the city received its biggest aftershock since 22 February — a 5.1 magnitude tremor at 9.47pm.

    https://www.metromag.co.nz/society/the-curious-world-of-ken-ring-believer-in-the-impossible

    (The February quake was 6.3)

    *Neither I or any of my friends, family, workmates had heard these predictions, either from Ring or anyone else. There is no record in print or online that we could find, not even on Ring’s own website that was anything other than vague generalizations.

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