* Freedomslips Radio, 26th Sept 2012.

Another radio programme full of mangled misinformation. For now, here is just one example;

Context:

Earthplay (spoken): "This comes from UK science tech article 2208485, and it says that NASA reveals a massive halo of hot gas surrounding the envelope of our Universe, Solar System excuse me. Elevated, let's see what is it, elevated microwaves, infra red, ultra violet, x-rays, and gamma rays. Now either we're a wave is sweeping across, and probably straight through, our Solar System like a wave on the ocean, or you know where the rocks are sticking out above the water, anywhere the water will rush right on by, doesn't stop. We have a field around the Earth that protects us from most of that material, but it sweeps into and through and continues past our Solar System.

Analysis:

Earthplay "it says that NASA reveals a massive halo of hot gas surrounding the envelope of our Universe, Solar System excuse me."

WRONG. It surrounds NEITHER the Universe NOR OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. It surrounds the Milky Way Galaxy. The NASA illustration, in the very article that Earthplay quotes, CLEARLY shows the cloud surrounding our Galaxy, with the two small blobs indicating the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

"Elevated, let's see what is it, elevated microwaves, infra red, ultra violet, x-rays, and gamma rays."

WRONG. There is no mention of "elevated" anything! The cloud was discovered by the way it ABSORBS x-rays. They observed the x-rays coming from sources way beyond the cloud, at distances of hundreds of millions of light-years, and measured the ABSORPTION of x-rays by the tenuous material in the "cloud". Earthplay reversed this into "elevated" x-rays, AND he added ultra violet and gamma! He will say anything to make stories sound more dangerous than they really are.

"Now either we're a wave is sweeping across, and probably straight through, our Solar System."

WRONG. The material in this "cloud" is at unimaginably vast distances from us. It is not sweeping through us.

It should also be remembered that the density of this "cloud" is so stupendously low as to be basically a VACUUM (remember that we can see right through it in all directions) and it's "temperature", of 1 to 2.5 million degrees Kelvin, is just a measure of the speed (kinetic energy) of the widely separated molecules - it is not "hot" in the same way that say steam on Earth is hot - the temperature of the space in which the particles exist is only a few degrees above absolute zero.

During the rest of the programme Earthplay went on to mangle various other stories - a meteor that was seen in the UK was exaggerated to become "meteors across the UK, ALL NIGHT LONG!" - a few neutrons that were detected were described as "a massive cosmic ray burst that swept through our Solar System" - he confused Gamma Ray Bursts with Cosmic Rays - claimed that "the Sun is starting to go back into another solar minimum" - and so the nonsense went on.

Freedomslips Radio, 19th september 2012.

* Mis-leading his listeners into an Ice Age.

CONTEXT:

Earthplay (spoken): "I personally think that we're headed into a major climate shift, serious, like a minor ice age, maybe a major. I think so. Cos I got some reports here today, the new reports just came out, Antarctic sea ice reaches record highs while the IPCC models predicted the opposite. I have been following this stuff now for a couple of years, and every single day I see in the newspapers, Arctic ice at all time low. And then here's another one, now, all of the models they had, 2/3 of them are wrong, and the sea ice levels are actually growing. And they said that ocean seaside cities were, the water levels would inundate coastal areas and cities, and the global warming was so bad that the sea level rise would push humanity away from the oceans. The oceans have actually gone down. In this year's report. And these people at the UN and the IPCC, and they're just silent. Every day there's a global warming story of how the ice caps have melted, the sea ice is at an all time low. And its exactly the opposite. This year. THIS year. Here's from the front page of an Australian newspaper. Warns of dramatic climate change effects across Australia, with a picture of, I'm not sure if that's a glacier, sweeping through that big civic centre of their's, that looks like those big clam shells. And they know something's coming there."

Analysis;

"the new reports just came out, Antarctic sea ice reaches record highs [..] I have been following this stuff now for a couple of years, and every single day I see in the newspapers, Arctic ice at all time low [..] the sea ice levels are actually GROWING [..] Every day there's a global warming story of how the ice caps have melted, the sea ice is at an all time low. And it's EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE. This year. THIS year."

TOTALLY MISLEADING!! Total sea ice is NOT growing globally. A good year for sea ice in the Antarctic in no way nullifies the precipitous drop in Arctic sea ice levels, year after year. There are many factors which make ice loss and growth different in the Antarctic and Arctic, they are explained fully on the following pages;

http://www.livescience.com/23333-record-high-antarctic-sea-ice-levels-don-t-disprove-global-warming.html
http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2012/09/does-the-expanding-antarctic-sea-ice-disprove-global-warming/
http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/seaice/characteristics/difference.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0921/While-Arctic-melts-Antarctic-ice-hits-record.-Is-warming-debunked
http://www.skepticalscience.com/arctic-antarctic-sea-ice.htm

Earthplay: "they said that ocean seaside cities were, the water levels would inundate coastal areas and cities, and the global warming was so bad that the sea level rise would push humanity away from the oceans. THE OCEANS HAVE ACTUALLY GONE DOWN. In this year's report."

Very misleading, and here is why;

The rise in the world's oceans has been very steady, but it occasionally hits a bump. The global sea level did fall, by about a quarter of an inch, but the reason is known:

While 2010 began with a sizable El Niño, by year's end, it was replaced by one of the strongest La Niñas in recent memory. This sudden shift in the Pacific changed rainfall patterns all across the globe, bringing massive floods to places like Australia and the Amazon basin.

All that extra water comes from the oceans. Huge amounts are evaporated, and while most of it falls back into the ocean as rain, some of it falls over land. The amount of water gained over the continents can be mapped by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace). The continents got so much extra rain that global sea levels actually fell.

But for those who think that this shows us entering a long-term period of decline in global sea level - sea level drops such as this one cannot last, and over the long-run, the trend remains solidly up. Water flows downhill, and the extra rain eventuallys finds its way back to the sea, and global sea level resumes it's rise.

The long term upwards trend can clearly be seen here:
http://www.aviso.oceanobs.com/en/news/ocean-indicators/mean-sea-level/

Earthplay: "Here's from the front page of an Australian newspaper. Warns of dramatic climate change effects across Australia, with a picture of, I'm not sure if that's a GLACIER, sweeping through that big civic centre of their's that looks like those big clam shells [he means Sydney Opera House]. And they know something's coming there."

The audience heard Earthplay describe a "glacier" in the Australian newspaper article - it was WATER.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/csiro-study-projects-climate-change-effects-across-australia/story-e6frea6u-1226476054411
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/csiro-study-projects-climate-change-effects-across-australia/story-e6frf7jo-1226476054411

The "dramatic climate changes" that the Australian newspapers warned of were actually taken from the CSIRO report "State of the Climate, 2012" - the warnings were of the Australian climate becoming WARMER - not glaciers!

"Australian annual-average dailymaximum temperatures have increased by 0.75 °C since 1910, with most of the warming trend occurring since 1970. There has been an increase in the frequencyof warm weather and DECREASE IN
THE FREQUENCY OF COLD WEATHER. Consecutive La Niña events in the past two years, however, have kept average maximum temperatures below thelong-term average – by 0.24 °C in 2010 and 2011."

The report also mentions the rise in global sea level, which around Australia since 1993 has been greater than, or equal to, the global average. And that sea-surface temperatures around Australia have increased.

http://www.csiro.au/Outcomes/Climate/Understanding/~/media/8E59FBA4F8A94FE4B84F01E271226316.pdf

Unfortunately, Earthplay gets most of his bad information on climate from the crank website "Ice Age Now", run by a proven liar, Robert Felix.

Felix's website is one of the worst cases of Confirmation Bias and Cherry Picking imaginable. He reports every instance of cold weather anywhere in the world, while totally ignoring the recent record breaking hot weather.

“Is Felix a climatologist, a volcanologist or an oceanographer? Er, none of the above. His biography describes him as a "former architect". His website is so bonkers that I thought at first it was a spoof.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2005/may/10/environment.columnists

Felix predicts a "New Ice Age to begin in 2014". There is no evidence for this: http://www.skepticalscience.com/heading-into-new-little-ice-age-intermediate.htm

Felix's outright lies regarding glaciers are exposed here: http://www.durangobill.com/GwdLiars/GwdLiarsFranzJosefGlacier.html

Earthplay should be ashamed of supporting this blatant liar.