Monday
Jul222013
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Dana's vested interest
Jul 22, 2013 Climate: other Anthony has the low down on Dana Nuccitelli's vested interest - it turns out that he works for a big company working in the environmental services area called Tetratech.
Given all the fuss the Guardian makes about the alleged funding of sceptics by big oil, it's hard to see that they can credibly retain Mr Nuccitelli's services.
Then again, if you take on a columnist with a penchant for reviewing books he hasn't read, it is possible that you consider such niceties as consistency a bit superfluous.
Reader Comments (33)
Environmental Services = Drilling Oil and Gas from the ground.
ROFLMAO!!
Is there no end to the sanctimonious hypocrisy of the average green activist?
Thanks.
I find it curious that Dana has no Wikipedia entry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=Dana+Nuccitelli&title=Special%3ASearch
I wonder why.
What a surprise.
Bish, was that meant to be 'niceties about consistency' or some such in the last sentence?
Richard, remember you do not agree with anyone accusing the Bish of making a mistake ^.^
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Nonsense. Just give up your obsession with me, OK. As long as you're not petitioning for me to be banned, I'm not interested. But I do care for my reputation enough not to want such stupid, pejorative comments about me polluting this thread or any other.
Oh dear...nul points for humour.
The subject of the thread is Dana
Dana is a liability to the Guardian.
Not because he is a hypocrite - he may be working in the environmental services wing of Tetratech.
But he is a threat to the Guardian because he supresses dissent and denies the opportunity of debate.
No free press can survive without the lifeblood of democracy - freedom of expression.
Andrew Niell just chucked a stick of Danamight........
Dana says his office clears up waste from ex military sites.
Just took a look at Dana's Twitter feed and he is now claiming:
'My office mostly cleans up contamination at former military sites.'
Sounds like he has been caught with his pants down, well done Andrew Neil.
What's interesting is, he leverages his waste clean up job to describing himself in his Guardian byline, and his pal reviewed "scientific papers" with Cook et al, as "Environmental Scientist".
This convinces his brain-dead Graun CIF cult followers that he is a real player in the climate field.
Where would "climate science" be without smoke & mirrors?
MCourtney at 8:22PM nailed this. Dana is throttling the life out of debate on CiF with his SkS style moderation. I dare say he will now respond to his hypocrisy on CiF with a heavily moderated blog.
I just wish I could say what I wanted to say about that hypocritical clown.
As the Piltdown Mann keeps reminding us - Dana appears to be just another fossil fuel funded amateur
His employer is being sued:
Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK) Investor Alert: Lawsuit Alleges False and Misleading Statements
http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/tetra-tech-inc-nasdaqttek-investor-alert-lawsuit-alleges-false-and-misleading-statements-275417.htm
On the infamous "Quantifying the consensus ..." paper, Nuccitelli gives his affiliations as Tetra Tech and Skeptical Science, which would seem to imply his environmental activist/propagandist activities are endorsed by his employer - which seems a little odd to me.
I've managed to find it using search on the sidebar - Dana's famous Amazon Books 1 star review of the Bishops Hockey Stick Illusion from the Way Back Machine, and the comment thread below, where he is forced to admit that he never read it
http://web.archive.org/web/20100729174037/http://www.amazon.com/
review/R2HPOYRMFE85MY
So Dana deleted the unjustly harsh Amazon review. 'Hide the malign' anyone?
Nuccitelli is coming over all defensive on Twitter:
"I work for a company that has a branch that works in oil and gas that I have no involvement in whatsoever."
Isn't that a bit like saying the company you work for uses child labour, but that's OK, because the child labour happens abroad and not in the building where you work?
Just caught the tail end of Newsnight.Some stuff stuff about the Royal Baby,
But the guy who does Hardtalk on BBC News24 Stephen Sacker was in Alaska.
Usual BBC Climate Change Propaganda drivel.
But Gavin Eisler announced Stephen Sacker on the "Road In Alaska" Thursday Morning BBC News 24
So check that out.
Funny how the BBC decided to film in Alaska in the middle of Summer not in the Middle of Winter when its Minus 40 degrees.
I've worked with Tetratech on projects in the past. While my opinion of Dana is one of a little attack puppy dearly wanting to be seen running with the big dogs, in this instance I'm going to have to step over to his defense. There is no conflict of interest. Any projects that might have a connection to "climate change", for example a utility company hardening their infrastructure, would be right in the wheelhouse of a firm such as TT. There is no advantage for the company to "push" climate change. Customers would come to them in any event.
You can chalk his efforts up to altruistic passion for the environment or true religion in the cause of global warming. Suggesting he's doing it for the economic benefit of his employer is a real stretch and puts you down to the level he plays at. Seriously, quit acting so sophmoric.
I have also worked with Tetratech. It is a typical large US services company that has swallowed up many smaller consulting companies. TT is active in many disciplines related to engineering including environmental services. That type of company loves to "play the field", professing deep concern for the environment when it suits them but happy to assist with development of oil and gas projects. The critical thing for them is to make money selling services wherever they can.
Nevertheless it is a good illustration of how pathetic is the frequent charge that sceptics are funded by Big Oil. Dana's job security is undeniably linked to oil and gas development.
@timg56 "Suggesting he's doing it for the economic benefit of his employer is a real stretch and puts you down to the level he plays at."
I don't see anybody suggesting that.
The charge is one of hypocrisy: he campaigns against the use of fossil fuels, on environmental grounds, and criticises climate change sceptics for their alleged "Big Oil" funding, yet he works for a company that is part of the fossil fuel industry - look at their website: the headline item is about their work installing gas pipelines for shale gas.
BTW: He is not alone in this: IPCC chair Pachauri has fossil fuel connections too - he founded a company called GloriOil in Texas.
You heard it here first ...
The shareholder Class Action Lawsuit against Tetra Tech alleges (amongst other things) that "the Company failed to inform investors the extent to which Tetra Tech's revenues would be impacted by an overall decline in the Eastern Canadian mining and oil industry."
Nuccitelli campaigns against the fossil-fuel industry.
Heh, Dana's conflicts of interest pale in comparison to his conflicts in science.
=================
With 18 articles in the past three months, Nuccitelli is practically running Guardian Environment’s Climate Change page singlehanded in his spare time left over after his fulltime job and his fulltime hobby at SkepticalScience. How does he do it? And what are the ten or eleven fulltime environment correspondents at the Graun up to? Monbiot’s into anti-badger culling and reintroducing pachyderms into rural Wales, we know. But the real elephant in the Rhondda is the almost total absence of Carrington, Vidal, Hickman, Goldenberg &co. Are they a vanishing species threatened by invasive predators?
In a past existence I worked for a company taken over by a large UK company with many divisions involved in defence work. I had a colleague who was a pacifist/CND supporter who left the company shortly after, although we were working on nothing directly involved in defence he felt unable to add to the profits of the new owners.
'My office mostly cleans up contamination at former military sites.'
What's worse, being under the wing of "Big Oil" or the "Military-Indusrial Complex"?
Between his work, his SS demagoguery, his demagoguery for the Guardian and his demagoguery all over the blogosphere correcting our collective denialist wrongs, he can't have much of a life.
Unless he does the last three on the back of the first mentioned. Or he doesn't have much of a life. Or both.
@pinroot on Jul 22, 2013 at 10:52 pm
Allege[d] False and Misleading Statements
Like employer, like employee ...
I pointed this out two years ago, just strongly enough to put the heat on the SkS crew as their cult stalked me on the Net for posting skeptical infographics:
http://tinyurl.com/SSkepticalSScience
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/15/quote-of-the-week-collapse/#comment-681144