Talk:Anthony Watts (blogger)

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What bothers Watts most

Before recent edits by DHeyward, the text read

He further avers that what most bothers him about people who say there's lots of global warming is that "They want to change policy. They want to apply taxes and these kinds of things may not be the actual solution for making a change to our society." (bold added)

Although the bolded phrase was not formatted as a quote, it does use the language used by the interviewer, and this is critical because it defines the pronoun "they" in Watts' quote. DHeyward altered the meaning away from the RS by changing the bold text so that it instead reads climate change activists. Watts was not asked about "climate change activists", he was asked about "people who say there is a lot of global warming". Many many many people say that, and while they might want the things Watts describes they are totally inactive trying to make it happen.

To cure this problem, I then imported a direct quote for the journalist's question. What's more WP:VERIFIABLE and objective than that? The result read

" Asked "What’s the thing that bothers you the most about people who say there’s lots of global warming?" he replied "They want to change policy. They want to apply taxes and these kinds of things may not be the actual solution for making a change to our society." (Bold added)

OOPS! While "climate change activists" was somehow dandy, apparently the verbatim question-and-answer is somehow toxic waste, which D removed entirely, with the edit summary

rm. don't agree with interprtation of soundbite quotepull that spans multiple questions/answers. It's clear he means activists drawn to a cause and not everyone that believes in global warming (underline added)

Say what? "spans multiple questions/answers"?? No it doesn't. There is this question, followed by this answer. Read the transcript in the ref. Plain as my nose.

Side-bar, Watts' answer to the verbatim question "What’s the thing that bothers you the most about people who say there’s lots of global warming?" became the focus of commentary. There are 1500 Google hits on the verbatim question combined with "Watts". For example, Skeptical Science's Dana 1981 wrote,

Watts on His Motives and Double Standards

At Skeptical Science it is against our site policy to speculate about a person's motives, but in this case, Watts volunteered the information.

"SPENCER MICHELS: What's the thing that bothers you the most about people who say there's lots of global warming?

ANTHONY WATTS: They want to change policy. They want to apply taxes and these kinds of things may not be the actual solution for making a change to our society.

"It is interesting that Watts responds to a question about a science-based opinion with a criticism about policy. For example, Watts is not most bothered that people are ignoring or unaware of the biases that he incorrectly believes exist in the temperature record. No, Watts is most bothered that we might implement an economically-beneficial carbon tax.

CONCLUSION The text should be restored to show both the question and the answer because

• What bothers him most about those people is highly relevant to a biography about the man
• The question is followed by the answer without interruption, contrary to D's edit summary
• Using both the question and the answer is objective and NPOV, whereas DHeyward's edit puts words in Watts' mouth, based on DHeyward's interpretation of the word "they". He says his interpretation is "clear". Well, it certainly isn't clear to me, because I prefer to read the RS text without committing WP:Original research.

@DHeyward: please self-revert.

refs for what bothers Watts most

References

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Further reading

The article's Further reading lists 20+ publications from 2011 to 2015. WP:FURTHER says the section "... and should normally not duplicate the content of the References section, unless the References section is too long for a reader to use as part of a general reading list." but some authors (e.g. Brainard, Mann, Menne) are already cited in the References. WP:FURTHER also says WP:EL requirements should be followed, and WP:ELNO says "A general site that has information about a variety of subjects should usually not be linked from an article on a more specific subject." but these publications appear to be general works about climate rather than specific works about Mr Watts. I intend to remove the section unless there are defences soon. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 14:53, 8 January 2022 (UTC)

Resolved: citations using WP:SFN should go in Notes, and refer to References – which was wrongly titled "Further reading", so I've corrected that. As far as I've checked, the publications are used for specific citations about W – try clicking on the links in the Notes section. . . dave souza, talk 17:42, 8 January 2022 (UTC)

Due to the section renaming, WP:FURTHER no longer applies so I don't have that basis for simply removing. I still think it's not worth keeping, but if nobody else agrees, this is over. Peter Gulutzan (talk) 18:13, 8 January 2022 (UTC)

Errrm, actually, I agree with you. What is the pile of ex "further reading" now "notes" supposed to be for? Most, if not all, of it should be removed William M. Connolley (talk) 20:56, 8 January 2022 (UTC}

N.B. ex "further reading" is now references, while ex "references" is now notes, bringing these two sections into line with standard titles. Please be clear about what you want removed, and why. . .dave souza, talk 22:17, 8 January 2022 (UTC)

See WP:CITE – Wikipedia's verifiability policy requires inline citations for any material challenged or likely to be challenged, and for all quotations, anywhere in article space. This has been done using shortened footnotes, to have inline cites to different pages of the same book. If you want to mash it into one "References", that section will be repetitive and longer. See Help:Shortened footnotes for guidance, I refer you to Elk 1972, p. 5, • Elk, Anne (November 16, 1972). Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses. Do please discuss on this talk page how you intend to do this. . . dave souza, talk 21:40, 8 January 2022 (UTC)

Heartland

Heartland Institute website lists him as a senior fellow. That seems to be relevant. Also, according to weather.gov a BA degree is a minimum requirement to be a meteorologist; the article seems to say he doesn't have a degree. 2600:1010:B1AB:C8AD:8995:3456:BCF6:5F87 (talk) 00:03, 28 July 2023 (UTC)

Heartland is not a reliable source. --Hob Gadling (talk) 06:00, 29 July 2023 (UTC)