Global warming skepticism may end hurricane pioneer's forecasts
EPW Blog
April 28, 2008
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2809
Excerpt: By pioneering the science of seasonal hurricane forecasting and
teaching 70 graduate students who now populate the National Hurricane
Center and other research outposts, William Gray turned a city far from
the stormy seas into a hurricane research mecca. But now the institution
in Fort Collins, Colo., where he has worked for nearly half a century,
has told Gray it may end its sup****t of his seasonal forecasting.
Gray, a highly visible and sometimes acerbic skeptic of climate change,
says that's a "flimsy excuse" for the real motivation - a desire to push
him aside because of his global warming criticism. Among other comments,
Gray has said global warming scientists are "brainwa****ng our children."
Now an emeritus professor, Gray declined to comment on the university's
possible termination of promotional sup****t. But a memo he wrote last
year, after CSU officials informed him that media relations would no
longer promote his forecasts after 2008, reveals his views: "This is
obviously a flimsy excuse and seems to me to be a cover for the
Department's capitulation to the desires of some (in their own interest)
who want to rein in my global warming and global warming-hurricane
criticisms," Gray wrote to Dick Johnson, head of CSU's Department of
Atmospheric Sciences, and others.
[.]A professor of public relations at Boston University, Donald Wright,
questioned why the university would want to pull back its sup****t for
Gray now, after he has published his forecasts for a quarter-century.
"It's seems peculiar that this is happening now," Wright said. "Given
the national reputation that these re****ts have, you would think the
university would want to continue to promote these forecasts." Gray, he
said, seems to deliver a lot of publicity bang for the buck. The
seasonal forecasts are printed in newspapers around the country and
splashed across the World Wide Web. There also seems to be little
question that prominent climate scientists have complained to CSU about
Gray's vocal skepticism. The head of CSU's Department of Atmospheric
Sciences, Dick Johnson, said he has received many comments during recent
years about Gray - some sup****tive, and some not. The complaints have
come as Gray became increasingly involved in the global warming debate.
[.] In recent years, as he has increasingly made sharp public comments
about global warming, Gray quickly became one of the most prominent
skeptics because of his long background in atmospheric sciences. His
views on the climate - he says Earth is warming naturally and soon will
begin cooling - have been applauded by some scientists, particularly
meteorologists such as Frank. But they are out of step with mainstream
climate science.The most recent re****t by an international group of
climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change,
concluded that there was 90 percent certainty that human activity had
caused recent warming of the planet. Yet at U.S. universities, threats
to the rights of scientists who hold minority viewpoints are generally
frowned upon. A prominent legal scholar, Stanley Fish of Florida
International University, said university public relations offices
should not pick and choose where resources go, based upon the content of
a professor's work. "If it can in any way be established that (Gray's)
global warming views were the basis of this action, then it is an
improper action," Fish said. In his memo, Gray clearly indicates that he
believes his academic freedom is imperiled: "For the good of all of us
in the Department, the College and at CSU, please believe me when I say
this is not a direction any of you want to go," he wrote. "Our
department and college are strong enough to be able to tolerate a
dissenting voice on the global warming question."
--
Warmest Regards
Bonzo
"What if a small group of these world leaders were to conclude the
principal risk to the earth comes from the actions of the rich
countries?...In order to save the planet, the group decides: Isn't the
only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse?
Isn't it our responsibility to bring this about?" Maurice Strong,1990
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