George Taylor, Oregon State Climatologist, responds to the Willamette Week article written by Paul Koberstein:
HOT OR NOT: Oregon’s official weatherman has good news about global warming-it doesn’t exist.
Extract:
George Taylor shouldn’t scare anybody. He has been a vegetarian since the 1970s. He commutes to work by bicycle. He’s an ex-hippie and an ex-surfer. He recycles. He likes trees and salmon.
He’s also, according to his critics, one of the most dangerous men in Oregon.
Nestled comfortably in a state that boasts of its environmental cred the way California touts its sunshine, Taylor is one of the leading circuit riders for the church of Global Warming Ain’t Happening.
From his third-floor office in the Strand Agriculture building at Oregon State University, Taylor, 58, a state employee who runs an agency with a half-million-dollar annual budget, is often at work discrediting the well-established scientific facts about global warming.
His views have been read on the floor of the U.S. Senate and, most recently, influenced global-warming bills in Salem. In the past, he also has tried to undermine global-warming legislation in Canada.
“Look, it’s not that complicated,” says Taylor, who, as head of the Oregon Climate Service at OSU, is known as the state climatologist. “It’s not clear that we are seeing unprecedented warming, and it’s definitely untrue that any warming trend can be assigned to human activities. Natural variations in climate are much more significant than any human activities…………………..”
Video of Taylor’s response is here.
A transcript is here.
Excerpt: I get most of my information from peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Climate, Journal of Geophysical Research, and Climate Research. The articles I write (including, for example, the Arctic article) are based on journal articles and contain full bibliographies. Admittedly, I seldom give“both sides” of the argument, because the “other side” (the one that suggests that human activities exert a dominant role in the climate system) is well-represented in journals and the media. My goal is to be a voice saying “wait, maybe there’s another side to this. Take a look at THIS data and see what you think. Then let’s talk about it.” Unfortunately, this issue has become such a divisive and angry one that ad hominem attacks have replaced dialogue..
When I write about global climate issues, I do so on my own time from home. I’m cautious about having my opinion construed as representing the State of Oregon or Oregon State University, and I try to separate my analyses of global climate from my day to day work as the State Climatologist.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
“….wait, maybe there’s another side to this. Take a look at THIS data and see what you think. Then let’s talk about it.” Unfortunately, this issue has become such a divisive and angry one that ad hominem attacks have replaced dialogue..”
You said it mate.
There’s an ad hom barrage coming your way now…..
” Taylor’s colleagues at Oregon State’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences have grown frustrated over the years with what they consider his misunderstanding of climate-change facts. On multiple occasions, faculty members found it necessary to correct statements in Taylor’s regular “Weather Matters” column in the Corvallis Gazette-Times.
In 2004, a letter to the editor of the Gazette-Times signed by Prof. James Coakley “and all professors of the College of Atmospheric Sciences” said Taylor’s statements in the newspaper “misrepresent the widely accepted scientific knowledge concerning the Earth’s climate and global warming.”
In 1999, another letter to the Corvallis newspaper, signed by six of the college’s faculty members, took Taylor to task for dismissing the depletion of the ozone layer as “a rather small problem.” Another letter written by a faculty member, the late Jack Dymond, observed, “First with ozone depletion and now with global warming, George Taylor continues to misinterpret the science of some of the most important environmental issues facing the planet.”
“He missed his calling as a used-car salesman,” Coakley, an expert on clouds, said in an interview with WW. “George is a nice guy, runs his shop pretty well. We’re not happy with his pronouncements. They drive us bonkers.” ”
A contrarian, it appears. It’s what gives him pleasure.
How dare he, doesnt he know that the debate is over?
Public servants are paid to service the public, they should keep their personal views to themselves.
Its about time the authorities clamped down on this loose talk.
And right on cue……
My letter to Kirsten NPR (USA) this morning. The second part is quite relevant to the Australian meeting
Kirsten: There is a lot more data from IPCC sites that shows that the recent cooling is a lot greater than you have mentioned on your site. This is what is going to hammer them
These are all pro AGW or neutral (called lukewarmers now)…(but run by honest people)
Cryosphere today
AMSU satellite data
UAH
rankexploits
sea ice index (very AGW pro)
Good luck. In the end you may considered a hero.
In the event that the earth continues to cool as it is now for say 2-3 years there may be many organizations, individuals who will be wanting their money back from the initial investment in “Global warming” expect major lawsuits/goverment changes happening then. This is a pointer for the Austrian Goverment