One of the world's foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize "ridiculous" and the product of "people who don't understand how the atmosphere works".
Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the earth.
His comments came on the same day that the Nobel committee honoured Mr Gore for his work in support of the link between humans and global warming.
"We're brainwashing our children," said Dr Gray, 78, a long-time professor at Colorado State University. "They're going to the Gore movie [An Inconvenient Truth] and being fed all this. It's ridiculous."
Dr. Gray, while frequently quoted in the popular media, does not seem to be considered in the forefront of much of anything by his peers. Of course, if you expect the media to have a better understanding of technical details than working scientific professionals, you're welcome to trust their opinion...
More specifically troubling is the way that Dr. Gray seems to fudge his theory to fit his preconceptions. For years, Gray told Congress and the media that hurricane increases were caused by Atlantic warming generated by a speedup of the Thermohaline Circulation. However, as the ability to measure large scale currents improved, it was demonstrated that the THC was actually slowing. When this was pointed out to him, however, rather than going back to examine his evidence wholesale, and evaluate how he got it wrong, he simply quickly changed his public story. Now warming was being caused by the slowing of the THC! Problem solved! His work as a whole is riddled with this sort of error and borderline trickery. But then, do you really think you should trust someone who claims publicly, "all the experts agree with me, but they're too scared to admit it?"
Poor Alfred Nobel must be turning over in his grave:
Dr. Gray, while frequently quoted in the popular media, does not seem to be considered in the forefront of much of anything by his peers. Of course, if you expect the media to have a better understanding of technical details than working scientific professionals, you're welcome to trust their opinion...
ReplyDeleteMore specifically troubling is the way that Dr. Gray seems to fudge his theory to fit his preconceptions. For years, Gray told Congress and the media that hurricane increases were caused by Atlantic warming generated by a speedup of the Thermohaline Circulation. However, as the ability to measure large scale currents improved, it was demonstrated that the THC was actually slowing. When this was pointed out to him, however, rather than going back to examine his evidence wholesale, and evaluate how he got it wrong, he simply quickly changed his public story. Now warming was being caused by the slowing of the THC! Problem solved! His work as a whole is riddled with this sort of error and borderline trickery. But then, do you really think you should trust someone who claims publicly, "all the experts agree with me, but they're too scared to admit it?"