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'''Anthony Watts''' is an American [[broadcast meteorologist]] ([[American Meteorological Society#Seal of Approval|AMS seal holder]], retired<ref name="AMS"/>), editor of the [[blog]], ''[[Watts Up With That]]?'' (WUWT),<ref name="WUWT"/> owner of the weather graphics company ItWorks, and founder of the ''SurfaceStations.org'' project that documents the siting of weather stations across the United States. He is one of the foremost internet [[global warming skeptics]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Bird, Helen; Boykoff, Max; Goodman, Mike; Monbiot, George; Littler, Jo|journal=Soundings|title=The media and climate change|number=43|date=December 2009|page=47-64(18)|publisher=Lawrence and Wishart|doi=10.3898/136266209790424595}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Seeding doubt: how sceptics use new media to
'''Anthony Watts''' is an American [[broadcast meteorologist]] ([[American Meteorological Society#Seal of Approval|AMS seal holder]], retired<ref name="AMS"/>), editor of the [[blog]], ''[[Watts Up With That]]?'' (WUWT),<ref name="WUWT"/> owner of the weather graphics company ItWorks, and founder of the ''SurfaceStations.org'' project that documents the siting of weather stations across the United States. He is one of the foremost internet [[global warming denialism|global warming denialists]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Bird, Helen; Boykoff, Max; Goodman, Mike; Monbiot, George; Littler, Jo|journal=Soundings|title=The media and climate change|number=43|date=December 2009|page=47-64(18)|publisher=Lawrence and Wishart|doi=10.3898/136266209790424595}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Seeding doubt: how sceptics use new media to
delay action on climate change|author=Alex Lockwood, University of Sunderland|journal=Paper delivered to the Association for Journalism Education (AJE) annual conference, “New Media, New
delay action on climate change|author=Alex Lockwood, University of Sunderland|journal=Paper delivered to the Association for Journalism Education (AJE) annual conference, “New Media, New
Democracy?” Sheffield University|date=12th September 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Fuel For Thought|date=Late January - early March 2010|journal=Energy & Environment|publisher=Multi Science Publishing|issn=0958-305X|volume=21|number=3|doi=10.1260/0958-305X.21.3.301|page=301-362}}</ref>
Democracy?” Sheffield University|date=12th September 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Fuel For Thought|date=Late January - early March 2010|journal=Energy & Environment|publisher=Multi Science Publishing|issn=0958-305X|volume=21|number=3|doi=10.1260/0958-305X.21.3.301|page=301-362}}</ref>

Revision as of 08:45, 8 August 2010

Anthony Watts
NationalityAmerican
WebsiteWatts Up With That?
SurfaceStations.org

Anthony Watts is an American broadcast meteorologist (AMS seal holder, retired[1]), editor of the blog, Watts Up With That? (WUWT),[2] owner of the weather graphics company ItWorks, and founder of the SurfaceStations.org project that documents the siting of weather stations across the United States. He is one of the foremost internet global warming denialists.[3][4][5]

Career

Watts became a television weather presenter in 1987 when he joined WLFI-TV in Lafayette, Indiana, and KHSL-TV, a CBS affiliate based in Chico, California.[6] After working at KHSL for 17 years, he left in 2004 to become the radio weather presenter for KPAY-AM, a Fox News affiliate also based in Chico, California. Watts also operates several companies that make weather graphics systems for use on television broadcasts.[7]

In 2006, Watts was briefly a candidate for county supervisor, to represent Chico on the Butte County Board of Supervisors, but he withdrew his candidacy due to family and workload concerns.[8]

In 2010, Watts went on a speaking tour arranged by the organization Climate Sceptics to 14 locations around Australia. In his talks, Watts presented his views that the temperature records used by proponents of global warming were inaccurate.[9]

View of climate change

Watts has a skeptical view of CO2-driven global warming. He has said that in 1990 he had "been fully engaged in the belief that CO2 was indeed the root cause of the global warming problem," but that he later changed his thinking after learning more about the science and "found it to be lacking."[10] He established the blog, Watts Up With That, which mainly posts about the global warming controversy. In 2008, his blog won the internet voting-based "Best Science Blog" Weblog Award.[11]

New York Times columnist Virginia Heffernan recommended Watt's as a top Science blog on August 1, 2010 stating; "For science that’s accessible but credible, steer clear of polarizing hatefests like atheist or eco-apocalypse blogs. Instead, check out scientificamerican.com, discovermagazine.com and Anthony Watts’s blog, Watts Up With That?"[12] She later stated, about that piece that she had "[o]ne regret: the Watts blog. Virtually everyone who emailed me pointed out that it’s as axe-grinding as anything out there. I linked to it because has a lively voice; it’s detail-oriented and seemingly not snide; and, above all, it has some beautiful images I’d never seen before. I’m a stranger to the debates on science blogs, so I frankly didn’t recognize the weatherspeak on the blog as “denialist”; I didn’t even know about denialism. I’m don’t endorse the views on the Watts blog, and I’m extremely sorry the recommendation seemed ideological"[13]

SurfaceStations.org

In 2007 Watts launched the "SurfaceStations.org" project, whose mission is to create a publicly available database of photographs of weather stations, along with their metadata, in response to what he described as "a massive failure of bureaucracy to perform something so simple as taking some photographs and making some measurements and notes of a few to a few dozen weather stations in each state". The project relies on volunteers to gather the data.[14] Volunteers estimate the siting, usage and other conditions of weather stations in NOAA's Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) and grade them for their compliance with the standards published in the organization's Climate Reference Network Site Handbook.[14][15]

By 2009, the project had documented over 860 stations using over 650 volunteers. In a report entitled Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable?, published by the Heartland Institute, Watts concludes that "the errors in the [U.S. temperature] record exceed by a wide margin the purported rise in temperature...during the twentieth century."[16]

Jay Lawrimore, chief of the climate monitoring branch of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has said that he was aware of Watts' work and invites anyone with expertise to contribute to the scientific process.[17] Elsewhere, he has stated that the evidence for human-driven warming remains robust, however.[18]

On July 6, 2009 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a preliminary report that charted data from 70 stations that SurfaceStations.org identified as 'good' or 'best' against the rest of the dataset surveyed at that time, and concluded, "clearly there is no indication from this analysis that poor station exposure has imparted a bias in the U.S. temperature trends."[19] Watts issued a rebuttal in which he asserted that the preliminary analysis excluded new data on quality of surface stations, and criticized the use of homogenized data from the stations, which in his view accounts for the creation of two nearly identical graphs.[20][21] Since then NOAA has released a peer reviewed study confirming both reliability of the surface stations reviewed. The results show that poor stations produce a slight cooling bias, in stark contrast to Watts' claim, but also that after corrections both poor and highly rated stations align very well.[22][23]

See also

References

  1. ^ "List of AMS Television Seal Holders". American Meteorological Society. Retrieved 2010-05-13.
  2. ^ Watts Up With That? blog
  3. ^ Bird, Helen; Boykoff, Max; Goodman, Mike; Monbiot, George; Littler, Jo (December 2009). "The media and climate change". Soundings (43). Lawrence and Wishart: 47-64(18). doi:10.3898/136266209790424595.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Alex Lockwood, University of Sunderland (12th September 2008). "Seeding doubt: how sceptics use new media to delay action on climate change". Paper delivered to the Association for Journalism Education (AJE) annual conference, “New Media, New Democracy?” Sheffield University. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); line feed character in |journal= at position 101 (help); line feed character in |title= at position 45 (help)
  5. ^ "Fuel For Thought". Energy & Environment. 21 (3). Multi Science Publishing: 301-362. Late January - early March 2010. doi:10.1260/0958-305X.21.3.301. ISSN 0958-305X. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Watts, Anthony (2009). "Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable?" (PDF). Heartland Institute. Retrieved 2009-11-24.
  7. ^ Watts, Anthony. "About Watts Up With That?". Watts Up With That?. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
  8. ^ Indar, Josh (2006-03-16). "One out, one in, one on". Sacramento News & Review. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
  9. ^ Rasini, Marin, "Find out more on climate", Townsville Bulletin, June 12, 2010, p. 39.
  10. ^ Watts, Anthony (March 27, 2008). "Gore to throw insults on 60 minutes". Watts Up With That?. Retrieved 2009-02-06.
  11. ^ "2008 Weblog Awards". Weblogawards.org. 2008.
  12. ^ Heffernan, Virginia (2010-08-01). "Unnatural Science". nytimes.com. New York Times. Archived from the original on 2010-08-01. Retrieved 2010-08-01. Points of Entry: This Week's Recommendations SEMPER SCI For science that's accessible but credible, steer clear of polarizing hatefests like atheist or eco-apocalypse blogs. Instead, check out scientificamerican.com, discovermagazine.com and Anthony Watts's blog, Watts Up With That? {{cite web}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 45 (help)
  13. ^ Virginia Heffernan makes the comment here and refers to it via her confirmed Twitter account
  14. ^ a b Watts, Anthony. "About SurfaceStations.org". SurfaceStations.org. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
  15. ^ Climate Reference Network (CRN) — Site Handbook (PDF). CRN Series. NOAA/NESDIS. 2002. NOAA-CRN/OSD-2002-0002R0UD0. Retrieved 2009-09-30. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  16. ^ Watts, Anthony (2009). Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable? (PDF). Chicago, IL: The Heartland Institute. ISBN 1-934791-26-6. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  17. ^ Olsen, Ryan (August 30, 2007). "Scientists warm up to Watts' work". Chico Enterprise Record. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 2009-02-05. I think any effort to better understand the observation system that's used to collect data and analyze it is helpful.
  18. ^ Revkin, Andrew C. (August 26, 2007). "Quarter-Degree Fix Fuels Climate Fight". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-04-02.
  19. ^ "Talking Points related to concerns about whether the U.S. temperature record is reliable" (PDF). NOAA Climate Services. July 6, 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-02.
  20. ^ Watts, Anthony (2009-06-29). "NCDC writes ghost "talking points" rebuttal to surfacestations project". Watts Up With That?. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  21. ^ Watts, Anthony (July 31, 2009). "On Climate, Comedy, Copyrights, and Cinematography". Watts Up With That?. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
  22. ^ Menne, Matthew J. (2010). "On the reliability of the U.S. surface temperature record" (PDF). J. Geophys. Res. 115: D11108. doi:10.1029/2009JD013094. In summary, we find no evidence that the CONUS average temperature trends are inflated due to poor station siting. {{cite journal}}: Check |doi= value (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ Cook, John (27 January 2010). "Climate sceptics distract us from the scientific realities of global warming". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
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