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==Funding controversy==
==Funding controversy==
On January 25, 2011, Rep. [[Henry Waxman]] sent a letter to Rep. [[Fred Upton]] seeking to call in Michaels for questioning about his science and funding. In the letter, Waxman wrote that Pat Michaels testified before the Energy and Commerce Committee in February 2009 "that widely accepted scientific data had 'overestimated' global warming and that regulation enacted in response to that data could have 'a very counterproductive effect.' Among the scientists who testified before this Committee on the issue of climate change in the last Congress, [[Pat Michaels]] was the only one to dismiss the need to act on climate change ... Dr. Michaels may have provided misleading information about the sources of his funding and his ties to industries opposed to regulation of emissions responsible for climate change."<ref>{{cite news | title=Rep. Waxman Presses for Inquiry on Global Warming Denier Pat Michaels | url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kert-davies/rep-waxman-presses-for-in_b_813251.html | agency=[[Huffington Post]] | date=25 January 2011 | accessdate=2009-10-13 | work=The Boston Globe | first=Kert | last=Davies}}</ref>

On July 27, 2006 [[ABC News]] reported that a Colorado energy cooperative, the Intermountain Rural Electric Association, had given Michaels $100,000.<ref>{{cite news | title=ABC News Reporting Cited As Evidence In Congressional Hearing On Global Warming | url=http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/print?id=2242565 | accessdate=2007-03-14 | first=Clayton | last=Sandell | coauthors=Bill Blakemore | date=July 27, 2006 | work=[[ABC News]] }}</ref> An [[Associated Press]] report said that the donations had been made after Michaels had "told Western business leaders ... that he was running out of money for his analyses of other scientists' global warming research" and noted that the cooperative had a vested interest in opposing mandatory carbon dioxide caps, a situation that raised conflict of interest concerns.<ref>{{cite news | title=Utilities Give Warming Skeptic Big Bucks | last=Borenstein | first=Seth | url=http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/07/27/utilities_paying_global_warming_skeptic/ | agency=[[Associated Press]] | date=26 July 2006 | accessdate=2009-10-13 | work=The Boston Globe}}</ref>
On July 27, 2006 [[ABC News]] reported that a Colorado energy cooperative, the Intermountain Rural Electric Association, had given Michaels $100,000.<ref>{{cite news | title=ABC News Reporting Cited As Evidence In Congressional Hearing On Global Warming | url=http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/print?id=2242565 | accessdate=2007-03-14 | first=Clayton | last=Sandell | coauthors=Bill Blakemore | date=July 27, 2006 | work=[[ABC News]] }}</ref> An [[Associated Press]] report said that the donations had been made after Michaels had "told Western business leaders ... that he was running out of money for his analyses of other scientists' global warming research" and noted that the cooperative had a vested interest in opposing mandatory carbon dioxide caps, a situation that raised conflict of interest concerns.<ref>{{cite news | title=Utilities Give Warming Skeptic Big Bucks | last=Borenstein | first=Seth | url=http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/07/27/utilities_paying_global_warming_skeptic/ | agency=[[Associated Press]] | date=26 July 2006 | accessdate=2009-10-13 | work=The Boston Globe}}</ref>


Revision as of 02:14, 1 September 2012

Patrick J. Michaels
Born (1950-02-15) February 15, 1950 (age 74)
United States
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Chicago,
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Known forWork on global warming
Scientific career
FieldsClimatology, Ecology
InstitutionsUniversity of Wisconsin,
University of Virginia,
Cato Institute
ThesisAtmospheric anomalies and crop yields in North America (1979)
WebsitePatrick J. Michaels, Cato Institute

Patrick Joseph "Pat" Michaels (born February 15, 1950) [1] is a climatologist and the director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute.[2] He was a research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia for thirty years.[2]

Education

Michaels received an A.B. in biological science in 1971 and an S.M. in biology in 1975 from the University of Chicago.[3] He received a Ph.D. in ecological climatology in 1979 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[3] His doctoral thesis was titled, Atmospheric anomalies and crop yields in North America.[4]

Career

Michaels was a research and project assistant in the Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin from 1976 to 1979.[3] After obtaining his Ph.D. he became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia in 1980, advancing to Associate Professor in 1986 and finally Professor in 1996.[3] Michaels was the Virginia State Climatologist from 1980 to 2007 and past president of the American Association of State Climatologists.[3]

He has been a visiting scientist as the Marshall Institute and a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute.[3] Currently he is the director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute.[2]

Michaels was an adjunct professor and senior research fellow in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University.[5][6]

He has been a member of the American Association of State Climatologists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association of American Geographers, the American Meteorological Society and Sigma Xi.[3]

Views on climate change

Michaels has said that he does not contest the basic scientific principles behind greenhouse warming and acknowledges that the global mean temperature has increased in recent decades.[citation needed] He is one of the most widely quoted global warming skeptics[7] and has described himself as a skeptic.[8] He contends that the changes will be minor, not catastrophic, and may even be beneficial.[9]

He has written extensive editorials on this topic for the mass media, and for think tanks and their publications such as Regulation.[9]

[S]cientists know quite precisely how much the planet will warm in the foreseeable future, a modest three-quarters of a degree (C) [in 50 years]

All this has to do with basic physics, which isn't real hard to understand. It has been known since 1872 that as we emit more and more carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, each increment results in less and less warming. In other words, the first changes produce the most warming, and subsequent ones produce a bit less, and so on. But we also assume carbon dioxide continues to go into the atmosphere at an ever-increasing rate. In other words, the increase from year-to-year isn't constant, but itself is increasing. The effect of increasing the rate of carbon dioxide emissions, coupled with the fact that more and more carbon dioxide produces less and less warming compels our climate projections for the future warming to be pretty much a straight line. Translation: Once human beings start to warm the climate, they do so at a constant rate.[10]

Michaels asks:

Why is the news on global warming always bad? Perhaps because there's little incentive to look at things the other way. If you do, you're liable to be pilloried by your colleagues. If global warming isn't such a threat, who needs all that funding?[11]

Criticism and support

Office of Science and Technology Policy director, John Holdren,[12] told the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee in June 2003, "Michaels is another of the handful of U.S. climate-change contrarians … He has published little if anything of distinction in the professional literature, being noted rather for his shrill op-ed pieces and indiscriminate denunciations of virtually every finding of mainstream climate science."[13] In 2009 Michaels responded in a Washington Examiner Op-Ed, saying that the IPCC had subverted the peer review process, and adding the IPCC had "left out plenty of peer-reviewed science that it found inconveniently disagreeable."[14]

Climate scientist Tom Wigley,[15] a lead author of parts of the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has stated that "Michaels' statements on the subject of computer models are a catalog of misrepresentation and misinterpretation … Many of the supposedly factual statements made in Michaels' testimony are either inaccurate or are seriously misleading."[16]

Michaels received praise for his book, "Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don't Want You to Know" from University of Alabama-Huntsville Principal Research Scientist Roy Spencer, who wrote, "Michaels and [Co-Author Robert] Balling have provided a treasure trove of the latest global warming science."[17] Will Happer, Professor of Physics and Former Chairman of the University Research Board at Princeton University, also praised the book and wrote it "...provides important and honest information about climate change that is hard to find elsewhere."[18]

Funding controversy

On July 27, 2006 ABC News reported that a Colorado energy cooperative, the Intermountain Rural Electric Association, had given Michaels $100,000.[19] An Associated Press report said that the donations had been made after Michaels had "told Western business leaders ... that he was running out of money for his analyses of other scientists' global warming research" and noted that the cooperative had a vested interest in opposing mandatory carbon dioxide caps, a situation that raised conflict of interest concerns.[20]

According to Fred Pearce, fossil fuel companies have helped fund Michaels' projects, including his World Climate Report, published every year since 1994, and his "advocacy science consulting firm", New Hope Environmental Services.[21]

Selected publications

Michaels is the author of several books including Sound and Fury: The Science and Politics of Global Warming (1992), The Satanic Gases (2000), and Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media (2004) and is the co-author of Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don't Want You to Know (2009).[2]

His writing has been published in major scientific journals, including Climate Research, Climatic Change, Geophysical Research Letters, Journal of Climate, Nature, and Science, as well as in popular serials such as the Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Houston Chronicle, and Journal of Commerce.[2] He was an author of the climate "paper of the year" awarded by the Association of American Geographers in 2004.[2]

Science papers

  • Michaels, P.J.; Singer, S.F.; Knappenberger, P.C.; Kerr, J.B.; McElroy, C.T. (1994). "Analyzing ultraviolet-B radiation—is there a trend?". Science. 264 (5163): 1341–1343. Bibcode:1994Sci...264.1341M. doi:10.1126/science.264.5163.1341. PMID 17780851.
  • Michaels, Patrick J.; Knappenberger, Paul C. (1996). "Human effect on global climate?". Nature. 384 (6609): 522–523. Bibcode:1996Natur.384..522M. doi:10.1038/384522b0.
  • Michaels, Patrick J.; Balling Jr., Robert C.; Knappenberger, Paul C.; Knappenberger, PC (1998). "Analysis of trends in the variability of daily and monthly historical temperature measurements" (PDF). Climate Research. 10: 27–33. doi:10.3354/cr010027. ISSN 0936-577X.
  • Davis, Robert E.; Knappenberger, Paul C.; Novicoff, Wendy M.; Michaels, Patrick J. (2002). "Decadal changes in heat-related human mortality in the eastern United States" (PDF). Climate Research. 22: 175–184. doi:10.3354/cr022175. ISSN 0936-577X.
  • Davies, R.E.; Knappenberger, P.C.; Michaels, P.J.; Novicoff, W.M. (2003). "Changing heat-related mortality in the United States". Environmental Health Perspectives. 111 (14): 1712–8. doi:10.1289/ehp.6336. PMC 1241712. PMID 14594620.

Books

See also

  • iconGlobal warming portal

    • References

    1. ^ Schultz, James (February 19, 1996). "Earth Men: Michaels: When it comes to matters of global warming, scientist is on of the nation's leading contrarians". The Virginian-Pilot. Retrieved 2012-08-31.
    2. ^ a b c d e f "Patrick J. Michaels: Director, Center for the Study of Science". Cato Institute. Retrieved 2012-08-31.
    3. ^ a b c d e f g "C.V. Patrick J. Michaels" (PDF). United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce. February 12, 2009. Retrieved 2012-08-31.
    4. ^ Michaels, Patrick J. (1979). "Atmospheric anomalies and crop yields in North America". University of Wisconsin-Madison. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
    5. ^ "SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY: PUBP 710-xxx - PUBLIC SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY" (PDF). George Mason University. 2010. Retrieved 2012-08-31.
    6. ^ "Patrick J. Michaels: Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies". Cato Institute. Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved 2012-08-31.
    7. ^ Doughton, Sandi (11 October 2005). "The truth about global warming". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2007-05-04.
    8. ^ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6129
    9. ^ a b Michaels, Patrick (Fall 2000). "The Way of Warming" (PDF). 23 (3). Regulation. Retrieved 2007-03-14. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
    10. ^ Michaels, Patrick (16 October 2003). "Posturing and reality on warming". Washington Times. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
    11. ^ "Our Climate Numbers Are a Big Old Mess", Wall Street Journal, 4-18-08
    12. ^ "John Holdren's bio and publications at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs". Retrieved 2009-03-31.
    13. ^ John P. Holdren (June 9, 2003). "Comments by John P. Holdren on "The Shaky Science Behind the Climate Change Sense of the Congress Resolution" – US Senate Republican Policy Committee" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-03-14.
    14. ^ "Patrick Michaels: Climate scientists subverted peer review". December 2, 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
    15. ^ "Leading Climate Scientists Reaffirm View that Late 20th Century Warming Was Unusual and Resulted From Human Activity" (Press release). American Geophysical Union. 7 July 2003. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
    16. ^ Gelbspan, Ross (1997). The Heat is On. Perseus Books. ISBN 0-201-13295-8. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
    17. ^ "New findings about climate change the media won't tell you about". National Review Book Service. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
    18. ^ Michaels, Patrick (2009). Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don't Want You to Know. Cato Institute. ISBN 978-1-933995-23-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
    19. ^ Sandell, Clayton (July 27, 2006). "ABC News Reporting Cited As Evidence In Congressional Hearing On Global Warming". ABC News. Retrieved 2007-03-14. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
    20. ^ Borenstein, Seth (26 July 2006). "Utilities Give Warming Skeptic Big Bucks". The Boston Globe. Associated Press. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
    21. ^ Pearce, Fred, The Climate Files: The Battle for the Truth about Global Warming, (2010) Guardian Books, ISBN 978-0-85265-229-9, p. X.

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