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Between 2014 and February 2019, Curry testified before at least six Republican-led House committees, expressing the idea that the dangers of global warming are overstated and difficult to predict. These testimonies include statements criticizing President Obama’s climate plan, the UN climate action plan, and other policy proposals aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions. In her testimony before the Natural Resources Committee on February 6, 2019, Curry stated that, “Man-made climate change is not an existential threat in the 21st century.... The perception of a near-term apocalypse has narrowed the policy options.”<ref name="Finally2019" />
Between 2014 and February 2019, Curry testified before at least six Republican-led House committees, expressing the idea that the dangers of global warming are overstated and difficult to predict. These testimonies include statements criticizing President Obama’s climate plan, the UN climate action plan, and other policy proposals aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions. In her testimony before the Natural Resources Committee on February 6, 2019, Curry stated that, “Man-made climate change is not an existential threat in the 21st century.... The perception of a near-term apocalypse has narrowed the policy options.”<ref name="Finally2019" />

In 2016, [[Robert L. Bradley Jr.|Robert Bradley Jr.]] quoted an excerpt of Curry's testimony, previously published on her blog,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://judithcurry.com/2015/06/22/science-uncertainty-and-advocacy/|title=Science, uncertainty and advocacy|last=Curry|first=Judith|date=2015-06-22|website=Climate Etc.|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-28}}</ref> in Forbes,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertbradley/2016/09/23/climate-exaggeration-is-backfiring/|title=Climate Exaggeration is Backfiring|last=Bradley, Jr|first=Robert|date=Sep 23, 2016|website=Forbes|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-28}}</ref>
<blockquote>In their efforts to promote their “cause,” the scientific establishment behind the global warming issue has been drawn into the trap of seriously understating the uncertainties associated with the climate problem. This behavior risks destroying science’s reputation for honesty. It is this objectivity and honesty which gives science a privileged seat at the table. Without this objectivity and honesty, scientists become regarded as another lobbyist group.</blockquote>


===Publications===
===Publications===

Revision as of 23:06, 28 March 2020

Judith A. Curry
refer to text
NationalityAmerican
EducationB.Sc. in geography, Ph.D. in geophysical sciences
Alma materNorthern Illinois University, (B.Sc., 1974)
University of Chicago (Ph.D., 1982)
OccupationClimatologist
Employer(s)School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology
Scientific career
ThesisThe formation of continental polar air (1982)
WebsiteCurry's home page – Curry's blog

Judith A. Curry is an American climatologist and former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests include hurricanes, remote sensing, atmospheric modeling, polar climates, air-sea interactions, climate models, and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for atmospheric research. She is a member of the National Research Council's Climate Research Committee.[1] After publishing over a hundred scientific papers and co-editing several major works, Curry retired from academia in 2017.[2]

Curry is known both for her emphasis on scientific outreach in general and for her willingness to communicate with climate skeptic sources in particular. A major venue for such outreach is Curry's popular science blog in which she writes on topics related to climate science and the science-policy interface.[3] In her 2019 paper titled "Climate Change: What’s the Worst Case?" she stated that, for that paper, she would not “bother with” peer-reviewed journals, in favor of publishing it on her website so that she could editorialize and write what she wanted “without worrying about the norms and agendas of the ‘establishment.’”[4]

Education

Curry graduated cum laude from Northern Illinois University in 1974 with a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree in Geography. She earned her Ph.D. degree in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago in 1982.[5]

Career

Curry is a Professor Emerita[5] and former Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology; she held the latter position from 2002 to 2013.[6] Curry retired from her university position in 2017, describing part of her reason for leaving academia was anti-skeptic bias,[7] which she described at the time as the "craziness" of the political nature of climate science.[8], and in 2020 more specifically as the "extreme displeasure by several activist climate scientists who had a very direct pipeline to the Dean." Roger Pielke writing in Forbes, said Curry was blacklisted and made "unhirable in academia."[9] Curry serves on NASA Advisory Council Earth Science Subcommittee whose mission is to provide advice and recommendations to NASA on issues of program priorities and policy. She was a member of the NOAA Climate Working Group from 2004-2009, a member of the National Academies Space Studies Board from 2004-2007, and a member of the National Academies Climate Research Group from 2003-2006.[5]

Before moving to Georgia, Curry was professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado-Boulder, and had previosuly held faculty positions at Penn State University, Purdue, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[5] Curry has been active in researching possible connections between hurricane intensity and global warming.[10][11] Her research group has also done research linking the size of hurricanes and resulting damage that showed that, among other things, the size of the hurricanes was an important factor in determining the number of tornadoes spawned by the system.[12] Among her awards is the Henry G. Houghton Research Award from the American Meteorological Society in 1992,[13] and a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation in 1988.[5]

After leaving academia, Curry shifted to running the Climate Forecast Applications Network, a climate-risk consulting company whose clients include federal agencies, insurance companies, and energy companies.[7]

Climate change

Judith Curry has argued that climatologists should be more accommodating of those skeptical of the scientific consensus on climate change.[14] Curry stated in 2009 that she felt troubled by what she called the "tribal nature" of parts of the climate-science community and what she saw as stonewalling over the release of data and its analysis for independent review.[14]

In his 2010 profile on Curry, Michael Lemonick notes that, though Curry does not dispute the science produced by the IPCC (e.g. that the planet is warming, that human greenhouse gas emissions are largely to blame, or that the worst-case scenario could be catastrophic), she has major critiques of the IPCC as an organization. She said that she "does not have confidence in the process" due to the use of non-peer-reviewed papers, the appointment of unsuitable representatives to high-status positions, and based on her personal experience on the panel. She also critiques the scientific community's use of uncertainties, describing how her engagement with the climate skeptic blogging community led her to revise how she viewed the uncertainties involved in climate modeling. Lemonick describes these views as unusual in the scientific community in terms of content as well as unusual in how Curry chose to publicize them on climate skeptics' blogs.[15]

Between 2014 and February 2019, Curry testified before at least six Republican-led House committees, expressing the idea that the dangers of global warming are overstated and difficult to predict. These testimonies include statements criticizing President Obama’s climate plan, the UN climate action plan, and other policy proposals aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions. In her testimony before the Natural Resources Committee on February 6, 2019, Curry stated that, “Man-made climate change is not an existential threat in the 21st century.... The perception of a near-term apocalypse has narrowed the policy options.”[7]

In 2016, Robert Bradley Jr. quoted an excerpt of Curry's testimony, previously published on her blog,[16] in Forbes,[17]

In their efforts to promote their “cause,” the scientific establishment behind the global warming issue has been drawn into the trap of seriously understating the uncertainties associated with the climate problem. This behavior risks destroying science’s reputation for honesty. It is this objectivity and honesty which gives science a privileged seat at the table. Without this objectivity and honesty, scientists become regarded as another lobbyist group.

Publications

Curry is the co-author of Thermodynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans (1999),[18] and co-editor of Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences (2002).[19] Curry has published over 130 scientific peer reviewed papers.[13]

In February 2010 Curry published an essay called "On the Credibility of Climate Change, Towards Rebuilding Trust" on Watts Up With That? and other blogs.[20] Writing in The New York Times, Andrew Revkin calls the essay a message to young scientists who may have been disheartened by the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit email controversy.[14]

Journalist Julie Kelly of the National Review notes[21] that Curry echoes and supports the perspective of Scott Pruitt, EPA administrator at the time, regarding skepticism about the sensitivity of climate change to carbon dioxide levels, as well as the extent to which climate change is human-caused, in her 2017 report "Climate Models for the Layman."[22] This report critiques the role of climate models in policy-making. In an email exchange with Kelly, Dr. Curry endorses Pruitt's perspectives on the uncertainty in climate change.[21]

In November 2018, Curry submitted for publication a report on sea level rise titled Sea Level and Climate Change in which she argues against the scientific community's consensus, presenting her case that sea level rise has been a "slow creep" over the last 150 years and has been unaffected by anthropogenic climate change. Though these arguments place her outside the academic consensus, Curry said that her findings were compatible with those presented by the International Panel on Climate Change. An Associated Press article suggested that Curry's arguments could dampen moves by cities and municipalities to start lawsuits against oil-and-gas companies seeking recompense for anticipated future damage due to sea level rise.[8]


Influence

Some political figures have used Curry's statements and writings in their arguments. For instance, when Christopher Shank, a politician and President Trump's first appointment to the NASA transition team, questioned the role of humans in climate change, Shank referred to Curry's work and her site's URL repeatedly in his testimony.[23]

See also

References

  1. ^ National Research Council. Review of the U.S. CLIVAR Project Office. Committee to Review the U.S. Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) Project Office, National Academies Press, 2004, p. 35.
  2. ^ Waldman, Scott (2017-01-04). "Judith Curry retires, citing 'craziness' of climate science". ClimateWire. Environment & Energy Publishing. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  3. ^ About Climate Etc.
  4. ^ Curry, Judith (August 22, 2019). "Climate Change: What's the Worst Case?". judithcurry.com. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Judith A. Curry CV" (PDF). Congress. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  6. ^ Judith Curry (25 August 2010). "About". Climate Etc. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  7. ^ a b c Niiler, Eric (7 February 2019). "Finally! Climate Science Returns to Capitol Hill". Wired. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  8. ^ a b Richardson, Valerie (27 December 2018). "Judith Curry sea-level study disputes climate-disaster predictions". AP NEWS. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  9. ^ "Roger Pielke Jr". DeSmog. Retrieved 2020-03-28.
  10. ^ See, for example:
  11. ^ "Refereed Papers". www.curry.eas.gatech.edu. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
  12. ^ "Hurricanes Spawning More U.S. Tornadoes". Live Science. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  13. ^ a b "Hurricanes and Global Warming: The Science, Technologies, and Politics". NASA Researcher News. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  14. ^ a b c Revkin, Andrew (November 27, 2009). "A Climate Scientist Who Engages Skeptics". New York Times. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
  15. ^ Lemonick, Michael D. (2010-11-01). "Climate heretic: Judith Curry turns on her colleagues". Nature. doi:10.1038/news.2010.577. ISSN 1476-4687.
  16. ^ Curry, Judith (2015-06-22). "Science, uncertainty and advocacy". Climate Etc. Retrieved 2020-03-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ Bradley, Jr, Robert (Sep 23, 2016). "Climate Exaggeration is Backfiring". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-03-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ^ Curry, Judith A.; Webster, Peter J. (1999). Thermodynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans. San Diego, California: Academic Press, a division of Harcourt Brace & Company. ISBN 978-0-12-199570-6.
  19. ^ Holton, James R.; Curry, Judith A.; Pyle, John A., eds. (2002). Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences. Academic Press, a division of Harcourt Brace & Company. ISBN 978-0-12-227090-1.
  20. ^ Turner, Amy. "Richard Dawkins' pro-am clash in the boffins’ blogosphere", The Times, February 28, 2010.
  21. ^ a b Kelly, Julie (13 March 2017). "Scott Pruitt's Opening Salvo". National Review. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  22. ^ Curry, Judith (2017). "Climate Models for the Layman" (PDF). Global Warming Policy Foundation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  23. ^ Brown, Alleen (1 December 2016). "Global Warming Research in Danger as Trump Appoints Climate Skeptic to NASA Team". The Intercept. Retrieved 28 February 2020.

External links

General-interest articles by Curry


Books by Curry
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