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| Bob Carter, climate scientist 1941-2016 |
Bob, as he was known, was what many refer to as a climate warming skeptic. He followed the data, and the scientific method, and came to conclusions that are at odds with the Warmists, what I refer to now as the False-Alarmists. That made him unpopular with the university that employed him, and he was discharged. That, alone, says volumes about the state of climate science in the world.
I met Bob here in Los Angeles a few years ago, at a dinner where he spoke a short bit. I sat next to him at the dinner and had a great time meeting him and discussing all sorts of things. I also had the privilege of hearing him speak as a panelist at the Heartland Climate Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, in summer of 2014.
There are several blog-based tributes, and internet page tributes to Bob and his memory. Among the comments on those, a distinguished scientist, Dr. Roy Spencer, lamented that soon enough, skeptics like Bob and himself would be gone as nature takes us all in the end. He went on to say that there are no younger scientists stepping up to carry on the skeptic side, and he named specifically his own research using the satellite data for atmospheric temperatures. His words: ". . . we have no one to take over production of the UAH satellite dataset when John Christy and I are gone." (note: UAH refers to University of Alabama at Huntsville)
With all due respect to Dr. Roy Spencer, I want to disagree. I suspect that younger scientists will find it a bit easier as the years go by, and the predicted catastrophic warming does not occur. At that point, skeptic scientists would, and should, be eager to perform the research that attempts to explain what went so badly wrong with the False-Alarmists data and methods. As an example, the data from the USCRN, the Climate Research network, that has only pristine sites for temperature measurement, shows a pronounced cooling in the US over the past decade. More ominously, the winters show a much faster cooling trend compared to the overall annual data. Even more ominously, the northern tier of the US shows the fastest cooling trend of all. see link for details.
The second reason I have for disagreement with Dr. Spencer is from my private discussions with scientists who are on the verge of retirement. Several that I have spoken to assure me that the only reason they presently remain silent is they want to keep their jobs. But, once retirement is upon them, they are free to speak well, freely. There will be some, perhaps many in that category. It would be improper for me to name any names of those who are waiting until their retirement day. However, given the very large Baby Boomer generation that is about to retire, there will be a considerable number of such people.
RIP, Bob. You will be missed. We will carry on in the tradition of obtaining valid data, following that data after sound analysis, and delivering supportable conclusions.
Roger E. Sowell, Esq.
Marina del Rey, California
copyright (c) 2016 by Roger Sowell - all rights reserved
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