September 26, 2006

Rams vs. Buffaloes

An intrastate rivalry is deepening. AlexC sends a link to a DenverPost.com story about a CSU professor (well covered on these pages) and an NCAR scientist in Boulder.

The words "global warming" provoke a sharp retort from Colorado State University meteorology professor emeritus William Gray: "It's a big scam."

And the name of climate researcher Kevin Trenberth elicits a sputtered "opportunist."

At the National Center for Atmospheric Research, where Trenberth works, Gray's name prompts dismay. "Bill Gray is completely unreasonable," Trenberth says. "He has a mind block on this."
Only 55 miles separate NCAR's headquarters, nestled in the Front Range foothills, from CSU in Fort Collins. But when it comes to climate change, the gap is as big as any in the scientific community.


The article is pretty balanced, enumerating what is and is not disputed. The author leans on consensus and majority as favoring the existence of man made global warming. I repeat that science is not democratic, look more to Karl Popper's epistemology and less toward focus groups.

Yet the story is a pretty balanced look at the controversy and worth a read.

I just hope Dr. Gray doesn't call Dr. Trenberth "macaca."

Environment Posted by jk at September 26, 2006 12:56 PM

Hey, careful there. My beloved Buffaloes have nothing to do with NCAR.

As for taking sides in this fight I think you know where I'll be. For 16 years I lived just down the hill from NCAR's envied perch at the base of Boulder's Flatirons. Whenever someone mentions "ivory tower" the NCAR building is my mental image. (See thumbnail photo at: http://www.ucar.edu/org/about-us.shtml)

Comparing the two men, Bill Gray's degrees are in geography, meteorology, and geophysical sciences. Trenberths are in mathematics and meteorology.
http://www.atmos.colostate.edu/dept/facmembers/gray.php
http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/trenbert.html

One of the biggest criticisms of global warming theorists is that their theories are based upon the "predictions" of their mathematical "climate models." Trenberth appears to fit that mold perfectly. Gray, on the other hand, predicted weather in the air force to begin his career and is a research professor at a land grant (read: agricultral) college at the present. Which would you expect to have a firmer grip on reality?

Posted by: johngalt at September 26, 2006 3:34 PM

Yes, you're right; my characterization is inaccurate. I should have lumped it into a Boulder-Ft. Collins rivalry.

However -- comma -- to get a serious, heartfelt apology from me, I'll need a link to a CU professor's taking a stance against anthropogenic global warming.

Posted by: jk at September 27, 2006 7:49 PM

HA! Fat chance there. But I did actually go to the CU website and searched for "anthropogenic." There was a single hit. From 2004: http://www.cu.edu/sg/messages/3652.html

"Some wonder if a long-term increase in carbon dioxide and methane -- greenhouse gases of anthropogenic and natural origin -- are making the clouds more prevalent."

So the scientists at CU proposed to build two instruments to study the wandering polar clouds.

If a CU faculty member opposed "anthropogenic global warming" it would certainly have a chilling effect upon taxpayer financed research grants.

Posted by: johngalt at September 28, 2006 1:18 AM | What do you think? [3]