Long Time Climate Denier Appointed at NOAA
September 12, 2020
I guess this is what they call “pwning the libs”.
David Legates, a University of Delaware professor of climatology who has spent much of his career questioning basic tenets of climate science, has been hired for a top position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Legates confirmed to NPR that he was recently hired as NOAA’s deputy assistant secretary of commerce for observation and prediction. The position suggests that he reports directly to Neil Jacobs, the acting head of the agency that is in charge of the federal government’s sprawling weather and climate prediction work.
Neither Legates nor NOAA representatives responded to questions about Legates’ specific responsibilities or why he was hired. The White House also declined to comment.
Legates has a long history of using his position as an academic scientist to publicly cast doubt on climate science. His appointment to NOAA comes as Americans face profound threats stoked by climate change, from the vast, deadly wildfires in the West to an unusually active hurricane season in the South and East.
Global temperatures have already risen nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit as a result of greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. Warming is happening the fastest at the Earth’s poles, where sea ice is melting, permafrost is thawing and ocean temperatures are heating up, with devastating effects on animals and humans alike.
In 2007, Legates was one of the authors of a paper that questioned previous findings about the role of climate change in destroying the habitat of polar bears. That research was partially funded by grants from Koch Industries, the lobbying group the American Petroleum Institute and ExxonMobil, according to InsideClimate News.
The same year, Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner sent a letter to Legates expressing concern about his opinions on climate change, given that he was the state climatologist at the time. Minner asked him to refrain from casting doubt on climate science when he was acting in his official role. Legates stepped down in 2011.
Legates also appeared in a video pushing the discredited theory that the sun is the cause of global warming. In testimony before the U.S. Senate in 2014, Legates argued that a climate science report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change erroneously stated that humans are causing global warming.
September 12, 2020 at 9:41 pm
Hmm he is a signatory to the cornwall alliance So his mind is fully open to scientific fact!
https://cornwallalliance.org/2009/05/signers-of-an-evangelical-declaration-on-global-warming/
David Legates, Associate Professor of Climatology, University of Delaware
…
Roy W. Spencer, Principal Research Scientist in Climatology, University of Alabama, Huntsville, award-winning NASA climate scientist, U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning …
WHAT WE BELIEVE
We believe Earth and its ecosystems—created by God’s intelligent design and infinite power and sustained by His faithful providence —are robust, resilient, self-regulating, and self-correcting, admirably suited for human flourishing, and displaying His glory. Earth’s climate system is no exception. Recent global warming is one of many natural cycles of warming and cooling in geologic history.
WHAT WE DENY
We deny that Earth and its ecosystems are the fragile and unstable products of chance, and particularly that Earth’s climate system is vulnerable to dangerous alteration because of minuscule changes in atmospheric chemistry. Recent warming was neither abnormally large nor abnormally rapid. There is no convincing scientific evidence that human contribution to greenhouse gases is causing dangerous global warming.
September 13, 2020 at 1:17 am
His mind fully open. His brain fell out.
September 13, 2020 at 4:35 am
His brain is full of sh!t.
September 14, 2020 at 3:19 pm
Legates isn’t just signatory to the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation – he’s a Senior Adviser:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160320224551/http://cornwallalliance.org/about/who-we-are/
The Cornwall Alliance has also issued “A Renewed Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor,” which in part states:
“The world is in the grip of an idea: that burning fossil fuels…is causing global warming that will be so dangerous that we must stop it by reducing our use…
“We believe that idea—we’ll call it ‘global warming alarmism’—fails the tests of theology…with a worldview of the Earth and its climate system contrary to that taught in the Bible…
“God’s wisdom, power, and faithfulness justify confidence that Earth’s ecosystems are robust and will, by God’s providence, accomplish the purposes He set for them.”
https://cornwallalliance.org/2009/05/a-renewed-call-to-truth-prudence-and-protection-of-the-poor/
September 16, 2020 at 9:24 am
https://climatecrocks.com/2012/11/30/right-wing-preacher-not-using-fossil-fuels-insults-god/
classics here, especially the second vid clip
September 16, 2020 at 12:37 pm
The bible is full of floods & droughts.
The Israelites went to Egypt as climate refugees where they endured slavery!
Primordial flood waters are the very symbols of chaos and evil.
Not to mention Noah’s flood.
There are no proof texts for anything aligned to what these people extrapolate about stable and self-regulating climate.
These people seem challenged with processing information.
September 21, 2020 at 1:45 pm
“The bible is full of local floods & droughts.”
Fixed that for you. Of course, there’s no information in that Bronze Age book about the status of the jet stream. Maybe because they didn’t know shit about global climate and still thought meteorological events were caused by a jealous god that “love[d] the smell of blood” with his sacrifices.
September 13, 2020 at 3:42 am
I want to remind Americans on how the USA used to lead the world on environmental awareness. Check out this video from Neil deGrass Tyson on Earth Day.
September 13, 2020 at 4:43 am
That’s a myth. The US has never led the world in terms of environmental awareness. Reagan’s deregulation, Halliburton loophole, etc.
September 20, 2020 at 4:11 am
The US existed before Reagan.