Douglass, D
bestowed the Nobel to monckton?!
David Douglass
Credentials
- Ph.D. Physics,MIT (1959)
- B.S. Physics, University of Maine
Source:[1:{]:(style="letter-spacing:0.03em"):}:
Background
David Douglass is a Professor of Physics at the University of Rochester. According to his bio, Douglass main focus has been in the area of experimental condensed matter, but in the last few several years he's been studying the fundamental science issues underlying global warming. Douglass has published several papers on questioning the validity of the scientific conclusion that global warming is caused by human activity.
Stance on Climate Change
“The observed pattern of warming, comparing surface and atmospheric temperature trends, does not show the characteristic fingerprint associated with greenhouse warming. The inescapable conclusion is that the human contribution is not significant and that observed increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases make only a negligible contribution to climate warming.”[2]
Key Quotes
“Have the models been successful in predicting anything? They, of course, predict substantial global warming. This is not surprising given the expressed belief of some of the model builders in the global warming Hypothesis and the many parameters in the model that need to be introduced. However, the models also predict unambiguously that the atmosphere is warming faster than the surface of the earth; but all the available observational data unambiguously shows the opposite!” [3]
Key Deeds
Ongoing
David Douglass has produced a number of “unpublished papers” on the subject of climate change and has made presentations at a number of locations including George Mason University. For example: [4]
- Atmospheric Temperature trends: Climate Models versus Observation (invited paper)
David H, Douglass
AGU in New Orleans. 23-27 May 2005.
- Climate Sensitivity of Earth to Solar Irradiance: update II (invited paper)
David H. Douglass, B. David Clader, and Robert S. Knox
AGU in New Orleans. 23-27 May 2005
- Comparison of the Observational Data with the Global Climate Models
David H. Douglass
George Mason University March 11, 2005
- Climate Sensitivity to Solar Irradiance and Climate Models (invited talk)
David H. Douglass
SORCE meeting on Decade Variations in the Sun and the Climate. Merideth NH. Oct 28, 2004.
- Global Warming and Cooling
David H. Douglass
University of Rochester Wednesday evening Alumni Lecture Series. September 25, 2002.
- Construction of a Template to Represent an Ice Age Climate Cycle.
David H. Douglass, Alphonso Magri.
Paper presented at the AGU San Francisco Meeting. Dec 10-15, 2001.
- Determination of the Parameters of the Earth-Climate System due to Forcing from the Solar 11-year Cycle and from the Mt. Pinatubo Volcano Event. (invited paper)
D, H. Douglass and B. David Clader
1st International Conference on Global Warming and the Next Ice Age. 19-24 August Halifax, Canada. 2001.
- Determination of the Parameters of the Earth-Climate System due to Forcing from the Solar 11-year Cycle and from the Mt. Pinatubo Volcano Event. (invited)
David H. Douglass.
Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics June 6, 2001.
- Were the Ice Ages Caused by Oscillations of Atmospheric C02?
David H. Douglass.
Science and Technology Seminar. Laboratory for Laser Energetics Dec 17, 1999
- Global Warming?
David H. Douglass.
Sixth Annual Myron W. Cucci Visiting Scientist Address. Monroe Community College . Dec 10, 1999
March, 2009
David Douglass was aspeakerat the Heartland Institute's Second International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC2). DeSmogBlog researched the funding behind ICCC2 and found that sponsor organizations had received over $47 million in funding from energy companies and right-wing foundations. [5:{]:(style="letter-spacing:0.03em;background-color:#ffffff;"):}:
December, 2007
Douglass, along with Fred Singer and John Christy published a paper that, according to conservative media organizations,“explodes [the] human-global warming story.”Douglass et al.'s paper concludes that climate models have been inaccurate in predicting the amount of warming in the troposphere.
At the time, Douglass is quoted in a Fox News articleas stating, ”[c]an the models accurately explain the climate from the recent past? It seems that the answer is no.” RealClimate points out that this is not the first time thatDouglass, Christy and Singer have made this claim. :{[2:(style="letter-spacing:0.03em"):}:], [6],[7:{]:(style="letter-spacing:0.03em"):}:
July, 2004
Douglass co-authored a 2004 paper withPatrick J. Michaels, as well as a paper in the July 9 issue ofGeophysical Research Letterswith Fred Singer. According to the Heartland Institute's coverage, the paper supposedly puts the U.N.'s temperature records into question. [8]
According to SourceWatch, in a letter to the Washington Times criticizing a National Geographic article on global warming, Douglass wrote: “I, with Patrick J. Michaels as a co-author, showed that out of four data sets, three show no significant global warming. Advocates of global-warming theory simply ignore all contrary evidence. This is hardly a 'scientific approach.'”
Affiliations
- **The Heartland Institute**— Listed as a Heartland “Expert”on climate change. Also a past ICCC speaker.
Publications
David H. Douglass has published a number of papers in peer-reviewed journals, largely in journals related to geophysics/geosciences. Some of his articles related to climate change have been published by the skeptical science journal *Energy and Environment*which has been criticized for its sub-standard peer review process in the past. *Skeptical Science*lists only one peer-reviewed paper by David Douglass on the subject of climate change. [9]
A full list of his publications is available here.
Resources
- “David H. Douglass,” Retrieved from University of Rochester (www.pas.rochester.edu), March 16, 2013.
- Philip V. Brennan. “New Study Explodes Human-Global Warming Story,” Newsmax.com, December 10, 2007. Archived December 13, 2007.
- “AGU AND GLOBAL WARMING,” Bizarre Science, May 25, 2004. Reproduced from a letter submitted toWall Street Journal by Prof. David Douglass. Archived September 3, 2004.
- “Recent Talks and Presentations,” Retrieved fromhttp://www.pas.rochester.edu/~douglass/recent-publications.html, March 16, 2013.
- “Speakers,” The 2009 International Conference on Climate Change. Archived April 27, 2010.
- David H. Douglass, John R. Christy, Benjamin D. Pearson and S. Fred Singer. “A comparison of tropical temperature trends with model predictions” (PDF), International Journal of Climatology (2007).
- “Study: Part of Global-Warming Model May Be Wrong,” FoxNews.com, December 13, 2007. ], :(style="letter-spacing:0.03em"):}::{S. Fred Singer and David H. Douglass. “[Settling Global Warming Science,” TCS Daily, August 12, 2004.
- “Global Warming Computer Models Seriously Flawed, Studies Show,” The Heartlander, October 1, 2004.
- “Peer-reviewed skeptic papers by David Douglass,” SkepticalScience. Accessed March 16, 2013.
- “David Douglass,” SourceWatch profile.
- ExxonSecrets Factsheet: David H. Douglass.
- “David Douglass,” Wikipedia.
TAGS:
Heartland Institute 2009 international conference on climate change
Science and Environmental Policy Project
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The "900+ papers" list is supposed to be proof that a large number of different scientists reject the scientific consensus on climate change. Climate sceptics do like big numbers: ' More than 500 scientists dispute global warming' was the story a few years ago. In December it was ' more Than 1000 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims'.
Once you crunch the numbers, however, you find a good proportion of this new list is made up of a small network of individuals who co-author papers and share funding ties to the oil industry. There are numerous other names on the list with links to oil-industry funded climate sceptic think-tanks, including more from the International Policy Network (IPN) and the Marshall Institute.
Compiling these lists is dramatically different to the process of producing IPCC reports, which reference thousands of scientific papers. The reports are thoroughly reviewed to make sure that the scientific work included is relevant and diverse.
Sceptic organisations have been successful in dumping large lists into the public domain to suggest that there is significant scientific divergence from the consensus. This is partly due to the fact it is time consuming analysing such lists.
Luckily, there are now free tools online which help you interrogate this kind of data. The screen-scraping website NeedleBase can turn the long list of papers into a single database, while the free data-processing tool Google Refine allows for a rapid analysis.
This is the process used here. Because the screen-scraping process is a little rough around the edges the citation numbers may vary slightly. But they give a clear picture of the structure of the list, which in this instance has been very revealing. Should you wish to examine it, you can download the raw data here.
Using this method we could quickly see the ten most referenced authors. We found that nine of the ten have direct links to ExxonMobil. Eight are affiliated to Exxon-funded organisations, while every paper written by Dr Bruce Kimball was co-authored with Sherwood Idso.
The top ten include Willie Soon, a senior scientist at the Exxon funded George C Marshall institute, and John R Christy, also a Marshall Institute expert.
Ross McKitrick is a senior fellow at the Exxon funded Fraser institute and on the academic advisory board of the Global Warming Policy Foundation - funders unknown.
Dr Indur M Goklany is affiliated with the Exxon Funded thinktank the International Policy Network (US). Sallie L Baliunas is listed by the Union of Concerned Scientists as being affiliated with nine different organisations who have all received funding from ExxonMobil, including the George C Marshall Institute.
Richard Lindzen, a climate scientist and prominent sceptic who notably has a degree of credibility in the scientific community, is a member of the 'Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy', which has also received Exxon funding.
The final name in the top 10 contributors - David H Douglass - has written several papers with Singer, Christie and Michaels - six of the fifteen papers he authored on the list were written with Michaels, Singer or Christie.
monckton 2008 thx
Acknowledgements I am particularly grateful to Professors David Douglass and Robert Knox for having patiently answered many questions over several weeks, and for having allowed me to present a seminar on some of these ideas to a challenging audience in the Physics Faculty at Rochester University, New York; to Dr. David Evans for his assistance with temperature feedbacks; to Professor Felix Fitzroy of the University of St. Andrews for some vigorous discussions; to Professor Larry Gould and Dr. Walter Harrison for having given me the opportunity to present some of the data and conclusions on radiative transfer and climate sensitivity at a kindly-received public lecture at Hartford University, Connecticut; to Dr. Joanna Haigh of Imperial College, London, for having supplied a crucial piece of the argument; to Professor Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his lecture-notes and advice on the implications of the absence of the tropical mid-troposphere “hot-spot” for climate sensitivity; to Dr. Willie Soon of the Harvard Center for Astrophysics for having given much useful advice and for having traced several papers that were not easily obtained; and to Dr. Roy Spencer of the University of Alabama at Huntsville for having answered several questions in connection with satellite data. Any errors that remain are mine alone. I have not received funding from any source for this research.