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Gray, Wm

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This Pro Bono Research Is Dedicated to the Memory of Dr. William M. Gray (Emeritus) Professor of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University

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Credentials 

William Gray has been a Faculty member of the Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO since 1961.

Source:[1]

Background

William Gray is a professor at Colorado State University where he heads the Tropical Meteorology Project.

Gray has been vocal in his skepticism of global warming and was a featured speaker at the Heartland Institute's 2009 International Conference on Climate Change. He also appeared in a 2006 news release sponsored by Tech Central Station.

He has described global warming as a "hoax," and something that "they've been brainwashing us [about] for 20 years."

Peter Webster, a Georgia Institute of Technologyprofessor, has been part of the anonymous peer review on several of Gray's National Science Foundation proposals. In every case he has turned down the global warming research component because he believed it was not up to standards, but recommended that Gray's hurricane research be funded.

Webster, who has co-authored other scientific papers with Gray, is also critical of Gray for his personal attacks on the scientists with whom he disagrees. "Bill, for some very good reasons, has been the go-to man on hurricanes for the last 35 years," says Webster. "All of a sudden there are a lot of people saying things Bill doesn't agree with. And they're getting a lot of press—more press than I like, actually. I like the ivory tower. But he's become more and more radical." [2]

Stance on Climate Change

Key Quotes

"I think the whole human-induced greenhouse gas thing is a red herring. . . . I see climate change as due to the ocean circulation pattern. I see this as a major cause of climate change. . . . These are natural processes. We shouldn't blame them on humans and CO2." [4]

"Colorado State University's William Gray, one of the nations preeminent hurricane forecasters, called noted Boulder climate researcher Kevin Trenberth an opportunist and a Svengali who 'sold his soul to the devil to get (global warming) research funding'." [5]

"Gore believed in global warming almost as much as Hitler believed there was something wrong with the Jews." [6]

"Human kind has little or nothing to do with the recent temperature changes. We are not that influential" [7]

Key Deeds

May 21 - 23, 2012

Gray was a speaker at the Heartland Institute's 7th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC7).

DeSmogBlogresearched the co-sponsors behind Heartland's ICCC7 and found that they had collectively received over $67 million from ExxonMobil, the Koch Brothersand the conservative Scaife family foundations.

March, 2009

William Gray was a speaker at the Heartland Institute's 2009 International Conference on Climate Change where he was described by the Heartland Institute as a "leading researcher into tropical weather patterns."

December 13, 2007

Gray is a signatory to a 2007 open letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that denied man-made climate change. 

The letter states that "it is not possible to stop climate change, a natural phenomenon that has affected humanity throughout the ages." [8]

June, 2006

Gray appeared in a video news release produced by the PR firm Medialink Worldwide and sponsored by Tech Central Station titled, "Global Warming and Hurricanes: All Hot Air?"

Gray denies a link between global warming and the severity of hurricane seasons. "We don't think that's the case," Gray says. "This is the way nature sometimes works." [9]

September 28, 2005

Gray testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works (run by ranking member James Inhofe) on the subject of climate change.

Here is an excerpt from Gray's testimony:

"I am convinced that in 15-20 years, we will look back on this period of global warming hysteria as we now look back on so many other popular, and trendy, scientific ideas -- such as the generally accepted Eugenic theories of the 1920s and 1930s that have now been discredited. There are so many other more important problems in the world which need our immediate attention. We should not be distracted by a false threat that is mostly just due to natural changes in climate."

Gray concludes that "Analysis of global tropical cyclone activity of all intensities does not support the hypothesis that there has been a significant increase in tropical cyclone frequency-intensity associated with global temperature rise." [10]

Affiliations

Publications

Sample Publications

Resources

  1. William M. Gray. "Climate Change: Driven by the Ocean not Human Activity" (PDF). Prepared for the 4th Annual Heartland Institute sponsored conference on Climate Change. Chicago, IL, May 18-20, 2010.
  2. Alan Prendergast. "The Skeptic," Denver Westword News, June 29, 2006.
  3. David Harsanyi. "Chill out over global warming." Denver Post, June 5, 2006.
  4. Jeff Franks. "Warming Not Behind Hurricane Activity - Forecaster," Planet Ark,April 10, 2007.
  5. "Tempest erupts over hurricanes: Global warming debate at conference spawns name calling," Rocky Mountain News, October 26, 2006.Republished by CSPP.
  6. Joel Achenbach. "The Tempest." The Washington Post, May 28, 2006.
  7. William M. Gray. "Viewpoint: Get off warming bandwagon." BBC News, November 16, 2000.
  8. "Open Letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations," December 13, 2007. Reprinted by the Science and Public Policy Institute.
  9. "Global Warming and Hurricanes: All Hot Air?" Google Videos. Accessed December 14, 2011.
  10. "Statement of Dr. William Gray," U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, September 28, 2005.
  11. "Scientists' Recent Comments on Global Warming and Hurricanes" (PDF), Center for Science and Public Policy, October 26, 2005. Republished by Frontiers of Freedom.
  12. "Top Hurricane Predictor Denounces Global Warming Hoax," Moonbattery, May 21, 2007.
  13. "William Gray," SourceWatch.
  14. "William M. Gray," ExxonSecrets Factsheet.
  15. "Global Warning." Denver Westword News, Oct 9, 1997.

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climate change

desmogblog

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William Gray

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http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=William_Gray

William Gray has been a professor at Colorado State University since 1974 and heads the University's Tropical Meteorology Project. Gray's focus is the "observational and theoretical aspects of tropical meteorological research," especially "meso-scale tropical weather phenomena" and "the global aspects of tropical cyclones." His doctorate degree is in geophysical sciences. [1]

Gray is a well known climate change skeptic. He is a featured speaker at the International Conference on Climate Change (2009) organized by the Heartland Institute think tank. [2]

Gray told the Washington Post in 2006, "Gore believed in global warming almost as much as Hitler believed there was something wrong with the Jews." He added, "Yes, I am incendiary. But the other side is just as incendiary. The etiquette of science has long ago been thrown out the window." Gray also told the Post that people who warn about the effects of climate change want to "organize, propagandize, force conformity and exercise political influence. Big world government could best lead (and control) us to a better world!" [3]

In 2006, Gray appeared in a video news release, or fake TV news spot, produced by the PR firm Medialink Worldwide and sponsored by Tech Central Station, a conservative website that was owned and operated at the time by DCI Group, one of ExxonMobil's lobbying firms. The VNR was titled, "Global Warming and Hurricanes: All Hot Air?" In the VNR, Gray denies that there's any link between global warming and the severity of hurricane seasons -- a link independent research has supported. "We don't think that's the case," Gray says. "This is the way nature sometimes works." [4]

Also in 2006, Gray told the Denver Post that global warming is a "hoax," something that "they've been brainwashing us [about] for 20 years." [5]

Gray signed onto a December 2007 open letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon that called global warming "a natural phenomenon that has affected humanity through the ages," called carbon dioxide "a non-polluting gas that is essential to plant photosynthesis," and claimed the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's reports "quite inadequate as justification for implementing policies that will markedly diminish future prosperity." The letter also stated, "Recent observations of phenomena such as glacial retreats, sea-level rise and the migration of temperature-sensitive species are not evidence for abnormal climate change, for none of these changes has been shown to lie outside the bounds of known natural variability." [6]

Contents [hide]

Quotes

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch articles

References

  1. ↑ "The Tropical Meteorology Project", Colorado State University website, accessed January 2009.
  2. ↑ "Speakers," Heartland Institute website, accessed January 2009.
  3. ↑ Joel Achenbach, "The Tempest," Washington Post, May 28, 2006.
  4. ↑ Diane Farsetta and Dan Price, "Oil Lobbyist's "News" Denies Inconvenient Truths: WTOK-11's Hot Air Misleads Viewers," in "Still Not the News: Stations Overwhelmingly Fail to Disclose VNRs," Center for Media and Democracy, November 14, 2006.
  5. ↑ David Harsanyi, "Chill out over global warming," Denver Post (Colorado), June 5, 2006.
  6. ↑ "Open Letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, December 13, 2007," printed as "Don't fight, adapt; We should give up futile attempts to combat climate change," National Post (Canada), December 13, 2007.
  7. ↑ "[1]"
  8. ↑ "[2]"
  9. ↑ "[3]"
  10. ↑ "[4]"

External resources

External articles

Categories:

==

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Gray

Seasonal hurricane forecasts

Gray developed a seasonal hurricane forecasting methodology in the 1980s[1] and began reporting his forecasts to the public. His forecasts are widely discussed in the U.S. media. Preliminary forecasts are released before the start of the hurricane season, and the forecasts are then revised as the season progresses. The forecasts establish an expectation of the hurricane activity for the year, but are frequently inaccurate, often requiring subsequent forecasts. In 2005, for example, both the CSU team and NOAA significantly underestimated the actual hurricane totals despite issuing updated estimates as late as August of that year.

Stance on global warming

This section's representation of one or more viewpoints about a controversial issue may be unbalanced or inaccurate.

Please improve the article or discuss the issue on the talk page. (December 2010)

Gray is skeptical of current theories of human-induced global warming, which he says is supported by scientists afraid of losing grant funding[5] and promoted by government leaders and environmentalists seeking world government.[6] He believes that humans are not responsible for the warming of the earth and has stated that "We're brainwashing our children."[7] He asked, "How can we trust climate forecasts 50 and 100 years into the future (that can’t be verified in our lifetime) when they are not able to make shorter seasonal or yearly forecasts that could be verified?"[8]

Gray said those who had linked global warming to the increased number of hurricanes in recent years were in error. He cites statistics showing that there were 101 hurricanes from 1900 to 1949, in a period of cooler global temperature, compared to 83 from 1957 to 2006 when the earth warmed.[7]

Gray does not say there has not been any warming, but states "I don't question that. And humans might have caused a very slight amount of this warming. Very slight. But this warming trend is not going to keep on going. My belief is that three, four years from now, the globe will start to cool again, as it did from the middle '40s to the middle '70s."[9]

According to an earlier interview reported by Joel Achenbach, Gray had similarly said that the current warming in the past decades is a natural cycle, driven by a global ocean circulation that manifests itself in the North Atlantic Ocean as the Gulf Stream.[6]

In a December 2006 interview with David Harsanyi of The Denver Post, Gray said, "They've been brainwashing us for 20 years, starting with the nuclear winter and now with the global warming. This scare will also run its course. In 15–20 years, we'll look back and see what a hoax this was." In this interview, Gray cites the global cooling article in Newsweek from 1975 as evidence that such a scare has happened in the past.[9]

In 2006, Gray predicted a cooling trend by 2009-2010.[9]

Gray has been an active scientist publishing and speaking about weather, hurricanes, and related matters for 60 years. In his presentation to the 7th International Conference on Climate Change sponsored by The Heartland Institute, Gray found virtually no basis to think added CO2 is generating extreme weather events.[10]

Criticisms of Gray's statements on global warming

Peter Webster, a Georgia Institute of Technology professor, has been part of the anonymous peer review on several of Gray's National Science Foundation proposals. In every case he has turned down the global warming research component because he believed it was not up to standards, but recommended that Gray's hurricane research be funded.[11]

Webster, who has co-authored other scientific papers with Gray, is also critical of Gray for his personal attacks on the scientists with whom he disagrees. "Bill, for some very good reasons, has been the go-to man on hurricanes for the last 35 years," says Webster. "All of a sudden there are a lot of people saying things Bill doesn't agree with. And they're getting a lot of press—more press than I like, actually. I like the ivory tower. But he's become more and more radical."[11]

See also

Global warming portal