Hurricane forecaster: Al Gore does 'great disservice' with film

[cascagraphic]

A top hurricane forecaster called Al Gore "a gross alarmist" Friday for making an Oscar-winning documentary about global warming.

"He's one of these guys that preaches the end of the world type of things. I think he's doing a great disservice and he doesn't know what he's talking about," Dr. William Gray said in an interview with The Associated Press at the National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans, where he delivered the closing speech.

A spokeswoman said Gore was on a flight from Washington, D.C., to Nashville Friday; he did not immediately respond to Gray's comments.

Gray, an emeritus professor at the atmospheric science department at Colorado State University, has long railed against the theory that heat-trapping gases generated by human activity are causing the world to warm.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CO_HURRICANE_CONFERENCE_COOL-?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-04-06-21-26-54

[Richard D]

1. A point by point repudiation of Gray's theories . . .

. . . is here: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/04/gray-on-agw/

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. He gives CSU a bad name

and that really pisses me off. :mad:

[Solo_in_MD]

27. Ward Churchill beat him to it...

[Viva_La_Revolution]

28. Churchill is prof at University of Colorado

not Colorado State University.

[Canuckistanian]

16. Here's an enlightening bit of information about Gray

Gray's paper begins with a quote from Senator Inhofe calling global warming a hoax perpetrated on the American people, and ends with a quote by a representative of the Society of Petroleum Geologists stating that Crichton's State of Fear has "the absolute ring of truth." It is the gaping flaws in the scientific argument sandwiched between these two statements that are our major concern.

[saltpoint]

19. Once you've aligned yourself, Dr. Gray, with Jim Inhofe, you've bought

the farm.

If that's all your scientific studies and career expertise mean to you than to squander it trying to defame Al Gore, you're a hack.

Shame on Dr. Gray.

[aquart]

21. Tell me what think tank is paying him and who funds it.

[Canuckistanian]

22. Here's a comment from the RealClimate thread:

I have met Bill Gray once at a climate conference in 1998. He seemed a pleasant elderly man, he approached me and we had a nice discussion. He described to me in very clear terms how the thermohaline ocean circulation had decreased and increased at various times during the 20th Century. I felt very embarrassed - here I was, a young scientist who had been working already for seven years on the THC, and I had never even heard of these changes - I had thought it was basically unknown how the THC had varied over the 20th Century! Obviously I had a major gap in my grasp of the scientific literature. When I returned home I immediately did an extensive literature search - and to my surprise I found no studies at all that supported the very assured claims made by Gray.

Comment by Stefan — 27 Apr 2006 @ 7:48 am

Bolding mine.

[Bobbieo]

2. Just consider the source!

[madeline_con]

3. "He's one of these guys that preaches...

the end of the world type of things."


And that is the exclusive realm of the Dominionist inspired GOP! How dare Al do such a thing!

[Erika]

4. Get real. Arizona is 80% below average precipitation.

Global warming is here. You can either hide your heads in the sand or try to find a future for your children and grandchildren. What do you choose?

[babylonsister]

5. Dr. Gray's stance on global warming (skeptic):

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

snip//

Stance on global warming

Gray is a skeptic of the theory of global warming. He wrote:

Despite the global warming of the sea surface of about 0.3 C that has taken place over the last 3 decades, the global numbers of hurricanes and their intensity have not shown increases in recent years for the Atlantic. <2>

In a December 2006 interview with David Harsanyi of the Denver Post, Gary 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.

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." <3>

[IChing]

12. Is data doesn't match his pocketbook.

He is in the Phil Mikelson crowd.

Look at Exxon.

[kestrel91316]

6. I want to personally apologize to the world for this neanderthal who, sadly,

was a prof at MY alma mater.

What an asswipe.

[southerncrone]

7. I don't trust most of the Ass Press articles anyway.

[Purveyor]

9. And Dr. William Gray's predictions last year were 'spot on', eh? NOT!!! eom

[Gabi Hayes]

10. Was he the ONLY attendee at this conference?

this article doesn't mention ANYONE else at all!

who else was there?

did ANYbody else have anything to say about this aspect of global warming?

the consensus I've read is that, while there's no way to predict any increase in frequency of major hurricanes (Force IV, V?) the intensity of said hurricanes is what seems to be on the increase, and, IIRC it's been shown to have been on the increase over the last fifty years, or so.

easy to check out, but it's been discussed quite a bit here.

main point, though: not necessarily more hurricanes altogether, but more BAD ones, mostly attributable to increase in temperature of the Gulf. this year, I think, they're calling for more hurricanes on the Atlantic side, too, because the ocean is warmer this year.

[Kagemusha]

15. Well the govt scientists have gag rules, have to have speeches cleared....

Just reminding, since I'm not a big fan of such behavior by the government.

[ConsAreLiars]

11. Exxon's butt-boy trashes Gore? Now that's a real surprise!

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/23/gore-movie-g/

A professional whore for big oil saying such a thing? What a shock. I am simply astounded.

[babylonsister]

14. A nice find all the way around! I love thinkprogress, and all 243 comments!

:thumbsup:

[wtmusic]

13. "Global warming is mostly about politics and left-wing solutions to problems".

"You might start by getting the name of the organization right. It is American Association of Petroleum Geologists. I am a member. The geology community is far from unanimous in supporting the notion of manmade global warming. The earth has a very long history of warming and cooling, mostly related to the sun. Check out Newsweek's article (4/28/1975)"

The response:

The geology community is far from unanimous in supporting the notion of manmade global warming.

But the climatologist community is very near to unanimous.

Check out Newsweek's article (4/28/1975)

Honestly, I don't mean to be flippant, but around here, "Newsweek 1975" isn't exactly an impressive reference.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/04/gray-on-agw/

:rofl:

[Erika]

17. Can you come up with a suggestion? n/t

[DefenseLawyer]

23. Several of his peers reviewed Newsweek in the bathroom

Thus there is finally a peer reviewed article against global warming!

[saltpoint]

18. Gray has it from reliable sources that Al Gore is melting the polar ice

caps with a hair dryer to bolster his global warming theory.

Yeah -- that must be it. Gore's creating the crisis himself with a hair dryer.

___

What do you just bet Gray is a Ted Stevens Republican?

[Swamp Rat]

20. LOLOL!!!!!

:rofl:

[fizzgig]

24. i've had occassion to speak with him

and he's a dotard and a fool. my alma mater is producing some fantastic research, but his is not a part of that

[Dogmudgeon]

25. He's not the only one

Many professional meteorologists are global warming denialists.

--p!

[unhappycamper]

26. dots

Gray is one of the speakers for The Second Annual Accuweather Hurricane Summit.

To refresh your memory, Tricky Ricky Santorum introduced the National Weather Services Duties Act of 2005 to privatize the National Weather Serivce for Accuweather.