Intellectual Dry Rot Of Climate Denial Given Ample Space On NYT Editorial Page

[hatrack]

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Muller, who lacks any training or expertise in atmospheric science, is more than happy to promote with great confidence the unsupportable claim that global warming will actually decrease tornado activity. His evidence for this? The false claim that the historical data demonstrate a decreasing trend in past decades.

Actual atmospheric scientists know that the historical observations are too sketchy and unreliable to decide one way or another as to whether tornadoes are increasing or not (see this excellent discussion by weather expert Jeff Masters of The Weather Underground). So one is essentially left with the physical reasoning I outlined above. You would think that a physicist would know how to do some physical reasoning. And sadly, in Muller's case, you would apparently be wrong...

To allow Muller to so thoroughly mislead their readers, not once, but twice in the space of as many months, is deeply irresponsible of the Times. So why might it be that the New York Times is so enamored with Muller, a retired physicist with no training in atmospheric or climate science, when it comes to the matter of climate change?

I discuss Muller's history as a climate change critic and his new-found role as a media favorite in my book "The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars" (the paperback was just released a couple weeks ago, with a new guest foreword by Bill Nye "The Science Guy&quot . Muller is known for his bold and eccentric, but flawed and largely discredited astronomical theories. But he rose to public prominence only two years ago when he cast himself in the irresistible role of the "converted climate change skeptic".

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-e-mann/michael-mann-richard-muller_b_4313508.html