Patrick Michaels Explained

Patrick Michaels
Birth Date:15 February 1950
Birth Place:Berwyn, Illinois, U.S.
Death Place:Washington, D.C., U.S.
Nationality:American
Fields:Climatology, ecology
Thesis Title:Atmospheric Anomalies and Crop Yields in North America
Thesis Url:https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6464506
Thesis Year:1979
Known For:Work on global warming
Website:Patrick J. Michaels, Cato Institute

Patrick J. Michaels (February 15, 1950 – July 15, 2022) was an American agricultural climatologist.[1] [2] Michaels was a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute until 2019. Until 2007, he was research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, where he had worked from 1980.[3] [4]

Starting in 1991, he collaborated with Fred Singer to attack the scientific consensus on ozone depletion. He joined the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank.[5] He described policies designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as "Obamunism".

He wrote a number of books and papers denying or minimizing climate change.[6]

Early life

Born in Berwyn, Illinois, Michaels obtained an A.B. in biological science in 1971 and an S.M. in biology in 1975 from the University of Chicago, and in 1979 he obtained his Ph.D. in ecological climatology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[7] His doctoral thesis was titled Atmospheric anomalies and crop yields in North America.[8]

In 1991 and 1992, Michaels collaborated with Fred Singer in writing articles for the Washington Times rejecting the scientific consensus on ozone depletion. He advanced arguments on the subject as late as 2000.

Views on climate change

Michaels said that he does not contest the basic scientific principles behind greenhouse warming and acknowledges that the global mean temperature has increased in recent decades.[9] He is quoted as being skeptical of global warming,[10] and was described by Michael E. Mann as a "prominent climate change contrarian".[11] He contends that the changes will be minor, not catastrophic, and may even be beneficial.[12]

A 2002 article published in the journal Climate Research by Michaels and three other scholars predicted "a warming range of 1.3–3.0°C, with a central value of 1.9°C" over the 1990 to 2100 period, although he remarked that the "temperature range and central values determined in our study may be too great". He made the argument that the climate feedback system involving current warming trends was weaker than generally asserted, coming to a conclusion that set his views apart from that of the IPCC's estimates.[13]

In 2009, Michaels authored a Cato report arguing that "Congress should pass no legislation restricting emissions of carbon dioxide, repeal current ethanol mandates, and inform the public about how little climate change would be prevented by proposed legislation."[14]

In 2018, Michaels asserted on Fox News, "[P]robably about half, maybe half of that nine-tenths of the degree [of total warming] might be caused by greenhouse gases." Climate Feedback, a fact-checking website for media coverage on climate change, wrote of Michaels' assertion, "No evidence or research is provided to support this claim, which contradicts the published scientific literature."[15]

Advocacy

Expert witness for Western Fuels Association

In May 1994 Richard Lindzen, Michaels, and Robert Balling served as expert witnesses on behalf of Western Fuels Association in St. Paul, Minnesota to determine the environmental cost of coal burning by state power plants.[16] Western Fuels Association is a consortium of coal producers that uses collective advocacy to represent industry interests.[17]

World Climate Report, Greening Earth Society, and Western Fuels Association

The World Climate Report, a newsletter edited by Michaels was first published by the Greening Earth Society. The society was a public relations organization associated with the Western Fuels Association (WFA), an association of coal-burning utility companies.[18] [19] [20] It has been called a "front group created by the coal industry"[21] and an "industry front".[22] Fred Palmer, a society staffer, is a registered lobbyist for Peabody Energy, a coal company.[23] WFA founded the group in 1997, according to an archived version of its website, "as a vehicle for advocacy on climate change, the environmental impact of CO2, and fossil fuel use."[24]

2003 John Holdren

Office of Science and Technology Policy director, John Holdren,[25] told the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee in June 2003, "Michaels is another of the handful of U.S. climate-change contrarians … He has published little if anything of distinction in the professional literature, being noted rather for his shrill op-ed pieces and indiscriminate denunciations of virtually every finding of mainstream climate science."[26] In 2009 Michaels responded in a Washington Examiner op-ed, saying that the IPCC had subverted the peer review process, and adding the IPCC had "left out plenty of peer-reviewed science that it found inconveniently disagreeable."[27]

IPCC

Michaels was one of hundreds of US reviewers composing the International Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group in 2007.[28]

Although the Greening Earth Society was generally skeptical of the impact of climate change, it acknowledged some degree of global warming as real: "Fact #1. The rate of global warming during the past several decades has been about 0.18°C per decade".[29] Note that the actual increase in the global surface temperature during the 100 years ending in 2005 was 0.74 ± 0.18 °C.[30]

Climate scientist Tom Wigley,[31] a lead author of parts of the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has stated that "Michaels' statements on the subject of computer models are a catalog of misrepresentation and misinterpretation … Many of the supposedly factual statements made in Michaels' testimony are either inaccurate or are seriously misleading."[32]

Funding from energy or fossil fuel companies

In 2006, a Colorado energy cooperative, the Intermountain Rural Electric Association, had given Michaels $100,000.[33] An Associated Press report said that the donations had been made after Michaels had "told Western business leaders ... that he was running out of money for his analyses of other scientists' global warming research" and noted that the cooperative had a vested interest in opposing mandatory carbon dioxide caps, a situation that raised conflict of interest concerns.[34]

Michaels said on CNN that 40 percent of his funding came from the oil industry.[35] According to Fred Pearce, fossil fuel companies have helped fund Michaels' projects, including his World Climate Report, published every year since 1994, and his "advocacy science consulting firm", New Hope Environmental Services.[36]

A 2005 article published by the Seattle Times reported that Michaels had received more than $165,000 in fuel-industry funding, including money from the coal industry, to publish his own climate journal.[10]

Death

Michaels died on July 15, 2022, in Washington, D.C. at age 72. He leaves behind a wife Rachel Schwartz Michaels (m-2016 - 2022)[37]

Selected publications

His writing has been published in major scientific journals, including Climate Research, Climatic Change, Geophysical Research Letters, Journal of Climate, Nature, and Science, as well as in popular serials such as the Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Houston Chronicle, and Journal of Commerce.[6] He was an author of the climate "paper of the year" awarded by the Association of American Geographers in 2004.[6] [38]

Science papers and technical comments

Books

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Oreskes, Naomi . Naomi Oreskes . 2010 . Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming . 1st U.S. . New York . Bloomsbury Press . 978-1-59691-610-4 . 461631066.
  2. Web site: Pat Michaels RIP . July 16, 2022 . Coalition . July 18, 2022.
  3. News: Gibson . Bob . September 25, 2007 . Former climatologist will pursue research work . Charlottesville Daily Progress . https://archive.today/20081201194308/http://www.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/article/former_climatologist_will_pursue_research_work/1857/ . December 1, 2008 . January 25, 2014.
  4. News: Waldman . Scott . May 29, 2019 . POLITICS: Cato closes its climate shop; Pat Michaels is out . E&E News. May 30, 2019.
  5. News: Goldenberg . Suzanne . Climate sceptic 'misled Congress over funding from oil industry' . January 25, 2011 . The Guardian . March 3, 2020 . correspondent . US environment . en-GB . 0261-3077.
  6. "Patrick J. Michaels", Cato Institute, accessed August 3, 2010; for his self-described skepticism, see Michaels, Patrick. "Holes in the Greenhouse Effect?", Cato Institute, accessed August 3, 2010.
  7. Web site: C.V. Patrick J. Michaels . . February 12, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110203144532/http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/documents/MICHAELS.CV_.2009.02.12.pdf . February 3, 2011.
  8. Michaels, Patrick J. . 1979 . Atmospheric anomalies and crop yields in North America . University of Wisconsin–Madison. 6464506 .
  9. Web site: Live with climate change . . February 1, 2007 . March 13, 2014 . Michaels, Patrick.
  10. News: The truth about global warming . October 11, 2005 . . Sandi . Doughton . May 4, 2007 . one of the most widely quoted global-warming skeptics . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070425173920/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002549346_globewarm11.html . April 25, 2007.
  11. Book: The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines. October 1, 2013. Columbia University Press. 978-0-231-15255-6. 106. Michael E. Mann.
  12. Regulation . 23 . 3 . Fall 2000 . March 14, 2007 . The Way of Warming . Patrick . Michaels . Paul C. Knappenberger . Robert E. Davis . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070215212203/https://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv23n3/michaels5.pdf . February 15, 2007 .
  13. "Revised 21st century temperature projections", Patrick J. Michaels, Paul C. Knappenberger, Oliver W. Frauenfeld and Robert E. Davis, Climate Research, Vol. 23: 1–9, 2002.
  14. Web site: CATO Handbook for Policy Makers. Patrick. Michaels. 2009. CATO Institute.
  15. Web site: On Fox News, Patrick Michaels falsely claims humans are only responsible for half of global warming. July 9, 2019. Climate Feedback. en-US. July 10, 2019.
  16. The Heat is On:The warming of the world's climate sparks a blaze of denial. Ross. Gelbspan. Harper's Magazine. December 1995. April 14, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20070927012514/http://dieoff.org/page82.htm. September 27, 2007. dead.
  17. Web site: What we do. Western Fuels Association.
  18. Web site: Scientific Advisers . May 30, 2019 . unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/19981205034857/http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/ . December 5, 1998 ., Greening Earth Society, website archived from December 1998.
  19. Web site: Scientific Advisers . May 30, 2019 . unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/20010925234237/http://greeningearthsociety.org/ . September 25, 2001 ., Greening Earth Society, website archived from September 2001.
  20. News: Energy Debate Heats Up. Norr. Henry. August 14, 2000. San Francisco Chronicle. May 30, 2019.
  21. Web site: John. Stauber. Coal Industry Front Group Spouts Hot Air. August 9, 2001. PR Watch. en. May 30, 2019.
  22. Appell . David . Salon.com Books "It Ain't Necessarily So" by David Murray, et al. . https://web.archive.org/web/20090422232352/http://archive.salon.com/books/review/2001/07/02/murray/index.html . July 2, 2001 . April 22, 2009 . Salon.com . May 30, 2019.
  23. https://archive.today/20070510102303/http://sopr.senate.gov/cgi-win/m_opr_viewer.exe?DoFn=3 U.S. Lobby Registration and Disclosure Page
  24. Web site: Join GES . March 8, 2005 . bot: unknown . https://web.archive.org/web/20050308200600/http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/join.html . March 8, 2005 ., Greening Earth Society website, archived from March 2005.
  25. Web site: John Holdren's bio and publications at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. March 31, 2009. August 1, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110801202346/http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/experts/140/john_p_holdren.html. dead.
  26. Web site: Comments by John P. Holdren on "The Shaky Science Behind the Climate Change Sense of the Congress Resolution" – US Senate Republican Policy Committee. March 14, 2007. June 9, 2003. John P. Holdren.
  27. Web site: Patrick Michaels: Climate scientists subverted peer review . January 10, 2010 . December 2, 2009. dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100521003952/http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/Climate-scientists-subverted-peer-review-8613054-78248872.html . May 21, 2010.
  28. Web site: Power Hour: Patrick Michaels on Global Warming and the IPCC. CIP. July 20, 2022.
  29. Web site: Greening Earth Society . March 15, 2005 . unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/20050315081640/http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/wca/2004/wca_19d.html . March 15, 2005 .
  30. Web site: Summary for Policymakers . Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . February 2, 2007 . February 5, 2007 . Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The updated hundred-year linear trend (1906 to 2005) of 0.74 °C [0.56 °C to 0.92 °C] is therefore larger than the corresponding trend for 1901 to 2000 given in the TAR of 0.6 °C [0.4 °C to 0.8 °C]..
  31. Leading Climate Scientists Reaffirm View that Late 20th Century Warming Was Unusual and Resulted From Human Activity . . July 7, 2003 . May 27, 2007 . July 13, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070713234906/http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/prrl/prrl0319.html . dead .
  32. Book: Gelbspan, Ross . The Heat is On . Perseus Books . August 1997 . 0-201-13295-8 . Ross Gelbspan .
  33. News: ABC News Reporting Cited As Evidence In Congressional Hearing On Global Warming. March 14, 2007. Clayton. Sandell. Bill Blakemore. July 27, 2006. ABC News.
  34. News: Utilities Give Warming Skeptic Big Bucks. Borenstein. Seth. Associated Press. July 26, 2006. October 13, 2009. The Boston Globe.
  35. Web site: August 15, 2010. CNN. Interview with Fareed Zakaria, Gavin Schmidt, Jeffrey Sachs and Patrick Michaels. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/fguJod_voPc. December 12, 2021 . live.
  36. Book: Pearce, Fred. The Climate Files: The Battle for the Truth about Global Warming. 2010. Guardian Books. 978-0-85265-229-9. Fred Pearce. p. X.
  37. https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/19/patrick-michaels-climate-change-dead/ Patrick Michaels, outspoken climate change contrarian, dies at 72
  38. Web site: CSG John Russell Mather Paper of the Year . American Association of Geographers Climate Specialty Group . July 19, 2022 . www.du.edu/csg/.

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