He said what?!

Just when I think people are beginning to wise up to global warming and the role humans play in it...
Really understanding that this is not some passing fad, not some bogyman created for God knows what, but a real, scientific problem that people are causing and contributing to, however inadvertently...

I read this:

This is an excerpt taken from today's Oregonian:

"[George]Taylor is listed as a scientific adviser for a group that receives money from ExxonMobil and says on its Web site that escalating greenhouse gases are good for the Earth, promoting plant life and bringing "growth and prosperity to man and nature alike." [bold added for my own emphasis]

WHAT?????!!!! SERIOUSLY?

"In an interview last week, Taylor agreed there is a human influence on climate, but said it's not the dominant factor. Rising levels of carbon dioxide will certainly warm the Earth, he says, and it makes sense to control greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere."

BUT THEN HE GOES ON TO ADD:

"Increased CO2 is not necessarily a bad thing in every way," says Taylor, well known throughout Oregon and in The Oregonian as the state climatologist. "There are going to be winners and losers, just as there would be if there is global cooling."

I don't know how, in our global economy, ANYONE could say, "increased CO2 is not necessarily a bad thing in every way" in reference to global warming.

Hurricane Katrina's devastating effects on not only New Orleans, but our entire country demonstrated how one weather catastrophe (whether it's associated with climate change or not) has ripple effects both immediately: dislocating thousands of people from their homes and livelihood and long lasting: destroying the lives of thousands, decimating the local economy and leaving behind hundreds of ''what ifs" to live with for the rest of our lives.

Nobody wins.

What happens to one city happens to all cities in America. We are all Americans. We are all in this together. If disaster strikes through more powerful hurricane seasons in the Southeast,the Northwest will share the burden of cost. If the Northeastern cities are swallowed by the ocean, the Southwest will not escape unscathed.

Tomorrow I plan on learning more on George Taylor's position as well finding out what Philip Mote, a well-respected researcher on global warming from Washington State, has learned at the:

Global Warming Forum

When: 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday

Where: OMSI Auditorium; free and open to the public

From Monday's Oregonian (you can read the article here):

The climate gurus of Oregon and Washington could hardly be further apart on the greatest climate and environment issue of our time: global warming.

Philip Mote, the state climatologist in Washington, is part of a University of Washington research group that is trying to prepare the region for the hard realities of human-caused global warming: shrinking mountain snow that leaves rivers short of precious summer flow, for example.

George Taylor, who heads the Oregon Climate Service, has a different view: It's not clear humans are causing warming. The world has been warmer before, he says. Natural ups and downs have a bigger hand in temperatures than people do.

 

Comments

[Libby Tucker]

I'll be interested to read what you think of the "debate". Taylor, while in step with a small fraction of scientists, still represents about 40 percent of popular opinion in this country.
FYI - Wikipedia has a list of all the scientists opposing the intergovernmental panel's consensus on global warming.

[Brian]

Taylor shouldn't go around calling himself the official state climatologist when that position doesn't even exist, according to the Oregonian story.

I blogged about this, along with Kari Chisholm on Blue Oregon. See:
http://hinessight.blogs.com/hinessight/2007/01/socalled_climat.html
http://www.blueoregon.com/2007/01/oregon_doesnt_h.html

Both posts have an email link to Taylor's dean at OSU, Mark Abbott. Write Abbott and tell him to dethrone Taylor from his imaginary climatologist position. And better yet, to find someone competent to run the Oregon Climate Service.

[tortdog]

Taylor heads the "Oregon Climate Service," which was established in 1991 by the legislature to "disseminate and interpret climate data and information for the state." But now that the head of the Oregon Climate Service has scientific findings that differ from the governor's, the governor wants to change the rules.

Get your facts straight.

352.245. Establishment of the Oregon Climate Service; duties
Laws 1991, c. 727, § 1.

[torridjoe]

tortdog, how does that contradict the fact that he is not and never was the State Climatologist? He is OSU's climatologist, that's all.