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{{short description|American blogger (born 1958)}} | |||
{{Bio-notability|date=September 2009}} | |||
{{For|other people called Anthony Watts|Anthony Watts (disambiguation){{!}}Anthony Watts}} | |||
{{Infobox person | {{Infobox person | ||
|name = Anthony Watts | |name = Anthony Watts | ||
|image = | |image = Watts in OZ 2010.jpg | ||
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|caption = | |caption = Anthony Watts speaking in ], June 2010 | ||
|birth_name = |
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|birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1958}}<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.newsreview.com/chico/school-board-shakeup/content?oid=11542 | title=School board shakeup | date=October 31, 2002 | publisher=] | access-date=2012-07-08}}</ref> | |||
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|birth_place = |
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|nationality = ] | |nationality = ] | ||
|other_names = |
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|known_for = | |known_for = Viewpoints on climate change | ||
|education = |
|education = | ||
|alma_mater = ] <small>(no degree earned)</small><ref name=GrantIntro /> | |||
|alma_mater = | |||
|employer = | |employer = ]<ref name=GrantIntro /> | ||
|occupation = ], business owner, broadcast meteorologist | |||
|occupation = | |||
|years_active = | |years_active = 1978-present<ref name=khsl /> | ||
|website = {{URL|http://wattsupwiththat.com}} | |||
|home_town = | |||
|footnotes = | |||
|website = <br /> | |||
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}} | }} | ||
'''Willard Anthony Watts''' (born 1958) is an American blogger who runs '']'', a ] blog that opposes the ].<ref name=hockeyLeading/><ref name="farmerLeading"/><ref name=oxfordhandbook/><ref name=Manne/> A former ] and current radio meteorologist,<ref name=NYT1011/><ref name=black/><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.kpay.com/programming/anthony-watts | title=Programming - Newstalk1290 KPAY}}</ref> he is also founder of the ''Surface Stations project'', a volunteer initiative to document the condition of U.S. ]s.<ref name=hockeySS/> The ] helped fund some of Watts' projects, including publishing a report on the Surface Stations project, and invited him to be a paid speaker at its ] from 2008 to 2014.<ref name=Gascoyne/><ref name=hickman/> | |||
'''Anthony Watts''' is an American broadcast meteorologist, editor of the blog, ''Watts Up With That?'', owner of the weather graphics company ItWorks, and founder of the ''SurfaceStations.org'' project that documents the quality of weather stations across the United States. He is currently meteorologist for ] radio. | |||
==Education and career== | |||
==Career== | |||
Watts assisted with the setup of a radio program for his ] in ],<ref name=WattsFAQ>{{cite web|last1=Watts|first1=Anthony|title=FAQS: Why do you blog?|url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/about-wuwt/faqs/|access-date=11 April 2015|date=2013-06-11}}</ref> and later attended ] and ] classes at ], but did not graduate or receive a degree.<ref name=GrantIntro>{{harvnb|Grant|2011|p=301}}: "Anthony Watts is a TV journalist, a weather presenter who studied Electrical Engineering and Meteorology at Purdue University; there's no record of his having graduated, however, and he's been reticent in discussing this. After a career in local television, in 2004 he moved to radio, joining the FOX News affiliate KPAY in Chico, California."</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Leaked Email Reveals Who's Who List of Climate Denialists |date=March 2015 |author=Katherine Bagley |publisher=InsideClimate News |url=http://insideclimatenews.org/news/12032015/leaked-email-reveals-whos-who-list-climate-denialists-merchants-of-doubt-oreskes-fred-singer-marc-morano-steve-milloy |quote=Watts studied electrical engineering and meteorology at Purdue University but never graduated. He then served as an on-air meteorologist for 25 years. He's a frequent speaker at anti-climate action events hosted by the Heartland Institute.}}</ref> In 1978, Watts began his broadcasting career as an on-air meteorologist for ] in ].<ref name=khsl /> | |||
He joined ], a ] affiliate based in ] in 1987,<ref name=GrantIntro /><ref name=khsl>{{cite news | url=http://ww2.khsltv.com/newsteampages/watts_a.htm | title=Anthony Watts, Meteorologist | publisher=] | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010306042901/http://ww2.khsltv.com/newsteampages/watts_a.htm | archive-date=March 6, 2001 | access-date=2012-07-09 |quote=Anthony has been with KHSL-TV since October, 1987...Anthony began his broadcasting career, in 1978 in Lafayette, Indiana...His unique real name is Willard Anthony Watts...but he had to stop using "Willard" because of Willard Scott on the Today show!}}</ref> and founded a company named ItWorks the same year.<ref name=weatherframe>{{cite web|url=http://www.weatherframe.com/about.htm |title=About weatherframe.com |access-date=May 27, 2020 |quote=IntelliWeather's parent company, ItWorks, was founded in 1987 by Anthony Watts, a career broadcast television meteorologist. ItWorks provides a wide variety of products for broadcast TV, video, and weather use, ranging from video signal test systems to StormPredator, and unique personal weather radar program. IntelliWeather was founded for the purpose of providing unique and affordable broadcast quality weather imagery for a wide variety of multimedia venues. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403054934/http://weatherframe.com/about.htm |archive-date=April 3, 2015 }}</ref> He stopped using his first name "Willard" to avoid confusion with ]'s '']'' weatherman ].<ref name=khsl/> In 2002, he left KHSL to focus on ITWorks full-time.<ref>{{cite news | author=Smith, Laura | date=January 31, 2002 | url=http://www.newsreview.com/chico/forecast-no-more-watts-for-khsl/content?oid=7961 | title=Forecast: No more Watts for KHSL | publisher=] | access-date=2012-07-09}}</ref> Watts has been the chief meteorologist for ], a ] affiliate based in Chico, California since 2004,<ref name=GrantIntro /> and the director and president of IntelliWeather Inc, a subsidiary of ItWorks,<ref name=weatherframe /> since 2000.{{citation needed|date=June 2015}} | |||
Watts became a television meteorologist in 1987 when he joined ], a ] affiliate based in ]. After working at KHSL for 17 years, he left in ] to became the radio meteorologist for ], a ] affiliate also based in Chico, California. Watts also operates several companies that make weather graphics systems for use on television broadcasts.<ref name=aboutwatts>{{cite web | |||
|url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/about/ | |||
|title=About Watts Up With That? | |||
|work=Watts Up With That? | |||
|author=Watts, Anthony | |||
|accessdate=2009-02-09 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
Watts was a member of the Chico, California school board from 2002 to 2006.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.chicousd.org/super/boe.html | title=Chico Unified School District: Board of Education | publisher=Chico Unified School District | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030425113524/http://www.chicousd.org/super/boe.html | archive-date=April 25, 2003 | access-date=2012-07-09}}</ref> In 2006, he was briefly a candidate for ], to represent Chico on the ], but withdrew his candidacy due to family and workload concerns.<ref>{{cite news | author=Indar, Josh | date=March 16, 2006 | url=http://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=48224 | title=One out, one in, one on | publisher=] | access-date=2009-10-13}}</ref> | |||
He was briefly a candidate for a supervisor to represent Chico on the ], but family pressures and a heavy workload at the school board left him unable to mount an effective campaign and he withdrew in favor of Steve Bertagna.<ref> | |||
{{cite news | |||
|url=http://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=48224 | |||
|author=Indar, Josh | |||
|title=One out, one in, one on | |||
|work=News Review | |||
|date=16th March, 2006 | |||
|accessdate=2009-10-13 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
== Climate change opinion and activities == | |||
In 2006, Lorraine Ann Blanton was arrested and accused of trying to extort money from Watts by threatening letter. Blanton allegedly threatened to tell the news media about an intimate relationship the two had had in the mid-1990s. Watts dated Blanton in 1996 and 1997.<ref> | |||
Watts rejects the ].<ref name=hockeyLeading /><ref name=farmerLeading /><ref name=MooneyTraffic>{{harvnb|Mooney|Kirshenbaum|2010|p=114}}: "Anthony Watts is an extremely popular blogger, drawing hundreds of comments per post and well over half a million visitors per month. Yet his blog contains highly questionable information–presented very "scientifically" of course, replete with charts and graphs–but all directed toward the end of making the scientific consensus on human-caused ] seem faulty (in fact, it's extremely robust)</ref> He believes that global warming is occurring, but that it is not as bad as has been reported, and that ] plays a much smaller part than the Sun in causing climatic change.<ref name=PBS>{{cite web|last=Michels|first=Spencer|title=Climate Change Skeptic Says Global Warming Crowd Oversells Its Message|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/09/why-the-global-warming-crowd-oversells-its-message.html|publisher=PBS NewsHour }}</ref><ref name=sunstupid>Anthony Watts. , wattsupwiththat.com, April 6, 2007.</ref><ref>Ryan Olson,{{cite web|url=http://www.chicoer.com/ci_6756355 |title=Scientists warm up to Watts' work |access-date=2007-09-02 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927082547/http://www.chicoer.com/ci_6756355 |archive-date=2007-09-27 }}, Chico Enterprise Record, 2007.</ref> Watts has written that variations in ], the Sun's ] and ] are driving changes to the climate,<ref name=sunstupid /> contrary to the scientific consensus that the primary cause of climate change is an increase in ], including carbon dioxide.<ref name = "climatechoices">{{harvnb|National Research Council|2010|p=26}}:Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks...This conclusion is based on a substantial array of scientific evidence, including recent work, and is consistent with the conclusions of recent assessments by the , the , and other assessments of the state of scientific knowledge on climate change...Most of the warming over the last several decades can be attributes to human activities that release carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>), and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. The burning of fossil fuels–coal, oil, and natural gas–for energy is the single largest human driver of climate change</ref><ref name="ipcc">{{citation | author = IPCC | title = Detection and Attribution of Climate Change | chapter = Summary for Policymakers | chapter-url = http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/ | quote = "It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century" (page 15) and "In this Summary for Policymakers, the following terms have been used to indicate the assessed likelihood of an outcome or a result: (...) extremely likely: 95–100%" (page 2).}}</ref> Climate models have been used to examine the role of the Sun in recent warming,<ref name="ipcc-solar">{{harvnb|IPCC|2007|loc=Section 9.2}}: "Numerous experiments have been conducted using climate models to determine the likely causes of the 20th-century climate change. These experiments indicate that models cannot reproduce the rapid warming observed in recent decades when they only take into account variations in solar output and volcanic activity."</ref> and data collected on solar irradiance<ref>{{Cite journal|year=2008 |title=Understanding and responding to climate change: Highlights of National Academies Reports, 2008 edition, produced by the US National Research Council (US NRC) |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |location=Washington, D.C., USA |author=US NRC |url=http://americasclimatechoices.org/climate_change_2008_final.pdf |page=6 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111213210836/http://americasclimatechoices.org/climate_change_2008_final.pdf |archive-date=2011-12-13 }}</ref> and ], as well as comparisons of temperature readings at different levels of the atmosphere<ref>{{harvnb|USGCRP|2009|p=20}}: "Another fingerprint of human effects on climate has been identified by...studying the pattern of temperature changes from the surface up through the stratosphere. In all climate models, increases in carbon dioxide cause warming at the surface and in the troposphere, but lead to cooling of the stratosphere... models also calculate that the human-caused depletion of stratospheric ozone has had a strong cooling effect in the stratosphere. There is a good match between the...combined carbon dioxide and ozone changes and the observed pattern of tropospheric warming and stratospheric cooling."</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=November 2009 |author1=Simmon, R. |author2=D. Herring |name-list-style=amp | title=Notes for slide number 7, titled "Satellite evidence also suggests greenhouse gas warming," in presentation, "Human contributions to global climate change" | url=http://www.climate.gov/#understandingClimate/presentationLibrary | publisher=Presentation library on the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Services website | access-date=2011-06-23| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110703210729/http://www.climate.gov/| archive-date= 3 July 2011 | url-status= live}}</ref> have shown that the Sun is not a significant factor driving climate change.<ref name="ipcc-forcing">{{harvnb|Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change|2007|p=60}}: "It is ''extremely unlikely'' (<5%) that the global pattern of warming observed during the past half century can be explained without external forcing. These changes took place over a time period when non-anthropogenic forcing factors (i.e., the sum of solar and volcanic forcing) would be ''likely'' to have produced cooling, not warming."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|USGCRP|2009|pgs=19,20}}: "When human influences are removed from the model experiments, results suggest that the surface of the Earth would actually have cooled slightly over the last 50 years. The clear message from fingerprint studies is that the observed warming over the last half-century cannot be explained by natural factors, and is instead caused primarily by human factors."</ref> | |||
{{cite news | |||
|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=CERB&p_theme=cerb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=110A457788903ED8&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM | |||
|author=Aylworth, Roger H. | |||
|title=Anthony Watts target of accused extortionist | |||
|work=Chico Enterprise Record | |||
|date=28th March, 2006 | |||
|accessdate=2009-10-13 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
Watts is a signatory to the ]<ref name="sepp">{{cite web|title=SIGNATORIES TO THE LEIPZIG DECLARATION|url=http://www.sepp.org/LDsigs.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060715123459/http://www.sepp.org/LDsigs.html|archive-date=July 15, 2006}}</ref> as well as the ], which calls for the immediate halt to any tax funded attempts to counteract climate change or reduce CO<sub>2</sub> emissions, and suggests the consensus among climate scientists is "false".<ref>{{cite press release |title=Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change |url=http://heartland.org/press-releases/2008/03/04/new-york-global-warming-conference-considers-manhattan-declaration |date=March 4, 2008 |publisher=The Heartland Institute |access-date=2013-06-03}}</ref> Watts says he advocates for alternative energy sources and for the United States to "disengage from Middle East Oil."<ref>Anthony Watts. wattsupwiththat.com, October 19, 2007.</ref> | |||
== View of climate change == | |||
In 2010, Watts went on a speaking tour to 18 locations around Australia.<ref>{{cite news | author=AAP | author-link=Australian Associated Press | date=June 10, 2010 | url=http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2010/06/10/197691_latest-news.html | title=Climate sceptic to tour | publisher=The Weekly Times | access-date=2012-07-09}}{{dead link|date=February 2015}}</ref> In 2014, Watts began the Open Atmospheric Society.<ref>{{cite web|title=A new professional society for meteorology and climatology is announced|url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/09/16/a-new-professional-society-for-meteorology-and-climatology-is-announced/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-08-12|website=Watts Up With That|date=16 September 2014 |quote=The purpose of The OAS is to provide a paperless and entirely online professional organization that will represent individuals who have been unrepresented by existing professional organizations that have become more activist than science based in their outlook.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140918190516/http://wattsupwiththat.com:80/2014/09/16/a-new-professional-society-for-meteorology-and-climatology-is-announced/ |archive-date=2014-09-18 }}</ref> | |||
Watts has a skeptical view of climate change theories. He has said that he had once "been fully engaged in the belief that CO2 was indeed the root cause of the global warming problem"<ref name=watts-gore>{{cite web |url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/03/27/gore-to-throw-insults-on-60-minutes-time-to-unload-on-cbs/ |date=27 March 2008 |title=Gore to throw insults on 60 minutes |accessdate=06 February 2009 |author=Anthony Watts |work=Watts Up With That? }}</ref> but that he later changed his thinking after learning more about the science.<ref name=watts-gore /> He established the blog, ''Watts Up With That?'', which won the 2008 Best Science Blog Award.<ref name=watts-blogaward>{{cite web |url=http://2008.weblogawards.org/polls/best-science-blog/|title=2008 Weblog Awards}}</ref> | |||
=== Climate change blogging === | |||
== SurfaceStations.org== | |||
{{main|Watts Up With That?}} | |||
In 2007 Watts launched the 'Surface Stations' project, whose mission is to create a publicly available database of photographs of weather stations, along with their metadata, in response to what he describes as "a massive failure of bureaucracy to perform something so simple as taking some photographs and making some measurements and notes of a few to a few dozen weather stations in each state". The project relies on volunteers to gather the data.<ref name=aboutSS> | |||
Watts established ''Watts Up With That?'' (WUWT) in 2006. The blog features material disputing the scientific consensus on climate change, including assertions that the human role in global warming is insignificant and ] is not a driving force of warming.<ref>{{harvnb|Schneider|Nocke|2014|p=171}}: "Despite the well-known facts under discussion, the original graph, based on a single outdated study published in 1991, continues to reappear again and again in climate skeptical media, trying to prove that the sun, not anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, is causing global warming. The original curve appears, for example, on Anthony Watts' climate skeptical blog "Watts Up With That?" in an article posted in 2011."</ref> It hosts several guest bloggers, such as ] and the late ], in addition to Watts.<ref name=GrantBlog /> It is among the most prominent ] blogs,<ref name="farmerLeading">{{harvnb|Farmer|Cook|2013|p=462}}: "One of the highest trafficked climate blogs is wattsupwiththat.com, a website that publishes climate misinformation on a daily basis."</ref><ref name=oxfordhandbook>{{harvnb|Dunlap|McCright|2011|p=153}}: "In recent years these conservative media outlets have been supplemented (and to some degree supplanted) by the conservative blogosphere, and numerous blogs now constitute a vital element of the denial machine...the most popular North American blogs are run by a retired TV meteorologist (wattsupwiththat.com)...Having this powerful, pervasive, and multifaceted media apparatus at its service provides the denial machine with a highly effective means of spreading its message."</ref><ref name=Manne>{{harvnb|Manne|2012}}: "More importantly, it was becoming clear that the most effective denialist media weapon was not the newspapers or television but the internet. A number of influential websites, like Watts Up With That?, Climate Skeptic and Climate Depot, were established."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Kirilenko|Stepchenkova|2014|p=9}}: "The most authoritative climate change skepticism web sites included ''Watts Up With That?'' and ''Climate Depot''"</ref> and is described by climatologist ] as the most popular, having surpassed ].<ref name=hockeyLeading>{{harvnb|Mann|2013|p=72}}: "Since then, a number of other amateur climate change denial bloggers have arrived on the scene. Most prominent among them is Anthony Watts, a meteorologist...and founder of the site "Watts Up with That?" which has overtaken climate audit as the leading climate change denial blog."</ref> In 2010, it received more than half a million views per month.<ref name=MooneyTraffic /> ] writer Curtis Brainard has written that "scientists have repeatedly criticized for misleading readers on subjects such as the reliability of the U.S. surface temperature record."<ref>{{harvnb|Brainard|2015|p=172}}: "At the other end of the spectrum are influential sites for "climate skeptics", such as Watts Up With That?, a blog run by meteorologist Anthony Watts, whom scientists have repeatedly criticized for misleading readers on subjects such as the reliability of the U.S. surface temperature record."</ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
|url=http://www.surfacestations.org/about.htm | |||
|title=About SurfaceStations.org | |||
|accessdate=2009-03-06 | |||
|author=Watts, Anthony | |||
|work=SurfaceStations.org | |||
|quote=Given such a massive failure of bureaucracy to perform something so simple as taking some photographs and making some measurements and notes of a few to a few dozen weather stations in each state, it seemed that a grass roots network of volunteers could easily accomplish this task. | |||
}}</ref> Jay Lawrimore, chief of the climate monitoring branch of the ] ] has said that he was aware of Watts' work and invites anyone with expertise to contribute to the scientific process.<ref> | |||
{{cite url | |||
|url=http://www.chicoer.com/ci_6756355 | |||
|title=Scientists warm up to Watts' work | |||
|author=Olsen, Ryan | |||
|accessdate=06 February 2009 | |||
|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070927082547/http://www.chicoer.com/ci_6756355 | |||
|archivedate=27 September 2007 | |||
|work=Chico Enterprise Record | |||
|date=30th August, 2007 | |||
|quote=I think any effort to better understand the observation system that's used to collect data and analyze it is helpful. | |||
}}</ref> He also said that in any case the evidence for human-driven warming remains robust.<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/us/26climate.html | |||
|title=Quarter-Degree Fix Fuels Climate Fight | |||
|work=New York Times | |||
|author=Revkin, Andrew A. | |||
|date=26th August, 2007 | |||
|accessdate=2009-04-02 | |||
}}</ref> After only a small percentage of stations had been surveyed Watts predicted that the result of the SurfaceStations.org effort would ultimately be "to demonstrate that some of the global warming increase is not from CO<sub>2</sub> but from localized changes in the temperature-measurement environment."<ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
| title=Helping along global warming | |||
| url=http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/steigerwald/s_513013.html | |||
| first=Bill | last=Steigerwald | |||
| date=2007-06-17 | |||
| publisher=Pittsburg Tribune-Review | |||
}}</ref> The method used is to attract volunteers of varying levels of expertise who undertake to estimate the siting, usage and other conditions of weather stations in NOAA's ''Historical Climatology Network'' (USHCN) and grade them for their compliance with the standards published in the organization's ''Climate Reference Network Site Handbook''.<ref name="NOAAHandbook"> | |||
{{cite web | |||
|url=http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/uscrn/documentation/program/X030FullDocumentD0.pdf | |||
|title=Climate Reference Network Site Handbook | |||
|author=NOAA | |||
|date=10th December, 2002 | |||
|accessdate=2009-09-30 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
In 2009, Watts was involved in popularizing the ],<ref name=GrantBlog>{{harvnb|Grant|2011|p=302}}: "Watts is best known for his very heavily trafficked blog ''Watts Up With That?'', began in 2006, which provides not just a megaphone for himself but a rallying ground for other AGW deniers, notably Christopher Monckton. The blog played an important role in the Climategate fiasco, through its dissemination of the hacked CRU emails."</ref><ref name=climategate>{{harvnb|Hansen|Cox|2015|p=172}}: "In 2009, an unknown party acquired a large cache of private emails between climate scientists...and published them online. Cherry-picking quotes in order to make the scientists appear as though they were discussing data manipulation, bloggers such as Watts whipped up a pseudo-scandal that reverberated for years despite the fact that a series of nine investigations in the U.S. and the U.K. cleared the scientists of any wrongdoing.</ref> wherein emails of several climatologists were published by a ]. Watts argued that the emails showed the scientists were manipulating data, and while a series of independent investigations cleared the scientists of any wrongdoing,<ref name="6committees">The eight major investigations covered by secondary sources include: (UK); (UK); {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509041910/http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/04/oxburgh-report-clears-controvers.html |date=May 9, 2013 }} (UK); {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100925191452/http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/02/climate-scienti-1.html |date=September 25, 2010 }} and {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120130074750/http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/07/michael-mann-exonerated-as-penn.html |date=January 30, 2012 }} (US); (US); (US); (US)</ref> public accusations resulting from the event continued for years.<ref name=climategate /> The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of ] remained unchanged throughout the investigations,<ref name="scientificamerican">{{cite journal| last=Biello |first=David |year=2010 |url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=negating-climategate |title=Negating Climategate |journal=Scientific American |volume=302 |issue=2 |pages=16 |issn=0036-8733 |quote=In fact, nothing in the stolen material undermines the scientific consensus that climate change is happening and that humans are to blame|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0210-16a |pmid=20128212 |bibcode=2010SciAm.302b..16B }}</ref><ref>Lubchenco, Jane (2 December 2009) House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming (House Select Committee). "". House Hearing, 111 Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office. "...the e-mails really do nothing to undermine the very strong scientific consensus and the independent scientific analyses of thousands of scientists around the world that tell us that the Earth is warming and that the warming is largely a result of human activities." As quoted in the report published by .</ref> however, the reports may have decreased public confidence in climate scientists and the ], and conclusively altered the ] that year.<ref>{{harvnb|Anshelm|Hultman|2014|pp=154–156}}: "Climategate fundamentally damaged confidence in the IPCC climate reports and decisively changed the conditions for the Copenhagen negotiations...Climategate and the failure of Copenhagen coincided with a widespread decline in public acceptance that global warming was happening, was caused by humans, and was a serious threat...Climategate can also explain the erosion of public trust in scientists as sources of information on global warming after 2010."</ref><ref name=dunlapCRU>{{harvnb|Dunlap|McCright|2011|p=153}}: "Having this powerful, pervasive and multifaceted media apparatus at its service provides the denial machine with a highly effective means of spreading its message, as reflected quite recently by its success in turning a tiny and highly unrepresentative sample of thirteen years worth of personal e-mails hacked from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia into a major scandal that has generated a decline in public belief in climate change and trust in climate scientists...despite the fact that several investigations have concluded that the e-mails neither demonstrate unethical behavior nor undermine climate science."</ref> | |||
On July 6, 2009 the ] issued a preliminary report that charted data from 70 stations that ''SurfaceStations.org'' identified as 'good' or 'best' against the rest of the dataset surveyed at that time, and concluded, "clearly there is no indication from this analysis that poor station exposure has imparted a bias in the U.S. temperature trends."<ref name="NOAAResponse"> | |||
{{cite web | |||
=== Surface Stations project === | |||
|url=http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/about/response-v2.pdf | |||
] | year=2009 | isbn=978-1-934791-29-5 | access-date=June 1, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130813015357/http://heartland.org/sites/default/files/SurfaceStations.pdf | archive-date=2013-08-13 | url-status=dead }}</ref>]] | |||
|title=Is the U.S. Temperature Record Reliable? | |||
In 2007, Watts launched the Surface Stations project, encouraging volunteers to take photographs of ]s in the U.S. ] to record their condition.<ref name=black>{{harvnb|Black|Hassenzahl|Stephens|Weisel|2013|p=1328}}: "A few critics continued to seek confirmation of their denial of the warming data on air temperatures from weather stations and satellites. In particular, former TV weatherman Anthony Watts established a popular website that mobilized people to report continental U.S. weather stations that were poorly located, such as near the exhaust of air conditioners."</ref><ref name=hockeySS>{{harvnb|Mann|2013|p=72}}: "Watts also started the Web site SurfaceStations.org, which purports to identify poorly sited meteorological stations in the United States in an effort to demonstrate that the instrumental record of warming temperatures is hopelessly compromised by instrumental measurement biases."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Powell|2012|p=136}}: "In 2007, Watts founded SurfaceStations.org...By early June 2009, thanks to a grass roots network of volunteers, SurfaceStations.org had examined about 70 percent of the 1,221 stations classified 70 of the stations as having "good or best" reliability... since 1950, temperatures recorded at the 70 "good or best" stations are indistinguishable from the rest."</ref> By 2009, around 650 volunteers had reported on around 70% of the 1,221 stations, and suggested most were below "good or best" reliability.<ref>{{harvnb|Powell|2012|p=136}}: "By early June 2009, thanks to a grass roots network of volunteers, SurfaceStations.org had examined about 70 percent of the 1,221 stations classified 70 of the stations as having "good or best" reliability... since 1950, temperatures recorded at the 70 "good or best" stations are indistinguishable from the rest."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hensen|2011}}: " rallied more than 650 volunteers through Watts Up With That?...The investigators found hundreds of surface weather stations across the United States that were improperly located near water treatment plants, pavements, air conditioners, and other sources of artificial heat. A photo-studded report, "Is the US Surface Temperature Record Reliable?" was published by the Heartland Institute...Though the report wasn't a peer-reviewed study, it made quite a splash in the US media and the blogosphere."</ref> In March 2009 ] published an illustrated report authored by Watts, in which he argued that the ] in the United States was inaccurate and that the actual temperature was lower than reported.<ref>{{harvnb|Powell|2012|p=136}}: "deniers say that the U.S. historical temperature record is unreliable because some weather stations are sited near trees, buildings, parking lots, air conditioners, and the like, causing the stations to record unrepresentative, and presumably warmer, local temperatures. The person most behind this claim is Anthony Watts</ref> Watts presented pictures from volunteers participating through his website to show that many surface weather stations were situated near artificial heat sources such as pavement and air conditioners, but did not show any comparison of the data from these sites and the data from well situated stations.<ref name=hockeySSReport>{{harvnb|Mann|2013|p=72}}: "With the assistance of the Heartland Institute, Watts published a glossy, very official-looking report about the project... absent from that report, however, was any direct comparison showing what the surface temperature record looks like both with and without the sites that Watts deemed unworthy. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) went ahead and calculated it themselves, producing versions of the continental U.S. average temperature curve both with and without the records in question...Eliminating the "suspect" data made virtually no difference at all; in fact, the small bias that was found was of the opposite sign. The "corrected" record showed slightly more warming!"</ref> | |||
|author=NOAA | |||
|date=6th July, 2009 | |||
The ] (NOAA) investigated the matter. While acknowledging the suboptimal conditions of many stations, NOAA concluded in 2010 that any bias had been nearly eliminated by their models, which compared stations over regions and time.<ref>{{harvnb|Weart|2015}}: "A study by members of the NOAA National Climatic Data Center separately analyzed the sites that Watts's volunteers identified as faulty, comparing them with the acknowledged good sites. They found that any bias introduced by poor siting had been mostly compensated for by the data reduction, which was designed precisely to remove biases by comparisons over regions and time. But if the raw data only were considered, the poor sites did not tend to overestimate warming compared with what NOAA had reported, as Watts had assumed; if anything the warming from these sites was greater than NOAA's earlier figures."</ref> To the very limited extent that there was any measurement bias, it was in the opposite direction of what Watts expected: stations that were considered poorly situated reported slightly cooler temperatures.<ref>{{harvnb|Washington|2013|p=51}}: "There is a denial movement seeking to cast doubt on the surface temperature record using photographs of weather stations positioned near car parks, air conditioners and other warming influences (Watts, 2010). These photos attempt to communicate that the global warming trend is being inflated by poor temperature data... Poor sites show a ''cooler'' trend than good sites. All those photographed weather stations near car parks are actually giving cooler readings than pristine weather stations."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Menne|Williams|Palecki|2010}}: "Recent photographic documentation of poor siting conditions at stations in the U.S. Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) has led to questions regarding the reliability of surface temperature trends over the conterminous United States (CONUS)...Results indicate that...associated instrument changes have led to an artificial negative ("cool") bias in maximum temperatures and only a slight positive ("warm") bias in minimum temperatures...In summary, we find no evidence that the CONUS average temperature trends are inflated due to poor station siting."</ref> | |||
|accessdate=2009-07-02 | |||
}}</ref> Watts issued a rebuttal in which he stated that the preliminary analysis excluded new data on the quality of surface stations, and criticized the use of homogenized station data, which he argues accounts for the creation of two nearly identical graphs.<ref> | |||
] | |||
{{cite web | |||
Watts was co-author with climatologists ], ] and ], Sr. on a paper with Souleymane Fall as lead author, which found that mean temperature trends were nearly identical between poorly sited and well-sited stations, but poor siting led to a difference in estimated ]. The poorly positioned stations led to an overestimate of trends in minimum temperatures, balanced by a similar underestimate of maximum temperature trends. This meant that the mean temperature trends were nearly identical across the stations.<ref name=Fall>{{cite journal |last1=Fall |first1=Souleymane |first2=Anthony |last2=Watts |first3=John|last3=Nielsen-Gammon|author-link3=John Nielsen-Gammon |first4=Evan |last4=Jones |first5=Dev |last5=Niyogi |first6=John R.|last6=Christy|author-link6=John Christy |first7=Roger A.|last7=Pielke, Sr.|author-link7=Roger A. Pielke |title=Analysis of the impacts of station exposure on the U.S. Historical Climatology Network temperatures and temperature trends |journal=] |year=2011 |volume=116 |issue=D14120 |pages=D14120 |doi=10.1029/2010JD015146 |url=http://pielkeclimatesci.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/r-367.pdf|bibcode = 2011JGRD..11614120F |doi-access=free }}</ref> | |||
|url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/06/24/ncdc-writes-ghost-talking-points-rebuttal-to-surfacestations-project/ | |||
|title=NCDC writes ghost "talking points" rebuttal to surfacestations project | |||
====BEST project, alleged doubling of trend by NOAA==== | |||
|author=Watts, Anthony | |||
{{main|Berkeley Earth}} | |||
|date=2009-06-29 | |||
In March 2011, Watts visited the Berkeley Earth Temperature project (BEST), and said "I'm prepared to accept whatever result they produce, even if it proves my premise wrong."<ref name=NYT1011 /> In October the project released data and a draft of their paper which produced results supporting the existing scientific consensus. Watts said that its methodology was flawed, complaining that the BEST study analyzed a larger period than his own research, and that it was not yet peer reviewed.<ref name=NYT1011>{{Cite news |url=http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/climate-study-does-not-placate-skeptics/?ref=earth |title=Climate Study Does Not Placate Skeptics |first=Leslie |last=Kaufman |work=New York Times |date=October 21, 2011 |access-date=May 27, 2020 |quote=Anthony Watts, had written in March on his climate-themed blog, Watts Up With That, "I’m prepared to accept whatever result they produce, even if it proves my premise wrong." But neither Mr. Watts nor other longtime critics of climate science reached by The Times seemed satisfied with the report. Mr. Watts, a former television meteorologist, contended that the study’s methodology was flawed because it examined data over a 60-year period instead of the 30-year-one that was the basis for his research and some other peer-reviewed studies. He also noted that the report had not yet been peer-reviewed and cited spelling errors as proof of sloppiness.}}</ref> ], founder of BEST, later said their study directly addressed Watts' concern about the condition of weather stations; "we discovered that station quality does not affect the results. Even poor stations reflected temperature changes accurately."<ref name=blackSS>{{harvnb|Black|Hassenzahl|Stephens|Weisel|2013|p=1505}}: "We have done an initial study of the station selection issue...we see a global warming trend that is very similar to that previously reported by the other groups. We have also studied station quality. Many U.S. stations have low quality rankings according to a study led by Anthony Watts. However, we find that the warming seen in the "poor" stations is virtually indistinguishable from that seen in the "good" stations."</ref> | |||
|accessdate=2009-07-09 | |||
}}</ref><ref> | |||
Around 22 July 2012, Watts heard that the BEST project was about to release further material, and decided to release a paper he and Evan Jones had been working on for about a year.<ref name="Watts 20120730">{{cite web | last=Watts | first=Anthony | title=Backstory on the new surfacestations paper | website=Watts Up With That? | date=30 Jul 2012 | url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/29/backstory-on-the-new-surfacestations-paper/ | access-date=4 Jun 2015}}</ref> '']'' published a summary of further draft results from BEST, including an announcement from Muller that their study now showed that humans "are almost entirely the cause" of the warming. Shortly afterwards, Watts announced his own team's draft paper which said that previously reported temperature rises had been "spuriously doubled", and made the serious accusation that NOAA had inflated the rate by erroneous adjustments to the data.<ref>{{cite news|title='There's plenty of room for scepticism' – climate study author Richard Muller |author=Donald, Ros |newspaper=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2012/aug/03/scepticism-climate-study-richard-muller |date=3 August 2012 |quote=Rolling back his previous promise to accept BEST's findings, the one-time BEST supporter has released a draft paper of his own, at about the same time as the new BEST results. Watts says his assessment of temperature stations shows that poor weather station siting has "spuriously" doubled estimates of temperature rise in the US }}<br>{{cite web|last=Watts |first=Anthony |title=New study shows half of the global warming in the USA is artificial |website=Watts Up With That? |date=29 July 2012 |url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/29/press-release-2/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120731052959/http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/29/press-release-2/ |archive-date=31 July 2012 |quote=The new analysis demonstrates that reported 1979-2008 U.S. temperature trends are spuriously doubled, with 92% of that over-estimation resulting from erroneous NOAA adjustments of well-sited stations upward. |access-date=4 Jun 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Washington Post 20120730">{{cite news |first= Jason |last= Samenow | title=Blockbuster climate change studies prove little | newspaper=Washington Post | date=30 Jul 2012 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/so-called-blockbuster-climate-change-studies-prove-little/2012/07/30/gJQAZZNMKX_blog.html |quote=Watts is asserting the U.S. temperature trends you’ve seen reported from NOAA about warming in the last few decades are inflated due to flawed adjustments made to temperature records. The unadjusted highest quality temperature records in the U.S., Watts claims, demonstrate about half the warming as NOAA’s adjusted data. …. given the serious accusations Watts et al. make about the integrity of NOAA’s temperature analysis, it’s critical NOAA be given the opportunity to respond just as they did the last time Watts issued such a challenge in 2009. NOAA’s U.S. temperature record has been painstakingly constructed by many scientists over many years and many peer-reviewed publications support its methodologies. | access-date=4 Jun 2015}}</ref> Climate scientists and other bloggers quickly found flaws in the paper. ], whom Watts had named as a co-author, stressed that his involvement had been "very last minute and limited". He agreed with criticisms including the point that Watts had failed to correct for time of observation bias, and noted that independent ] were closer to the NOAA figures.<ref name="Washington Post 20120731">{{cite news |first= Jason |last= Samenow | title=More evidence attention-grabbing climate studies were prematurely rushed | newspaper=Washington Post | date=31 Jul 2012 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/more-evidence-attention-grabbing-climate-studies-prematurely-rushed-and-potentially-flawed/2012/07/31/gJQAYJkCNX_blog.html | access-date=4 Jun 2015}}</ref> | |||
{{cite web | |||
|url=http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/07/30/on-climate-comedy-copyrights-and-cinematography/ | |||
In 2012 BEST released its series of peer-reviewed papers confirming previous results that the surface temperature is rising.<ref>{{harvnb|Farmer|2014|p=44}}: "Global average temperatures for 2013 have recently been published by the BEST study...2010 and 2005 remain the warmest years since records began in the 19th century. 1998 ranks third in two records, and in Cowtan and Way's 2014 analysis...2013 is warmer than 1998."</ref> | |||
|title=On Climate, Comedy, Copyrights, and Cinematography | |||
{{clear}} | |||
|author=Watts, Anthony | |||
|date=31st July, 2009 | |||
=== Connection with Heartland Institute === | |||
|accessdate=2009-07-31 | |||
The Heartland Institute published Watts' preliminary report on weather station data, titled ''Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable?''<ref name=hockeySSReport /> Watts has appeared as a paid speaker at the ] the Heartland Institute have sponsored since 2008.<ref name=Gascoyne>{{cite news|last=Gascoyne|first=Tom|title=Leaked documents hit home Climate-change scandal has a local connection|url=http://www.newsreview.com/chico/leaked-documents-hit-home/content?oid=5240854|access-date=August 8, 2012|newspaper=Chico News & Review|date=February 23, 2012}}</ref> | |||
}}</ref> | |||
Watts says that he approached Heartland in 2011 to ask for help finding a donor to set up a website devoted to presenting NOAA's data as graphs that are easily accessible to the public.<ref name=hickman>{{cite news | author=Hickman, Leo | date=February 15, 2012 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2012/feb/15/leaked-heartland-institute-documents-climate-scepticism | title=Leaked Heartland Institute documents pull back curtain on climate scepticism | newspaper=] | access-date=2012-08-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Burleigh, Nina |date=February 17, 2012 |url=http://www.salon.com/2012/02/17/secret_papers_turn_up_heat_on_global_warming_deniers/singleton/ |title=Secret papers turn up heat on global-warming deniers |work=] |access-date=2012-08-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120727052024/http://www.salon.com/2012/02/17/secret_papers_turn_up_heat_on_global_warming_deniers/singleton/ |archive-date=2012-07-27 }}</ref> | |||
Documents obtained from the Heartland Institute in February 2012 revealed that the Institute had agreed to help Watts raise $88,000 for his project.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/1-15-2012-2012-Fundraising-Plan.pdf | title=2012 Fundraising Plan | publisher=The Heartland Institute | date=January 15, 2012 | access-date=2012-07-15 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120814142715/http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/1-15-2012-2012-Fundraising-Plan.pdf | archive-date=August 14, 2012 | url-status=dead | df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | author=Hickman, Leo | date=February 15, 2012 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/feb/15/climate-sceptics-pai-heartland-institute | title=Climate sceptics – who gets paid what? | newspaper=] | access-date=2012-02-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-17048991 |title=Openness: A Heartland-warming tale |newspaper=BBC News |author=Black, Richard |date=15 February 2012}}</ref> The documents state that $44,000 had already been pledged by an anonymous donor, and the Institute would seek to raise the rest.<ref name=Gascoyne /> Watts has written that, aside from the help in funding this project, the Heartland Institute does not pay him a regular salary or fund his blog.<ref name=hickman/><ref>{{cite news | author=Goldenberg, Suzanne | date=February 14, 2012 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/feb/15/leak-exposes-heartland-institute-climate | title=Leak exposes how Heartland Institute works to undermine climate science | newspaper=] | access-date=2012-08-10}}</ref> | |||
==Notes== | |||
{{Reflist|30em}} | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
* {{cite book |first1=Anders |last1=Hansen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BwLwBgAAQBAJ |title=The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication |first2=Robert |last2=Cox |publisher=Routledge |year=2015 |isbn=978-1134521319 }} | |||
{{reflist|2}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Anshelm |first1=Jonas | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UE9WBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA154 |first2=Martin |last2=Hultman |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=978-1317671060 |title=Discourses of Global Climate Change: Apocalyptic Framing and Political Antagonisms }} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Black |first1=Brian C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ez9mI5pGcTkC |author-link1=Brian Black |first2=David M. |last2=Hassenzahl |author-link2=David Hassenzahl |first3=Jennie C. |last3=Stephens |first4=Gary |last4=Weisel |first5=Nancy |last5=Gift |title=Climate Change: An Encyclopedia of Science and History |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2013 |isbn=978-1598847628 }} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Brainard |first1=Curtis |editor-first=Anders |editor-last=Hansen |editor2-first=Robert |editor2-last=Cox |title=The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BwLwBgAAQBAJ |date=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-52131-9 }} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Dunlap |first1=Riley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JihhbdpO-yoC |last2=McCright |first2=Aaron |editor1-last=Dryzek |editor1-first=John S. |editor2-last=Norgaard |editor2-first=Richard B. |editor3-last=Schlosberg |editor3-first=David |title=The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199566600}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Farmer |first1=Thomas G. |last2=Cook |first2=John |author-link2=John Cook (Australian scientist)|title=Climate Change Science: A Modern Synthesis: Volume 1-The Physical Climate |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |year=2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tbtEAAAAQBAJ|isbn=9789400757578 }} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Farmer |first1=Thomas G. |title=Modern Climate Change Science: An Overview of Today's Climate Change Science |isbn=978-3319092225 |year=2014 |publisher=Springer }} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Grant |first1=John |title=Denying Science: Conspiracy Theories, Media Distortions, and the War Against Reality |url=https://archive.org/details/denyingscienceco0000gran |url-access=registration |publisher=Prometheus Books |year=2011 |isbn=978-1616144005 }} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Hensen |first1=Robert |title=The Rough Guide to Climate Change |year=2011 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1405388672 }} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |title=Climate Change 2007 - The Physical Science Basis: Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC |editor=Susan Solomon |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0521705967 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8-m8nXB8GB4C }} | |||
* {{cite web |author=IPCC |author-link=Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |year=2007 |url=http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/contents.html |access-date=31 May 2015 |title=IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007 }} | |||
* {{cite book |author1=ISSC |author2=UNESC |author-link1=International Social Science Council |author-link2=United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization |title=World Social Science Report 2013 Changing Global Environments: Changing Global Environments |publisher=OECD Publishing |date=2013 |isbn=978-9264203419 }} | |||
* {{cite journal |last1=Kirilenko |first1=Andrei |year=2014 |last2= Stepchenkova |first2= Svetlana |title=Public microblogging on climate change: One year of Twitter worldwide| journal=Global Environmental Change |volume=26 |pages=171–182 |doi=10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.02.008}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Mann |first1=Michael |author-link=Michael E. Mann |title=The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines |date=1 October 2013 |publisher=Columbia University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klerAgAAQBAJ |isbn=978-0231152556 }} | |||
* {{cite journal |last1=Manne |first1=Robert |title=A dark victory: How vested interests defeated climate science |journal=The Monthly |author-link=Robert Manne |date=August 2012 |url=http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2012/august/1344299325/robert-manne/dark-victory}} | |||
* {{cite journal |last1=Menne |first1=Mathew J. |title=On the reliability of the U.S. surface temperature record |doi=10.1029/2009JD013094 |last2=Williams |first2=Claude N. |last3=Palecki |first3=Michael A. |journal=J. Geophys. Res. | volume=115 | issue=D11 |pages=D11108 | year=2010 |bibcode = 2010JGRD..11511108M |doi-access= }} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Mooney |first1=Chris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yvjM-AoSEocC&dq=Unscientific%20America%3A%20How%20Scientific%20Illiteracy&pg=PP1 |title=Summary of Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future |author-link1=Chris Mooney (journalist) |first2=Sheril |last2=Kirshenbaum |author-link2=Sheril Kirshenbaum |publisher=Basic Books |year=2010 |isbn=978-0465019175 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} | |||
* {{cite book|publisher=The National Academies Press |isbn=978-0-309-14588-6 |author=America's Climate Choices: Panel on Advancing the Science of Climate Change |author2=National Research Council |title=Advancing the Science of Climate Change |location=Washington, D.C. |year=2010 |url=http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12782 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529161102/http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12782 |archive-date=2014-05-29 |doi=10.17226/12782 |ref={{Sfnref|National Research Council|2010}}}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Powell |first1=James Lawrence | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5SU7utP8PIMC |title=The Inquisition of Climate Science |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0231157193 }} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Schneider |first1=Birgit |date=2014 |last2=Nocke |first2=Thomas |title=Image Politics of Climate Change: Visualizations, Imaginations, Documentations | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DcLWBQAAQBAJ |isbn=9783839426104 }} | |||
* {{cite book |author=USGCRP |author-link=U.S. Global Change Research Program |year=2009 |title=Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States |editor1=Karl, T.R. |editor2=Melillo. J. |editor3=Peterson, T. |editor4=Hassol, S.J. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-14407-0 |url=http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts |access-date=2015-05-24 |archive-date=2010-04-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100406060050/http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts |url-status=dead }} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Washington |first1=Haydn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=snk1CLf9ZbYC |title=Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand |author-link=Haydn Washington |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=978-1136530050 }} | |||
* {{cite web |last1=Weart |first1=Spencer |title=The Discovery of Global Warming |date=February 2015 |url=http://www.aip.org/history/climate/20ctrend.htm |author-link=Spencer Weart |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=31 May 2015 |archive-date=22 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922100047/http://www.aip.org/history/climate/20ctrend.htm |url-status=dead }} | |||
== External links== | |||
{{wikiquote|Anthony Watts}} | |||
* | |||
* | |||
{{Authority control}} | |||
==External links== | |||
* | |||
* , Anthony Watts, Chicago, IL: The Heartland Institute, 2009. | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watts, Anthony}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Watts, Anthony}} | ||
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Latest revision as of 17:50, 7 October 2024
American blogger (born 1958) For other people called Anthony Watts, see Anthony Watts.Anthony Watts | |
---|---|
Anthony Watts speaking in Gold Coast, Australia, June 2010 | |
Born | 1958 (age 65–66) |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Purdue University (no degree earned) |
Occupation(s) | Blogger, business owner, broadcast meteorologist |
Years active | 1978-present |
Employer | KPAY |
Known for | Viewpoints on climate change |
Website | wattsupwiththat |
Willard Anthony Watts (born 1958) is an American blogger who runs Watts Up With That?, a climate change denial blog that opposes the scientific consensus on climate change. A former television meteorologist and current radio meteorologist, he is also founder of the Surface Stations project, a volunteer initiative to document the condition of U.S. weather stations. The Heartland Institute helped fund some of Watts' projects, including publishing a report on the Surface Stations project, and invited him to be a paid speaker at its International Conference on Climate Change from 2008 to 2014.
Education and career
Watts assisted with the setup of a radio program for his high school in Indiana, and later attended electrical engineering and meteorology classes at Purdue University, but did not graduate or receive a degree. In 1978, Watts began his broadcasting career as an on-air meteorologist for WLFI-TV in Lafayette, Indiana.
He joined KHSL-TV, a CBS affiliate based in Chico, California in 1987, and founded a company named ItWorks the same year. He stopped using his first name "Willard" to avoid confusion with NBC's Today weatherman Willard Scott. In 2002, he left KHSL to focus on ITWorks full-time. Watts has been the chief meteorologist for KPAY, a Fox News affiliate based in Chico, California since 2004, and the director and president of IntelliWeather Inc, a subsidiary of ItWorks, since 2000.
Watts was a member of the Chico, California school board from 2002 to 2006. In 2006, he was briefly a candidate for county supervisor, to represent Chico on the Butte County Board of Supervisors, but withdrew his candidacy due to family and workload concerns.
Climate change opinion and activities
Watts rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. He believes that global warming is occurring, but that it is not as bad as has been reported, and that carbon dioxide plays a much smaller part than the Sun in causing climatic change. Watts has written that variations in solar irradiance, the Sun's magnetic field and solar wind are driving changes to the climate, contrary to the scientific consensus that the primary cause of climate change is an increase in greenhouse gasses, including carbon dioxide. Climate models have been used to examine the role of the Sun in recent warming, and data collected on solar irradiance and ozone depletion, as well as comparisons of temperature readings at different levels of the atmosphere have shown that the Sun is not a significant factor driving climate change.
Watts is a signatory to the Leipzig Declaration as well as the Manhattan Declaration, which calls for the immediate halt to any tax funded attempts to counteract climate change or reduce CO2 emissions, and suggests the consensus among climate scientists is "false". Watts says he advocates for alternative energy sources and for the United States to "disengage from Middle East Oil."
In 2010, Watts went on a speaking tour to 18 locations around Australia. In 2014, Watts began the Open Atmospheric Society.
Climate change blogging
Main article: Watts Up With That?Watts established Watts Up With That? (WUWT) in 2006. The blog features material disputing the scientific consensus on climate change, including assertions that the human role in global warming is insignificant and carbon dioxide is not a driving force of warming. It hosts several guest bloggers, such as Christopher Monckton and the late Fred Singer, in addition to Watts. It is among the most prominent climate change denial blogs, and is described by climatologist Michael E. Mann as the most popular, having surpassed Climate Audit. In 2010, it received more than half a million views per month. Columbia Journalism School writer Curtis Brainard has written that "scientists have repeatedly criticized for misleading readers on subjects such as the reliability of the U.S. surface temperature record."
In 2009, Watts was involved in popularizing the Climatic Research Unit email controversy, wherein emails of several climatologists were published by a hacker. Watts argued that the emails showed the scientists were manipulating data, and while a series of independent investigations cleared the scientists of any wrongdoing, public accusations resulting from the event continued for years. The scientific consensus that global warming is occurring as a result of human activity remained unchanged throughout the investigations, however, the reports may have decreased public confidence in climate scientists and the IPCC, and conclusively altered the Copenhagen negotiations that year.
Surface Stations project
In 2007, Watts launched the Surface Stations project, encouraging volunteers to take photographs of weather stations in the U.S. Historical Climatology Network to record their condition. By 2009, around 650 volunteers had reported on around 70% of the 1,221 stations, and suggested most were below "good or best" reliability. In March 2009 The Heartland Institute published an illustrated report authored by Watts, in which he argued that the surface temperature record in the United States was inaccurate and that the actual temperature was lower than reported. Watts presented pictures from volunteers participating through his website to show that many surface weather stations were situated near artificial heat sources such as pavement and air conditioners, but did not show any comparison of the data from these sites and the data from well situated stations.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) investigated the matter. While acknowledging the suboptimal conditions of many stations, NOAA concluded in 2010 that any bias had been nearly eliminated by their models, which compared stations over regions and time. To the very limited extent that there was any measurement bias, it was in the opposite direction of what Watts expected: stations that were considered poorly situated reported slightly cooler temperatures.
Watts was co-author with climatologists John Nielsen-Gammon, John Christy and Roger A. Pielke, Sr. on a paper with Souleymane Fall as lead author, which found that mean temperature trends were nearly identical between poorly sited and well-sited stations, but poor siting led to a difference in estimated diurnal temperature range. The poorly positioned stations led to an overestimate of trends in minimum temperatures, balanced by a similar underestimate of maximum temperature trends. This meant that the mean temperature trends were nearly identical across the stations.
BEST project, alleged doubling of trend by NOAA
Main article: Berkeley EarthIn March 2011, Watts visited the Berkeley Earth Temperature project (BEST), and said "I'm prepared to accept whatever result they produce, even if it proves my premise wrong." In October the project released data and a draft of their paper which produced results supporting the existing scientific consensus. Watts said that its methodology was flawed, complaining that the BEST study analyzed a larger period than his own research, and that it was not yet peer reviewed. Richard A. Muller, founder of BEST, later said their study directly addressed Watts' concern about the condition of weather stations; "we discovered that station quality does not affect the results. Even poor stations reflected temperature changes accurately."
Around 22 July 2012, Watts heard that the BEST project was about to release further material, and decided to release a paper he and Evan Jones had been working on for about a year. The New York Times published a summary of further draft results from BEST, including an announcement from Muller that their study now showed that humans "are almost entirely the cause" of the warming. Shortly afterwards, Watts announced his own team's draft paper which said that previously reported temperature rises had been "spuriously doubled", and made the serious accusation that NOAA had inflated the rate by erroneous adjustments to the data. Climate scientists and other bloggers quickly found flaws in the paper. Steve McIntyre, whom Watts had named as a co-author, stressed that his involvement had been "very last minute and limited". He agreed with criticisms including the point that Watts had failed to correct for time of observation bias, and noted that independent satellite temperature measurements were closer to the NOAA figures.
In 2012 BEST released its series of peer-reviewed papers confirming previous results that the surface temperature is rising.
Connection with Heartland Institute
The Heartland Institute published Watts' preliminary report on weather station data, titled Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable? Watts has appeared as a paid speaker at the International Conference on Climate Change the Heartland Institute have sponsored since 2008.
Watts says that he approached Heartland in 2011 to ask for help finding a donor to set up a website devoted to presenting NOAA's data as graphs that are easily accessible to the public. Documents obtained from the Heartland Institute in February 2012 revealed that the Institute had agreed to help Watts raise $88,000 for his project. The documents state that $44,000 had already been pledged by an anonymous donor, and the Institute would seek to raise the rest. Watts has written that, aside from the help in funding this project, the Heartland Institute does not pay him a regular salary or fund his blog.
Notes
- "School board shakeup". Chico News & Review. October 31, 2002. Retrieved 2012-07-08.
- ^ Grant 2011, p. 301: "Anthony Watts is a TV journalist, a weather presenter who studied Electrical Engineering and Meteorology at Purdue University; there's no record of his having graduated, however, and he's been reticent in discussing this. After a career in local television, in 2004 he moved to radio, joining the FOX News affiliate KPAY in Chico, California."
- ^ "Anthony Watts, Meteorologist". KHSL-TV. Archived from the original on March 6, 2001. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
Anthony has been with KHSL-TV since October, 1987...Anthony began his broadcasting career, in 1978 in Lafayette, Indiana...His unique real name is Willard Anthony Watts...but he had to stop using "Willard" because of Willard Scott on the Today show!
- ^ Mann 2013, p. 72: "Since then, a number of other amateur climate change denial bloggers have arrived on the scene. Most prominent among them is Anthony Watts, a meteorologist...and founder of the site "Watts Up with That?" which has overtaken climate audit as the leading climate change denial blog."
- ^ Farmer & Cook 2013, p. 462: "One of the highest trafficked climate blogs is wattsupwiththat.com, a website that publishes climate misinformation on a daily basis."
- ^ Dunlap & McCright 2011, p. 153: "In recent years these conservative media outlets have been supplemented (and to some degree supplanted) by the conservative blogosphere, and numerous blogs now constitute a vital element of the denial machine...the most popular North American blogs are run by a retired TV meteorologist (wattsupwiththat.com)...Having this powerful, pervasive, and multifaceted media apparatus at its service provides the denial machine with a highly effective means of spreading its message."
- ^ Manne 2012: "More importantly, it was becoming clear that the most effective denialist media weapon was not the newspapers or television but the internet. A number of influential websites, like Watts Up With That?, Climate Skeptic and Climate Depot, were established."
- ^ Kaufman, Leslie (October 21, 2011). "Climate Study Does Not Placate Skeptics". New York Times. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
Anthony Watts, had written in March on his climate-themed blog, Watts Up With That, "I'm prepared to accept whatever result they produce, even if it proves my premise wrong." But neither Mr. Watts nor other longtime critics of climate science reached by The Times seemed satisfied with the report. Mr. Watts, a former television meteorologist, contended that the study's methodology was flawed because it examined data over a 60-year period instead of the 30-year-one that was the basis for his research and some other peer-reviewed studies. He also noted that the report had not yet been peer-reviewed and cited spelling errors as proof of sloppiness.
- ^ Black et al. 2013, p. 1328: "A few critics continued to seek confirmation of their denial of the warming data on air temperatures from weather stations and satellites. In particular, former TV weatherman Anthony Watts established a popular website that mobilized people to report continental U.S. weather stations that were poorly located, such as near the exhaust of air conditioners."
- "Programming - Newstalk1290 KPAY".
- ^ Mann 2013, p. 72: "Watts also started the Web site SurfaceStations.org, which purports to identify poorly sited meteorological stations in the United States in an effort to demonstrate that the instrumental record of warming temperatures is hopelessly compromised by instrumental measurement biases."
- ^ Gascoyne, Tom (February 23, 2012). "Leaked documents hit home Climate-change scandal has a local connection". Chico News & Review. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
- ^ Hickman, Leo (February 15, 2012). "Leaked Heartland Institute documents pull back curtain on climate scepticism". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
- Watts, Anthony (2013-06-11). "FAQS: Why do you blog?". Retrieved 11 April 2015.
- Katherine Bagley (March 2015). "Leaked Email Reveals Who's Who List of Climate Denialists". InsideClimate News.
Watts studied electrical engineering and meteorology at Purdue University but never graduated. He then served as an on-air meteorologist for 25 years. He's a frequent speaker at anti-climate action events hosted by the Heartland Institute.
- ^ "About weatherframe.com". Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
IntelliWeather's parent company, ItWorks, was founded in 1987 by Anthony Watts, a career broadcast television meteorologist. ItWorks provides a wide variety of products for broadcast TV, video, and weather use, ranging from video signal test systems to StormPredator, and unique personal weather radar program. IntelliWeather was founded for the purpose of providing unique and affordable broadcast quality weather imagery for a wide variety of multimedia venues.
- Smith, Laura (January 31, 2002). "Forecast: No more Watts for KHSL". Chico News & Review. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
- "Chico Unified School District: Board of Education". Chico Unified School District. Archived from the original on April 25, 2003. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
- Indar, Josh (March 16, 2006). "One out, one in, one on". Chico News & Review. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
- ^ Mooney & Kirshenbaum 2010, p. 114: "Anthony Watts is an extremely popular blogger, drawing hundreds of comments per post and well over half a million visitors per month. Yet his blog contains highly questionable information–presented very "scientifically" of course, replete with charts and graphs–but all directed toward the end of making the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming seem faulty (in fact, it's extremely robust)
- Michels, Spencer. "Climate Change Skeptic Says Global Warming Crowd Oversells Its Message". PBS NewsHour.
- ^ Anthony Watts. It's the Sun, stupid, wattsupwiththat.com, April 6, 2007.
- Ryan Olson,"Scientists warm up to Watts' work". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-09-02.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Chico Enterprise Record, 2007. - National Research Council 2010, p. 26:Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks...This conclusion is based on a substantial array of scientific evidence, including recent work, and is consistent with the conclusions of recent assessments by the , the , and other assessments of the state of scientific knowledge on climate change...Most of the warming over the last several decades can be attributes to human activities that release carbon dioxide (CO2), and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. The burning of fossil fuels–coal, oil, and natural gas–for energy is the single largest human driver of climate change
- IPCC, "Summary for Policymakers", Detection and Attribution of Climate Change,
"It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century" (page 15) and "In this Summary for Policymakers, the following terms have been used to indicate the assessed likelihood of an outcome or a result: (...) extremely likely: 95–100%" (page 2).
- IPCC 2007, Section 9.2: "Numerous experiments have been conducted using climate models to determine the likely causes of the 20th-century climate change. These experiments indicate that models cannot reproduce the rapid warming observed in recent decades when they only take into account variations in solar output and volcanic activity."
- US NRC (2008). "Understanding and responding to climate change: Highlights of National Academies Reports, 2008 edition, produced by the US National Research Council (US NRC)" (PDF). Washington, D.C., USA: National Academy of Sciences: 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-12-13.
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(help) - USGCRP 2009, p. 20: "Another fingerprint of human effects on climate has been identified by...studying the pattern of temperature changes from the surface up through the stratosphere. In all climate models, increases in carbon dioxide cause warming at the surface and in the troposphere, but lead to cooling of the stratosphere... models also calculate that the human-caused depletion of stratospheric ozone has had a strong cooling effect in the stratosphere. There is a good match between the...combined carbon dioxide and ozone changes and the observed pattern of tropospheric warming and stratospheric cooling."
- Simmon, R. & D. Herring (November 2009). "Notes for slide number 7, titled "Satellite evidence also suggests greenhouse gas warming," in presentation, "Human contributions to global climate change"". Presentation library on the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Services website. Archived from the original on 3 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-23.
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007, p. 60: "It is extremely unlikely (<5%) that the global pattern of warming observed during the past half century can be explained without external forcing. These changes took place over a time period when non-anthropogenic forcing factors (i.e., the sum of solar and volcanic forcing) would be likely to have produced cooling, not warming."
- USGCRP 2009: "When human influences are removed from the model experiments, results suggest that the surface of the Earth would actually have cooled slightly over the last 50 years. The clear message from fingerprint studies is that the observed warming over the last half-century cannot be explained by natural factors, and is instead caused primarily by human factors."
- "SIGNATORIES TO THE LEIPZIG DECLARATION". Archived from the original on July 15, 2006.
- "Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change" (Press release). The Heartland Institute. March 4, 2008. Retrieved 2013-06-03.
- Anthony Watts. Pipe Dream or Viable Energy? wattsupwiththat.com, October 19, 2007.
- AAP (June 10, 2010). "Climate sceptic to tour". The Weekly Times. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
- "A new professional society for meteorology and climatology is announced". Watts Up With That. 16 September 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-09-18. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
The purpose of The OAS is to provide a paperless and entirely online professional organization that will represent individuals who have been unrepresented by existing professional organizations that have become more activist than science based in their outlook.
- Schneider & Nocke 2014, p. 171: "Despite the well-known facts under discussion, the original graph, based on a single outdated study published in 1991, continues to reappear again and again in climate skeptical media, trying to prove that the sun, not anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, is causing global warming. The original curve appears, for example, on Anthony Watts' climate skeptical blog "Watts Up With That?" in an article posted in 2011."
- ^ Grant 2011, p. 302: "Watts is best known for his very heavily trafficked blog Watts Up With That?, began in 2006, which provides not just a megaphone for himself but a rallying ground for other AGW deniers, notably Christopher Monckton. The blog played an important role in the Climategate fiasco, through its dissemination of the hacked CRU emails."
- Kirilenko & Stepchenkova 2014, p. 9: "The most authoritative climate change skepticism web sites included Watts Up With That? and Climate Depot"
- Brainard 2015, p. 172: "At the other end of the spectrum are influential sites for "climate skeptics", such as Watts Up With That?, a blog run by meteorologist Anthony Watts, whom scientists have repeatedly criticized for misleading readers on subjects such as the reliability of the U.S. surface temperature record."
- ^ Hansen & Cox 2015, p. 172: "In 2009, an unknown party acquired a large cache of private emails between climate scientists...and published them online. Cherry-picking quotes in order to make the scientists appear as though they were discussing data manipulation, bloggers such as Watts whipped up a pseudo-scandal that reverberated for years despite the fact that a series of nine investigations in the U.S. and the U.K. cleared the scientists of any wrongdoing.
- The eight major investigations covered by secondary sources include: House of Commons Science and Technology Committee (UK); Independent Climate Change Review (UK); International Science Assessment Panel Archived May 9, 2013, at the Wayback Machine (UK); Pennsylvania State University first panel Archived September 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine and second panel Archived January 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine (US); United States Environmental Protection Agency (US); Department of Commerce (US); National Science Foundation (US)
- Biello, David (2010). "Negating Climategate". Scientific American. 302 (2): 16. Bibcode:2010SciAm.302b..16B. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0210-16a. ISSN 0036-8733. PMID 20128212.
In fact, nothing in the stolen material undermines the scientific consensus that climate change is happening and that humans are to blame
- Lubchenco, Jane (2 December 2009) House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming (House Select Committee). "The Administration's View on the State of Climate Science". House Hearing, 111 Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office. "...the e-mails really do nothing to undermine the very strong scientific consensus and the independent scientific analyses of thousands of scientists around the world that tell us that the Earth is warming and that the warming is largely a result of human activities." As quoted in the report published by Office of Inspector General.
- Anshelm & Hultman 2014, pp. 154–156: "Climategate fundamentally damaged confidence in the IPCC climate reports and decisively changed the conditions for the Copenhagen negotiations...Climategate and the failure of Copenhagen coincided with a widespread decline in public acceptance that global warming was happening, was caused by humans, and was a serious threat...Climategate can also explain the erosion of public trust in scientists as sources of information on global warming after 2010."
- Dunlap & McCright 2011, p. 153: "Having this powerful, pervasive and multifaceted media apparatus at its service provides the denial machine with a highly effective means of spreading its message, as reflected quite recently by its success in turning a tiny and highly unrepresentative sample of thirteen years worth of personal e-mails hacked from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia into a major scandal that has generated a decline in public belief in climate change and trust in climate scientists...despite the fact that several investigations have concluded that the e-mails neither demonstrate unethical behavior nor undermine climate science."
- Watts, Anthony (2009). Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable? (PDF). Heartland Institute. ISBN 978-1-934791-29-5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-13. Retrieved June 1, 2015.
- Powell 2012, p. 136: "In 2007, Watts founded SurfaceStations.org...By early June 2009, thanks to a grass roots network of volunteers, SurfaceStations.org had examined about 70 percent of the 1,221 stations classified 70 of the stations as having "good or best" reliability... since 1950, temperatures recorded at the 70 "good or best" stations are indistinguishable from the rest."
- Powell 2012, p. 136: "By early June 2009, thanks to a grass roots network of volunteers, SurfaceStations.org had examined about 70 percent of the 1,221 stations classified 70 of the stations as having "good or best" reliability... since 1950, temperatures recorded at the 70 "good or best" stations are indistinguishable from the rest."
- Hensen 2011: " rallied more than 650 volunteers through Watts Up With That?...The investigators found hundreds of surface weather stations across the United States that were improperly located near water treatment plants, pavements, air conditioners, and other sources of artificial heat. A photo-studded report, "Is the US Surface Temperature Record Reliable?" was published by the Heartland Institute...Though the report wasn't a peer-reviewed study, it made quite a splash in the US media and the blogosphere."
- Powell 2012, p. 136: "deniers say that the U.S. historical temperature record is unreliable because some weather stations are sited near trees, buildings, parking lots, air conditioners, and the like, causing the stations to record unrepresentative, and presumably warmer, local temperatures. The person most behind this claim is Anthony Watts
- ^ Mann 2013, p. 72: "With the assistance of the Heartland Institute, Watts published a glossy, very official-looking report about the project... absent from that report, however, was any direct comparison showing what the surface temperature record looks like both with and without the sites that Watts deemed unworthy. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) went ahead and calculated it themselves, producing versions of the continental U.S. average temperature curve both with and without the records in question...Eliminating the "suspect" data made virtually no difference at all; in fact, the small bias that was found was of the opposite sign. The "corrected" record showed slightly more warming!"
- Weart 2015: "A study by members of the NOAA National Climatic Data Center separately analyzed the sites that Watts's volunteers identified as faulty, comparing them with the acknowledged good sites. They found that any bias introduced by poor siting had been mostly compensated for by the data reduction, which was designed precisely to remove biases by comparisons over regions and time. But if the raw data only were considered, the poor sites did not tend to overestimate warming compared with what NOAA had reported, as Watts had assumed; if anything the warming from these sites was greater than NOAA's earlier figures."
- Washington 2013, p. 51: "There is a denial movement seeking to cast doubt on the surface temperature record using photographs of weather stations positioned near car parks, air conditioners and other warming influences (Watts, 2010). These photos attempt to communicate that the global warming trend is being inflated by poor temperature data... Poor sites show a cooler trend than good sites. All those photographed weather stations near car parks are actually giving cooler readings than pristine weather stations."
- Menne, Williams & Palecki 2010: "Recent photographic documentation of poor siting conditions at stations in the U.S. Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) has led to questions regarding the reliability of surface temperature trends over the conterminous United States (CONUS)...Results indicate that...associated instrument changes have led to an artificial negative ("cool") bias in maximum temperatures and only a slight positive ("warm") bias in minimum temperatures...In summary, we find no evidence that the CONUS average temperature trends are inflated due to poor station siting."
- Fall, Souleymane; Watts, Anthony; Nielsen-Gammon, John; Jones, Evan; Niyogi, Dev; Christy, John R.; Pielke, Sr., Roger A. (2011). "Analysis of the impacts of station exposure on the U.S. Historical Climatology Network temperatures and temperature trends" (PDF). Journal of Geophysical Research. 116 (D14120): D14120. Bibcode:2011JGRD..11614120F. doi:10.1029/2010JD015146.
- Black et al. 2013, p. 1505: "We have done an initial study of the station selection issue...we see a global warming trend that is very similar to that previously reported by the other groups. We have also studied station quality. Many U.S. stations have low quality rankings according to a study led by Anthony Watts. However, we find that the warming seen in the "poor" stations is virtually indistinguishable from that seen in the "good" stations."
- Watts, Anthony (30 Jul 2012). "Backstory on the new surfacestations paper". Watts Up With That?. Retrieved 4 Jun 2015.
- Donald, Ros (3 August 2012). "'There's plenty of room for scepticism' – climate study author Richard Muller". The Guardian.
Rolling back his previous promise to accept BEST's findings, the one-time BEST supporter has released a draft paper of his own, at about the same time as the new BEST results. Watts says his assessment of temperature stations shows that poor weather station siting has "spuriously" doubled estimates of temperature rise in the US
Watts, Anthony (29 July 2012). "New study shows half of the global warming in the USA is artificial". Watts Up With That?. Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 4 Jun 2015.The new analysis demonstrates that reported 1979-2008 U.S. temperature trends are spuriously doubled, with 92% of that over-estimation resulting from erroneous NOAA adjustments of well-sited stations upward.
- Samenow, Jason (30 Jul 2012). "Blockbuster climate change studies prove little". Washington Post. Retrieved 4 Jun 2015.
Watts is asserting the U.S. temperature trends you've seen reported from NOAA about warming in the last few decades are inflated due to flawed adjustments made to temperature records. The unadjusted highest quality temperature records in the U.S., Watts claims, demonstrate about half the warming as NOAA's adjusted data. …. given the serious accusations Watts et al. make about the integrity of NOAA's temperature analysis, it's critical NOAA be given the opportunity to respond just as they did the last time Watts issued such a challenge in 2009. NOAA's U.S. temperature record has been painstakingly constructed by many scientists over many years and many peer-reviewed publications support its methodologies.
- Samenow, Jason (31 Jul 2012). "More evidence attention-grabbing climate studies were prematurely rushed". Washington Post. Retrieved 4 Jun 2015.
- Farmer 2014, p. 44: "Global average temperatures for 2013 have recently been published by the BEST study...2010 and 2005 remain the warmest years since records began in the 19th century. 1998 ranks third in two records, and in Cowtan and Way's 2014 analysis...2013 is warmer than 1998."
- Burleigh, Nina (February 17, 2012). "Secret papers turn up heat on global-warming deniers". Salon. Archived from the original on 2012-07-27. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
- "2012 Fundraising Plan" (PDF). The Heartland Institute. January 15, 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 14, 2012. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
- Hickman, Leo (February 15, 2012). "Climate sceptics – who gets paid what?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-02-15.
- Black, Richard (15 February 2012). "Openness: A Heartland-warming tale". BBC News.
- Goldenberg, Suzanne (February 14, 2012). "Leak exposes how Heartland Institute works to undermine climate science". The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-08-10.
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