Thursday, August 25, 2005

Roger Pielke, Sr. Quits Panel

The New York Times reports that climatologist Roger A. Pielke, Sr. -- father of the author of the blog Prometheus -- has resigned from a scientific panel with charges that said panel is ignoring minority viewpoints. (Pielke, Sr. has his own blog Climate Science.)
"When you appoint people to a committee who are experts in an area but evaluating their own work," he said in an interview, "it's very difficult for them to think outside the box of their research."

...

[The panel's] main focus is to explore why thermometers at the earth's surface, especially in the tropics, have measured more warming than has been detected by satellites and weather balloons in the troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere up to where jetliners cruise.

Dr. Pielke contends that changes in landscapes like the spread of agriculture and cities could explain many of the surface climate trends, while most climate experts now see a clear link to accumulating emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide.

Pielke today has repudiated the Times account of his reasons for quitting the panel, saying the report mischaracterizes his work. His full reaction may be read here.