SCIENTIST-DENIER REVERSES, SAYS IT’S HAPPENING

Koch-funded climate change skeptic reverses course

Neela Bannerjee, July 29, 2012 (LA Times)

“…Global warming is occurring and emissions of greenhouse gases caused by human activity are the main cause…according to Richard A. Muller, professor of physics at UC Berkeley, MacArthur Fellow…co-founder of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project...[and] long-standing, colorful critic of prevailing climate science…[T]he Berkeley project was heavily funded by the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation, which, along with its libertarian petrochemical billionaire founder Charles G. Koch, has a considerable history of backing groups that deny climate change.”

[Muller:] “Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause…”

Colbert at his most brilliant. From the Comedy Channel

“Tonya Mullins, a spokeswoman for the Koch Foundation, said the support her foundation provided, along with others, had no bearing on the results of the research…Some leading climate scientists welcomed Muller’s comments, proof, they argued, that the science is so strong that even those inclined to reject it cannot once they examine it carefully…Muller’s conclusions, however, failed to sway the most ardent climate contrarians, like Marc Morano, a former top producer for Rush Limbaugh and communications director for the Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee…

“Muller had criticized which global temperatures were used in such research, contending that some monitoring stations provided inaccurate data. Now, Berkeley’s research has weighed in on the causes of the temperature rise, testing arguments climate contrarians have used…Muller asserted that his findings were ‘stronger’ than those of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental panel…Elizabeth Muller, co-founder and executive director of the Berkeley project and Richard Muller’s daughter, said the papers had been peer-reviewed, but not yet published…because of the long lead-up to publication…”

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