Anthony Watts On Climate, Bad Temperature Stations, And Joining The Heartland Institute
Anthony Watts / April 18, 2019
Anthony Watts joins the podcast for the first time as a Senior Fellow for Environment and Climate at The Heartland Institute. Watts, the publisher of the most-read climate website in the world – WattsUpWithThat.com – talks about his scientific journey from radio and TV meteorologist in California to one of the most prominent skeptics in the world of human-caused climate change. Anthony's fame came with his research into the enormous flaws in the way global temperature is determined at weather stations around the world.
The podcast is available below.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/ECN_Anthony_Watts.mp3
April 18, 2019 in Opinion.
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100 thoughts on "Anthony Watts On Climate, Bad Temperature Stations, And Joining The Heartland Institute"
JoshC says:
Good job Anthony. I have kept up with your work since before WUWT and your success is well earned. Good luck with your new position.
Luck? Not much! It's choices and consequences. Make good choices and you will suffer good consequences. And Anthony is proof of that.
Oh, I know that. The consequences of good work is….more work.
The luck now has to go with the future work and employ at the Heartland Institute. He will need all that he can. 🙂
On the one hand:
I'm a Great Believer in Luck. The Harder I Work, the More Luck I Have link
On the other hand, you have to thank the Lord for your good luck. Over most of the world, for most of history, people have had to work their buns off to not quite thrive.
GREG in Houston says:
Yes, until the discovery of inexpensive fossil fuels…. then things got better.
Independence, I feel, was better…
Seriously, is there a prominent climate skeptic out there now who does NOT have a relationship with Heartland?
[Griff, is there a climate alarmist out there who does NOT have a relationship with hubris? Introspection seems lost on you. – Anthony]
WXcycles says:
"… The Heartland Institute is known globally as a leading think tank promoting scientific research showing that human activity is not causing a climate crisis. …"
https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/press-release-anthony-watts-joins-the-heartland-institute
Why wouldn't they be?
Ethan Brand says:
Seriously, is there a prominent AGW Alarmist out there now that does NOT have a relationship with the Audubon Society..:)
Ethan Brand
The Socialist Global movement?
The Great Globs of Socialists
icisil says:
Seriously, is there a prominent CAGW scientist out there now who is NOT sucking the tit of government?
Independence, I feel, is better…
+100!
John Endicott says:
+42^42
Carbon Bigfoot says:
J Endicott:
Both you and Middleton use this +42^42 designation—did I miss the social/mathematical significance?
StephenP says:
I think it comes from a radio comedy called The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy, where 42 is the answer to everything. So 42 to the power of 42 is an extreme positive answer.
Got it in One StephenP.
Hitchhikers was also a series of books (a five book "trilogy"), a TV series, and a movie, etc but I do believe the UK radio show came first.
DonK31 says:
Is there a prominent person who is not a climate skeptic out there now who does NOT have a relationship with Michael Mann?
Ewwww!!
Ric Werme says:
Several. e.g. Roy Spencer.
Where did you look?
Ron Long says:
Here comes Griff! He shoots—-he misses, airball! He runs—-he hides! He crys himself to sleep at his abject failures! Great job Anthony, and way to call out the troll.
RobR says:
Pretty sure Griff is a female.
Anthony Watts says:
No, I have full knowledge of who he is.
F.LEGHORN says:
But do you know who Griff wants to be?
Good comment, Leghorn. If Griff is looking for a de-dicktomy I think Anthony has an attack dog that can help.
Joel Snider says:
If I remember, his real name is 'Ed'.
I prefer 'Grift' – more accurately descriptive.
MiloCrabtree says:
Keep it to yourself, Anthony. No need to get down into the dirt with the pigs.
DMacKenzie says:
Without Griff, the blog would be all Opera, no Rock and Roll.
Pamela Gray says:
RobR, idiot hyperbole comment.
Pam,
I wasn't attacking women. Griff is often referred to as a her on other blogs. I was calling out what I thought to be true.
Griff, let us suppose your assumption is correct. How should we gauge the influence of the Heartland Institute, relative to the thousands of Government's, University's and Institutions peddling unsubstantiated Chicken Little Climate Catastrophe Porn?
Do you really think The Heartland Institute has prevented the wholesale adoption of carbon reduction strategies? You can't fool all of the people all of the time and productive members of society (Paris anyone) are fed up with bearing the brunt of mitigation policies based on unproven models.
Your activism is misplaced….if you are a true believer, find out why the models are failing?
Izaak Walton says:
RobR,
If you want to try and compare the influence of the various groups perhaps you
should look at whether CO2 emissions are rising or falling? Given that global CO2 emissions
in 2018 were at a record high and they show no sign of declining it would appear
that Heartland Institute has more influence than any supposed global green conspiracy to
destroy the global economy.
Sure, the people in the streets of Paris are taking their cue from The Heartland Institute.
If only they would leave us to our own devices, we would gladly give out pay checks to save the planet from plant food.
should look at whether CO2 emissions are rising or falling?
Well let's see:
1) Heartland is an US institution,
2) CO2 emissions in the US are falling (and have been for several years now).
So by your proposed metric, Heartland isn't having much success where it would be expected to be the most influential (it's own home territory).
I absolutely understand why Anthony would want to take Heartland money but griff is 100% correct. No longer can WUWT appear to be independent.
And it makes you guys look like #$%& when griff gets attacked for politely saying something so obvious.
Greg F says:
Actually it makes you look like an #$%& when you defend griff engaging in a Guilt by Association Fallacy.
Guilt by Association. That's a weird way to put it.
Getting paid to do a job means you are no longer acting independently.
Simple stuff.
Guilt by Association. That's a weird way to put it
Not at all, it's what griff does, time and again. Usually with links to laughable sites like desmogblog. It's the old "you're in the pay of big whatever, so everything you says is suspect" fallacy. Yet, somehow being in the pay of big government (like just about every alarmist scientists) is not a problem for hypocrites like griff – as it's somehow pure untainted money.
Ha! Anthony is doing exactly what he has always been doing! His recent appointment as a Senior Fellow at The Heartland Institute is recognition for his hard, independent and accurate work searching for the truth on 'man made climate change'. Your disparagements , Albert, do not reflect well on you.
Have anymore meaningless tripe you would like to share?
Russell Cook says:
'Take Heartland money' ………… to do what, exactly? I've heard this for years, it's been leveled at me numerous times, but the sentence is never completed. Where is there evidence that Heartland money or Exxon money or Donor's Trust money ever was offered under strict orders to do what the benefactors mandated, under the threat of rescinding the money of the orders weren't followed? This accusation dates back 20+ years, and I've never once seen viable evidence provided anywhere which backs it up.
Russell, the story you are commenting on is an announcement that Anthony is now on Heartland's payroll.
Yeah, so? how does that negate anything Russell said? What exactly does being on Heartland's payroll have to do with anything? As Russel asked "Take Heartland money ………… to do what, exactly?". If Anthony had taken a government funded position would you & griff be here complaining about him "taking government's money"? no you wouldn't. So what's the difference?
X2, on what John Endicott says on my behalf. Finish the incomplete sentence, if not from what you know, then from what Al Gore, Greenpeace, Desmog, et al. says. Then back it up with evidence. REAL evidence.
Jim Lakely says:
Heartland has long applauded and tried to amplify what Anthony has done for years. He has presented at most of our 12 climate conferences. Now Heartland is proud to have him in the family … to better support the work he has done for years with little financial support.
Anthony's outstanding work is hard. I don't think many readers of his blog fully appreciate that fact. It requires support, and Heartland is glad — after many years of wanting to do this — to now be in a position to grant it as we can.
We skeptics of CAGW are still outnumbered financially … by many, many, many millions.
Jim Lakely
The Heartland Institute.
Sweet Old Bob says:
Grief is usually 100% wrong .
And by your " standard " NO ONE is independent .
Sweet Bob,
WUWT seemed independent up until now. Now that Anthony is being paid, that appearance of independence is gone.
That's all I said.
I'm not disparaging Anthony. I'm glad for him and hope for the best.
Martin Clark says:
The snide comments about Anthony being "in the pay of the Heartland Institute" reminds me of same comment being made against the late Bob Carter. The amount Bob was paid to attend a Heartland function located 14340 km away from his home was about the same amount as he would have received if he had stayed where he was and received social security benefit.
Philo says:
Since Anthony is an honest man I, as an honest believer in science, gave him some help. I'm sure a lot of readers here did the same.
So, he's never been free of influencers.
But then, the WHOLE Anthropogenic/Global/IPCC/UN/UNEP/NASA/NOAA/Center for American Progress/ George Soros,,,,,ad infinitum list of carpet baggers has been doing the same at hundreds of thousand times the scale.
And not doing nearly as effective job.
It helps that the so-called sceptics have got facts, not policy and perceptions, on their side.
Climate Change is still $20 at the bottom of the UN poll of world issues. For most people world wide almost any issue is more important.
I absolutely understand why Anthony would want to take Heartland money but griff is 100% correct. No longer can WUWT appear to be independent
By that standard, just about everyone on all sides of the issue are not independent. Except for the independently wealthy (of which I can't think of a single example in the world of climate science), everyone gets paid from somewhere whether it's Heartland, the government (either directly or indirectly through government funding), Soros funded NGOs, etc. Every "big name" in climate science is not "independent". They're all in the pay of someone else. Yet it's only when the paymasters are on one side of the issue rather than the other the somehow that's a "bad thing" the prevent people form being honest about the science? It's called hypocrisy. Look in the mirror if you wish to see what it looks like.
Not at all. I'm happy to point out how the money affects either side of this issue. Most climate scientists are paid to promote an agenda.
I'm arguing with words that you put in my mouth now. This place is as stupid as WAPO.
Not at all. I'm happy to point out how the money affects either side of this issue
Good to hear. Would have been nice to hear sometime before your attack on Anthony's independence rather than after you were called out on it.
This place is as stupid as WAPO.
Keep telling yourself that, if it helps you get over the fact that everyone here sees right through you.
Some people always assume that others are being paid to take the positions that they take.
Almost always, this is nothing more than projection in action.
Gunga Din says:
Anthony could get a lot more "Green" if he sold out to the Greens.
(That would be a PR coup! Al would probably sign the checks himself.)
The claim/implication has been made that Anthony will now get money from Heartland by accepting this position and so will become a puppet of those who … espouse the same things he espouses? Honesty and accuracy in climate related science and opposing the political policies based on taxpayer-paid-for pseudoscience to back up those political policies?
Albert, why don't you spend a bit of time connecting the dots to those political/green groups that the likes of Soros funds.
Indeed. It all comes back to Russel's question of "'Take Heartland money' ………… to do what, exactly?"
If the answer is "to keep doing what he's being doing all along" then where's the "evil influence" of the money?
Griff sure seems to be an early riser, I wonder what time zone the comments come from ?
Tom in Florida says:
I always figured it was LaLa Land.
One of Grift's standard methods is to attempt to avoid discussing the actual content of any given skeptic statement, by discrediting it, based on presumed bias due to funding.
But it's okay for every warmist on the globe to be funded by activists.
"Seriously, is there a prominent climate alarmist out there now who does NOT have a relationship with "Green"?
nicholas tesdorf says:
Griff continues his/her close relationship with Stupidity.
And provides links to stories from advocacy groups while criticizing others for their funding sources.
Mario Lento says:
Griff: I assume (incorrectly) that you are complimenting the nobleness surrounding people willing to seek truth in a selfish political landscape. It takes brains, fortitude and willingness to take arrows to do so. I am thankful that such people exist. To me there is a parallel to those joining our military so that I can do my part to make the world a little bit better.
Griff: Did you mean to boost Heartland's reputation with that comment? Because you did.
Heartland is very proud that so many "prominent climate skeptics" are associated with us, and thrilled that Anthony is among them as a senior fellow. You're gonna hate the future.
Jim: I see a very strong synergy in this news! I think there are indicators that the tied is turning… Best wishes and luck on success.
Bob Hoye says:
Sound research should by widely broadcast.
This is a good step.
Teddz says:
There's a TV program on BBC 1 TV (UK) at 9.00pm local time (3pm CST) today, April 18th.
It's called "Climate Change: the Facts" and is being presented by Sir Richard Attenborough. "Scientists, including Climatologists Dr James Hansen and Dr Michael Mann…. detail the processes by which global warming led to the extreme weather of recent years and the accelerating rate at which the world's ice is etc etc….". Get your VPNs or proxies ready.
It should be "illuminating".
Given the people whose names you mentioned a more accurate title would be "Climate Change: The Propaganda"
Sunderlandsteve says:
I can't decide whether to watch it or not, I may need to take another beta blocker if I do.
David Chappell says:
David, not his brother Richard.
Knew it was one of them…
Robert of Texas says:
Congratulations Anthony! You deserve all the credit and recognition you get.
Bill Rocks says:
Well done. Congratulations.
Nice Podcast. Congrats on the appointment Anthony.
One day your work at WUWT will be studied in History books.
Anthony, I'm listening to the podcast. You should write a book. Seriously. I suggest the title, "From Climate Alarmist to Skeptic."
Moderately Cross of East Anglia says:
If Anthony did write a book I suggest its title should follow the remark made by sceptic Vaclav Havel when he said the Earth was a " Blue Planet in Green Chains", perhaps a slight play along the lines "Blue Planet hostage to Green Lies".
"Blue Planet in Green Chains " would be an excellent badge, sticker, logo to encompass all those not going along with the current global shake down by the alarmists. More power to you elbow Anthony.
Get yourselves a bucket of water and a heat gun and try heating water through its surface. Thats what this is all about. You can not put physical heat through the surface of water. Radiated energy yes physical heat no.
Anthony Banton says:
But that is not the mechanism by which the oceans are retaining more energy.
As with the atmosphere – it is via a reduction in cooling.
https://judithcurry.com/2014/05/21/mechanisms-for-warming-of-the-oceans/
"The surface of the ocean is thus warmed slightly by IR absorption and this reduces the temperature differential from the bulk mixed layer to the surface. This reduces the rate of heat loss from the mixed layer of the ocean to the surface; thus the mixed layer does not cool as fast as it would without the IR forcing at the surface (i.e. it warms relative to the unforced state). It is important to understand that the IR absorbed at the surface does not flow down into the ocean. The energy flow is always upward."
Judith fails to take into consideration mixing. If you let a pool of water sit for a while, sure, energy flow is upward. Put a mixmaster blade in it and warm mixes with cool, meaning that the top layer of warm mixes "down" into the cooler layers. So no, energy flow is NOT always up.
Mike Bryant says:
Anthony Watts – an extraordinary man and example to us all!
Mr. Watts, YOU ROCK! You get stronger and better every year.
Don't let the bastards get you down. You will not be silenced.
Alan Tomalty says:
https://twitter.com/ATomalty/status/1118911401014075392
The 1 graph that destroys the global warming meme
"After looking at the bottom graph, you tell me if you still think that CO2 (the basis of all life on earth) is guilty of potential mass genocide of the human race in the next 12 years?"
That's not the Globe.
And it's not what this shows (because, of course, ice thickness and therefore duration of melt-time is a function of temperature, making max coverage, err, deceptive ….
http://glisa.umich.edu/media/images/Great%20Lakes%20Ice%20Cover(1).jpg
http://glisa.umich.edu/climate/great-lakes-ice-coverage
In turn from ….
https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/10.1175/2011JCLI4066.1
"The total loss for overall Great Lakes ice coverage is 71%, while Lake Superior places second with a 79% loss. An empirical orthogonal function analysis indicates that a major response of ice cover to atmospheric forcing is in phase in all six lakes, accounting for 80.8% of the total variance."
And also the "next 12 years" refers to the further accumulation of atmospheric CO2 in that time from which feedbacks will take human mitigation into direct action territory.
https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments/
"The report finds that limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require "rapid and far-reaching" transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities. Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050. This means that any remaining emissions would need to be balanced by removing CO2 from the air."
There is a comment on the negligible influence of the anti-climate-change in:
https://www.masterresource.org/renewable-energy/us-renewables-real-vs-potential-output/
Read the whole report. You will find it interesting.
bluecat57 says:
Isn't photoshop great, or is that just an old "Cal Thomas" esque photo?
DocSiders says:
Unfortunately:
Anthony (who is easily twice as intelligent than AOC) is not nearly as pretty as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The message and the messenger get intentionally confused by the Media.
The Heartland Institute is synonymous (due to successful Media efforts) with a group of stodgy rich old white men from the top of the tyrannical male hierarchy that illegitimately runs the country and who love subjugating women and black people.
The President's National Security Climate Council does not have an effective PUBLIC communicator. I love Drs. Happer and Curry, but they are the wrong people to do MOST OF the presenting of scientific information to the public at large.
We denialists may only get one shot at bringing the truth about climate to the public…this next year before the 2020 elections.
We better hire the right publicists that know how to bend public perceptions using unsexy dry facts and truth. That's not something that many know how to do very well.
President Trump can bring his 40% on board. But we need another 15% of the "relatively clueless wanderers" out there who usually vote (aka Independents).
We have to be willing to appeal to Money, Sex, Fear, Patriotism, Security, Constitution Preservation, Truth, Optimistic Future Promises, and Slandering Democratic Socialists and more to win this Climate Battle.
I know from personal efforts that showing even good honest people the facts does not convince them to have enough conviction to publicly speak against the propaganda of the MSM. There is a lot of lefty peer pressure out there promoted constantly by the media that has to be bravely overcome. Independent voters are not people who are brave against peer pressure.
This effort will be hard because one will look like a tin hat conspiracy theory nut going against "Settled Science"…and the newly informed won't have a grasp of the facts well enough to defend those facts intelligently…so they would look like dumb conspiracy nuts. And calling people Deniers works really well.
AND THAT'S BECAUSE THERE ACTUALLY IS A LOOSE CONSPIRACY of sorts. Academia, Media, Science, Law, Education, and even Crony Capitalists and the Pope are allied with the liers that support and maintain the Catastrophic Climate Change story.
This will not be easy. We'll be lucky to survive this terrible plan with our freedoms and the Constitution intact.
The CC/CAGW "push" really is a brilliant political plan.
Side strategy note:
It might be useful to REPEATEDLY DRIVE HOME THE FACT that even if the USA "goes zero carbon" by 2050, the global average temperatures (GAT) will only be reduced by 0.05 degrees C by the year 2100. Maybe use a slogan…like…$Trillions for Nothing" repeated every time the climate subject comes up.
I have been successful getting people to be willing to say that publicly. They only have to learn one key thing that's relatively easy for them to corroborate (email them one website url).
Splash slogans like this across TV and Phone screens a few dozen times a day for a months before the elections.
bit chilly says:
Doc, you don't have to get them to speak,many of those floating voters are averse to any form of what they see as needless confrontation.What you have to do is persuade them to vote against the madness. This has been seen twice in recent history in the UK with the outright victory the conservative party enjoyed in 2015 (probably and hopefully their last ever) when all the polls suggested another hung parliament (that david cameron was praying for so the lib dems could quash the promise to hold a referendum on EU membership) and the referendum itself.
On both occasions the polls were wrong as they failed to take into account the large group of people that would not admit their voting intention in public but just quietly got on with it at the ballot box.
Clay Sanborn says:
I found Anthony's great website in about March 2007 when I decided to check out what the fuss was about AGW. Anthony's website and subsequent Weather Station Siting Report was one of the most significant findings.
As I recall, Anthony had also reported that the IPCC used 88 or 89 of what they called benchmark level US stations to show man-caused global warming. The IPCC picked these 88 weather stations as the Best of the Best. But ALL (every one) 88/89 of the IPCC selected stations violated the siting standard, essentially making them invalid for their purpose. A statistician Watts used said that in statistics, this much error could not be accidental, that it constituted fraud to knowingly use sub-standard data.
Climate changes – that it what it does for a living. Take The Laurentide Ice Sheet, for example… Up until about 10,000 to 20,000 years ago, essentially all of Canada was covered in ice. The area that is now Quebec was under approx. 13,000′ (a mountain) of ice. What is now the Chicago, IL area was under a mile of ice. Questions: 1) Was it a bad thing that the ice melted? 2) Did mankind have anything at all to do with the ice melt?
These are but a small fraction of the problems anyone wanting to beat up on mankind for changing the climate must overcome. In science and law, the BURDEN of proof is on the ones presenting the hypothesis/charge. Being there are no proofs, the hypothesis should be dead on arrival, at least in the arena of science. But when our own (USA) govt' has spent over $100 Billion for global warming studies, even "science" hates to see the gravy train end. And Soros and Strong, and MSMBC/NBC/CBS/ABC/PBS/DNC/FBI/DOJ/The New World Order…
Bob Weber says:
Wow, that was really great you guys. I hadn't listened to Anthony talk before – you're really good at it!
The discussion of Stevenson screens was quite interesting and reminded me of my own start in weather.
Back in 9th grade in the mid-70s our science teacher Mr. Pearson (RIP) got the school to buy such a weather station, and luckily I was asked to participate with a few other kids in a daily morning local AM radio program with our own weather forecasts, which Mr. Pearson helped us learn how to make using daily and historical data. Most days one person would do it at 7:30am, and I ended up doing it for a two years. One of the fun things was looking up a historical daily weather fact to relay at the end of the report.
Congrats on becoming a Senior Fellow and increasing the scope of your very effective influence. It's amazing to see how far a little curiosity and effort has taken you. I personally would've never known how to get started into the climate arena without WUWT, and for that I thank you Anthony and your contributors.
Thanks for the positive comment on the podcast! There will be more to come from Anthony.
Anthony, thanks. Many of us would welcome a transcript.
A fine '1st pod cast' Anthony! It is encouraging and revelatory that a fine organization like The Heart Land Institute would recognize your life-long achievements by asking you to join then as a Senior Fellow. Well done, Sir!
Mark Pawelek says:
Excellent podcast.
The trolls will always use any excuse they can invent in order to dismiss those that disagree with them.
There is nothing wrong with Heartland. It's biggest sin is that they are effective in combating the lies of the left, for which people like Griff and Albert will never forgive them.
Oh and supporting the tobacco industry to peddle their death sticks. That was a stellar move for mankind.
Poems of Our Climate says:
Fantastic news! Congrats AW.
Jan Kjetil Andersen says:
I am astonished that we never see arguments for the middle way. Either we hear that we just have twelve more years to act before we heads towards armageddon, or there are no problem at all with an ever increasing CO2 level.
The CO2 level is now 35 percent higher than it has ever been in the last three million years, and it continues to grow by almost one percent per year. I think this alone is a good reason for going in a direction to reduce the use of fossil fuel, even if we do not know exactly how much it contribute to warming and acidification.
Otherwise, I think you did very well on the podcast Anthony. The surface project is a very important contribution to climate science.
Mickey Reno says:
The podcast interview was very informative, snappy, and positive. You were great in that format, Anthony. Just like when you appeared on NPR a few years back. Without their propaganda and their dogmatic indoctrination, NPR and many other media outlets would have nothing at all. Thank you, Anthony and Heartland, for being two of a very few, small voices in the dark.
Doug Hilliard says:
Thanks Anthony! Keep up the good work!
Michael S. Kelly LS, BSA Ret. says:
A very enjoyable interview. And congrats on the new association.
Doug S says:
Excellent interview Heartland. I'm a huge wattsupwiththat, Anthony Watts and Heartland fan. My recommendation for your Heartland audio equipment, your Heartland audio expertise, your Heartland audio engineering support be the very best you can afford.
For a pod cast like this, audio fidelity and audio "quality" is Paramount. You have the premium content and the thought leadership. Delivery quality is the last step and experienced audio people will be invaluable.