Non-Expert Scientists as Witnesses

3. In this post I turn to disinformation regarding Global Warming/Climate Change that is presented by, or cited in the name of, scientists who have earned the respect of their peers, but in fields that have no connection to the issues relevant to Global Warming.

One of the more scientifically informed global warming skeptics was Reid Bryson of the University of Wisconsin. His credentials are impressive. 

In 1948, he became the founding chairman of the Department of Meteorology, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which has since become one of the largest and one of the most prestigious meteorology departments in the nation.

Over his long career as scientist and teacher, Reid Bryson significantly advanced the understanding of climate, people, and the environment. He wrote more than 273 articles and eight books ranging over the fields of geology, limnology, meteorology, climatology, archeology, and geography. 

He has not published anything in the past 20 years that represents peer reviewed research on the extent of global warming, or its causes.

Writing in That Was The Week That Was (January 8, 2005) Bryson stated:

That [referring to the fact that the warming of the past century was man-made in origin, and due to carbon dioxide emission] is a theory for which there is no credible proof. 

This is simply not true. There is an abundance of credible, peer-reviewed proof, as previous posts have shown.

Bryson continues:

There are a number of causes of climatic change.

This is true. However, when Bryson goes on to write

and until all causes other than carbon dioxide increase are ruled out, we cannot attribute the change to carbon dioxide alone.

this is flat-out bogus reasoning, because no one is claiming that carbon dioxide "alone" is responsible.  The question is whether carbon dioxide is contributing to global warming in a major way.

This is a short post. There are other examples along these lines, but I want to turn instead to the most egregious cases of Climate Change denial, cases that can be shown to be deliberate campaigns of disinformation.