Sunday 14 December 2008

Dr. Fred Ward

"Meteorologist Dr. Fred Ward, who earned his PhD in Meteorology from MIT and is a former meteorologist for Boston TV"

The list cites this article Dr. Fred Ward authored:
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Fred+Ward%3A+Don

This is disputing a figure concerning the amount of warming in the New England over the past 30 years. He also mentions global cooling in the 70s, makes an argument against temperature proxies and argues not to use anecdotal weather events when temperature records are available.

However in a subsequent article dated April 2008 he writes:

"These data should not be interpreted to mean the globe, or New England, is not warming, or that we are not influencing the present and future climate. There are solid scientific reasons for expecting that adding CO2 to our atmosphere, by burning fossil fuels, will increase the global temperature."
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Fred+Ward%3a+New+England+winters+have+cooled+in+past+decade&articleId=7e9416bf-55e0-4ecd-8e1b-31a77446700f

So I would have to say his name on the 400 list (and I assume he'll be on the 650 list) is questionable.

There is even a comment by a skeptic on the 2nd article attacking Ward for thinking rising co2 causes warming:

"Fred Ward is wrong about CO2. There is no physical process that would allow CO2 to affect temperature except to the extent that increasing CO2 increases plant growth which reduces solar heating because plants convert solar energy into the energy in the chemical bonds that hold complex carbon molecules together."

BIO info:
Ph.D. in meteorology

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