Mark’s Soap Box

Censorship is on the rise. As usual it’s coming from the left. They hate people who speak out against their Dogma, and they attack when you don’t bow down at the alter of “global warming”. Their target now is the founder of Hurricane prediction, Dr William Gray.

Loons attack Hurricane Pioneer.

By pioneering the science of seasonal hurricane forecasting and teaching 70 graduate students who now populate the National Hurricane Center and other research outposts, William Gray turned a city far from the stormy seas into a hurricane research mecca.

But now the institution in Fort Collins, Colo., where he has worked for nearly half a century, has told Gray it may end its support of his seasonal forecasting.

Other than Dr Gray, can anyone think of anything at CSU worth talking about? I can’t.

As he enters his 25th year of predicting hurricane season activity, Colorado State University officials say handling media inquiries related to Gray’s forecasting requires too much time and detracts from efforts to promote other professors’ work.

What other work? Who the hell is at CSU that anyone would care about?

But a memo he wrote last year, after CSU officials informed him that media relations would no longer promote his forecasts after 2008, reveals his views:

“This is obviously a flimsy excuse and seems to me to be a cover for the Department’s capitulation to the desires of some (in their own interest) who want to reign (sic) in my global warming and global warming-hurricane criticisms,” Gray wrote to Dick Johnson, head of CSU’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, and others.

It’s typical of the schools in the US these days, they all worship liberalism, and will not brook dissent from their orthodoxy.

The dean of the College of Engineering, which oversees atmospheric sciences, said she spoke with Gray about terminating media support for his forecasts solely because of the strain it placed on the college’s sole media staffer.

“It really has nothing to do with his stand on global warming,” said the dean, Sandra Woods. “He’s a great faculty member. He’s an institution at CSU.”

Yes, and you just made him a Martyr. Dimwits.

According to Woods, Gray’s forecasts require about 10 percent of the time a media support staff member, Emily Wilmsen, has available for the College of Engineering and its 104 faculty members.

A professor of public relations at Boston University, Donald Wright, questioned why the university would want to pull back its support for Gray now, after he has published his forecasts for a quarter-century.

“It’s seems peculiar that this is happening now,” Wright said. “Given the national reputation that these reports have, you would think the university would want to continue to promote these forecasts.”

So his forecasts take up 10% of your time, and he is 100% of your visibility. Hmm do the math. Have you heard of “automation”? This really cool thing called the internet could help you out.

There also seems to be little question that prominent climate scientists have complained to CSU about Gray’s vocal skepticism. The head of CSU’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Dick Johnson, said he has received many comments during recent years about Gray — some supportive, and some not.

The complaints have come as Gray became increasingly involved in the global warming debate. His comments toward adversaries often are biting and adversarial.

I thought College was where “free speech” was fostered? I thought an “open mind” was a requirement to work at a College? Guess not.

I find it ironic that many of his detractors complain he has moved away from Science, when they moved first.

In 2005, when Georgia Tech scientist Peter Webster co-authored a paper suggesting global warming had caused a spike in major hurricanes, Gray labeled him and others “medicine men” who were misleading the public.

Webster, in an e-mail from Bangladesh, where is working on a flood prediction project, acknowledged that he complained to Johnson at CSU.

“My only conversation with Dick Johnson, which followed a rather nasty series of jabs from Gray, suggested that Bill should be persuaded to lay off the personal and stay scientific,” Webster wrote.

Gray also has been highly critical of a former student, Greg Holland, who is among the most visible U.S. scientists arguing about the dangers posed by global warming.

Gray’s comments about Holland include referring to him as a member of a “Gang of Five” that is interested in using scare tactics to increase research funding.

The comment was a reference to the Gang of Four, which terrorized China in the 1960s and ’70s while purging the Communist Party of moderates and intellectuals.

“I have registered concern in several quarters, including CSU, on the manner in which he has moved away from scientific debate and into personal attacks on the integrity and motives of myself and my colleagues,” Holland said.

In other words, how dare you challenge the orthodoxy of liberalism that is “Global Warming”.

You can see this years predictions here: Experts predict ‘very active’ season for Hurricanes.

Previously on the Island

• John Coleman Rocks - tells off ‘global warming’ alarmists
• Weather Channel to go “Normal”?
• Global Warming is a scam
• Village Idiot gets Nobel Prize
• More posts here

Tags: global warming, john coleman, william gray, hurricane, nws, national weather service, hurricane prediction, colorado state university, CSU