Oregon State University climate scientist George Taylor may lose his title as State Climatologist. The reason is because he does not believe that human activity is the primary cause of global warming. Governor Ted Kulongoski, a firm believer that humans are causing global warming, intends to strip Taylor of his title and have the state pick his replacement.
“He is Oregon State University’s climatologist. He is not the state of Oregon’s climatologist,” said Kulongoski, as reported by Portland’s KGW Web site.
Taylor has held the position since 1991, when the Oregon legislature created the state climate office at OSU. The state did not create the title; it was the product of the university.
Global warming has become one of the paramount political issues of our generation. It has also become one of the paramount worries – a trendy and fashionable concern that consumes the attention of the press and public the way a Humvee consumes gas. Al Gore’s global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” grossed a little more than $24 million domestically and has been nominated for two Academy Awards. Recently, a collection of scientists released the most damning evidence yet linking global warming to pollution.
But there is still an ongoing debate. Although the vast majority of scientists believe that global warming is human-made, there are still holdouts. Taylor is one of these holdouts. Even the president of the Czech Republic, Vclav Klaus, recently called global warming a “myth.”
In an interview in which Klaus was questioned about global warming and the recent scientific reports indicating that humans are causing the vast majority of it, he said: “These people are politicized scientists who arrive there with a one-sided opinion and a one-sided assignment.” He also questioned Gore’s sanity.
Naturally, politics play a role in the global warming debate, as does money. The report of Taylor losing his job first gained exposure via the popular online compilation of news, The Drudge Report. The Web site, run by Matt Drudge, slants in a conservative direction, so he takes any opportunity at his disposal to create an uproar about “political correctness.”
But this is not an instance of political correctness. Furthermore, Taylor is not losing his job; he is losing his title – a title he probably should not have had in the first place. If Kulongoski does not believe that Taylor’s views correspond to the views of the state, and if Kulongoski believes that Taylor’s title is misleading and inappropriate, he has the right to take it away.
In an article for Newsmax, another online conservative publication, Alabama state climatologist John Christie said: “It seems if scientists don’t express the views of the political establishment, they will be threatened and that is a discomforting thought.” This may or may not be true. In this case, however, it is not. Nonetheless, it seems apparent that there are two vying sides, each with deep pockets and their own set of scientists on the dole – the political establishment and big business. Taylor, for example, is a scientific adviser for a group that receives money from ExxonMobil.
It is unfortunate that the debate over global warming has become so politicized and divisive. But that is how it shall remain. In this instance, as it relates to professor Taylor losing his title, the arguments are misdirected.