WUWT Readers may remember this essay: Now THIS is interesting: Pielke on Dr. Joanne Simpson in which she said:
No one seems to have properly factored in population growth and land use, particularly in tropical and coastal areas.
…
But as a scientist I remain skeptical. I decided to keep quiet in this controversy until I had a positive contribution to make.
From Roger Pielke Sr.
It is with sadness that I report on the passing of Joanne Simpson. Joanne is a giant in the science of weather and climate.
I wrote of my perspective of her legacy in the article
Pielke Sr., R.A., 2003: Joanne Simpson — An ideal model of mentorship. AMS Meteorological Monographs, Vol. 29, No. 15, 17-24.
and
Tao, W.-K., J. Halverson, M. LeMone, R. Adler, M. Garstang, R. Houze Jr., R.A. Pielke Sr., and W. Woodley, 2003: The research of Dr. Joanne Simpson: Fifty years investigating hurricanes, tropical clouds and cloud systems. AMS Meteorological Monographs, Vol. 29, No. 15, 1-15.
Her achievements have been many. These include not only her scientific expertise and contributions, but also the model of mentorship which she promoted. She insulated and protected her staff and students from the conflicts of higher management, and dealt with such bureaucratic activities herself. She was a tireless fighter for her students and staff. This permitted an optimal environment for professional growth.
In my Pielke 2003 article, with respect to her research contributions, I wrote
“The richness of Joanne Simpson’s research accomplishments are best appreciated by tracking our current knowledge of the atmosphere to where these concepts were first discussed in the peer-reviewed literature. Her breadth of contribution is impressive and ranges from the cumulus cloud to global scale. Early in her career, she recognized the critical role of cumulus clouds in the earth’s atmosphere, and now she continues to build on her innovative and broad expertise in such programs as the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM; Kummerow et al. 1998) and the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE; Halverson et al. 1999). When one uncovers the origin of many of our most basic concepts in atmospheric science, it is quite impressive how much of this knowledge is founded in her original work!”
She will be missed. The world is better because she lived among us.
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The real tragedy of the misbehavior of pseudo-scientists, such as Jones, Hansen or Mann, is that real scientists, such as Dr. Simpson trusted them. She trusted them to accurately and comprehensively collect all relevant data. She trusted them to accurately process the data. She trusted them to build models that followed the data. She trusted them to develop those models based on verifiable causal relationships.
They betrayed the trust.
(As an aside, Phil, based on what has been revealed so far from “Climategate,” I will assert that I know more about data collection and reduction, and modeling and simulation, than Jones, Mann, Hansen,, et. al. And considerably more about scientific integrity.)
Re Turboblocke (03:30:00) : …
“I support Phil Clarke’s point that her quote has been often used incorrectly to support doing nothing about AGW, whereas she definitely supported taking action.”
How can you state this without stating this part of what she said ” …if… the climate models are right… The climate models do not match the observations. The disaster senarios are not happening. James Hansen was not correct.
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face…
– WB Yeats
The computer models show CO2 increases warming because that is what the models are programmed to do.
The only way the formidable pair could be separated.
My thoughts are with her equally stratospheric husband Robert, her children, David, Steven and Karen and their children.
Yesterday we all lost.
Well, thanks for the feedback, everyone (I await smokey’s answer to my question). I think it is worth repeating, as her words were so ruthlessly suppressed so many times that Dr Simpson, described above as ‘ a giant in the science of weather and climate.’ was of this opinion..
… we must act on the recommendations of Gore and the IPCC because if we do not reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and the climate models are right, the planet as we know it will in this century become unsustainable.
It is fitting that WUWT honours the memory of this remarkable lady and it behoves us all to reflect on these wise words.
Lucy Skywalker – on the theme of misquotation, may I politely draw to your attention that your Greenworld Trust page on climate science has this Sir John Houghton, first co-chair of the IPCC, said, “Unless we announce disasters no one will listen”
As it is now several weeks since it emerged that Sir John said no such thing, in order not to mislead visitors to the site, (not to mention libelling Sir John), can I suggest you remove this falsehood?
cheers,
Phil.
John W: (As an aside, Phil, based on what has been revealed so far from “Climategate,” I will assert that I know more about data collection and reduction, and modeling and simulation, than Jones, Mann, Hansen,, et. al. And considerably more about scientific integrity.)
Please be more specific, John. Exactly which study or studies, papers or theses have had to be retracted or revised as a result of the selective and illicit publication of private correspondence on the internet?
I count zero, but clearly you know better. I invite you to expand upon your assertion …
Also, you mention Dr Hansen in connection with ‘climategate’ . In which mail is he mentioned or implicated?
Good Job!
Would it be possible to show what the curve looks like for small populations in the 2 to 200 range?
The other interesting item would be how far the UHI effect goes from very low populations. There also must be a significant effect depending on whether or not artificial heating or cooling is occurring in the houses.
Dave w