I was shocked and saddened to read this, I’m passing it on without comment because I can’t write about this at this moment. See update below.
Joe Bast writes:
It is with deep regret that I report the passing of a friend, colleague, and great scholar, Dr. Robert M. Carter. Bob died peacefully in a hospital surrounded by family and friends following a heart attack a few days ago. He was 74 years old.
Funeral arrangements are being made and it will most likely take place on Monday next week in Townsville, Australia.
This is almost unspeakably sad. Bob was the very embodiment of the “happy warrior” in the global warming debate. He was a scholar’s scholar, with impeccable credentials (including a Ph.D. from Cambridge), careful attention to detail, and a deep understanding of and commitment to the scientific method. He endured the slings and arrows of the anti-science Left with seeming ease and good humor and often warned against resorting to similar tactics to answer them.
Bob never failed to answer the call to defend climate science, getting on planes to make the long flight from Australia to the U.S., to Paris, and to other lands without complaints or excuses. He was a wonderful public speaker and a charming traveling mate. He was not an easy man to edit, though – he kept wanting to put unnecessary commas, “that’s,” and boldfacing back into his manuscripts – but the great ones never are.
Bob helped immeasurably with three volumes in the Climate Change Reconsidered series, a series of hefty compilations of scientific research he coauthored and coedited with Craig D. Idso and S. Fred Singer. Just a few weeks ago, he flew to Paris to speak at Heartland’s “Day of Examining the Data” and contributed to the completion and review of another book, Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming: The NIPCC Report on Scientific Consensus.
We honored Bob with a “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the 10th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC-10) in Washington DC last June. I regret that I missed that event due to the sudden onset of shingles, and so missed the opportunity to see my friend as well as publicly recognize his great achievements in science.
Please remember Bob and his wonderful wife, Anne, in your thoughts and prayers.
More here: http://blog.heartland.org/2016/01/dr-robert-m-carter-r-i-p/
Added:
Jo Nova has a far better tribute than I could ever write: http://joannenova.com.au/2016/01/bob-carter-a-great-man-gone-far-too-soon/
UPDATE: I have gathered my thoughts.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ― Isaac Asimov
Wow this is a great shock and disappointment.
What I would say has been said many times already…
Legends live on!
A wonderfully open and accessible person.
I’m sure that when the great question gets asked by future generations, ‘What did you do in the great CAGW debate Granddad?’ he will be seen as one of true scientists.
Very sad to hear this news. You don’t often find individuals with the fortitude to stand against the crowd when their point of view contradicts the popular meme. Bob Carter was one such individual and he inspired many of us to hold our ground against the bullying majority when it is what we truly believe.
One of the best. He will not be forgotten.
So sad. I just read this. It was an article by Bob , over ten years ago, that got me interested and led the way down the path of skeptical climate analysis. I’ve watched almost all of his videos. I wish his passing was as much marked and drew the awareness that David Bowie and Glen Fry garnered. Funny how the public has such a skewed perspective . He always appeared to me to be a calm, lucid, knowledgable and a kind man. He left behind a lot of changed minds – a nobel legacy for anyone to aspire to.
My heart weeps for the loss of this great New Zealander. I pass my condolences on to Bob’s gracious wife, Anne and whanau.
We were blessed to have Bob stay at our place when he had a speaking engagement in the Manawatu. Bob was a gentleman with a wicked sense of humour and despite his great intellect and knowledge, he had the ability to talk to an ordinary person as a friend.
A few months after Bob’s stay he was back in N.Z. and phone to ask if he could call in with his wife Anne. I made a batch of date scones, put the jug on and shared a lovely afternoon tea with Bob and Anne.
Bob you will always be remembered by us and in our prayers. R.I.P.
Bob was a scholar and a gentleman. In true Aussie fashion we are going to claim him as our own 🙂
Rosie Adams on January 19, 2016 at 4:15 pm
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Rosie Adams,
Thank you for the new word for family; ‘whanau’.
John
My tribute to Bob Carter: https://passthetorchblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/20/vale-bob-carter/
RIP Prof Bob Carter. Thank you for everything you did. Annie.
My condolences to his family and friends.
The battle to correct that bad science behind the climate change frenzy will, I fear, outlive us all.
I had the pleasure to meet Dr Robert Carter socially for a few moments at the Heartland Institute’s ICCC7 in Chicago in May 2012.
In his spoken words (talks and videos) and in his written words he was a calming civil presence, much like Richard Lindzen comes across. I respect that.
My thoughts go out to the many people he touched both intellectually and personally.
John
When I first started to get skeptical of the global warming scam a few years ago, one of the first videos I found was of a talk Bob Carter gave. I was struck then by the man’s intelligence and obvious grounding in science. That video made sense to me and Bob’s commitment to data and verification by observation left me in no doubt that what he was saying was valid. After that I always looked for anything he posted and he continued to talk sense despite all the lunacy tossed up from the Alarmist side. Although I never met him in person, I just want to say “Thank you Bob”.
Rest in peace, Bob Carter. My condolences to the family.
R.I.P. Dr. Bob Carter, a great geologist and much more. A great loss to the geoscience community.
I was at Bob and Anthony’s presentation in Brisbane when that odious local alarmist interrupted them both, heckled, spouted out lies, etc. Bob and Anthony both demonstrated the greatest degree of politeness and fairness to this oaf, even allowing him the microphone to say his bit (which they then demolished with absurd ease). Bob was so kind and fair, even to a flat-out hate-filled enemy! Quite apart from his expertise and mastery of his subject, his honesty and his human qualities set him apart from most of us. I think we can be assured that he has God’s blessings.
That “oaf” was reef science guy Ove Hoegh-Guldberg.
http://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/839
Bob did a fantastic job of handling his vitriol.
I tend to forget his name – it brings his unpleasantness too much to the front of my mind. I was sitting there, in my mind saying to myself “Tell him where to get off, Bob!” But Bob (and you Anthony) were wiser than I was, and you both kept your cool. In the end the facts were so clear no one in the audience had any doubts at all where the truth lay.
Reef non-science Guy please.
He was part of the ENCORE program testing the proposal that reefs in Australia were affected by nutrient run-off from evil human activities like farming. At many multiples of any possible fertilizer concentration the reefs like an Aussie garden loved the nutrient. Needless to say the whole thing was buried in a less distinquished journal and the attacks on and regulation of farmers intensified. Not a peep from the ‘Oaf’.
A pin prick to the giant shadow of Bob Carter.
Reblogged this on Public Secrets and commented:
This is indeed sad news. Carter wrote a marvelous book poking holes in the global warming “thesis” –Climate: the counter consensus– and was a stalwart on the side of climate realism and genuine science. May he rest in peace.
Ah, our mate Bob. I read all the tributes here, so many has he impacted on in such a positive way. There is nothing I can write that has not been written as to how highly regarded Bob is, and was.
The thought now that comes back to mind, is that together, we all need to keep his work alive – keep pushing forward when the opportunity arises to quote the hard working Bob Carter, and to stay the course of scientifically based evidence.
Collectively “our” tribute to Bob and the sacrifices his family made and have endured, can be to push forward – Bob would love that, I am sure, to continue on the path way of science well founded.
As for his wicked sense of humour, his genuine mate ship and unwavering loyalty to those he called friend, how fortunate “we” have all been.
For me, I’ll just miss picking up the phone and saying “G’Day Mate” …so now, its ” I’ll be seeing you after mate, rest well.”
My condolences to the Carter Family. Sad news indeed. Bob was a great man and he will be missed.
As a layman had the pleasure/privilege of corresponding with Bob some years ago. An enormous loss to science. Condolences to his familly
Dr. Robert Carter; Bob was a great teacher as he was able to take complex scientific data, and present them in such way, that they became obvious, and understandable to the man in the street. He spoke in ordinary language that anyone could follow, and he made the complex simple. Skeptics have lost an amazing asset. I have never had the pleasure to meet him in person, but have watched his videos many times, and the honesty, and passion he had for science was there for all to see. He never fought ignorance with aggression, but with friendly humour, and carefully explained data. He will be missed by hundreds of thousands of people like me; people that he never even knew. This is his greatest legacy, that he has had such a great effect on so many people right across the world, for his championship of scientific truth, and reason. Rest in peace Bob, I will miss you.
I too had a tear in my eye as I read the terrible news. Best wishes to his family and thank you Bob.
Reblogged this on Climatism and commented:
Shattered. What a great man who stood up for science and the scientific method. An understanding of how science is supposed to work which fostered his belief that CAGW is the greatest scam on earth.
Your work will live in many. And you have touched many more.
Condolences to family and friends and to the scientific community as a whole.
A great loss.
R.I.P. Bob Carter
I never met Bob Carter (sad to say), but I read his “Counter Consensus”, some of his papers, and watched several of his video presentations. He was clearly a gifted communicator and absolute champion of the scientific method, multiple-working hypotheses, and data-based assessments. By all the comments above, he was also a gentle man, and a gentleman with a sense of humor.
I would never compare my career in geology with that of Dr. Bob, but I know we would have shared a lot of common experiences that go hand-in-glove with the practice of field geology.
Good field geologists learn humility early on because the geologic record is inherently incomplete. Strata that appear to represent continuous deposition are rife with time-gaps, and fossils are poorly and incompletely preserved and likely non-representative of living faunal assemblages. As a paleontologist and stratigrapher, these data limitations were constantly part of Bob Carter’s analytical process in trying to explain the history of a pile of rocks. His work also involved interpretations of paleo-environmental conditions – from which I’m sure he developed an appreciation of the major environmental variations that impacted living organisms and drove evolution and extinctions. By contrast, climatic variations of the last few hundred years are clearly trivial.
The geologic record can be interpreted in many ways, but the observable facts cannot be denied. Smart people, guided by experience with many geologic situations, will devise the most credible interpretations of those facts. They will be able to explain their interpretations with conviction to diverse audiences because they have considered all the alternative interpretations and dismissed them for cause. I think Bob’s record shows he had that kind of mental acuity, and that’s why his presentations were so effective.
All of science should feel a significant loss with the untimely passing of Dr. Bob Carter. His life represents the best of the scientific method, well applied to significant questions of earth history. Let’s hope his accomplishments inspire future generations of inquisitive, rational, humble scientists.
R.I.P. Bob Carter – a true gentleman of science.
I will miss his cool candor and his solidarity. Bob was one of the reviewers assigned to my Hubert Lamb piece for GWPF. His comments were the most generous and most thoughtful of all the reviews. He often suggested the subtlest changes that made all the difference.
Thankyou for all, Bob Carter, you will be missed!!! Truly sad.