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
RIP Dr Carter and condolences to his family. But the best and most effective way is to continue his legacy (as many have already done) is to use his works to advance the knowledge he has left us via the net to all the people that still do not get it. (yet).
I believe that is what he wants us to do and to me is the least we can do.
What a loss!
My thoughts with his wife and family.
He was a beacon of light in midst of darkness of ignorance and greed.
I loved watching him, peacefully dismantling every crazy and outrageous idea thrown at him. Answering with patience and ease to every absurd or hilarious questions asked.
Replying with calm and humor to his foaming in the mouths opponents.
A great figure in the debate has gone. Let the remaining stay in his footsteps. They are the true path to knowledge.
We will miss him.
So very very sad!
Bob Carter was painfully aware of the fact that the scientific integrity was being badly undermined by the false claims and predictions of the global warming alarmists. Despite this, he never lost faith in the belief that the public would eventually start questioning these claims and predictions if they were presented with a factual and holistic presentation of the climate data.
Bob was one of the first public speakers to lay out a broader contextual frame-work that allowed him to effectively collect together the many of the skeptical arguments that countered the alarmist’s pessimistic narrative. Blessed with calm and reassuring voice, it didn’t take Bob very long to convince an audience there was viable case in favor of questioning the illogical ramblings of the warming juggernaut.
He will be sorely missed!
Very sad day for science. He was a giant among us and will be missed.
For an amateurish but passionate skeptic and a stickler for the truth, this is a sad day for me. Such a shock, it brought tears to my eyes. Although my connection with him was from afar, he mattered to me. He chose to get into the thick of the fight to represent people like myself who know when they are being taken for ride but haven’t the expertise to be listened to. When this chapter of the human race gets written in the history books, he will be one of the heroes.
This is hard – just learned of Bob Carter’s passing this morning.
A wonderful, honourable and intelligent man.
Condolences to his family.
Best to all, Allan
I had some small email correspondence some yrs back, just casual query
he was polite and informative.
and I ,as do many others here and elsewhere, will seriously miss that wonderful man
my condolences also to his wife and family
deeply missed RIP Bob
How sad to read. Bob was the best. I loved his lectures on youtube. Now, not more insightful lecture in person, either. We shall miss you.
Very sad news. My condolences to his family and friends. May he rest in peace.
I had the pleasure and honor to meet and talk with Bob Carter in Paris last december, at the ‘Day of Examining the Data’ organized by the Heartland Institute. Very kind man. He will be missed.
Mark Steyn has an article that’s well worth reading, see http://www.steynonline.com/7430/a-principled-man-in-a-corrupted-field
I missed this post. Sad news indeed.
Greatly saddened by his loss. It was Bob Carter’s presentations that opened my eyes to AGW. Truth always wins in the end and that was all he wanted – the truth.
I always wanted to attend one of Heartland’s ICCC gatherings to meet Bob Carter and to thank him for all that he has taught me about Climate Science. I have lost track of the number of videos and books authored by this man that I have either viewed or read.
In Bob’s memory we must press ahead, with renewed vigor, to present the truth about how the earth’s climate system functions. I said, “we”, but I really meant to say that those of you who have dedicated your lives to pursue the truth on this issue must now step up the pace. Bob Carter’s legacy can be preserved if you continue this fight. He would have wanted that!!
A huge loss to geology, climatology, and real science.
Back in 2007, I liked to send this around:
/Mr Lynn
Those lectures were some of first things I found after I decided to become an active skeptic. They, and Bob Carter, continue to influence my views.
A man of science
RIP
RIP Bob
In offering my condolences to Mrs Carter and her family, may I thank her for sharing her husband, Bob, with the whole World. This is something very special.
I just read the news (here and on JoNova) and uttered something unprintable aloud.
It’s been oft repeated by others here, but Prof Carter has been something of an inspiration and encouragement, and his patience in the face of the keepers of the cause a shining example; even if from a distance.
I’m dumbfounded to learn of his passing and sorry for the extraordinary loss his family must be feeling all too keenly.
I first saw Bob Carter on an ABC Q&A session shown after a surprising opportunity to watch ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ as inflight entertainment on a QANTAS flight. How he remained calm with Tony Jones kicking off with the question about ‘the obvious flaws in the movie’ and Karoly squawking repetatively like a demented galah when the studio audience were reminded by Prof Carter that the satellite temperature record is more reliable than tortured surface data and showed negligable warming, even back then in 2007.
Sense and reason has lost a champion and humanity has lost a gentleman.
We can’t let his tireless, selfless work go to waste.
Bob Carter’s articles in The Australian newspaper meant a great deal to me. What he said came across to this non-scientist as practical common sense, not just science. I felt I could trust what he said. With the religious green cult followers trying to shut Bob down, his was the still small voice that continued to cut through all the crap – with courtesy and conviction.
May I add my condolences to those already sent to his family.
We are really very saddened by this news. We only met him once or twice but he has become an important part of our understanding of the science. We were deeply impressed by the warmth and strength of his character and his cheerful and patient response to the attacks of the ignorant. We are all a bit poorer without him.
Good riddance. We’re a step closer to coming to our senses on climate change. Let’s just hope more of these unscrupulous energy-industry mouth-pieces die off. Enough with the the purposely sewing confusion using big tobacco’s tactics.
Fed up with the sellouts on January 22, 2016 at 7:41 am
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Fed up with the sellouts,
Your hate is primitive tribal fear at best. Consult your local tribe witch doctor’s prophesies, you might be varying from his approved dogmatic hate.
John