I’m sorry to inform the climate realist community of the passing of friend and colleague, Dr. Patrick Michaels. I worked on several projects with Pat, and I was always impressed with his depth of knowledge, quick wit, and character. For example, he often wore green tennis shoes to climate conferences because he said the oddity would engage people in conversations he might not have had otherwise.
He once said to me that his only regret was hiring/promoting Michael Mann while he was at the University of Virginia.
From Greg Wrightstone by email:
Patrick Michaels obtained an A.B. in biological science in 1971 and an M.S. in biology in 1975 from the University of Chicago, and in 1979 he obtained his Ph.D. in ecological climatology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His doctoral thesis was titled Atmospheric anomalies and crop yields in North America.
Patrick J. Michaels was a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists and was program chair for the Committee on Applied Climatology of the American Meteorological Society. He was a research professor of Environmental Sciences at University of Virginia for 30 years. Michaels was a contributing author and is a reviewer of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
His writing was been published in the major scientific journals, including Climate Research, Climatic Change, Geophysical Research Letters, Journal of Climate, Nature, and Science, as well as in popular serials worldwide. He was the author or editor of Nine books on climate and its impact, and he was an author of the climate “paper of the year” awarded by the Association of American Geographers in 2004. He appeared on most of the worldwide major media.
Dr. Michaels was Senior Fellow at the CO2 Coalition and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
He remained very active up to his last days. He had just completed his review and comments on the USGCR decadal plan and filed them on Thursday. He and I met just Thursday to discuss his next venture looking at regional assessments of changing climate/CO2 on the Midwest.
He leaves a legacy of sound science and dedication to the scientific process. He will be missed terribly.
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RIP indeed.
Do you also go by “Maverik”?
That comment was NOT a reply to Javier but to another despicable reply to Javier which has since been deleted.
1950–1922?
fixed. I was a bit overwhelmed writing this.
My condolences for your loss, Anthony.
Condolences all round are in order I believe.
Understandably.
Science goes backwards one death at a time.
How true, tragedy is that there are very few science lion cubs there in the academia jungle, even those few are pursued to extinction by unscrupulous predators.
Only yesterday I was discussing with a friend German engineer, consultant to companies like Mercedes and Volkswagen, many aspects of current dominant politics and science. He was at edge of despair what is happening not only in his country but in other bastions of western science, technology and industry.
We sadly agreed that only hope is that Chinese might teach us an expensive but well deserved lesson.
I make that comment about the Chinese “teaching us a lesson” myself. But on reflection I realize it won’t be a useful lesson. There will be no going back to whatever we give up; it will be gone for good.
As my father would say ‘Another Old Tree in the Forest has been cut down’.
Dang!
His legacy lives on.
The loss of Dr. Michaels is comparable to the loss of Freeman Dyson— two honest, competent men of science who spoke their truth regardless of consequences.
And Richard Feynman.
Not so much their truth as the real objective truth.
“…two honest, competent men of science who spoke
theirtruth.”A kindly intended thought, no doubt, but no one gets their own truth. A private truth is practically a definition of nonsense. I despise the phrase.
Very sorry to hear this.
I never meet Dr. Michaels but respected him greatly. As an esteemed Climate Scientist he was among the elite for his knowledge, integrity and contribution to its understanding. To say he will be sorely missed would be an understatement!
I am very sorry for your loss Anthony.
A sad day and loss for the relist community.
Sorry to learn of this. He was my age. That really hits home.
I read some of his work early on in my own climate learning curve. Always clear and persuasive.
Yes, 72 is just too young. The stress of being harrassed for so long might be a contributing factor.
He was in my dorm in college. Very affable, fun, and super intelligent.
He had no reason to feel guilty about hiring Mann. He couldn’t have logically discerned that a bright young student like Mann would turn scientific scoundrel for promise of endless government cash. Somewhere down the road I believe Mann will experience “Trofim Lysenko syndrome”, if you will.
Can’t be totally responsible for your students, but can do a lot if you don’t care who gets the credit and the credit is not the goal. 72 used to be old, still sad to lose the best.
Some exceptional (early, at least) scientists around that seemed smarter than many of us, but still not enough to prevent being corrupted. Recently ran across this interesting book on the last century of oceanography (Understanding the Ocean) with a comment about an exceptional oceanographer. “I suspect that Sverdrup would find some features of recent science distasteful.”
Smart and wise are two distinctively different qualities if you ask me. Intelligence that is not guided and tempered by wisdom makes one an un-guided missile throughout life. Unwise choices in one’s research necessitate further imprudent actions, like suing people who point out your scientific improprieties and being soundly defeated by justice (and karma).
Oh, no. Very sorry to hear this.
Sorry for your loss Anthony.
RIP. God Bless.
My sincere condolences. He will always be remembered.
So sorry for your loss Anthony and the loss to the world of a powerful force speaking authentic climate science.
Here’s to you Dr. Michaels!
Pat Michaels Receives the Courage in Defense of Science Award at ICCC13https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_AOv4fbCe0
The 10 Most-Respected Global Warming Skepticshttps://www.businessinsider.com/the-ten-most-important-climate-change-skeptics-2009-7
https://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=3893
Must not have separated the links properly……….sorry about that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_AOv4fbCe0
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-ten-most-important-climate-change-skeptics-2009-7
Youtube videos don’t turn into control windows if there is any text after the link.
Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Thanks Janice.
: )
Our thoughts are with you Anthony, from the U.K. Thanks also to Greg Wrightstone for timely bio and list of Dr Michael’s achievements – from someone who saw him recently, this counts particularly. We are losing scientists of honesty and integrity.
Pat Michaels’ books were my introduction to scientific skepticism of AGW. He was possibly the best scientific communicator in the field
A giant dies. I worked with (and for) Pat while he was at CATO. Always fun. When you are sitting there petting his cat and drinking his fine beer you do not think about how great he is, but he truly was. He was often the loud voice of skepticism, but always with the science in clear view.
None better.
So when did Pat die and how? And services, his wife, daughter, rest of family, etc. Not much info here except that he was alive on Thursday.
Wasn’t Pat Michaels the guy who politely asked Phil Jones of the lamentable University of East Anglia for his raw data on global temperatures. Jones the traitor to science rebuffed him “Why should I send you the data when you want to use it to prove me wrong” Thereby providing a neat icon of the dishonesty of the climate establishments cheerleaders
No
That was Australian geologist Warwick Hughes.
Geoff S
That was actually Warwick Hughes. He has it here at his blog within the comments section. It’s under the heading “The famous Jones quote”
A giant has fallen. Nobody did a better job of explaining the climate change issue than Pat did.
I have no doubt that Phil Jones is cheered by this sad news.
https://sealevel.info/FOIA/1075403821.txt
If you’ve ever heard Pat speak, you’ll know why I’m confident that Phil Jones is relieved he’s gone. Here’re a few of Pat’s lectures:
2008:
https://youtu.be/vIuz-jy3v5s?t=495
2009:
https://youtu.be/sICscioj0tE?t=167 (volume is low on this one):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAvXMIJhtlU
2010:
https://youtu.be/yyDxw1B3RrY?t=229
2011:
https://youtu.be/TKgpj5dAGDc?t=89
2012:
https://youtu.be/zn8GLG2LWME?t=243
2014:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpNzwzwm-xU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ7d1_BbAYw
2015:
https://youtu.be/MMczbrbL1eE?t=50
2017:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUT_vha4ukU
2018(?):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnq412qXwzM
2019:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuipwj3dppA
2020:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILiMYQUaz2E
2021:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdNeMf9T_mg
Alastair asked, “Wasn’t Pat Michaels the guy who politely asked Phil Jones of the lamentable University of East Anglia for his raw data on global temperatures.”
That was Warwick Hughes who was told by Phil Jones, “We have 25 years or so invested in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it?”
https://sealevel.info/FOIA/1299.txt
Pat Michaels wrote about it, with his usual eloquence:
https://sealevel.info/The_Dog_Ate_Global_Warming_by_Patrick_J_Michaels_on_National_Review_Online_2009-09-23.html
I am very sad tonight.
Thanks very much Dave!
We all have reason to be sad with the passing of this great man.
I’ll pass these links on to everybody at my forum.
Gifted with an elite level of authentic climate discernment/understanding but the manner in which he communicates it is so clear and convincing above all others.
Saddened that Pat Michaels has died – way too young to go.
Thanks to all who remembered and posted on my 2005 emails with Phil Jones.
Thank you Dave for your excellent post.
Sad news. It’s good that he published a lot of great material that will still carry his message even though he is gone.
That seems a bit young. I was born in 1950. One never knows though when the end will arrive. His voice and wisdom will be greatly missed.
Agree. A great loss to the community.
In the Bible: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”
A tremendous loss, my condolences to his family, friends, and close associates. He will be very much missed. I was privileged to exchange emails with him on a few occasions regarding the false political accusations aimed at him. He was gracious enough on that angle of the AGW issue to contribute a very helpful and somewhat damaging bit regarding one of his accusers to my blog, which also displayed his sense of humor: “Dr. Patrick J. Michaels Guest Comments on his 1995 Encounter with Ross Gelbspan: ‘An Amusing Scene‘“