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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A great loss for the scientific community. May Dr. Patrick Michaels rest in peace.
Pat Michaels was also sitting next to Jim Hansen during Hansen’s June 1988 testimony before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Pat looks young and incredulous as he stares over at Hansen, probably stunned at hearing Hansen make claims in that serious venue that he could not possibly substantiate.
Did Pat ever relate the story of what he was thinking at the time? It would be great to know.
That’s not Pat Michaels, that’s Hansen’s sponsor. Senator Timothy Wirth (D) Colorado.
Here’s Timothy Wirth in June 1988. A different guy.
That’s Jerry Mahlman, longtime director of GFDL, in the photo. His testimony was similar to Hansen’s.
You’re right, John, thanks. My mistake. Hansen identified Mahlman in the Chapter 29 draft (pdf) of his memoirs.
He looks to me a bit like Pat Michaels there, though. 🙂
Sad to hear this. Condolences to his family, his friends, and to those for whom integrity in science and public discourse is important.
Sorry to hear this.
Do, if you get the chance, point out to his family that few among ‘us’ ever get a headline on
WUWT. A global obituary says a lot about his life. Something his close family and friends should be very proud of.
This is indeed terrible news. Pat Michaels was a true and honest champion of ethical science and an articulate spokesperson to policy makers and the general public. He will, indeed, be missed.
Idiot
Class act Mustang!
People acknowledging the accomplishments of a great man and sharing our bereavement/loss
and your contribution is to call us retarded.
Hate is the most destructive emotion of all and it’s biggest detrimental impact is on the hater.
sad news we lose another person with the authority to get people to listen and read alt opinions
amazing legacy and will see if I can order books at the library
Pat Michaels was my friend for 20+ years. I am devastated. He was a very good man.
So long Pat. Great job!
This morning I opened wattsup, again saw this sad announcement, and experienced the same “gut-punch” as yesterday. I recall contacting Pat to offer support when he was sacked from U of Virginia through the efforts of true scoundrels. Although wounded, he was as usual quite positive and had landed a better job – there was nothing more to do.
Pat Michaels was highly intelligent, a strong, positive personality who accomplished much in his life – a life that should be celebrated. A good man and a great man – a life well-lived.
Sad news indeed. My condolences to you for losing a good friend.
A great loss. RIP.
I’ll add that, in addition to the presentations liked by Anthony, you can honour Pat Michaels by watching pretty much any link you can find for him on the internet. He hits the nail on the head time after time after time.
Science advances one funeral at a time. (Max Planck)
In this case science regresses, not advances.
Science never regresses
Climate “Science” is certainly regressing, back to Witchcraft and Fairy Stories.
Whether it does or not this was a graceless moment for you to make that claim.
A very sad loss.
A great person who will, one day, be recognized as such.
Saddening. 🙁 He was the guy that first made me aware of the heavily-financed and corrupt climate change industry when he was VA State Climatologist at Uni of VA back in the early-mid 1980s. He wasn’t afraid to comment on & contest it with his publications like the quarterly Virginia Climate Advisory. Because of that he was harrassed & had to eventually leave the University. One of the first rebels against faux climate change along w/John Daly.
Here are 47 of Pat’s videos arranged by length. Much fun.
http://ccdedu.blogspot.com/2019/05/videos-by-patrick-michaels.html
Wow, David!
I feel bad for not truly appreciating this great man until after his death.
I’ll pass those videos on.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1455.Ernest_Hemingway
Thanks again David,
I’ve been enjoying some of those videos and it just makes one truly appreciate what a gift Dr. Michaels was for debunking junk climate science and inserting reality/truth in its place!
This one is my favorite as he destroys Bill Nye the (fake) science guy by effectively communicating with intellectually profound and easy to understand reasoning.
Dr. Patrick’s mind was always jammed packed with many thousands of polished responses/statements that quickly (and respectfully) came out of his mouth at all the right times to nail the bullseye in addressing the most important part of EVERY SINGLE DISCUSSION.
I was chief meteorologist for 11 years at WEHT-TV Evansville, IN and on my very best day couldn’t be as skilled at communicating as Dr. Michaels was when he was having his worst day!
Actually………..it appears as if there is no evidence of him ever having what most of us would consider having a bad day!
Patrick J. Michaels discusses Climategate on CNN vs Bill Nye
Dec 8, 2009 12-7-09
Many have commented on Dr. Michaels’ role as a public person. I’ll go the more private empathy path.
This death creates a void that is impossible to fill. I use the word “void” because that is the reality that entered my life in March 2021 when my wife, Nancy, died suddenly. We met in 1965, she and I both being older than Dr. Michaels.
His family and friends will go to sleep and wake thinking of the void that cannot be filled. There will be immediate needs and legal aspects that might not have been thought of or planned for. Let me give just two examples, and then you can try to imagine all the others that daily or weekly will continue to sustain that void.
Credit cards: the secondary cardholders will need to apply for their own because the primary card will be canceled, and any auto-pays from the primary card will have to be transferred. The balance will be due, more or less immediately. Even during grief, these things cannot be delayed. A second thing: Did the deceased have keys to a room or building that need to be returned? Where are they?
Each thing, and there are many, must be dealt with by family and friends.
I wish for peace and comfort to all that face this passing.
John H.
Still praying for you, dear Mr. Hultquist. 😞
Very good estate planning advice.
Thanks for sharing John,
There are 2 ways to look at this. Would you be better off:
Doesn’t make it less tougher and easy for others to say………..but it’s true!
On June 1st, my wife lost her beloved 87 year old mom, that she spoke with every evening for an hour. She is still devastated and when I try to help her…….it makes worse.
She does NOT want to be talked out of mourning! It took her 6 months to get over her Dad in 2002.
We bought them a house and she was the best daughter and made them both so proud with her accomplishments. But she felt that she could have somehow done more.
People experience bereavement differently. We should always try to respect that.
I hope that things will only get easier for you with time, John, even if Father Time isn’t leaving you with much of that in your life.
That is so sad and a terrible day for us realists
And this comment has nothing to with this notice of Dr. Patrick Michaels death.
Try again on an “Open Thread”.
In the meantime, If the MODS need permission from a reader to delete this way out of context comment, feel free to do so.
(You can delete mine as well if you want to completely the erase the out of context disrespect completely.)
Don’t see any disrespect in noting that we have lost more than just a competent professional. We have lost a fellow human whose value extends way beyond his job and touches many other people in both emotional and practical ways. I will be driving through Ellensburg tomorrow, dios mediante, on my way from Spokane to Bremerton. Dr. Michaels and John and Nancy Hultquist will
allbe on my mind and in my prayers.Understand but I was replying to a jerk’s comment which has since been deleted.
This thread is no place for what they said.
Prayers for his family and his friends.
Patrick is hugely missed by his friends in the Irish Climate Science Forum – he gave us a brilliant lecture in Dublin in November 2018 on “The Lukewarm Alternative to the IPCC” – our sincerest sympathies to his family and friends, Jim O’Brien, Chair ICSF, http://www.ICSF.ie.
Wow, what an impressive list of speakers!
https://www.icsf.ie/lecture-series
But I see that the lectures prior to Autumn 2020 (including Pat’s) have no videos linked. Do you have video recordings of them?
Hi Dave, thanks for your compliments! No, in the pre-Zoom pre-COVID days they were in-person lectures, whithout video recordings. I might have the slides if you kindly send me your email addrees. Jim.
Thank you, Jim. My contact info is here:
https://sealevel.info/contact.html
I hope you’ll continue to make video recordings of these talks, even post-COVID. That’s really a marvelous resource you’ve compiled!
If you have slides and audio recordings of the earlier talks, it is possible to combine them into usable videos, but it is a tedious process. That’s what I did to make this video of Prof. Happer’s 2014 UNC Physics Colloquium:
https://www.sealevel.info/Happer_UNC_2014-09-08/
My sincerest heartfelt condolences, Anthony. Another warrior lost . . .
A real loss to the field of climate studies. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Michaels once, and he was a wonderful, humble and kind man, quite willing to talk to nobodies like me as if we mattered.
“Humble” and “kind”, adjectives which I have never heard applied to Professor Michael Mann.
(I’m only making one point of comparison.)
When Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the church door, he wasn’t doing anything unusual.
Notices and such were commonly nailed to church doors. They were a bulletin board of sorts.
He posted an invitation to debate any or all of the 95. He wasn’t out to start “The Reformation”. He just wanted an open debate.
Doctor Michaels, along with many others, just wanted an open debate.
An open debate should not have upset the CliScientist so much.
I would appreciate if anyone could discuss his termination from state climatologist of Virginia and departure from Univ of Virginia. This was a disgraceful, highly political hatchet job. I would like to hear what people know/remember. How did it happen? Who was governor? What was Michael Mann’s role? etc.
Thanks.
Also, Dr. Michaels personally told me that he drove a Prius because he thought none of the wackos would blow it up. Yes, he was severely threatened.
RIP
I am very saddened to hear of Pat Michaels’ passing.
I first met Pat in the early 1990s, when he was with the University of Virginia, and the State of Virginia’s Climatologist. He resigned from the latter position because, apparently, the State Governor’s office could not abide a State Climatologist who, while acknowledging there would be some warming, publicly doubted that its consequences would be particularly disruptive. So he was advised that he should not use his title while discussing global warming in public.
It is a testament to his scientific integrity that he resigned rather than modified his views.
I was honored and gratified to have been asked by Pat to contribute the chapter on the effect of global warming on the economic development in developing countries in Climate Coup, a book he edited around 2010.
I, and more importantly, climate science will miss Pat and his skeptical approach to the various claims about global warming, mainly based on models which have neither been verified nor validated which, moreover, are not evident in empirical record unless one restricts the temporal and geographical extent of the area under consideration.
RIP Pat.