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All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

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The Skeptical Science Team

howardlee

Howard is an author and freelance Earth Science writer. He earned his B.Sc in Geology his M.Sc in Remote Sensing at the University of London, and he is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London (FGS). Howard draws upon years of experience in diverse Earth Science industries (seismic hazard, geothermal exploration, mining and radioactive waste disposal, oil and gas exploration) for his writing. His current book project: "Your Life as Planet Earth," is a fast-paced telling of the twists and setbacks of our planet’s evolution, using the metaphor of a human life to show how the strands of climate, evolution, tectonics and cosmic events tangled through time to drive changes in life and climate.


Anne-Marie Blackburn

Anne-Marie studied modern languages and history in Switzerland before getting a Diploma in Environmental Policy and a BSc in Environmental Biology in the UK. She decided to look into climate science more closely during an enforced sabbatical and now enjoys contributing to Skeptical Science, a website she consulted regularly when debating climate science on various websites.


Kevin C

Kevin is an interdisciplinary computational scientist of 20 years experience, based in the UK, although he has also spent two sabbaticals at San Diego Supercomputer Center. His first degree is in theoretical physics, his doctoral thesis was primarily computational, and he now teaches chemistry undergraduates and biology post-graduates. Most of his reasearch has been focussed on data processing and analysis. He is the author or co-author of a number of highly cited scientific software packages.

His climate investigations are conducted in the limited spare time available to a parent, and are currently focussed in two areas; coverage bias in the instrumental temperature record, and simple response-function climate models. He is also interested in philosophy of science and science communication.


Marc Kodack

Dr. Marc Kodack is a retired U.S. federal government civilian emplyee.
His last position was as the Water Program Manager in the Office of
the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and
Environment. As the Water Program Manager, he assisted with policy,
advocacy, management oversight, technical direction and control of
Army programs for their effect on installation and operational
sustainability, climate adaptation, resource security (water and
energy), and strategic research and development. He assessed emerging
issues affecting the long-term resource sustainability of Army
facilities and operations. Marc has a Ph.D. and masters, both in
Anthropology, from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has
master’s degrees in Government Information Leadership and National
Security Strategy from the National Defense’s University’s College of
Information and Cyberspace and the National War College, respectively.
He has a master’s degree in Anthropology from Northern Arizona
University. He has a bachelor’s in Anthropology from Queens College of
the City University of New York.


Rob Painting

Rob is an environmentalist, scuba diver, spearfisherman, kayaker and former police officer. Has researched climate science, in an amateur capacity, for 4 years. A long-time reader of Skeptical Science and now contributor.


nealjking

Neal J. King has studied physics at the University of California at Berkeley (M.A. Physics), and is now a telecommunications consultant in Europe. My main interest in the climate-change issue - aside from trying to turn the human race from its current over-the-cliff trajectory - is in the scientific aspects. I also volunteer at SkS, mostly on editorial and interpretational aspects.


Evan

Evan and Nancy (wife) live 30 minutes north of Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA). We both grew up in Minnesota, but spent about 2 years in Europe (mostly Germany) and 9 years in Japan (just north of Tokyo). We graduated from the University of Minnesota with Mechanical Engineering degrees. Nancy works as a scientific editor, editing mostly for Japanese clients, and I work as a Chemical Engineering consultant.

My thesis work was modeling particle formation and growth dynamics. The model that I developed was adopted by the US Environmental Protection Agency for modeling particle dynamics in the atmosphere. This is my one tenuous link to climate science, because my professional career developed around modeling the formation and growth of particles in commercial chemical reactors, for making particles used in commercial products.

Nancy and I are committed to reducing our own carbon footprint while working to educate others on the severity of climate change and needed solutions. I have been heavily influenced by Kevin Anderson's professional message and personal example, which among other things recently motivated me to become vegetarian. We are also planning to build an energy-efficient house, and we recently traded in our truck for an electric vehicle. My Climate-Change communication efforts currently involve working with the SkS team to write analogies to clarify the science of Climate Change.


Oriolus Traillii

I (Thomas) was born into a German-British family, raised in Germany, and now work there as a full-time conservationist. I came to see global warming as a central problem of our time while at school and have since wanted to help solve it. I view it in the context of humanity's adolescent relationship with the Earth and try to maintain optimism about both.

My academic credentials are a Master of Science in Chemistry. I became aware of Skepticalscience at university, and have since relied on it for climate information. My regular job rarely touches upon global warming, so I am glad of the opportunity to work on this site in my spare time.

My favourite pastimes are playing the piano, creative writing, composing, birding, lawn tennis, maths and thinking about anything that seems interesting or important.


John Cook

John Cook is a Senior Research Fellow with the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the University of Melbourne. He obtained his PhD at the University of Western Australia, studying the cognitive psychology of climate science denial. His research focus is understanding and countering misinformation about climate change. In 2007, he founded Skeptical Science, a website which won the 2011 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for the Advancement of Climate Change Knowledge and 2016 Friend of the Planet Award from the National Center for Science Education. John authored the book Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change, that combines climate science, critical thinking, and cartoons to explain and counter climate misinformation. He also co-authored the college textbooks Climate Change: Examining the Facts and Climate Change Science: A Modern Synthesis and the book Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand. In 2013, he published a paper finding 97% scientific consensus on human-caused global warming, a finding that has been highlighted by President Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron.


Andy Skuce

Andy Skuce unfortunately passed away on September 14, 2017 after a years long battle against cancer which he wrote about in his final blog post published a couple of weeks earlier. Andy was an independent geoscience consultant based in British Columbia, Canada. He earned an MSc in Applied Geophysics from the University of Leeds, a BSc in Geology from the University of Sheffield and was registered as a Professional Geoscientist in British Columbia. Andy has worked for the British Geological Survey and in a variety of technical and managerial roles for oil companies in Canada, Austria and Ecuador. Andy published a handful of papers over the years in tectonics and structural geology that can be viewed here. He described how his views on climate change evolved in this blog post.

The Skeptical Science community is thankful for all the contributions Andy made to our efforts over the years and we bid him a heartfelt farewell here.

 


Doug Bostrom

1958 model, background in broadcast engineering and management, wireless telemetry, software architecture and authorship with a focus on embedded systems, TCP/IP network engineering, systems integration. 

My initial interest in the "climate debate" was thanks to numerous accusations of dishonesty aimed at research scientists being thoughtlessly slung around. I'm not a scientist myself any more than the average layperson is occasionally called to think scientifically, but I live embedded in a social fabric of scientist family members and acquaintances. I find allegations of dishonesty as a substitute for cogent arguments against climate research findings to be not only at odds with my personal experience of scientists' affection for truth but also extremely annoying. Irritation at lazy thinking got me involved with this topic.

I was attracted to Skeptical Science by its straightforward explanation of various features of our climate as they relate to our role in modifying its behavior. In particular I found John Cook's attitude to be refreshing; my first acquaintance with John was via an email he kindly sent me explaining how and why a comment I'd posted at Skeptical Science was a little too "fresh" for the general tone of the site. Poor habits developed elsewhere don't really fit the SkS mode.

I've been volunteering with Skeptical Science for several years. I find spending at least some of my time helping SkS more satisfying than empty and repetitious catharsis spent in an endless "debate." 

At Mastodon: @Doug_Bostrom@scicomm.xyz.

Mastodon


Jim Hunt

I've been programming computers since the late 60s. We had to build our own!

Now what can I program next? Will I have to build it first?


michael sweet

I have a MS in Organic Chemistry. I am 53 years old and live in Tampa Florida. I teach AP Chemistry at a local High School. I have been reading about AGW for four or five years. At first I was worried about sea level rise (I have visited Tuvalu and other low Pacific Islands), but it appears other problems will be bad sooner than sea level rise. I like to SCUBA dive.


Rob Honeycutt

Rob's claim to fame is being the founder of the popular pack and bag company Timbuk2.  He is a guru of mass customization and, through the application of Toyota manufacturing methods, created a unique and enduring brand in the outdoor products industry.  Rob is a serial entrepreneur, husband and father to two great kids.  It's his concern for his kids' future that has driven him to dive into the climate issue as a minor author on SkS.


Riccardo

Graduated in physics, I got my PhD at the University of Catania (Italy). As an experimental material scientist I spend my working hours mainly in a lab torturing some material and trying to convince it to behave as I wish. Being a long time sailor, I needed to know at least the basics of meteorology. More recently I developed the interest in climate science and thought that I could take advantage of my background in physics to study and communicate it. My dream is to go to Antarctica by sailboat for a scientific mission!


Daniel Bailey

Daniel completed science degrees in Earth Science, Cartography and Remote Sensing at Central Michigan University in the United States. After graduating, he took employment with the US Department of Defense in Washington, DC, for many years. Daniel was employed in the pharmaceutical industry also for many years, where he was much happier. No doubt due to the meds. 

Now Daniel labors in advertising, seeking that far and verdant shore of satisfied clientele while volunteering his time better spent sleeping labouring for the harsh task masters of Skeptical Science and their steep copy deadlines...


dana1981

Dana Nuccitelli is an environmental scientist, climate journalist, and Research Coordinator for the nonprofit advocacy group Citizens' Climate Lobby. He has a Bachelor's Degree in astrophysics from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Master's Degree in physics from the University of California at Davis.

Dana has been researching climate science, economics, and solutions since 2006, and has contributed to Skeptical Science since September, 2010.  He has also blogged at The Guardian, is the author of Climatology versus Pseudoscience, and now writes for Yale Climate Connections.  Dana has published climate-related papers on various subjects, from the build-up of heat in the Earth's climate system to the expert consensus on human-caused global warming.

Follow him on Twitter.


Bob Lacatena

Bob Lacatena is a software developer with a lifelong interest in and love of science and teaching, a love that was instilled by his parents, both college professors.  He has a bachelor's degree in computer science from Northwestern University.  He began his study of climate as a true skeptic, taking the time to put in the effort to truly learn everything he could about the science before recognizing that it is something that will greatly affect the life, prosperity and happiness of his daughter, her peers, and even more so any grandchildren that may some day follow.  Today, as a volunteer, he contributes to Skeptical Science with his primary talent (his computer skills) but wishes he could find more time to write as well.


Doug Mackie

In the 70's I had a dinosaur book that included a Keeling curve as part of the inevitable 'what happened discussion'. (This was before Alvarez). Even before I could spell exponential I still wondered what the Keeling curve would mean for me when I grew up. When I began my PhD I found out.


BaerbelW

Bärbel Winkler lives and works in Germany. She has always had a lot of interest in environmental issues and has been active as a volunteer at the local zoo and a conservation group for many years. Over time and while learning more and more about it, Bärbel became increasingly aware and concerned about climate change and what it will mean for generations to come. As a means to turn her concerns regarding climate change into something productive, Bärbel joined the Skeptical Science team in 2010 and started translating selected content into German. Since 2013 she has been coordinating the translation efforts for all languages, various handbooks and most recently the Cranky Uncle game. She also regularly writes blog-posts for Skeptical Science and helps with whatever needs coordinating in the background.

For more information, please check out Bärbel's blog post My Climate Story: Coming full Circle published on Sept. 14, 2020.

Follow Bärbel on Twitter: @BaerbelW or on Mastodon BaerbelW@scicomm.xyz


Ari Jokimäki

Ari lives in Finland and has a BSc in computer engineering. He has been studying climate science as a hobbyist and runs his own blog (AGW Observer). In Skeptical Science Ari translates articles to Finnish, hosts New Research From Last Week series, and writes other articles every now and then.


Svatli

Sveinn Atli lives in Iceland and is one of the two editors of loftslag.is (loftslag meaning climate), the Icelandic climate website and translator of skeptical science articles. Sveinn has long been interested in environmental issues and has actively been taking part in the climate discussion. First encounter for him with the climate issue was to take a close look at the arguments - from as many sides as possible. After carefull scrutiny he found out that the only legitimate arguments were to be found in the scientific literature - one way or the other. 


PeterJ

Peter is a doctoral student at George Mason University. He has a Masters of Science in Environmental Science and Policy, with a concentration in Earth Surface Processes and Environmental Geochemistry. His current research focus is how climate change in the past, present, and future may impact marine ecosystems, and how past changes in those ecosystems can inform our understanding of past climatic changes. He is also interested in the communication of science.


Hoskibui

Hoskibui, full name Höskuldur Búi Jónsson is a geologist in Iceland. He is one of the two editors of loftslag.is (loftslag meaning climate) and translator of skeptical science articles.


jg

John Garrett is a technical illustrator residing in Wildomar, California, USA. In my personal time, I volunteer for a variety of groups including Skeptical Science, the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve, and the Temecula Valley Astronomers. As an astronomy enthusiast, I’ve published photos in Astronomy Magazine and am involved in establishing astronomy clubs in local middle schools. I’m also a member of the International Dark-sky Association.


Dikran Marsupial

Dikran Marsupial (A.K.A. Dr Gavin Cawley) is a senior lecturer in the School of Computing Sciences at the University of East Anglia.  His research interests focus on machine learning (essentially a branch of statistics), and in particular dealing with various forms of uncertainty.  He is interested in science generally, and in favour of rational decision making.  These interests intersect in climate change, as rational choice of the best course of action requires our best effort at understanding the science of climate, including an appreciation of the uncertainties.   SkS makes a positive contribution to this by refuting climate myths and addressing common misconceptions regarding the science of climate change that stiffle productive debate of the key issues.  In his spare time, he enjoys luthiery, lute playing, cricket and moustache cultivation.


Sarah

Sarah is an environmental chemist on the faculty at Michigan Tech University. She lives on the shore of Lake Superior.


Ken Rice

Ken Rice is Professor of Computational Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh.  His main research interests are in studying the earliest stages of star and planet formation and in the detection and characterisation of planets around other stars, typically called exoplanets.

Ken Rice is also interested in science communication, in particular about climate science, and runs the blog ...and Then There's Physics

Follow Ken on Twitter.


Steve Brown

Steve graduated with a BSc.(Hons) in Geosciences from the Open University in the UK. In addition to working full time as an IT Security and Infrastructure Manager, Steve is studying part time for a Masters degree in Earth Science. In his spare time he indulges in snowboarding, sailing, hill-walking, and astronomy.


CollinMaessen

Collin Maessen lives in The Netherlands and has a BSc in software engineering. He works as a back-end developer for a Dutch software firm. In his spare time he writes for his own blog Real Skeptic and volunteers where possible for Skeptical Science.


MarkR

Mark Richardson got interested in climate during his physics degree. He researched snow measurement techniques during his PhD in Atmosphere, Oceans and Climate at the University of Reading, UK. He's now at the CalTech/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, developing techniques to measure climate change with satellites and blogs for Skeptical Science in his spare time.


Glenn Tamblyn

Glenn studied Mechanical Engineering at Melbourne University. After graduation he worked for years as a research officer in the Solar Energy research section of the same department. Later he was involved in running several small Engineering/IT companies involved in the Solar and later Automotive industries. Working in Melbourne, Adelaide & China for many years, Glenn & his wife finally made what is known in Australia as a 'TreeChange'; moved to the country to escape the rat-race. Glenn has always had a deep interest in Science for the absolute thrill of it and at times resents the way a planetary emergency forces him to take time away from a damn fine hobby. Having many strengths & weaknesses in life, he makes no claims that photography is one of his strengths. The idea that we would let this beautiful world and the great potential of human culture be at this much risk horrifies him.


gpwayne

Graham Wayne is a journalist who writes about climate change science and the ways it will affect us in the UK's Guardian, and in his blog (gpwayne.wordpress.com). He writes basic level rebuttals and occasional blog posts for Skeptical Science, motivated in part by a concern for the environment, and partly as a counter-reaction to the demagoguery and disinformation that pervades the public discourse on climate science.


David Kirtley

I am not a scientist, but I've had a life-long interest in the sciences and in learning how the world works, from astronomy and geology to biology and evolution. When "climategate!" exploded on the internet in 2009, I was amazed at the mental hoops some people seemed to use to avoid understanding climate science. With a keen interest in making this complex subject matter easier for other "non-scientists" to understand, I joined the Skeptical Science team in 2013, helping out "behind the scenes" answering emails from readers, offering suggestions and editing blog posts. I live and work in St Louis, Missouri, USA.


John Hartz

I’ve been toiling in the vineyards of Skeptical Science for about six years. I am currently responsible for populating the SkS Facebook page with links to current news articles about climate science, mitigation and adaption polices, and energy. I maintain a rolling inventory of the articles and post a Roundup of them on the SkS website each Saturday (US). I also continue to generate the SkS Weekly Digest and post it each Sunday.  I also perform moderation duties on the comment threads on both the SkS Facebook page and the SkS website. I have the time to engage in these tasks because I am retired and my wife shares my passion about the need to address manmade climate change.

My environmental philosophy is articulated in the following ancient Native American proverb:

Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.

The work I do for Skeptical Science is part of my legacy to my children and grandchildren.

My wife and I currently reside in Columbia, South Carolina.


John Mason

Our team member and friend John Mason unfortunately and untimely passed away on September 20, 2024. We remember and celebrate his many contributions to Skeptical Science with a collection of personal memories.

John Mason graduated in geology from Aberystwyth University in 1985. He went on to undertake research on ore genesis and supergene alteration in the metalliferous mining districts of North and Central Wales, leading to an M Phil and a number of key papers. He also worked for a time in mineral exploration with the British Geological Survey and then the private sector. His interest in climate came via investigating severe weather events and their aftermath and seeing the massive changes that past climate shifts have brought to the Welsh landscape. When not doing any of the above, landscape and weather-photography plus sea-angling kept him occupied. As if all of this was not already enough, John also authored two excellent books on the geological and environmental history of Wales, Wales: The Missing Years. Tales from an area the size of Wales - 4,567 to 700 million years ago and The Making of Ynyslas.


Bob Loblaw

Bob Loblaw is the nom de plume of a recently-retired Canadian physical geographer with an educational background in climatology (especially microclimatology) and permafrost. After an undergraduate degree with specialization in freezing soils, he worked for three years in industry and research related to arctic pipelines. He returned to graduate school, earned a PhD specializing in climatology, became an untenured assistant professor at a major Canadian university, and then perished in the publish or perish system.

Turning to research and operational work in government, he has spent over 25 years working in a succession of national and international projects covering forest carbon dynamics, radiation monitoring, and instrumentation for automatic weather stations.

He has participated actively in the comments at Skeptical Science for the past 10 years, and is now participating as an author.

 


rockytom

Tom Farmer is President of Farmer Enterprises of Las Cruces, New Mexico; a former Technical Staff Member in the Environmental Restoration Program at Los Alamos National Laboratory; former tenured Associate Professor in the Geologe/Environmental Sciences Department at James Madison University; consulting environmental scientist to federal, state and local governments throughout the United States; former curater of the University of Cincinnati Natural History Museum; Museum Specialist at the U. S. National museum of Natural History; BA and MS degrees from the University of Virginia; Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati.  He has over 20 years of university teaching experience and has been an associate editor of The Professional Geologist, the leading periodical of the American Institute of Professional Geologists.  


herendraswari

Herendraswari lives in West Java, Indonesia. Bachelor in Architecture Engineering University of Indonesia, enjoys studying Environmental Science and likes to give easy understanding of issues of climate change and global warming. Joined Skeptical Science since 2014 as a translator, translating articles into Indonesian. She is the mother of three children, with various activities such as elementary homeschooling teacher and integrated service post for toddlers in her neighborhood.


robert way

Robert Way holds a BA in Geography, Minor Geomatics and Spatial Analysis and an M.Sc. in Physical Geography. He is currently a PHD student at the University of Ottawa. His current research focus is on modeling the distribution of permafrost in the eastern Canadian sub-Arctic. Previously his work examined the climatic sensitivity of small mountain glaciers in the Torngat Mountains of northern Labrador. Robert has also studied at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Oslo. He has participated in course and field work in Antarctica, Iceland, Labrador, Norway, Patagonia and Svalbard. As an Inuit descendent from a northern community, he has witnessed first hand how changing ice and snow conditions have impacted traditional hunting and travel routes, making climate change omnipresent in his life.

His graduate student profile can be found at the following url:
http://artsites.uottawa.ca/robert-way/en/background/


James Wight

James Wight is a Science student with Macquarie University, Sydney, intending to major in climate science. He has been passionately interested in climate science for several years.


Klaus Flemløse

I am master of science in mathematics and statiscis from University of Århus, Denmark. I have worked in the financial sector as an actuary in insurance, reinsurance, supervision and life insurance and teached math/stat at the university and in the gymnasium and has retired end  of may 2013. Primary interest birdwatching, climate science incl sea level and tide analysis.

My picture was taken close to a storm surge columns at the outermost dike in the Wadden Sea in the south west of Denmark, close to the Danish-German border.

 




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