Climate results turn sceptic: 'let the evidence change our minds'
smh.com.au
smh.com.au
Some quotes going back over time:
"It is ironic if some people treat me as a traitor, since I was never a skeptic — only a scientific skeptic. Some people called me a skeptic because in my best-seller ‘Physics for Future Presidents’ I had drawn attention to the numerous scientific errors in the movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ But I never felt that pointing out mistakes qualified me to be called a climate skeptic.” - Richard Muller in an email to Huffington Post, 2011
“If Al Gore reaches more people and convinces the world that global warming is real, even if he does it through exaggeration and distortion – which he does, but he’s very effective at it – then let him fly any plane he wants.” – Richard Muller, 2008
“There is a consensus that global warming is real. …it’s going to get much, much worse.” – Richard Muller, 2008
“Let me be clear. My own reading of the literature and study of paleoclimate suggests strongly that carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels will prove to be the greatest pollutant of human history. It is likely to have severe and detrimental effects on global climate.” – Richard Muller, 2003
It would seem that Dr Muller is more intent on creating a headline and grabbing publicity than contributing to the body of knowledge. This would be great PR for a startup, but I find it a questionable tactic in this field.
For climate change, his modus seems to be make contrarian sounding statements, criticize the mainstream scientific opinion, do some studies, echo the scientific consensus, and then claim that the scientific consensus was right but only right because of his results.
It has been amusing to see the Koch's get played by a media huckster, though.