‘An Environmentalist’s Journey to Climate Skepticism’: Avid environmentalist challenges climate change alarmists: ‘I became appalled by the amount of bad science that was too easily published simply because it agreed with the prevailing bias of climate catastrophes’

By Jean Bartlett

Pacifica Tribune Arts Correspondent

POSTED:   10/15/2013 05:01:53 PM PDT

photo courtesy of author Jim Steele ( Contributed Photo )

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, raised from age five in the Boston area, Pacifican Jim Steele first headed off to attend the mechanical engineering program at the University of Massachusetts in 1968. But with the Vietnam War raging, Steele feared his career would revolve around wartime production. So he dropped out, went to work on social justice issues, and then backpacked around the country, touring as many National Parks as possible. Inspired by nature, he went on to pursue a degree in biology at San Francisco State University, through their ecology and systematics program. While finishing his Masters, the SFSU Dean of Science appointed Steele to the director’s position of SFSU’s Sierra Nevada field campus. There Steele built an environmental education program and pursued environmental research. He served as director of the Sierra Nevada field campus for 25 years, while also teaching science in the San Francisco school district. He and his wife Kristen have lived in Pacifica for 21 years. Their son Jared is a graduate of IBL and Terra Nova High School and is currently attending Oregon University.

About 10 years ago, while working to restore watershed and wildlife habitat, Steele said it became clear that landscape changes and natural cycles had a much greater impact on wildlife than climate change. The initial plan was to write on the subject for various magazines and websites, but he realized only a book could tell the whole story. This Sunday, Steele will be at Florey’s to sign and discuss the book which developed from these earlier musings — “Landscapes & Cycles” (An Environmentalist’s Journey to Climate Skepticism).

“The more I researched the causes of change in wildlife populations and local climates, the more I became appalled by the amount of bad science that was too easily published simply because it agreed with the prevailing bias of climate catastrophes,” Steele said. “Every other chapter of the book highlights different species whose decline was mistakenly blamed on rising CO2.”

In the first chapter, Steele was asked by the U.S. Forest Service to study the bird communities in high mountain meadows in the Tahoe National Forest. What caused a sudden collapse in those populations?” Steele’s research revealed the decline was due to the placement of a railroad track 100 years earlier.

Climatologist Dr. Judith Curry: ‘The IPCC’s statements of 95% confidence that most of the warming is anthropogenic, and expectations of substantial warming between now and 2036, has the IPCC skating on very thin ice, in my opinion’

Words of wisdom from Ed Lorenz

http://judithcurry.com/2013/10/13/words-of-wisdom-from-ed-lorenz/

by Judith Curry Insights from Ed Lorenz, pioneer of chaos theory, on the detection of anthropogenic global warming. Ed Lorenz has been arguably the most influential meteorologist in history, having laid the foundations of chaos theory.  From his 2008 obituary: In discovering “deterministic chaos,” Dr. Lorenz established a principle that “profoundly influenced a wide range […]

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No Virgin Hypocrite: Richard Branson says ‘deniers need to be called out, debated and rallied against’ –Meanwhile Branson exits UK to avoid taxes

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http://junkscience.com/2013/10/14/no-virgin-hypocrite-richard-branson-says-deniers-need-to-be-called-out-debated-and-rallied-against-meanwhile-branson-exists-uk-to-avoid-taxes/

Hypocrite Virgin Airways owner Richard Branson raves on his blog: And climate deniers need to be called out, debated and rallied against; the science is clear enough now. Read more… Read “Sir Richard Branson leaves UK“

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Climatologist Drama Queens: Government shutdown claimed to cause ‘irreversible damage’ to ‘decades of scientific research’

Climatologist Drama Queens: Government shutdown claimed to cause ‘irreversible damage’ to ‘decades of scientific research’

http://junkscience.com/2013/10/15/climatologist-drama-queens-government-shutdown-claimed-to-cause-irreversible-damage-to-decades-of-scientific-research/

Hard to believe taxpayers have given $350 million to these whiners to do nonsense research that returns zero to taxpayers. USA Today reports: Anne Gambrel, a doctoral student at Princeton University, says she’s part of a team of scientists who have been working for about a decade to launch a telescope on a balloon from […]

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Senate GOP offers ‘The Top Ten Reasons The Government Shutdown Isn’t All Bad’ — Most involve EPA, environment

Senate GOP offers ‘The Top Ten Reasons The Government Shutdown Isn’t All Bad’ — Most involve EPA, environment

http://junkscience.com/2013/10/16/senate-gop-offers-the-top-ten-reasons-the-government-shutdown-isnt-all-bad-most-involve-epa-environment/

The Top Ten Reasons The Government Shutdown Isn’t All Bad October 15, 2013 10. Approximately 15,000 EPA employees are furloughed, making it less likely fake CIA agents at EPA will be ripping off the taxpayer Last month, John C. Beale, a former EPA senior official in the Office of Air & Radiation of the U.S. […]

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