Patrick Michaels

Born in Berwyn, Illinois, Michaels obtained an A.B. in biological science in 1971 and an S.M. 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.{{cite web |url=http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/documents/MICHAELS.CV_.2009.02.12.pdf |title=C.V. Patrick J. Michaels |publisher=United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce |date=February 12, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110203144532/http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/documents/MICHAELS.CV_.2009.02.12.pdf |archive-date=February 3, 2011}} His doctoral thesis was titled Atmospheric anomalies and crop yields in North America.{{cite journal |author=Michaels, Patrick J. |year=1979 |title=Atmospheric anomalies and crop yields in North America |publisher=University of Wisconsin–Madison|oclc=6464506 }}

In 1991 and 1992, Michaels collaborated with Fred Singer in writing articles for the Washington Times rejecting the scientific consensus on ozone depletion. He advanced arguments on the subject as late as 2000.

Michaels said that he does not contest the basic scientific principles behind greenhouse warming and acknowledges that the global mean temperature has increased in recent decades.{{cite web |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2007-02-01-oppose_x.htm |title=Live with climate change |work=USA Today |date=February 1, 2007 |access-date=March 13, 2014 |author=Michaels, Patrick}} He is quoted as being skeptical of global warming,{{cite news|title=The truth about global warming |date=October 11, 2005 |work=The Seattle Times |first=Sandi |last=Doughton |access-date=May 4, 2007 |url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002549346_globewarm11.html |quote=one of the most widely quoted global-warming skeptics |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070425173920/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002549346_globewarm11.html |archive-date=April 25, 2007}} and was described by Michael E. Mann as a "prominent climate change contrarian".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klerAgAAQBAJ&q=Michaels&pg=PA106 |title=The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines|date=October 1, 2013|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-15255-6|pages=106|author=Michael E. Mann}} He contends that the changes will be minor, not catastrophic, and may even be beneficial.{{cite journal | publisher=Regulation | volume=23 | issue=3 | date=Fall 2000 | access-date=March 14, 2007 | title=The Way of Warming | first=Patrick | last=Michaels | author2=Paul C. Knappenberger | author3=Robert E. Davis | url=http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv23n3/michaels5.pdf | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070215212203/https://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv23n3/michaels5.pdf | archive-date=February 15, 2007 }}

A 2002 article published in the journal Climate Research by Michaels and three other scholars predicted "a warming range of 1.3–3.0°C, with a central value of 1.9°C" over the 1990 to 2100 period, although he remarked that the "temperature range and central values determined in our study may be too great". He made the argument that the climate feedback system involving current warming trends was weaker than generally asserted, coming to a conclusion that set his views apart from that of the IPCC's estimates."[https://www.int-res.com/articles/cr2003/23/c023p001.pdf Revised 21st century temperature projections]", Patrick J. Michaels, Paul C. Knappenberger, Oliver W. Frauenfeld and Robert E. Davis, Climate Research, Vol. 23: 1–9, 2002.

In 2009, Michaels authored a Cato report arguing that "Congress should pass no legislation restricting emissions of carbon dioxide, repeal current ethanol mandates, and inform the public about how little climate change would be prevented by proposed legislation."

{{cite web

|url=http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-handbook-policymakers/2009/9/hb111-45.pdf

|first=Patrick

|last=Michaels

|year=2009

|title=CATO Handbook for Policy Makers

|publisher=CATO Institute

}}

In 2018, Michaels asserted on Fox News, "[P]robably about half, maybe half of that nine-tenths of the degree [of total warming] might be caused by greenhouse gases." Climate Feedback, a fact-checking website for media coverage on climate change, wrote of Michaels' assertion, "No evidence or research is provided to support this claim, which contradicts the published scientific literature."{{Cite web |first=Scott |last=Johnson |url=https://science.feedback.org/review/on-fox-news-patrick-michaels-falsely-claims-humans-are-only-responsible-for-half-of-global-warming/ |title=On Fox News, Patrick Michaels falsely claims humans are only responsible for half of global warming|date=July 9, 2019|website=Science Feedback |publisher=Climate Feedback |language=en-US |access-date=September 16, 2024}}

In May 1994 Richard Lindzen, Michaels, and Robert Balling served as expert witnesses on behalf of Western Fuels Association in St. Paul, Minnesota to determine the environmental cost of coal burning by state power plants.{{cite magazine

|title=The Heat is On:The warming of the world's climate sparks a blaze of denial

|first=Ross

|last=Gelbspan

|magazine=Harper's Magazine

|date=December 1995

|url=http://dieoff.org/page82.htm

|access-date=April 14, 2013

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927012514/http://dieoff.org/page82.htm

|archive-date=September 27, 2007

|url-status=dead

}} Western Fuels Association is a consortium of coal producers that uses collective advocacy to represent industry interests.

{{cite web

|url=http://www.westernfuels.org/what-we-do

|title=What we do

|publisher=Western Fuels Association

}}

The World Climate Report, a newsletter edited by Michaels was first published by the Greening Earth Society. The society was a public relations organization associated with the Western Fuels Association (WFA), an association of coal-burning utility companies.{{cite web|url=http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/ |title=Scientific Advisers |access-date=May 30, 2019 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981205034857/http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/ |archive-date=December 5, 1998 }}, Greening Earth Society, website archived from December 1998.{{cite web|url=http://greeningearthsociety.org/ |title=Scientific Advisers |access-date=May 30, 2019 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010925234237/http://greeningearthsociety.org/ |archive-date=September 25, 2001 }}, Greening Earth Society, website archived from September 2001.{{cite news|url=https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Energy-Debate-Heats-Up-2709569.php|title=Energy Debate Heats Up|last=Norr|first=Henry|date=August 14, 2000|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|access-date=May 30, 2019}} It has been called a "front group created by the coal industry"{{cite web|first=John|last=Stauber|url=https://www.prwatch.org/spin/2001/08/609/coal-industry-front-group-spouts-hot-air|title=Coal Industry Front Group Spouts Hot Air|date=August 9, 2001|website=PR Watch|language=en|access-date=May 30, 2019}} and an "industry front".{{cite magazine |last=Appell |first=David |url=http://archive.salon.com/books/review/2001/07/02/murray/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090422232352/http://archive.salon.com/books/review/2001/07/02/murray/index.html |title=Salon.com Books {{!}} "It Ain't Necessarily So" by David Murray, et al. |date=July 2, 2001 |archive-date=April 22, 2009 |website=Salon.com |access-date=May 30, 2019}} Fred Palmer, a society staffer, is a registered lobbyist for Peabody Energy, a coal company.[https://archive.today/20070510102303/http://sopr.senate.gov/cgi-win/m_opr_viewer.exe?DoFn=3 U.S. Lobby Registration and Disclosure Page] WFA founded the group in 1997, according to an archived version of its website, "as a vehicle for advocacy on climate change, the environmental impact of CO2, and fossil fuel use."{{cite web |url=http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/join.html |title=Join GES |access-date=March 8, 2005 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050308200600/http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/join.html |archive-date=March 8, 2005 }}, Greening Earth Society website, archived from March 2005.

Office of Science and Technology Policy director, John Holdren,{{cite web

| url=http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/experts/140/john_p_holdren.html

| access-date=March 31, 2009

| title=John Holdren's bio and publications at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

| archive-date=August 1, 2011

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110801202346/http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/experts/140/john_p_holdren.html

| url-status=dead

}} told the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee in June 2003, "Michaels is another of the handful of U.S. climate-change contrarians … He has published little if anything of distinction in the professional literature, being noted rather for his shrill op-ed pieces and indiscriminate denunciations of virtually every finding of mainstream climate science."

{{cite web

| url=http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Publications/PDF_Papers/HoldrenRPCClimateComments.pdf

| access-date=March 14, 2007

| date=June 9, 2003

| author=John P. Holdren

| title=Comments by John P. Holdren on "The Shaky Science Behind the Climate Change Sense of the Congress Resolution" – US Senate Republican Policy Committee

}} In 2009 Michaels responded in a Washington Examiner op-ed, saying that the IPCC had subverted the peer review process, and adding the IPCC had "left out plenty of peer-reviewed science that it found inconveniently disagreeable."

{{cite web

|url = http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/Climate-scientists-subverted-peer-review-8613054-78248872.html

|access-date = January 10, 2010

|date = December 2, 2009

|title = Patrick Michaels: Climate scientists subverted peer review

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100521003952/http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/Climate-scientists-subverted-peer-review-8613054-78248872.html

|archive-date = May 21, 2010

}}

Michaels was one of hundreds of US reviewers composing the International Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group in 2007.{{cite web|url=https://industrialprogress.com/power-hour-patrick-michaels-on-global-warming-and-the-ipcc/|title=Power Hour: Patrick Michaels on Global Warming and the IPCC|publisher=CIP|accessdate=July 20, 2022}}

Although the Greening Earth Society was generally skeptical of the impact of climate change, it acknowledged some degree of global warming as real: "Fact #1. The rate of global warming during the past several decades has been about 0.18°C per decade".{{cite web|url=http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/wca/2004/wca_19d.html |title=Greening Earth Society |access-date=March 15, 2005 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050315081640/http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/wca/2004/wca_19d.html |archive-date=March 15, 2005 }} Note that the actual increase in the global surface temperature during the 100 years ending in 2005 was 0.74 ± 0.18 °C.{{cite web | url= http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg1/ar4-wg1-spm.pdf | title=Summary for Policymakers | work=Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change | access-date=February 2, 2007 | date=February 5, 2007 | publisher=Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change|quote=The updated hundred-year linear trend (1906 to 2005) of 0.74 °C [0.56 °C to 0.92 °C] is therefore larger than the corresponding trend for 1901 to 2000 given in the TAR of 0.6 °C [0.4 °C to 0.8 °C].}}

Climate scientist Tom Wigley,{{cite press release | url=http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/prrl/prrl0319.html | title=Leading Climate Scientists Reaffirm View that Late 20th Century Warming Was Unusual and Resulted From Human Activity | publisher=American Geophysical Union | date=July 7, 2003 | access-date=May 27, 2007 | archive-date=July 13, 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070713234906/http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/prrl/prrl0319.html | url-status=dead }} a lead author of parts of the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has stated that "Michaels' statements on the subject of computer models are a catalog of misrepresentation and misinterpretation … Many of the supposedly factual statements made in Michaels' testimony are either inaccurate or are seriously misleading."{{cite book | title=The Heat is On | publisher=Perseus Books | first=Ross | last=Gelbspan | date=August 1997 | isbn=0-201-13295-8 | author-link=Ross Gelbspan | url=https://archive.org/details/heatisonhighstak00gelb }}

In 2006, a Colorado energy cooperative, the Intermountain Rural Electric Association, had given Michaels $100,000.

{{cite news

| title=ABC News Reporting Cited As Evidence In Congressional Hearing On Global Warming

| url=https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=2242565&page=1

| access-date=March 14, 2007

| first=Clayton

| last=Sandell

|author2=Bill Blakemore

| date=July 27, 2006

| publisher=ABC News

}} An Associated Press report said that the donations had been made after Michaels had "told Western business leaders ... that he was running out of money for his analyses of other scientists' global warming research" and noted that the cooperative had a vested interest in opposing mandatory carbon dioxide caps, a situation that raised conflict of interest concerns.

{{cite news

| title=Utilities Give Warming Skeptic Big Bucks

| last=Borenstein

| first=Seth

| url=http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/07/27/utilities_paying_global_warming_skeptic/

| agency=Associated Press

| date=July 26, 2006

| access-date=October 13, 2009

| work=The Boston Globe

}}

Michaels said on CNN that 40 percent of his funding came from the oil industry.

{{cite web

|date=August 15, 2010

|publisher=CNN

|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fguJod_voPc

|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/fguJod_voPc| archive-date=December 12, 2021 |url-status=live|title=Interview with Fareed Zakaria, Gavin Schmidt, Jeffrey Sachs and Patrick Michaels

}}{{cbignore}} According to Fred Pearce, fossil fuel companies have helped fund Michaels' projects, including his World Climate Report, published every year since 1994, and his "advocacy science consulting firm", New Hope Environmental Services.

{{cite book

|author=Pearce, Fred

|title=The Climate Files: The Battle for the Truth about Global Warming

|year=2010

|publisher=Guardian Books

|isbn=978-0-85265-229-9|author-link=Fred Pearce

}} p. X.

A 2005 article published by the Seattle Times reported that Michaels had received more than $165,000 in fuel-industry funding, including money from the coal industry, to publish his own climate journal.

Michaels died on July 15, 2022, in Washington, D.C. at age 72. He leaves behind a wife Rachel Schwartz Michaels (m-2016 - 2022)[https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/19/patrick-michaels-climate-change-dead/ Patrick Michaels, outspoken climate change contrarian, dies at 72]

His writing has been published in major scientific journals, including Climate Research, Climatic Change, Geophysical Research Letters, Journal of Climate, Nature, and Science, as well as in popular serials such as the Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Houston Chronicle, and Journal of Commerce. He was an author of the climate "paper of the year" awarded by the Association of American Geographers in 2004.{{Cite web |title=CSG John Russell Mather Paper of the Year |url=https://www.du.edu/csg/paper.html |publisher=American Association of Geographers Climate Specialty Group |access-date=July 19, 2022 |website=www.du.edu/csg/}}

• {{Cite journal

| first1=P.J. | last1=Michaels

| first2=S.F. | last2=Singer | author2-link=Fred Singer

| first3=P.C. | last3=Knappenberger

| first4=J.B. | last4=Kerr

| first5=C.T. | last5=McElroy

| title=Analyzing ultraviolet-B radiation—is there a trend?

| journal=Science

| volume=264 | issue=5163 | pages=1341–1343 | year=1994

| bibcode=1994Sci...264.1341M

| doi=10.1126/science.264.5163.1341

| pmid=17780851 | doi-access=free}}

• {{Cite journal

| first1=Patrick J. | last1=Michaels

| first2=Paul C. | last2=Knappenberger

| title=Human effect on global climate?

| journal=Nature

| volume=384 | issue=6609 | pages=522–523 | year=1996

| doi=10.1038/384522b0

| bibcode=1996Natur.384..522M | s2cid=4350099

}}

• {{Cite journal

| first1=Patrick J. | last1=Michaels

| first2=Robert C. | last2=Balling Jr. | author2-link=Robert Balling

| first3=Paul C. | last3=Knappenberger

| title=Analysis of trends in the variability of daily and monthly historical temperature measurements

| journal=Climate Research

| volume=10 | pages=27–33 | year=1998

| url=https://www.int-res.com/articles/cr/10/c010p027.pdf

| issn=0936-577X

| doi=10.3354/cr010027

| last4=Knappenberger

| first4=PC | doi-access=free

}}

• "[https://www.int-res.com/articles/cr2003/23/c023p001.pdf Revised 21st century temperature projections]", Patrick J. Michaels, Paul C. Knappenberger, Oliver W. Frauenfeld and Robert E. Davis, Climate Research, Vol. 23: 1–9, 2002.
• {{Cite journal

| first1=Robert E. | last1=Davis

| first2=Paul C. | last2=Knappenberger

| first3=Wendy M. | last3=Novicoff

| first4=Patrick J. | last4=Michaels

| title=Decadal changes in heat-related human mortality in the eastern United States

| journal=Climate Research

| volume=22 | pages=175–184 | year=2002

| url=https://www.int-res.com/articles/cr2002/22/c022p175.pdf

| issn=0936-577X

| doi=10.3354/cr022175

| bibcode=2002ClRes..22..175D| doi-access=free

}}

• {{Cite journal

| title=Changing heat-related mortality in the United States

| first1=R.E. | last1=Davies

| first2=P.C. | last2=Knappenberger

| first3=P.J. | last3=Michaels

| first4=W.M. | last4=Novicoff

| journal=Environmental Health Perspectives

| volume=111

| issue=14

| pages=1712–8 | year=2003

| pmid=14594620

| url=https://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=HcpdyVcwTRZJMpLn3MGvnh0Lmj4W4XJcz11zwCyZnGvRZkCyxc5y!-249801798?docId=5002058308

| pmc=1241712

| doi=10.1289/ehp.6336

}}

• {{cite journal |last1=McKitrick |first1=Ross R. |last2=Michaels |first2=Patrick J. |date=14 December 2007 |title=Quantifying the influence of anthropogenic surface processes and inhomogeneities on gridded global climate data |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228363593 |journal=Journal of Geophysical Research |volume=112 |issue=D24 |pages=1–14 |doi=10.1029/2007JD008465 |bibcode=2007JGRD..11224S09M |access-date=24 March 2023|doi-access=free }}

• {{cite book | title=Sound and Fury: The Science and Politics of Global Warming | publisher=Cato Institute | date=October 1992 | isbn=0-932790-89-5 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/soundfuryscience00mich_0/page/196 196] | url=https://archive.org/details/soundfuryscience00mich_0/page/196 }}
• {{cite book | title=The Satanic Gases | url=https://archive.org/details/satanicgases00patr | url-access=registration | publisher=Cato Institute | date=May 15, 2000 | isbn=1-882577-92-2 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/satanicgases00patr/page/224 224] }}
• {{cite book | title=Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media | publisher=Cato Institute | date=October 25, 2005 | isbn=1-930865-79-1 | pages=280 }}
• {{cite book | title=Shattered Consensus: The True State of Global Warming | publisher=Rowman & Littlefield | date=December 28, 2005 | pages=304 }}
• {{cite book | title=Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don't Want You to Know | publisher=Cato Institute | date=January 25, 2009 | isbn=978-1-933995-23-6 | pages=250 }}
• {{cite book | title=Climate Coup: Global Warming's Invasion of Our Government and Our Lives | publisher=Cato Institute | date=2011 | isbn=978-1-935308-44-7 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/climatecoupgloba0000mich/page/304 304] | url=https://archive.org/details/climatecoupgloba0000mich/page/304 }}
• {{Cite book |last1=Michaels |first1=Patrick |last2=Knappenberger |first2=Paul C. |title=Lukewarming: The New Climate Science that Changes Everything|publisher=Cato Institute |year=2016 |isbn=978-1944424039}}

{{portal|Global warming}}

• Notable individuals of the Cato Institute
• The Power of Big Oil

{{reflist|2}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20181107104006/http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/personnel/ Chief Editor profile], World Climate Report
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20040404084329/http://www.evsc.virginia.edu/faculty/people/michaels.shtml Biography], University of Virginia
• [http://www.cato.org/people/michaels.html Biography], Cato Institute
• [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704398304574598230426037244 "How to Manufacture a Climate Consensus"], op-ed by Michaels at the Wall Street Journal, published December 17, 2009
• [http://www.pacinst.org/news/science-climate-change-and-censorship/ Patrick Michaels, Climate Change, and Censorship] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015185126/http://pacinst.org/news/science-climate-change-and-censorship/ |date=October 15, 2015 }}
• {{C-SPAN|22596}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Michaels, Patrick}}

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