Anthony Watts

 Credentials

• Studied Electrical Engineering and Meteorology at Purdue University, but has been unwilling to state whether he graduated. [1], [2]
• Former television meteorologist.

 Background

Anthony Watts is a former television meteorologist who is best known as the founder and editor of the popular Watts Up With That (WUWT) blog that publishes articles skeptical of climate change.  He is also the owner of the weather graphics company ItWorks and the founder of Surfacestations.org. 

Watts admits "I’m not a degreed climate scientist" on his WUWT profile and his primary credential appears to be an American Meteorological Society Seal of Approval. This does not mean that Watts is "AMS Certified" as some sources have inaccurately claimed. The AMS Seal of Approval is a discontinued credential that does not require a bachelor's or higher degree in atmospheric science or meteorology.

Watts's "About" page mentions neither his Purdue attendance nor whether he graduated. Watts has refused to say whether he graduated, and a number of direct queries to Watts to find out if he graduated from college were rebuffed. [1]

Stance on Climate Change

Watts describes himself as a person who has "at one time been fully engaged in the belief that CO2 was indeed the root cause of the global warming problem." [3]

• "While I have a skeptical view of certain climate issues, I consider myself 'green' in many ways…" [1]

Key Quotes

"The conclusion is inescapable: The U.S. temperature record is unreliable." [4]

"I believe that our [man-made] contribution [to climate change] may be far less than has been postulated. Our measurement network has been compromised—not intentionally, but accidentally and through carelessness." [5]

Key Deeds

June 30-July 1, 2011

Keynote speaker at the Heartland Institute's Sixth International Conference on Climate Change. [6]

March, 2011

Watts recently praised the Berkeley Earth project, which was chaired by Richard Muller and set out to "resolve current criticism of the former temperature analyses, and to prepare an open record that will allow rapid response to further criticism or suggestions." The study also evaluated Watt's concerns about weather station locations. 

Watts had declared he was "prepared to accept whatever result they produce, even if it proves my premise wrong." Muller testified before congress on March 31, 2011 where he released preliminary results showing "a global warming trend that is very similar to that previously reported by the other groups [NOAA, NASA, and the Hadley Center Climate Research Unit (CRU)s]." [7], [8]

Muller addressed Watts's concerns, mentioning how "Many US stations have low quality rankings according to a study led by Anthony Watts. However, we find that the warming seen in the 'poor' stations is virtually indistinguishable from that seen in the 'good' stations."
      
Instead of accepting the results as he promised, Watts dismissed the hearing as "post normal science political theater." And one of the regular contributors on his site dismissed Professor Muller as "a man driven by a very serious agenda."

March 2010

Spoke at the Heartland Institute's Fourth International Conference on Climate Change. [9]

Oct 2010

In October 2010 the Christian Science Monitor published an op-ed  by Watts likening climate contrarian Hal Lewis's resignation from the American Physical Society to Martin Luther. [10]

The American Physical Society strongly disagreed, saying "In light of the significant settled aspects of the science, APS totally rejects Dr. Lewis' claim that global warming is a 'scam' and a 'pseudoscientific fraud.'" [11]

July 2009

When Peter Sinclair posted a "Climate Crock of the Week" video featuring Anthony Watts, Watts complained under YouTube's copyright infringement guidelines to have the video taken down. The video debunks Watts' work discrediting the U.S. Temperature record. [12]

Watts responded to the video on his blog, describing it as "the worst job of fact-finding I had ever seen," and how it reminded him of "really bad work from greenhorns out of reporters school." He goes on to explain why he accused Sinclair of Copyright infringement, and additionally accuses the National Climactic Data Center (NCDC) of their their own copyright infringement for using his data that he explains was not yet in the public domain. [13]    

June 2009

Spoke at the Heartland Institute's Third International Conference on Climate change representing SurfaceStations.org. [14]

March 2008

Spoke at the Heartland Institute's 2008 International Conference on Climate Change. His presentation was titled "A Hands-On Study of Station Siting and Data Quality Issues for the United States Historical Climatology Network." [15]

2007 – Ongoing

Created Surfacestations.org in response to what Watts describes as "a massive failure of bureaucracy to perform something so simple as taking some photographs and making some measurements and notes of a few to a few dozen weather stations in each state."

Surfacestations.org is a grass roots organization that uses volunteers to collect information on weather stations that are part of the United States Historical Climatological Network (USHCN) and Global Historical Climatological Network (GHCN).

Watts believed that with information collected by the project he would be able to demonstrate that "some of the global warming increase is not from CO2 but from localized changes in the temperature-measurement environment."

The results were not as Watts expected. A NOAA analysis of the Surface Stations data showed "no indication from this analysis that poor station exposure has imparted a bias in the U.S. temperature trends." Watts' claims were also thoroughly debunked in a "Climate Crock of the Week" video. [16]
 
August, 2007

Registered Watts Up With That (WUWT), a blog which provides"News and commentary on puzzling things in life, nature, science, weather, climate change, technology, and recent news by Anthony Watts." [17]

Watts is lthe editor and primary contributor. Other contributors have included skeptics such as Roger Pielke Senior and Pielke Jr.

There is a blog devoted to debunking Watts's regular posts at WUWT. The blog, titled "Wott's Up With That" is run by Canadian Geologist Ben Lawson.

Nov 1995

Signed the Leipzig Declaration which states that "there does not exist today a general scientific consensus about the importance of greenhouse warming from rising levels of carbon dioxide. In fact, most climate specialists now agree that actual observations from both weather satellites and balloon-borne radiosondes show no current warming whatsoever."

 Affiliations

• Watts Up With That (WUWT) – Founder, editor, and regular contributor.

• Intelliweather Inc. — Owner.

• KPAY-AM radio — Meteorologist. [18]

 Publications

Anthony Watts does not appear to have published any articles in peer reviewed journals on the subject of climate.

His most notable publication appears to have been published by the Heartland Institute and Watts' own SurfaceStations.org:

• "Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable?" (PDF).

The report suggests that certain climate-monitoring stations may yield inaccurate data due to their proximity to buildings, air conditioners or concrete. Watts suggests that due to the improper placement of some of these stations, climate models based on this data may also be flawed.

Related DeSmogBlog Posts

• "Paul Krugman's Must-Read NY Times Op-Ed On Immoral Climate Denial." Jim Hoggan. 4 April 11. 
• "WUWT: Just Enough Information to Mislead." Richard Littlemore. 27 September 10. 
• "If exposing the climate deniers makes me a scumbag so be it." Kevin Grandia. 15 July 10. 
• "Urban Heat Island Myth is Dead." Mitchell Anderson. 21 January 10. 
• "YouTube Reinstates banned Climate video." Peter Sinclair. 19 August 09. 
• "The Oceans Aren't Heating !!! (Quite so fast ….)." Richard Littlemore. 6 August 09. 
• "Climate Crock Anthony Watts Scrubs YouTube Video." Kevin Grandia. 27 July 09. 
• "Climate Crock of the Week: What's Up With Watts? [flame war edition]." Kevin Grandia. 25 July 09.
• "Climate denier blog site to be crowned 'Best Science Blog'." Kevin Grandia." 12 January 09.

 Resources

1. "About," WUWT. Accessed February, 2012.

2. "Does Anthony Watts have a college degree?", Warming101 Blog, October 27, 2009.

3. Anthony Watts. "Gore to throw insults on 60 minutes," WUWT, March 27, 2008.

4. Anthony Watts. "Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable?" (PDF), SurfaceStatoins.org, 2009. Retrieved February, 2012, from server at Watts Up With That (blog).

5. Evan Tuchinsky. "Watts, me worry?", Newsreview.com, December 6, 2007. Archived February 23, 2012, with WebCite.

6. "Anthony Watts," International Conference on Climate Change (climateconference.heartland.org). Accessed February, 2012.

7. Paul Krugman. "The Truth, Still Inconvenient," New York Times, April 3, 2011. Archived February 23, 2012, with WebCite.

8. "Resources," Berkely Earth Project. Accessed February, 2012.

9. "4th International Conference on Climate Change" (PDF), The Heartland Institute. Retrieved February 23, 2012, from Lawrence Gould's website on the University of Hartford web server.

10. Anthony Watts. "Climate change 'fraud' letter: a Martin Luther moment in science history,"  Christian Science Monitor, October 19, 2010. Archived with WebCite, February 23, 2012.

11. "APS Comments on Harold Lewis’ Resignation of his Society Membership" (Press Release), American Physical Society, October 12, 2010.

12. Joe Romm. "The video that Anthony Watts does not want you to see: The Climate Denial 'Crock of the Week'," Climate Progress, July 29, 2009.

13. Anthony Watts. "On Climate, Comedy, Copyrights, and Cinematography," WUWT, July 30, 2009.

14. "Speakers," Heartland Institute Third International Conference on Climate Change. Archived July 14, 2010.

15. "Watts-NYC-2008," surfactstations.org. Accessed February, 2012.

16. Kevin Grandia. "Debunking Another Climate Change Crock: What's Up with Anthony Watts? [video]," Huffington Post, July 25, 2009.

17. "WHOIS Results for wattsupwiththat.com," Network Solutions.

18. "Contact," KPAY 1290. Accessed February 23, 2012.

19. ExxonSecrets Factsheet: Anthony Watts.

20. "Anthony Watts," SourceWatch Profile.