Weathermen Who Don't Know Which Way the Wind Blows

Global warming skeptics (aka deniers) have their forum: it’s called AM radio. So it’s curious that the Oregon chapter of the American Meteorological Society has chosen to give several prominent skeptics a platform to espouse their misinformed ideas. The chapter ought to have taken its cue from Portland’s Oregon Museum of Science and Industry which recently refused to rent the organization space for the anti-global warming panel discussion over well-founded concerns that the presentation lacked “balance.” Rather than give up, the meteorological society continued shopping and found a willing host in the Portland Airport Shilo Inn, which happens to be owned by prominent conservative Mark Hemstreet. According to a recent piece in the Oregonian, the Oregon chapter of the American Meteorological Society takes no official position on global warming. That’s not very courageous, but understandable for an apolitical group. What’s less obvious is why the organization would want to associate itself with a movement that is the modern equivalent of the flat earth society.

This article appears in Jan 5-11, 2012.