Maybe the title is a bit dramatic? Well, I figure when a Oregon AMS (American Meteorological Society) meeting makes good fodder (it did today) for local conservative radio talk shows, it should be something I mention here on our weather blog. Sure they’ll move on to something more spicy tomorrow but let’s chat about it.
Here’s the story:
For the past 5 weeks or so, our local AMS chapter has had a meeting scheduled at OMSI (we just use their space, they don’t participate) for tomorrow, Tuesday, the 29th. The subject matter is global warming; we’ve had a few of those talks in the past, along with a climate debate with the previous State Climatologist George Taylor and current State Climatologist Phil Mote. In the past year or so the AMS Executive Committee (I’m the Secretary) has been approached by some of the critics of the human-caused global warming theory. They’d like to present their thoughts. So we decided to give them a podium for the night. No big deal, at least to us. One is a meteorologist (Chuck Wiese) and the other is a physicist (Gordon Fulks). The meeting is all scheduled, and just 5 days before, OMSI abruptly cancels it.
Here is the Oregon AMS press release sent to our members, cancelling the meeting:
We have apologized to the AMS for the inconvenience that this has caused. OMSI is unwavering in our commitment to provide life-long science opportunities for children and adults. We have extended a formal invitation to the AMS to jointly develop and co-host a public forum on the science behind the human impact on climate change. We look forward to setting a date for this event and communicating it out soon.”
This is our Executive Council’s reaction to their press release (released this evening)