Departing Georgia Tech professor Dr. Judith Curry doesn’t dispute the theory of global warming. She just questions the assertion that humans have contributed significantly to the climate change. “It’s clearly warming, and it’s been warming overall for several hundred years,” Dr. Curry told Tucker Carlson Friday night on Fox News. “But the key question is how much of the warming over the last 50 years is caused by humans. There has been a dominant theme of humans causing the climate change. But far too little funding and effort have gone into understanding natural climate variability.”
Curry says the issue has become so “politicized” that she can “no longer handle the craziness.” So now Curry, 63, has decided to walk away from her tenured position at Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Curry contends that she has seen no clear signal that global warming is being caused by humans. “My interpretation of the evidence is that we really can’t tell,” she told Carlson. “I have been vilified by some of my colleagues who are activists and don’t like anyone challenging their big story. I walk around with knives sticking out of my back.”
Curry said she felt she was being “ineffective at the university level and sometimes felt like she was “beating my head against the wall.”
Agreeing that the stakes are high on global warming, Dr. Curry now believes she can have more impact outside the university in the private section. She said on her own blog, Climate Etc., that she plans to focus on growing her private business Climate Forecast Applications Network, which provides insights into climate and weather risks for agriculture and energy companies.
Curry agrees with 98 percent of the climate scientists that humans are warming the planet, and reportedly was even an out-spoken advocate of the issues during the George W. Bush presidency. Where she differs with vocal opponents centers around just how much humans are actually causing the temperatures to rise. Curry believes natural forces play a larger role.
When announcing her Tech departure, Curry wrote in her blog about her “growing disenchantment with universities and the academic field.” She no longer knew what to say to students regarding “how to navigate the craziness in the field of climate science.”
Curry was also in the news in 2015 when U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., sent letters to employers of Curry and six other climate researchers who had testified on Capitol Hill asking for their funding sources and other information. It was reported then that Grijalva was “investigating whether Curry’s voice is being funded by interests that profit from the energy status quo.” Curry flatly rejected the notion. She told the Atlanta Journal Constitution at that time that her funding comes from government sources.
Calls to the University System of Georgia reacting to Curry’s retirement were not returned.
Cindy Morley is an InsiderAdvantage staff writer.
