It's always interesting when the political scripts aren't followed in scientific issues. And Berkeley professor Richard Muller's about-face last week on the issue of climate change may be one of the most notable departures from the script in recent years.
If you haven't heard yet, Muller, a noted skeptic of climate change, delivered the preliminary results of his Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project at a congressional hearing last week. To the chagrin of conservative critics of the global warming theory, Muller announced that the preliminary results of the project support a global warming trend "very similar to that reported by prior groups." It hasn't been missed by liberal commentators, such as the New York Times' Paul Krugman, that the Berkeley project has been partly financed by the Koch foundation, the deep-pocket supporter of conservative causes, including climate change denial.
Just a couple of weeks ago, conservative commenter Conn Caroll was extolling Muller as exposing "left's duplicity on climate change" on the Heritage Foundation's blogsite.
Perhaps just as predictably, Joseph Romm at the liberal Center for American Progress, was denouncing Muller as an author of "widely debunked books," just three days before the March 31 hearing by the House Committee on Science Space and Technology, at which Muller did his about-face on climate change.
We'll stay tuned to this one to see just what the new impressions of Muller from the right and left will be over the next few weeks.
David Kassel
Accountable Strategies Consulting
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