I heard the weather guy from Rnews (I’m fairly certain it was Rnews) say this has been the warmest average December temperature since they started keeping records and I shook my head in disbelief.

Is it just me or is our current weather trend make you “feel” out of sorts. Almost like an out of body experience.

NYC has Cherry Blossoms now… it couldn’t possibly be global, uhh trends in warming, could it?

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_002184822.html

My wife’s relatives from Colorado were in town this summer and were in amazement that we actually thought global warming was true. I think it’s pretty funny that Colorado is pretty much the only area of the country right now with snow. The question of course is whether this will actually affect them or if they’ll take a local stance that they had snow so there’s no way the earth is getting warmer. Of course, that also asks whether we’re taking the local stance that the earth is getting warmer because we haven’t gotten that much snow.

Well (and correct me if I’m wrong) I think a lot of the reason why Colorado is getting snow and the Northeast isn’t is because of shifts in the Jet Stream. Cold weather which once past right through the great lakes region is now being blown further north due to changing weather patterns in the oceans, caused by… you guessed it… melting polar ice caps.

Pretty scary

the overall impact has not even been realised.. Some of the more ignorant folk comment on how an overall warming is a good thing… What they are not realising is the effect it will have on alot of species and the chaos it will cause so many..

I would imagine there are things which we have not even considered yet which will be to our detriment..

Say NO to fossil fuels NOW!!!

Dear Editor,

News10 NBC Meteorologist Kevin Williams has made no secret that he’s a global warming skeptic. He claims that there are a group of scientists who do not believe that human-caused global warming is real. In a written editorial in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and several times on the air and in public forums, he has argued that one should read the writings of these skeptics before making up their own mind about global warming.

Being a person of an inquisitive nature, I did just that. I visited a web site that Mr. Williams directed me to in a recent e-mail exchange, http://www.icecap.us. There are a variety of articles on the site which claim that global warming is basically a farce. Again, out of curiosity, I did a little research on the individuals that this site listed as their ‘experts.’ I also researched the scientists that Williams listed in his Speaking Out essay in the Democrat and Chronicle.

I was shocked to discover that these so-called ‘experts’ had significant financial ties to a variety of oil, gas and coal companies. As I began to delve deeper into it, I discovered a twisted web of research funding schemes which came indirectly from shadowy front-groups that masquerade as environmental groups with flowery sounding names, such as “Greening Earth Society.” As I began to discover, these psuedo-scientific organizations are funded by companies such as ExxonMobil in order to spread false propoganda about global warming. And it’s a method by which these ‘scientists’ can hide the fact that they receive vast amounts of money from these companies.

For example, first and foremost, Kevin Williams quotes research conducted by Sallie Baliunas in his article. She is a Staff Astrophysicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Sounds impressive. But she’s also the Chair of the science advisory board of the George C. Marshall Institute, Washington, D.C., which has received $630,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998. She’s also sits on the board of the Greening Earth Society which is funded and controlled by the Western Fuels Association, an association of coal-burning utility companies which claims that greenhouse gas emissions are a good thing because they will lead to greater plant growth and a greener environment.

Amazingly, some of the board members of the Greening Earth Society are registered lobbyists for the Western Fuels Association. Greening Earth Society and Western Fuels are located at the same office suite in Arlington, VA. They share the same leader, Fred Palmer, and several Western Fuels Association board members serve on the board for Greening Earth Society, and they have the same manager of communications and governmental affairs. The groups’ leader, William O’Keefe, is a former executive of the American Petroleum Institute. And after more digging, I discovered that Baliunas is used by virtually all of the Exxon-funded front groups as their scientific expert.

Can a group that is making millions of dollars lobbying Congress on behalf of coal-burning utilities really be objective ‘scientists’ when it comes to global warming?

Another ‘esteemed scientist’ Kevin Williams mentions in his D & C editorial is Robert C. Balling. Balling has received funding from fossil-fuel industry’s organizations that exceeded $679,000 from 1989 to 2002. Contributors include ExxonMobil, the British Coal Corporation, Cyprus Minerals and OPEC. OPEC??

He also served as science advisor to, yes - you guessed it - the Greening Earth Society, which was founded by the Western Fuels Association. Since the mid-1980s, more than 25 percent of funding for his research that is critical of greenhouse theory came from companies with vested interests in carbon dioxide-producing fossil fuels such as funding from ExxonMobil, the German Coal Mining Association, and the British Coal Corporation. He received funding from and/or was underwritten by the Kuwaiti government, Cyprus Minerals Company, and other foreign coal mining corporations, including over $300,000 in research funding and honoraria (honoraria is a nice way of saying he received flat-out cash). (Zalewski, Daniel. Ties that Bind, Lingua Franca, June/July, 1997; p. 53)

Another of Williams’ ‘experts’, Craig D. Idso, is listed as the Founder, Chairman of the Board, and former President of the ‘Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change.’ Wow, now that sounds really impressive. Until you find out where they get their funding. You’ll never guess. Sherwood Idso (Craig’s father) is also listed as an expert and is president of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change. Keith E. Idso is the Vice President of that organization and Julene M. Idso is Operations Manager. They’re also relatives and a part of the family business.

But many of the so-called experts on http://www.icecap.us, don’t have any credentials as climate scientists at all. Listed among the experts is a marketing professor (Scott Armstrong), a food scientist (Martin Livermore), public policy expert (Thomas Birkland) and many TV Meteorologists and other non-climate scientists.

And, as it turns out, most of this research coming from these groups has not withstood the scrutiny of the standard scientific peer review process. I believe the term is ‘junk science.’

I could write volumes about what I discovered regarding the so-called ‘esteemed scientists’ Kevin Williams mentions as global warming experts, and all the money trails that inevitably lead back to oil, gas and coal companies - as well as oil producing nations.

Thanks to a 15-year misinformation campaign by the oil and coal industries featuring funded research by “friendly” scientists, I discovered, they have successfully created confusion around real climate science. A leaked 1998 memo by the American Petroleum Institute said, “Victory will be achieved when … average citizens recognize uncertainties in climate science.” Mission accomplished.

I hate to admit this, but I would probably become a global warming skeptic too if ExxonMobil paid me several hundred thousand dollars (ExxonMobile: if you are seeing this, please make checks payable to James C. Montanus). It’s a sad statement , but hey - I’ve got bills to pay. And a kid in college. I could use that money. I guess everyone has their price.

But what does this say about Kevin Williams’ integrity as a meteorologist? He may be able to tell us what the weather will do tomorrow afternoon, but I think this proves that he has zero credibility on the issue of Global Warming. Why didn’t he divulge in his editorial that the esteemed scientist’s he consistently quotes are funded by companies with vested interests in carbon dioxide-producing fossil fuels such as ExxonMobil? Why is he spreading industry-funded disinformation about such an important topic?

The truth is that the scientific debate on global warming is long over. The vast majority of real scientists (the ones not being paid by ExxonMobil) agree that the only question now is how to address the problem.

So the next time you hear Kevin Williams talking about Global Warming, just keep in mind that he’s full of hot air.

Exceptional post. Thank you for having the time to research this, the courage to write it, and the kindness to share it.

Kevin Williams is such a skeptic, but lives in Rochester and owns a snow making machine kept at his home to compensate for the lack there of so his children can play in the stuff.

Hetsko is “da man” - he’s bright, smart, appeals to all ages, and you can tell by watching him that this guy just loves weather.

He’s honest as the day is long, and the type of guy you would just love to have as your neighbor.

Way to go Scott - be honest - be yourself - that’s why we’re watching YOU!

We? Really, they have viewers that aren’t relatives? I can’t remember channel 8 having decent ratings since the advent of color television, and I’m old enough to remember watching them in black and white.

I’ve always watched Channel 8. Ratings are like polls. You can live by them or decide for yourself.

I will give Kudos to Evan Dawson, Sean Carroll and Rachel Barnhardt. But NOBODY does weather like Hetsko.

No they’re not. Ratings are based on viewing or listening habits. Polls don’t drive ad buys but ratings certainly do. People do decide for themselves and most aren’t watching TV08. That doesn’t mean anything other than for a variety of reasons they prefer 13 and 10.

I watch them all and generally in the end, go to intellicast to figure out for myself what weather to expect.

Besides, it’s Western NY. You don’t like the weather, just wait 15 minutes. It’ll change.