Lexington meteorologist encourages students to "think for yourself" and reject global warming

Via a Gwenda Bond Twitter comes this gem--a Lexington, Kentucky, meteorologist who visits an area high school and encourages the kids to think for themselves by rejecting the idea of global warming. From his blog:

"We survived the trip into the lion’s den today. Today we went over to Henry Clay High School in Lexington and spoke to almost 50 sophomores about (cue ominous Dracula kind of music) Global Climate Change....

"My mission today was to present some facts (and since it’s history it is facts) about how climate has transpired over the past years, decades, and centuries. We presented reasons why things have likely happened in very long period cycles over time, with the sun’s changes over time a very likely driver of everything climate related. We also talked about how Lexington’s climate has evolved over the last 110 years with 4 out of the top 6 warmest decades being before 1960. Most everything that is happening now has happened before and it will happen again. We talked about research done by some very smart people that disagrees with everything they’ve learned up until today. It’s just not part of the mainstream data stream for whatever reason. My challenge to them was to be skeptical…think for yourself…find your own answers and don’t just depend on what’s been spoon fed to you…not from me or anyone else. Out of everything discussed today, that’s what I truly hope they got from the talk…not necessarily all the facts and figures that I tossed at them and left with them to look over, but just planting the seed to gain more knowledge on their own. Isn’t that what school is all about?"

My favorite part is when he patronizes a girl he thinks was named "Kaira" who challenged his views on global warming:

"My apologies for not getting her name quite rignt (hey I’m getting old…) but Kaira (again forgive me if it’s not quiet right) was especially passionate about the subject and that kind of dedicaiton will serve her well later in life. Though a few of their arguments were ‘green’ in nature regarding deforestation (which we agreed with that tropical deforestation is a bad thing) it has little to do with the real discussion of global warming."

Later he adds:

"Now I only hope these kids are kind to your friendly neighborhood weatherguy on their facebook pages…."

Yeah. Good luck with that.

Glad to know we have experts like this guy visiting our public schools to tell kids the way the world really works. Also, I note the TV station has comments turned off on this guy's blog. Now that's a shame...

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EDIT: Bill Meck, the meteorologist in question, has called me out! From his blog:

I want you to think for yourself…to educate yourself and not just take what’s been spoon fed to you by me or anyone else. I’ve become aware of this little gem out there in blogland. The writer of this has a problem with me (or anyone else) encouraging high school students to actually think for themselves…this is really scary stuff kids…that thinking for yourself is actually bad.

I have a nemesis! Or wait, maybe I'm his nemesis. I guess that works both ways. The "little gem" is, of course, this blog post, which you'll get again in a weirdly self-referential way if you click that link. I had already responded to two of Mr. Meck's defenders in the comments before I thought to go look up his blog and see if that was why people were commenting on a two-month-old post. I'm adding this rebuttal to his blog post, which is really just what I said in the comments. I'd like to point out that I haven't changed my original post about this at all. (Seriously, I have many better things to do than to go back and edit an old blog post.)

The response:

At what point do I argue that kids shouldn't think for themselves? Or that Mr. Meck isn't entitled to his opinion? I just think he's dead wrong, and it pains me to think of him trading on his authority as a meteorologist to argue against the human effect on global warming. Mr. Meck may continue (unfortunately, for the sake of the planet) to keep telling students that the steady, gradual, and alarming rise in surface temperature over the past fifty years is merely a natural cycle until the ice caps melt and Lexington, KY is swallowed by the sea. That's his right. I just hope he knows how to swim.

The reason I included so much of Mr. Meck's "think for yourself" business is not because I disagree with thinking for one's self. It's for exactly the reason both of you [the commenters] have latched onto it here, and not the real argument about global warming. Look at your own comments. Rather than discuss facts, it's, "proponents of global warning don't want you to think for yourself!" [I'd like to point out that this is exactly why Mr. Meck's picking on me too--although he did at least offer a link to a study that supports his opinion.]

"Think for yourself" has in many ways become code for "ignore the science" in arguments like this, as though if we are to accept a predominant scientific theory we aren't thinking for ourselves. It's the same with arguments against evolution. When faced with evidence to the contrary, creationists cry, "think for yourself! Don't believe everything science tells you!" I hear that as the last resort of the desperate--an appeal to our innate desire for individuality. "Don't be like everyone else! Just because everyone else believes it, you don't have to! If enough of us deny it, it won't be true!"

Let's not kid ourselves. Mr. Meck's message that day was not "think for yourself." He had an agenda (which again, is his right) and "think for yourself" was the way he hoped to win followers to a losing cause. When a young girl stood up and told him what she did think for herself, he was as dismissive of her as I am of him. He can't have it both ways. People who accept the facts of mankind's effect on global warming are thinking for themselves--and for everyone else on the planet as well.

I hope kids *do* take his challenge to think for themselves and look up more information about global warming. They will quickly find studies like the one by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change--established in part by the World Meteorological Society--which says, "An increasing body of observations gives a collective picture of a warming world and other changes in the climate system... There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities." Since 2007, no scientific body of national or international standing has maintained a dissenting opinion to this study. That includes the American Meteorological Society, of which I'll bet Mr. Meck is a member. In their opinion, "Human activities have become a major source of environmental change. Of great urgency are the climate consequences of the increasing atmospheric abundance of greenhouse gases... Because greenhouse gases continue to increase, we are, in effect, conducting a global climate experiment, neither planned nor controlled, the results of which may present unprecedented challenges to our wisdom and foresight as well as have significant impacts on our natural and societal systems."

Yes, it's a free country; thus, Bill Meck is entitled to every wrong opinion he wants to have. I'm also free to be unhappy about him spreading his head-in-the-sand gospel to Kentucky students.