Crackpot
Roy W. Spencer received his Ph.D. in meteorology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981. Before becoming a Principal Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2001, he was a Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where he and Dr. John Christy received NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for their global temperature monitoring work with satellites. Dr. Spencer’s work with NASA continues as the U.S. Science Team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite.
Scientist
Bill McKibben wanted to make sure he warned his audience of one thing: he is the “bummer outer” of people, he said.
“I do apologize for being depressing,” McKibben said. “You all have had a nice day and now you come and listen to me and that will be that. I apologize in advance for that.”
McKibben said global warming is the single greatest problem humankind has ever faced, it will take a global movement to stop global warming from getting even worse, and the key to that movement is fighting the fossil fuel industry — or, more specifically, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
McKibben said he thought he would be content being a writer. Then he went to Bangladesh as a reporter and there was an outbreak of a disease caused by a certain mosquito. McKibben was infected and he said the hot temperatures that occurred because of global warming is perfect for mosquitoes. He said it was the sickest he has ever been and as he sat in the hospital ward he thought that it was not fair the people of Bangladesh were paying for a climate problem they have not caused.