by Judith Curry
Effective January 1, I have resigned my tenured faculty position at Georgia Tech.
Before reflecting on a range of things, let me start by answering a question that may have popped into your head: I have no plans to join the Trump administration (ha ha).
Technically, my resignation is a retirement event, since I am on the Georgia State Teachers Retirement System, and I need to retire from Georgia Tech to get my pension (although I am a few years shy of 65). I have requested Emeritus status.
So, I have retired from Georgia Tech, and I have no intention of seeking another academic or administrative position in a university or government agency. However, I most certainly am not retiring from professional life.
Why did I resign my tenured faculty position?
I’m ‘cashing out’ with 186 published journal articles and two books. The superficial reason is that I want to do other things, and no longer need my university salary. This opens up an opportunity for Georgia Tech to make a new hire (see advert).
The deeper reasons have to do with my growing disenchantment with universities, the academic field of climate science and scientists.
Wrong trousers
I’ve been in school since I was 5 years old. Until a few years ago, I regarded a tenured faculty position at a major university to be a dream job, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
Apart from my own personal career trajectory and the ‘shocks’ that started in 2005 with our hurricanes and global warming paper, and the massive spike in 2009/2010 from Climategate, I’ve found that universities have changed substantially over the past 5-10 years.
At first, I thought the changes I saw at Georgia Tech were due to a change in the higher administration (President, Provost, etc). The academic nirvana under the prior Georgia Tech administration of Wayne Clough, Jean-Lou Chameau and Gary Schuster was a hard act to follow. But then I started to realize that academia and universities nationwide were undergoing substantial changes. I came across a recent article that expresses part of what is wrong: Universities are becoming like mechanical nightingales.
The reward system that is in place for university faculty members is becoming increasingly counterproductive to actually educating students to be able to think and cope in the real world, and in expanding the frontiers of knowledge in a meaningful way (at least in certain fields that are publicly relevant such as climate change). I’ve written on these topics before, I won’t belabor this here.
So why not try to change the system from the inside? Well, this is not the battle I want to fight, apart from any realistic assessment of being able to shift the ponderous beast from within.
Or maybe it’s just a case of ‘wrong trousers’ as far as I’m concerned. Simply, universities no longer feel like the ‘real deal’ to me (note: this criticism is not targeted at Georgia Tech, which is better than most). It’s time for me to leave the ivory tower.
A deciding factor was that I no longer know what to say to students and postdocs regarding how to navigate the CRAZINESS in the field of climate science. Research and other professional activities are professionally rewarded only if they are channeled in certain directions approved by a politicized academic establishment — funding, ease of getting your papers published, getting hired in prestigious positions, appointments to prestigious committees and boards, professional recognition, etc.
How young scientists are to navigate all this is beyond me, and it often becomes a battle of scientific integrity versus career suicide (I have worked through these issues with a number of skeptical young scientists).
Let me relate an interaction that I had with a postdoc about a month ago. She wanted to meet me, as an avid reader of my blog. She works in a field that is certainly relevant to climate science, but she doesn’t identify as a climate scientist. She says she gets questioned all the time about global warming issues, and doesn’t know what to say, since topics like attribution, etc. are not topics that she explores as a scientist. WOW, a scientist that knows the difference! I advised her to keep her head down and keep doing the research that she thinks interesting and important, and to stay out of the climate debate UNLESS she decides to dig in and pursue it intellectually. Personal opinions about the science and political opinions about policies that are sort of related to your research expertise are just that – personal and political opinions. Selling such opinions as contributing to a scientific consensus is very much worse than a joke.
Stepping back from all this, I reminded myself that I was a tenured faculty member – in principle I could do whatever I wanted. The intellectual pursuits that now interest me are:
- Assessment of climate science in a manner that is relevant for policy, with full account of uncertainty
- Explore philosophy of science issues as related to epistemology of climate models, reasoning about uncertain complex issues
- Decision making under deep uncertainty
- Sociology of science and experimenting with social media
When I first started down this new path in 2010, I published papers that could be categorized as applied philosophy of science (e.g. uncertainty monster, etc). This seemed to be a path towards maintaining academic ‘legitimacy’ in light of my new interests, but frankly I got bored with playing the game. Why go to the extra effort to publish papers, wrestling with reviewers who (usually) know less than you do about your topic (not to mention their biases), having to pay to get an article published some months in the future, so that maybe 100 people will read it? Not to mention the broader issues related to coping with the university bureaucracy, government funding, etc.
Once you detach from the academic mindset, publishing on the internet makes much more sense, and the peer review you can get on a technical blog is much more extensive. But peer review is not really the point; provoking people to think in new ways about something is really the point. In other words, science as process, rather than a collection of decreed ‘truths.’
At this point, I figure that I can reach more people (including students and young researchers) via social media. Do I pretend to have any answers to all this? No, but I hope I am provoking students and scientists to think outside of their little bubble.
The real world
So my fall from the ivory tower that started in 2005 is now complete [link to my 2006 AGU presentation agu_integrityofscience_curry] .
What next?
I am interested in figuring out new and better ways to apply weather and climate data, weather forecast information and future regional climate scenarios to supporting real world decision making to manage risks and associated with weather and climate variability.
I became interested in such applications over a decade ago, and Peter Webster and I founded a company Climate Forecast Applications Network (CFAN) to do just that. If you haven’t checked out our website (ever or even recently), check it out – cfanclimate.net – I spent my entire winter break revising the website using some good suggestions from Larry Kummer of Fabius Maximus fame.
CFAN started as a university start-up company in 2006, and didn’t have any full time employees until a few years go. We now employ 7 Ph.D. scientists (in addition to myself and Peter), plus software engineers, etc. With my retirement from Georgia Tech, we are spinning up the company into a new phase to explore new forecast product developments and decision support tools, new markets, new partnerships, new regions.
So far, most of CFAN’s revenue comes from the ‘weather’ side (days to seasons), with a few projects on developing future climate scenarios (I wrote about a current project here Generating regional scenarios of climate change).
I find all this tremendously interesting, challenging and rewarding. Not to mention enormously time consuming (CFAN needs to make more money so that we can hire more people to take some of the load off myself and the other managers, all of whom are wearing too many hats). I am learning a huge amount about decision support, management, marketing and sales, finance, etc.
At this point, the private sector seems like a more ‘honest’ place for a scientist working in a politicized field than universities or government labs — at least when you are your own boss.
Social media
So, where does all this leave my endeavors with social media (including Climate Etc.?) Resigning my faculty position and taking on a full time plus position in running CFAN actually means less time for blogging, rather than more (at least in the near term).
I remain very interested in the interactions afforded by social media. However, over the past year I have devoted considerably less time to writing original material for Climate Etc. Apart from being really busy, I have been spending more time on twitter (which is a much smaller time investment).
I will be starting a new blog for CFAN, more focused on weather and shorter-term climate issues (I will cross post any relevant posts at Climate Etc.)
I will also try to write more frequent but shorter posts at Climate Etc., with short excerpts and brief comments on some of the articles that I am tweeting about. I will be relying on guest bloggers to provide more technical analyses. So I definitely intend to keep the blog going, but in context of managing a very busy schedule.
We’ll see how all this plays out, but I figured I’ve earned the right to explore and do what I want. This is my definition of academic freedom (and I’m not asking anyone else to pay for it).
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Best wishes in your new endeavors. I’ve always appreciated your honest, direct input in the climate debate. It has been a breath of fresh air to a layperson who is very skeptical about the CAGW hypothesis.
Seconded.
Thirded.
Fourthed.
“But peer review is not really the point; provoking people to think in new ways about something is really the point. ”
You have been helping me to do that– think in new ways, thing for myself. Thank you, an please continue to do so.
I admire your stand and will keep reading.
I know the feeling Judy. I resigned from my University last April and instead became the regional director for the Brexit campaign in my home county of Yorkshire and Humberside.
Time comes when actions are more important than academic treatises. Welcome back to the real world.
Congratulations on your academic career and best wishes for the future.
Congratulations on an exciting and wonderful opportunity. Basically you’re “just” retiring early. I have found giving up and retiring from academia to be the best thing I could possibly do for myself. (Academics will argue I dropped out and never made it since I never actually got to a paid tenure position.) It took me six months of moping to “get over” having “given up” on making it in the academic rat race. I spent a lot of that time sleeping because of years of living stressed and sleep deprived. My health improved enormously. I finally finished my book, Embryogenesis Explained. I now spend my time doing what I want. I don’t do what I don’t want. I am busier than I have ever been in my entire life and life has never been so good. A friend of mine once said “You can always tell an academic by the number of knives they have in their back.” It’s nice to finally stop trying to stand up straight and walk around with all those knives in my back pretending they aren’t there. Congratulations again. I think you are going to really love this life once the shock passes.
“Welcome to the Real World” :)
“…..it often becomes a battle of scientific integrity versus career suicide”
A testament to the lack of integrity in today’s academia. It’s surreal how bad it’s become.
My very best wishes Judith for 2017, I wish you every success in all your future endeavours. Perhaps GIT are no longer worthy of you.
Gosh this sounds maudlin I fell like I’m starting to write a obituary.
I hope you will continue this blog.
Dr Curry, welcome to the Real World. We look forward to the new you.
Congratulations, Judith! All the best to you in your new adventures!
I’m sure by this point you’ve seen my posts, it helps to have a gold standard name such as yours, but for someone like myself, the likelihood I’d get my work past the guards is so slim, it’s not worth my time, when I still have things to learn from the data.
I think you’ll find this, a relief.
Dr Curry if you need more help at CFAN, consider leveraging with students working partime. I’ve done that and it worked well. They need a bit of care to get started, but they turn out well. Juniors and Seniors seem to deliver more per monetary unit. Also over the years they graduate and either you hire them or they go work and become excellent contacts.
Hi Fernando, we have been working under that model for the past 10 years. All but one of CFAN’s scientists worked for us first at Georgia Tech. The challenge with undergrad majors in atmospheric sciences is that their IT skills are not sufficient (we did manage to successfully groom a few).
Then why not supplement with Engineers and IT people who understand climate (Like myself) the cross fertilisation is enormously contagious. Not only that, Engineers, people like me translate science into inventions – things that help people. It’s what we do!
I also know the ugly part of the establishment which is so well expressed in your note, and that one faces when approaching the status of ”emeritus”. Congratulations for your boldness, your gut, your vision, and you beautiful writings. All the best for the next new years to come. We badly need your inputs and visions, but also the views of your most professional colleagues (about climate), who will still support you. Michel.
Hi Judy. Congratulations on your transition! Your path moving to the Professor Emeritus role is one I also took a few years ago. Your experience at Georgia Tech mirrors mine at Colorado State University. I was sorry to see the Atmospheric Science Department at CSU move to group think with respect to climate issues with penalties for anyone who questioned the issue.
Rather than promoting diverse views and discussing – at CSU and more generally in the AMS, AGU, NASA, NOAA, NSF etc, the leadership of these organizations are ostracizing those who disagree with their views ( e.g. As summarized in the AGU climate change statement, for example).
My experience has been similar to my son’s as he described in his recent WSJ op-ed. I have been vilified, ostracized and marginalized only because I questioned the narrow view of the climate issue that they advocate. This exclusion occurs despite the fact that my papers are widely cited including in the topic area of climate, Thus I am glad we have the option of social media to seek to present a more accurate and balanced view of the climate subject.
I look forward to continuing to follow your outstanding work on weather and climate issues!
Roger Sr
You have my respect Dr. Pielke as does Dr. Lindzen and price that you both paid. I’m glad at any evolution but it has to be noted how painstaking and seemingly contrived Dr. Curry’s progress has been.
It’s just a little too late to go without noting it.
In 20th century “legend” academies were the place where
– basic research could be done, with uncertain far looking impact
– where freedom of speech was king
– enough budget if you can argument
On the opposite corporations were the place where :
– only short term research with predictable impact was valued
– obedience to the corporate interest was king
– tight budget, except if clearly profitable application in view
In fact you show us, and I confirm from the other side of the Atlantic (up to India) that in academies and even national labs:
– only applied research or politically correct (applied to election gain) can be done
– budget is huge for fashion science (big science, NIF,ITER,LHC), and paid by industry for non fashion applications.
– total dependencies to budget decision make freedom a myth.
– even if no budget is required, freedom of speech is attacked by social movements (see climate) or academic character assignation (see cold fusion)
On the opposite after talking with executive from two innovation division (plane and oil industry) and seeing some moves by venture division (add semiconductor, oil prospection, navy, high-tech private research, space) I realize :
– freedom of thinking is allowed, and even promoted, provided you are discrete, and discretion can be organized because media are easy to manipulate to ignore dissenting information.
– budget can be noticeable if you call it incubator or venture capital
– basic research is kept at a continuous rate to compensate lack of public research
I exaggerate a little, but time is changing.
Never forget Wright Brother did a better job than Langley with a much smaller budget.
Last week I read a interesting paper by a professor from Georgia Tech:
Multi-year persistence of the 2014/15
North Pacific marine heatwave
…Between the winters of 2013/14 and 2014/15 during the strong North American drought, the northeast Pacific experienced the largest marine heatwave ever recorded. …
I search for papers that use the word “heatwave”. We’re in one.
Dr. Curry,
Wishing you all the best! Being in the position of not looking back and saying ‘what if’ is empowering.
Congratulations! Please keep us in the loop regarding your evolving endeavors.
Thanks to everyone for your insightful and supportive comments
Judy, As ever a brilliant and thought provoking post. I wish you the very best in all your new endeavors.
I particularly like
“At this point, the private sector seems like a more ‘honest’ place for a scientist working in a politicized field than universities or government labs — at least when you are your own boss.”
Word!!
Well said, and needed. I retired in 2013 and have not looked back. I had the privilege of mentors who pursued sociology as a science — trying to uncover and understand long-term trends in technology and social organization. But I believe they (we) have long lost that battle. As one once said, we tried to do “well,” not “good.” Now it is all the study of gender pronouns and what academic elites believe is “good to think.” The brighter students know this is bunk, but many “go along to get along.” I increasingly find myself apologizing for the nonsense and damage that social “scientists” have inflicted on society. And when people I meet ask what I taught and did, I say sociology, but quickly add but I have good qualities too!
Did you ever read Daniel Kahneman’s “Thinking Fast and Slow”?
Wishing you all the best in your endeavours, many thanks for taking the time to explain the science to those of us not involved in the field.
Hi Judy
Congratulations on your major step upward. We look forward to CFAN’s much more accurate near term forecasting laying the groundwork for longer term climate forecasting.
May your work be a giant step towards discovering foundational reality as the Unicorn described in CS Lewis’s The Last Battle as:
“
David
PS Note Demetris Koutsoyiannis on Stochastic modeling as potentially more productive than current climate modelling.
Dear Judith,
Thank you for your erudition and honesty delivered without fear or favour.
I look forward to your “popping up”, some time hence.
All the best.
Dave
Professor Curry, that’s a gutsy decision. Do not worry about Professor Mann cutting a notch in a grip of his gun. Thanks partly to you, he and his Nobelist ilk are increasingly irrelevant.
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Congratulations. A wise move!
My best wishes!!!
And thanks so far.
Welcome to the world of full-time private sector life Judith!
I started my career in the private sector as the most viable option for me.
Our company, Pacific Identifications (which I own with two colleagues), has provided me with full time employment since 1988 as well as (most critically, in some ways) the part-time employment I needed while my kids were small and when my interests turned to other things (like now).
A pivotal moment, back in the late 1990s, confirmed what I had always felt was true. I was at a professional conference of marine mammal biologists and the head of the division of NOAA that had been a major client for years invited me for a drink.
She and I had never really exchanged more than a few words in relation to our research over the years but on this day, over a few beers, she said she wanted to let me know how important it had been to her and her team that I kept reminding them of the science issues involved in our collaborative work.
As government scientists, she said, they were kept so busy with attending meetings and writing reports that they too often lost track of the underlying science relevant to their research. She said that my commitment to making sure the science was addressed, even badgering them for answers to certain questions, was appreciated, even if they had not said so at the time.
That conversation meant more to me than all the university accolades I saw bestowed upon my ivory tower colleagues. If you are committed to doing science as it is meant to be done, you can do it anywhere. It does not matter who signs your paycheque.
I have always loved the freedom of being self-employed and I know that many of my university colleagues have envied my intellectual freedom. I took good advantage of that freedom and have always felt that it drove my growth as a scientist. The trade-off, of course, was economic security: most people simply cannot tolerate the anxiety of a missed paycheque that comes with self-employment.
But if you do your job well, it is not any less secure, it just has more ups and downs that must be anticipated (funds put aside to offset).
Those who look down on scientists working outside academia are largely jealous, I’ve found. When they see that I am still happy in my scientific career after more than 40 years, having accomplished so many things that pushed professional boundaries, I think it also makes many of my colleagues feel inadequate. A few have done what I have within the university system but not many. Most of them don’t bother – they just don’t have the self-discipline or the scientific curiosity (and they know it).
I wish you all the best. I think you’ll be very glad you made the move.
Susan Crockford, zoologist
Dr Curry,
Best wishes on our new direction. We can all say how much your contributions to the climate debate are appreciated and your writings and presentations have enlightened us all.
respectfully, Scott
Congratulations– on your retirement, and for airing out the ivory tower and for having won the Glass Bead Game…
Congratulations on the step up. In my time in IHEs, I found academics fighting more and more over less and less until they went to war over nothing!
Dr. Curry –
Thank you for your integrity and courage. Best wishes in your new endeavors.
Good luck with your new career. Your timing is perfect and your clients should make a fortune in the derivatives markets. Did you forecast the much warmer Jan/Feb weather? NatGas prices just plunged over 8%!
Judith,
Good luck with your new ventures.
“……provoking people to think in new ways about something is really the point……”
Thank you, please keep up the good fight. Society needs more thinkers and less followers.
In my opinion, academia has turned in to a poisoned well. From climate science, to sociology, it has turned toxic.
Judith
Needless to say you have my best wishes for your future.
This academic ‘ivory tower’ is very real and to it can be added ivory ‘bubbles’ where people-including academics but also other professional or like minded people-inhabit a parallel universe to the real world and am genuinely shocked when things don’t go their way, or someone says or does something with which they disagree (see also safe spaces, the snowflake generation etc)
There is no better illustration of this than Brexit where everyone in the Elite from the Govt, economists, BBC, Universities etc were all utterly convinced that as they all believed in the EU so would everyone else. There was genuine shock and anger and vitriol that not everyone in the country thinks as they do, with everyone not conforming to their view being idiots, senile, unthinking or not understanding the issues etc.
You had a similar situation with Trump.
My point is that perhaps academia (and ivory bubbles) are now too incestuous or convinced of their rightness to be able to learn anything from other sources. Over here we call it the ‘not invented here’ syndrome. Perhaps its not helped by the internet (and social media) where its easy to dwell permanently with like minded people. (which is why I welcome people such as JimD and JCH amongst others at this very blog).
Personally, I have become bogged down in producing several articles as I have acquired too much data (e.g. !3th Century English climate based on CET) and it is VERY difficult to sort through all the extremely diverse sources and snippets and academic papers in order to make a coherent narrative.
Similarly I have piles of data on the extraordinary temperature rise from 1695 to 1739 which seems to dwarf anything in the modern era and I am also amassing information on the 1970’s cool period, as there seems to be a concerted effort by some to demonstrate that it was all a figment of our imagination (not that I was old enough to remember it personally of course) :).
The trouble with merely publishing on blogs is that alarmists will point out it is not peer reviewed and can therefore be discounted. No better example of this than the Connely et al piece on The Global cooling scare of the 1970’s which apparently they couldn’t detect in the media and therefore didn’t happen. As that paper was peer reviewed it is held up as being the final answer.
If you, or indeed anyone here, has any comments as to when something should be a peer reviewed item rather than a blog post I would be interested to hear their views.
So, all the very best in your new endeavours. Exciting Times!!
tonyb
Thanks Tony. I think we will be seeing big changes in academic publishing over the next decade. I think arxiv is the way of the future
Best wishes, Judith.
arxiv started requiring a sponsor for a paper to be included for several decades ago! I doubt that you will have ANY trouble, but unless one has an “acceptable” sponsor, the answer (as for me) was no dice after arxiv was transferred from LANL to Princeton and I was no longer employed at LANL. This is why I have simply put my efforts in vixra and gsjournal.
Again, good luck with your venture and new direction in life.
I gave up my tenured position as full professor at the Univ. of Texas in 1979 to go to JPL. In retrospect, the reasons were a bit different than yours, but basically I did want to get out of the ivory tower and get into the real world. (Not that NASA was completely real).
Anyway, we (I and many people I know) admire and respect all the great work you have done. Your blog has provided more information, more insights, and more honesty to the field of climate than all the others combined.
You have been an inspiration to me ever since I first encountered your work around the time of Climategate. Your willingness to engage those who disagreed with you, to listen carefully, to evaluate arguments, to define carefully the REAL boundaries of agreement and disagreement, to “test all things, hold fast what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21) made me respect you right from the start, and I have valued your contribution to the AGW debates ever since. Having spent just eight years teaching at the undergraduate level and eight more at the graduate level, never tenured, I observed many of the frustrating things about academia that you’ve described, and when I made the switch out of academia first to half-time each in pastoral and non-profit work (Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, http://www.CornwallAlliance.org) in 2008 and later to full time with Cornwall Alliance, I experienced the wonderful fresh air to which other comments above refer. Thank you for all you’ve done, including your generous willingness to answer my individual requests for explanation of technical scientific matters, and I’m confident we’ll see more from you in the future. I consider it a real privilege to have gotten to know you a bit. Enjoy your new path!
I will deeply miss your blog.
Ian
Professor Curry, Congrats on your transition – to quote Monty Python: “And now for something completely different!”, or perhaps a bit more serious on your arrival after a very long “Road to Damascus moment”. I am sure I speak for many of the Denizens wishing you well, and by all means do not hesitate to contact us if we can help you in any way. It’s long past time that we return the favor for your years and effort of this blog. And we will still call you “Professor”.
Congratulations on retirement and doing what you want to do, Dr Curry.
Judith, how about you and Naomi Oreskes go on the tour circuit debating the reality, trajectory, and risks of anthropogenic climate change? I would attend such a debate.
I somehow doubt Prof Oreskes has the chops to match up against Judith.
One is scientist and one isn’t. One is more interested in advocacy and one isn’t.
And what precisely does the polemicist Oreskes know or understand about the reality, trajectory, and risks of anthropogenic climate change?
Professor Curry’s description of academia reminds me of accounts of life in the modern US military. Contrast her analysis of the alternatives faced by junior academics with those offered by the late Colonel John Boyd (USAF), one of America’s greatest strategists.
Smart officers choose the blue pill. For details see How officers adapt to life in the Pentagon: they choose the blue pill.
All the best to you Doc!
I see integration, automation, and dissemination/monetization in your future ;-)
In a month or two Dr. Curry will be asking herself, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?” Or maybe she is already.
Wow!! I couldn’t be more happy for you and Peter. The Web page looks great and I can tell you from personal experience that there is a ton of business to grab for folks who know how to do better forecasts..even slightly better..
Good wishes and good luck
Congratulations on a big and (from an outsiders perspective) inevitable decision. Means CFAN is successful, and will give you more scope to make a difference as you see fit. CE has and will continue to make a difference to the climate debate of which you have become a leader.
Back when I was helping guide a several $billion/year R&D organization, some of the brightest scientist stars we had in stuff like applied quantum physics (MRAM), information theory (lossless compression), and chemistry/physics intersections like OLED and FED developed a morale boosting saying: Those that can, do; those that can’t, teach (they meant university academic research). You can and now do full time.
Dr. Judith, a new year, a new life. I suspect I speak for more than myself when I say that you have my appreciation for all your many contributions to turning climate science back towards science, my best wishes for your new endeavors, and my profound thanks for your blog. It has been an ever-interesting and most welcome contribution to the ongoing climate science discussion.
My very best to you,
w.
Willis, you deserve congratulations for defending Judy, and seeing her potential, on WUWT when she was just beginning to detach from the consensus.
Channeling Peter Lang,
But where’s the damage function!
(Good luck, Dr Curry).
I too left academia to run a startup. Have a great trip!
This blog has established itself as a major publication, and a special one at that. It should be sustainable with gentle oversight, but you might consider recruiting a volunteer editor or two.
congratulations and welcome to the wonderful world of retirement.
“Once you detach from the academic mindset, publishing on the internet makes much more sense, and the peer review you can get on a technical blog is much more extensive.”
Funny that the modern climate is in fact quite stable, while university led academic science is facing existential threats it barely recognizes.
Best of luck Judith.
‘At this point, the private sector seems like a more ‘honest’ place for a scientist working in a politicized field than universities or government labs — at least when you are your own boss’
Sure. Your ‘peer-reviewer’ is your customer, not your competitor.
The customer is interested in results that work.. Being ‘interesting’ or ‘consistent with latest Groupthink’ isn’t important. But providing a product or service that customers are willing to pay for is. You are only as good as the last thing you sold.
Oh – and customers aren’t hugely interested in the prizes and baubles and status symbols that academics so obsess over. Just the results.
And, of course, congratulations on escaping to reality!
Case in point, The National Weather Service forecast just sent NatGas prices down over 10%. Doesn’t mater if they are right? Only thing that maters is if CFAN clients were able to beat the market and arbitrage the price dislocation. Of course if CFAN was forecasting a much cooler Jan/Feb then their client are not happy today.
Congratulations: anyone with the initials JC should do well. Good Luck in your new venture!
I had always put scientists on a somewhat idealistic pedestal. That is until I dug into the climate science debate about 8 years ago and was appalled at the sniping and conduct by some of the main characters. By chance, I found your blog and my faith in science was restored, at least in this corner of the world. What you thought has always been less important to me than how you thought. Detached, objective, analytical and humble about the limitations and challenges in climate science were the qualities you brought that were most impressive. Some would say qualities that are too rare in climate science
You are the professional’s professional. I would have said until a few years ago you were the academic’s academic. However, I share a lot of your misgivings about academia and that accolade would no longer be a compliment, as far as I am concerned.
Best of Luck. You will excel at any endeavor you pursue and climate science will still be the beneficiary regardless of what you do.
Best wishes, good luck– and thank you!
“I have no plans to join the Trump administration (ha ha).”
I sincerely hope that he does.
Either way we all wish you happy and prosperous New Year
He couldn’t make a better appointment.
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Dr. Judith Curry — The heretic that asked her profession to think more clearly about climate.
As a layperson, you forced me to do the same and I am grateful for that. It’s so easy to fall for propaganda, media, and people with overzealous agendas. Your blog provides a necessary balance in a humanity-changing equation.
Thank you, and best of luck in your future endeavors.
Judith ==> Wow. Your courage to stick to and act on your convictions has always impressed me beyond expression. Best of luck in your refocused endeavors.
I’ll try to up my act a bit to contribute a little more to Climate Etc — it is too valuable a resource to let slowly recede from the forefront of climate science online.
Judy: I’m jealous. I guess I’m 20 years behind you.
The key to being able to doing this was to to spin up new sources of income: the new company and consulting
I wish you well in your new life.
Congratulations on your career achievements and good luck with CFAN and future activities, Judy! – Neal Ballard
“provoking people to think in new ways about something is really the point”
Excellent. And I concur that regional climate forecasting is a priority.
Judith, your blog and the Denizens have done so much to combat the soul-destroying Consensus. Some day, when the full history of the global fever is written, the work of you and your contributors will be seen to have been central.
Perhaps the fever will break in our lifetime! (Not that much time left to me, but that’s OK.)
“Perhaps the fever will break in our lifetime!”
Cold Comfort in a different key!
Congratulations on a brave new start, and good luck with your new endeavors. Glad to hear Climate Etc will still survive, I think it’s a very important forum that has made a significant impact. Appreciate all your hard work and tolerance and imagination that has made it work. My own time is very pressured these days, but I’ll get a new post to you in the near future.
Reblogged this on Tallbloke's Talkshop and commented:
‘I figured I’ve earned the right to explore and do what I want.’
Absolutely, it should be fun.
Good luck. Sorry that academia is not a more welcoming, tolerant, place. Think about this issue often in connection with the education of my soon to be college age children.
JD
PS sorry for glitch above
Ah, congratulations, and good luck, and please don’t leave us for too long ofperiods of time. And most of all thank you.
I am one who reads often, but comments little.
I have to say I enjoyed Climate Hustle :) Judith is a star!!!
I saw it at about the same time I saw the Leonardo D.Caprio thing, sponsored by National Geographic. Three college instructors, two politicians, and one activist were on a panel afterwards, Raving.!! I had material, in my hand, completely contradicting , everything in the Hollywood production except social conditions at some locations. It was so
bad, and of course all college freshmen in in certain classes had to attend
and be indoctrinated. .
I had to leave in the middle of the panel discussion. However, I am challenging all of them, to contradict significant material I am sending them and letting them they will be in a book I am writing. I have offers from two publishers. The book will include human nature and the human need for a religion, be it climate change, witchcraft, eugenics and more.
Climate alarmism has actually helped me to understand how we humans believed in so many things like witchcraft.
Judy, welcome to the unfettered world of economics without silos or groupspeak. Your contributions, I think, will reach a larger audience interested in the larger climatological and economic development world, especially if I have anything to do with it. The entire January issue of “The New Criterion” is devoted to free speech and academia. Best, Steve
P.S. As you already know: “If you are willing to ruffle feathers, you need to be willing to take the withering backlash.”
Anonymous Heins
Judith, I’m joining the list of those offering congratulations and good fortunes for the future. Your honesty and integrity will surely be missed at Georgia Tech.
Cheers.
Long time viewer and very occasional contributor. Congratulations on your release from the tyrany of having to analyse every single word before you press send. I have tried to find any research into the use/abuse of the precautionary principle which I think has been wielded to good effect by the usual suspects and persuaded many influential people to support the unsupportable. I may of cource be way off. I am certain that you will enjoy the thrill promised by the self induced freedom and look forward to sampling some of the fruits of your endeavours.
Congratulations – I hope they fill your position with another skeptic (it does seem like things may turn around with different leadership in D.C.) Wishing you all the best!
All the best Judith. You’re posts are excellent so it is great to hear that you plan to keep writing.
Dr Curry
Your timing is impeccable; ie, leaving the ship of academia while it is still moored yet about to set sail into a storm, some of its own making. I refer specifically to the new regime in Washington DC, scuttling the current climate ship of state. More likely than not, the money flow from Government agencies like EPA, NOAA, NASA, Commerce etc will diminish for some projects to a mere trickle while wholly new projects and funding will take some years to launch.
The “private sector” may prove in these times to be much more productive; ie, the “new” type of citizen scientist unencumbered for validation by lists of degrees and credentials.
Congratulations on the transition. You seem to be leading, ie, out in front, again.
Great news when a scientist of your stature can detach herself from the (soft) chains of the Academia space. Best wishes! I have enjoyed your blog for several years now, learned a lot as well.
Dear Prof. Curry,
I’ve followed your blog for only a few months but have become addicted to it (in a good way). I hope you will continue the conversation so that civilians like me can be exposed to the truth about the politicized science of climate change. All the best in your future endeavors,
Bill Lama
First I wish you all success in your new career.
Second, I did something like this in 1993 for parallel reasons leaving a tenured geology professorship at the University of Illinois @ Urbana-CHampaign, followed by a three-year stint as President and State Sea Grant Director of a marine consortium. That turned out to be a bad match so I went into geological consulting for 18 years. I had plenty of work, met some great people and found the geological consulting community to be of a higher ethical standard than many colleagues in academe. It didn’t take me long to wish that I had done this sooner.
Again, best wishes, good luck and keep us posted.
George Devries Klein, PhD, PG, FGSA
Congratulations on this milestone & good luck w/ CFAN and other pursuits.
Max Planck once said something on the topic, as I recall.
Congratulations Judy! It was a pleasure to work on PhD committees with you and a couple of what turned out to be great young scientists.
Yes, I also owe you my article for Etc. Let’s talk.
Regards, John
I noticed no difference when I retired except the bank statements changed. I still do the same scientific computing.as when I was working, a job and hobby miracle possible owing to suddenly cheap computers.
“A deciding factor was that I no longer know what to say to students and postdocs regarding how to navigate the CRAZINESS in the field of climate science.” I’m curious how climate scientists in academic positions respond when a student shows interest in climate science. As a retired professor (in another field) I always felt that my number one priority was to the students.
Do students need to be made aware of the CRAZINESS? Do they need to be told to run as far from climate science as possible? And does it matter which side of the CRAZINESS you stand?
In a comment at
https://cliscep.com/2017/01/03/judith-curry-resigns-from-georgia-tech/
I demonstrate that, according to the statistics currently practiced in peer-reviewed science, you are almost certainly immortal.
Long may you continue to be so.
It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any media coverage outside the climate blogosphere. I hope she does some interviews.
Congratulations! I look forward to following the alt-ac career paths you’ll open for us all.
My best wishes for your new endeavours and the freedom of pursuing science “the scientific way”. All the best
What a great story, Judy. Probably your best blogpost, ever. Welcome to the “real world”. You’re a great person and will really love it.
Dr. Curry
When the final chapters are written in The Age of Global Warming, you will be one of the stars. (Yes, I know Rupert Darwall has a book with that title.)
Climate Etc has been wonderful.
All the best Dr. Curry. You are and will remain “one of the good/honest guys”.
Dale Mullen
Thank you so much for your efforts in this field. You probably would have attained a much higher position , and certainly more money if you had went along with the AGW crowd.
Best of luck in the years ahead.
Best of luck in your new endeavors! It will be fun, and I look forward to it in a few years myself.
Judith
Good luck along your new path! You have been a source of the most wonderful inspiration, and I have no doubt that you will continue to do useful and innovative work at CFAN, while nurturing the curiosity and skills of your staff and clients.
Congratulations – I wish you all the best. :)
And thank you for invaluable contributions.
Regarding one of the intellectual pursuits that now interest you:
“Explore philosophy of science issues…”
I´ve spent some time doing that lately.
This is the result of my effort to cut to the core of science:
The rules of science
Judith,
I wish you all the best.
May you live exceptionally well, and prosper.
Gratefully,
Mike Flynn.
Dr. Curry,
I wish you the best.
I quote some of your Statements in my book “Dioses en el patio” (Gods in the Courtyard) (in Spanish): http://qartuppi.com/2016/DIOSES.pdf
Transition is a sign of living.
Thank you,
Armando Páez (Mexico)
Judy, all the best for the new phase, but please keep the blog going! It’s nice to be able to say exactly what you think without having to worry about what harm you may be doing to the institution you work in.
Dear Judith,
It is my wish that you find satisfaction, happiness, and effect as your travel down the new road. You’ve previously made a detour in 2010 to follow the “road less traveled” and along the way, you’ve made enemies, as well as many new friends. That took exceptional courage, and we are all better for it. Now, you can choose the road you like.
Best wishes, and kindest regards, with respect.
Anthony Watts
Judy, I’ve always been amazed that more seemingly intelligent people don’t have the courage of their convictions needed to choose a new path in life. There are few things less appealing than whining academics who lack the steel to seek alternative avenues to “be the change.” A life without risk is also a life without the thrill of occasional unexpected success, even if it too often comes at the cost of painful failure. I’ve had far more of the latter, but the occasional triumph has made this life worthwhile.
There is nothing that focuses the mind quite as much as being out on a limb. I wish you and Peter great success with CFAN, and all the excitement, passion, and stimulation that comes with that leap.
Remember the wise words of Katherine Hepburn: “If you follow all the rules, you miss all the fun.”
Rutt
Hi Rutt, thanks for stopping by, i sent you a message on twitter
Hi Dr Curry,
Will you keep climate etc blog going?
Scott
My Grandmother was Irish, so
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face …
In large institutions group think is king,
seems to the the human failing thing.
Modelers in cloud towers
whiling away the tenured hours
tend to ferget their models aren’t
the reality.
Likewise, silk shirted coteries in
whispery corridors of power
do not concern themselves with
the uncertainty,
mission consensus or maybe
global governance is their thing.
Wishing you good luck, Dr Curry,
in your venture living life on
the littoral.
Beth, beautiful poem. Spoken as a person who took one English lit class as an elective, (hint, Grey’s elogy, Moldering Heaps of Turf) and was asked to join the deoartment as a potentisl summa. I summaed, but not in that department.
Jusith is departing on a life adventure many of us ‘deplorables’ have already. Me, once in 1999, once in 2000, and once in 2005. Excillerating, all.
Thx Rud, look forward to more posts from you
on new pathway Climate Etc. Always has been
an inter-active open salon, serfs like that. bts
Every time someone leaves academia, I imagine the freed up parking pass and the ensuing mad scramble for it, much like a food riot in a prison camp.
But perhaps Georgia Tech isn’t as bad as other schools in that regard.
Best wishes on your new endeavors, and try to spend at least a week without getting out of your fuzzy pajamas. ^_^
A PERSONAL NOTE:
Judy and I have been together for many years and partners in many endeavors. I would like to make a number of personal observations relative to her post.
I have never met another person with higher integrity, honesty and forthrightness. When you ask Judy for an opinion, one expects her to be honest. There is no flim flam! I have been the recipient of advice in many joint areas of our lives and when I pick myself off the floor, bruised ego and all, one finds her advice has been sound.
She is an eloquent spokesperson for the integrity of science and stands apart from many academics that, for their own survival, have been forced along paths that allows a lack of questioning we would hope would exist in all areas of science. In my opinion she has challenged the “oligarchs of conformity” on either side of the climate discussion. But I think you may have noticed these characteristics within her blog.
Let me say a few things about her scientific career of which many of many of you may be less aware. Judy ranks extremely highly in many areas of science ranging from radiation theory, cloud physics, thermodynamics and arctic climate. Besides modeling and theoretical work she has organized field experiences in hazardous parts of the world. Of late, she has major contributions in extended prediction that have been discussed on the blog. She has published nearly 200 papers in the standard peer reviewed literature and two major scientific text books as well. Given her extremely high citations and scientific influence, one has to wonder (but not very far) why she has not received the accolades she clearly deserves. She has been nominated for awards and prizes many times. But, simply put, there are no prizes or awards for those not in lock-step with the conformity of the field. However, Judy’s awards and distinctions have come from her efforts from other towards the sanctity of science. I think Judy would agree to that.
Her service to academia has been stellar. She took over a struggling department at Georgia Tech and now, 15 years later after 24 hires it ranks in the top echelon of earth and atmospheric schools globally. I would dearly love to say that the present high-level administrators of Tech appreciate her efforts but they are more concerned with being in “lock-step” with consensus positions as well. God forbid that a prominent GT faculty member may question consensus science! Judy, thus, is correct in her assessment of the state of higher education beyond Georgia Tech.
Finally, Judy in retirement! I think it is the correct move for her at this stage of her career. Note that I said “at this stage” as I have no doubt that she will continue to be a strong voice promoting scientific integrity. I am equally sure she will excel in business as well.
Judy, thanks for our exciting ride and to all those things you have given me and our field in general. Ethics have risen and dogma has suffered through your efforts! Academia is merely a stepping stone!
Peter W
(submitted without permission or review!)
PW, to those of us with similar experiences in life if not similar wisdom, God Bless. We get it. You are a very lucky man to have such a strong honorable woman by your side. But it is always mutual. She would not have been able to do what she has just done without you. Been there, done that, opposite shoes, corporate rather than uni environment. Not sure which is more vicious. In my case, had to grade the top 15 corporate officers for their MEIP (exec bonus); i was #16. I gave one a zero out of 4 to #3. The CEO overruled me and gave him the highest MEIP bonus that year– millions. Then fired him 3 months later, shocking the 120,000 employee organization and embarassing me. Then I quit. And then several months later the BoD fired the CEO. Such is life.
God Bless you both on this momentous decision. Any way we can help, she knows how to find us. More guest technical CE posts have been now requested. I am on it, if still deemed worthy regarding some future submissions. Just need new inspiration.
Highest regards to you both.
Rud, you confirm my minor fears. Now let’s get rid of that pesky ethics panel, secretly if possible. These guys will always find a way to cut the branch they are sitting on.There is also a government environment. My major fears.
+ A Gazillion when your Partner feels this about you — when they are so proud of you.
Good luck on your new path and congrats for breaking the chains!
Congratulations on all of your hard work. I have been a big fan and I have nothing but the deepest of respect for you.
Good luck on your new path, I am sure you will achieve great things.
This is a most courageous step, though you have thought it through quite well. I congratulate you on the decision, and wish you all success in your new path.
All the best Dr. Curry. Retiring and working on what you love is very rewarding, I speak from experience.
It is a glorious day when you realize you don’t need the pay check anymore.
Best of luck
Good Luck Dr. Curry. Thanks for all your efforts.
Cheers, KevinK.
There is a loss of excellent minds from the institution doing most reef studies in Australia.
Some will cross your path.
The area of controversy is El Nino caused coral bleaching, which is now a political weapon.
The other problem for we Aussies is the failure of local climate models to predict rainfall.
These are greenfield areas for objective research.
‘May [your] tribe increase].
Judith, my very best wishes for you and Peter. You are indeed a rare breed, overflowing with grace, competence, and intellectual integrity. Your gain is academia’s loss.
Bob
Cool. I am sure it will be a hoot with no point to or inclination for looking in the rearview mirror. Congratulations on the new phase and special congratulations on a exemplary academic career–old school.
-mwgrant
Good luck and God bless. As a GT grad, I wish you nothing but the best.
Congratulations and good luck on your new path. I check your blog every day and read all that is posted. Following your work has been immensely rewarding.
All the best in your new pursuits, Judy…….
And, by the way, being here in Atlanta, I want to let the rest of the crowd know that the skys over Georgia Tech have been weeping for three days now, over this news.
Joe Davis
I am of two minds. I am happy for you that you are now doing something you enjoy. I am sad that you felt that is was no longer worth the trouble to have to deal with all of these ideologues who constantly attacked you because you dared to question climate science orthodoxy. There was once a time where questioning the prevailing wisdom was the sine qua non of science. That is no longer the case now that science has become politicized.
I wish I had time to respond to each of your comments; the support and words of wisdom have been deeply moving and gratifying.
Congrats Dr. Curry! Jealous!
Have I every told you your my hero
ahem you’re not your
Best of luck Judith Curry. I sympathize with your frustrations with the science research “system.” We are just now dealing with reviewers who are less knowledgable but quite vocal. In my opinion, there is a lot of inertia and too much power allocated to “senior” scientists who can easily stifle new or innovative work. I do hope you keep up with Climate Etc. since its an enormously tool for many of us to learn and discuss.
Sorry, should have been “enormously useful tool.”
Congratulations and all the best in your new adventures. You have already made a difference and i know your new approach will have much success.
Blessings to you.
It’s crystal clear who the real fascists are.
“May the wind always be at your back and the sun upon your face. And may the wings of destiny carry you aloft to dance with the stars.”
Lurker for many years on ClimateEtc. Congratulations and very best wishes for your future endeavors. A personal thank you for your informative blog and acting as a beacon of integrity and courage, where it was badly required. Georgia Tech’s loss is no doubt your gain.
Dr. Curry: Congratulations on your past accomplishments and best wishes on your future endeavors. I admire you for your courage and honesty. I have learned a lot following Climate Etc.
Judith congrabulations on making it out alive, and best wishes for your many future successes!
Judith, thank you for your prodigious and thought-provoking articles of enlightenment. Like some other Denizens, I have travelled a similar path of trials and tribulations; in no small measure, thanks to the pen/keyboard/actions/inactions of those I thought were trusted friends and peers – albeit not always on the “climate” front.
In the last 40 years, I’ve removed myself – or been excluded – from far too many circles in which the “political correctness” of the day/month/year became ascendant … or was recycled for the purpose of strutting a new, improved – and increasingly meaningless – banner, loaded with jargon!
May you – and CFAN – continue to go and grow from strength to strength.
Reblogged this on Spin, strangeness, and charm and commented:
Judith Curry, the Georgia Tech climatology professor vilified by her peers for trying to have a meaningful dialogue with CAGW skeptics, is taking early retirement from academia to focus on a startup company dealing with long-term climate forecasting. http://www.cfanclimate.net/
The moneygraf from her letter:
“[…] I started to realize that academia and universities nationwide were undergoing substantial changes. I came across a recent article that expresses part of what is wrong: Universities are becoming like mechanical nightingales. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/universities-are-becoming-mechanical-nightingales
“The reward system that is in place for university faculty members is becoming increasingly counterproductive to actually educating students to be able to think and cope in the real world, and in expanding the frontiers of knowledge in a meaningful way[…]”
It is always sad to see the departure of any academic who is truly committed to the spirit of free inquiry. Here’s wishing her the very best in her new venture and I hope to be hearing more of her!
Best wishes for the future Dr Curry
I learned a lot from your web site here and am taking a look at CFAN, thanks for the link.
I am sure you (and Prof. Webster) will do good work with CFAN. I have trust in you!
One tiny point, you need to update the copyright date on the CFAN site – it is stuck at 2012. Should it not be “Copyright 2012 to 2017” (current year)?
The fact that you leave without any public evidence that GT attempted to seriously keep you on their faculty does not bode well for those who held the school to be one of the bright lights in the US university system.
I look forward to your continued contributions as a climate realist; a label worthy of the best, and you are surely one of them!!!
Enjoy my virtual champagne!!!
Thanks for everything so far. And best wishes for the future.
Keep forging ahead Judith, you are making a difference…
Reblogged this on Utopia – you are standing in it!.
Here’s a quote:
Pingback: JC in transition | Climate Etc. – Noscibilis et Amabilis
Dr. Curry,
I have seen your comments around on the internet and wanted to add my congratulations and wishes for a successful future. I would also like to note that the Insurance industry is always looking for ways to predict weather patterns and might be a source for collaboration in the future. Good Luck and Godspeed.
-John
Still pushing ClimateGate? Sigh. There was not a lot in it.
There is no science in scandals, except for endless rounds of ad hominem attacks.
???
Dr. Curry
I am sure you will enjoy the new road you have chosen, and it will be rewarding for you as well. Like everyone else here, thanks for all the hard work and integrity you have shown over the years. You make me proud to be a Ga Tech grad!
How about publishing your best threads in an e-book? You could let someone experienced in e-book creation handle the mechanics.
Clearly, you haven’t retired; you’ve graduated.
Reblogged this on gottadobetterthanthis and commented:
~
Seems a sad day to me. I know she is wise and strong, so I am confident it is the best for her. Best wishes Dr. Curry. Godspeed.
Felicitations Prof. Curry
Hello Judith,
Hopefully a return to Bjerknes? Then solving the graphs and plots afresh to make complete equations? How that was done last time way back in 1922, and that the most important features of that were hidden, is how this whole mess started.
Who cares how much in between will be consigned to the bin. Not science, not a jot.
Read this
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/01/04/stories/1060047798
and
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/01/dr_judith_curry_a_climate_science_champion.html
there is also lengthy article by David Rose in the Spectator
Judy,
Congratulations on your move, which makes good sense to me.
I’ve looked at the CFAN website as you recommended – impressive. I am glad that you will be continuing with Climate Etc. Thank you for all the effort you have put into it over the years.
Dr. Curry,
Congratulations on this big career move! Thank you for all you have done to bring the truth of science to the anthropogenic global warming issue.
You are going to enjoy the personal satisfaction you get from CFAN repeat customers who value highly the expert services you provide to them in helping them make better business decisions.
I agree with almost all you have written and published over the last several years. My only disagreement is that if we ignore the hypothetical ECS metric as impractical and inappropriate for current public policy decision-making, and focus on Transient Climate Sensitivity (TCS) based on the actual variable growth rate history of atmospheric CO2 concentration (TCS = TCR) for public policy decisions regarding GHG emissions, there really isn’t an “uncertainty monster” we need be concerned about.
Continuing my above comment……..The conclusion I get from what you, others and the independent, objective assessment (the kind of honest answers you seek in industry rather than academia focused on getting journal articles published) of our The Right Climate Stuff (TRCS) research team (www.TheRightClimateStuff.com) have discovered about TCS from adequate available data on atmospheric GHG and Global Mean Surface Temperature (GMST) trends since 1850, and using a more reasonable (than RCP8.5) “business as usual” RCP6.0 emissions scenario, is that the GMST increase above current levels should be less than 1C by 2100. Therefore, there is not an immediate AGW threat requiring swift, corrective world-wide government action while so much “official” uncertainty regarding the AGW threat remains in the climate science community.
Climate scientists need to put aside their un-validated GCMs (this should never be the source of their uncertainty) and focus on available physical data to determine TCS = TCR and do better research on “business as usual” RCP scenarios constrained by data on world-wide reserves and reserve growth rates of coal, oil and natural gas, to remove so much “official” uncertainty from the AGW threat. Only then, can rational public policy decisions with potentially severe unintended consequences, be made. Clearly, the rational decision for today is to not take costly action on emissions until the “official” uncertainty is removed from the problem. I would recommend we not focus on the “uncertainty monster” that might apply to ECS, but not to TCS = TCR for current policy decisions.
I’ve used the extratropics changing length of day to get TCR here
https://micro6500blog.wordpress.com/2016/05/18/measuring-surface-climate-sensitivity/
Here is the E&E article (behind paywall)
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/01/04/stories/1060047798
Judith Curry retires, citing ‘craziness’ of climate science
Judith Curry, one of climate science’s most vocal critics, is leaving academe because of what she calls the poisonous nature of the scientific discussion around human-caused global warming.
Curry, 63, is retiring from her tenured position as a professor at the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She’s instead going to focus on growing her private business, Climate Forecast Applications Network, which provides insights into climate and weather risks for agriculture and energy companies.
The climatologist, who distinguished herself in the field decades ago with research into the Arctic and the causes of the climate feedback that have shaped the region, writes a blog called Climate Etc. It is by turns academic and inflammatory.
There she occasionally mocks what she calls “climate alarmists” who say time is almost out unless humanity weans itself off fossil fuels. In her blog and on Twitter, she has also criticized some of the scientists, including Pennsylvania State University climatologist Michael Mann and Harvard University climate historian Naomi Oreskes, who have become leading voices for climate action. She has testified in front of Congress, boosted by politicians who use her work to argue that environmental regulations and a scaling down of fossil fuel use will be ineffective. Her work is frequently invoked by climate skeptics and denialists. Congressional Democrats, displeased with her conclusions, have investigated the source of her funding.
Curry actually believes, along with the vast majority of climate scientists, that humans are warming the planet, and was even an outspoken advocate of the issue during the George W. Bush years. She was among the first to connect global warming to hurricanes, for example, publishing an influential study in Science in 2006. But where she breaks with the majority opinion is over just how much humans are actually causing global temperatures to rise.
Where many scientists say that humans are the primary cause of warming, Curry believes natural forces play a larger role. She also believes that uncertainty around climate models means we don’t have to act so quickly and that current plans would do little to mitigate warming. She also questions the assertion made by a majority of climate scientists who believe humans have significantly contributed to climate change. In the Obama years, she has become a contrarian of sorts, often criticizing those who rely on climate models to prove that humans are warming the planet at an unprecedented rate.
In announcing her retirement, Curry wrote about what she called her “growing disenchantment with universities, the academic field of climate science and scientists.” She said a deciding factor for leaving the ivory tower was that “I no longer know what to say to students and postdocs regarding how to navigate the CRAZINESS in the field of climate science,” adding that research and funding for it are highly politicized.
In an interview with E&E News, Curry said she would like to see a greater focus on the uncertainties of climate science and a better exploration of them through scientific debate free of politics.
“Once you understand the scientific uncertainties, the present policy path that we’re on doesn’t make a lot of sense,” she said. “We need to open up policy dialogue to a bigger solution space. So I’m just looking to open up the dialogue and to provoke people into thinking.”
Curry, in general, believes that the policies undertaken by the Obama administration won’t do much to reduce global warming levels. That has made her the target of scientists who accuse her of aiding the climate denialists who oppose the environmental regulations of the last eight years and are eager to dismantle them under President-elect Donald Trump. Curry is not convinced that Trump will damage the climate science field, which she said has gone in the wrong direction under Obama.
“Once we get over this little bump of activism, if the Trump administration will put us on a slightly reassuring and saner footing, that will allow all this to die down,” she said. “We can always hope.”
Curry’s departure from academe will weaken the field of climate science, which needs people to ask hard questions that differ from the mainstream, said Roger Pielke Jr., a professor at the University of Colorado who previously worked with Curry and recently switched fields from climate science to sports governance after facing intense pressure of his own. Curry has consistently been willing to stick out her neck to ask questions that other scientists avoid for reasons of political expediency, he said. Purposely choosing a “different song sheet to sing off of” has earned her an unfair level of criticism, Pielke said.
“If you only look at her academic career, absent the glossy overlay of the climate debate, you would say this is a pretty distinguished academic who had a pretty successful career,” he said. “The facts that she was excoriated by her peers, smeared and so on just illustrates having a tenured position isn’t a guarantee of academic freedom.”
Certainly, neither Curry nor Pielke has sat on the sidelines during the wars over climate science. Both have been accused of aggressively attacking those who critique their work. In an interview, Curry accused Mann and Oreskes of inciting what she says is a vocal minority of scientists who pressure anyone with a conclusion that breaks from the notion that extreme action is needed now to mitigate the worst consequences of human-caused global warming.
For his part, Mann said climate science would be stronger without Curry. He said she routinely engaged in character attack, “confusionism and denialism” and eroded scientific discussion.
“She has played a particularly pernicious role in the climate change denial campaign, laundering standard denier talking points but appearing to grant them greater authority courtesy of the academic positions she has held and the meager but nonetheless legitimate scientific work that she has published in the past,” he said. “Much of what I have seen from her in recent years is boilerplate climate change denial drivel.”
Curry has no plans to simply shrug off the fight, after publishing 186 articles and two books, and she intends to use her blog as a place to advise young scientists trying to navigate the field. She said she is looking forward to life after academe by taking her skill set into the real world, and using climate modeling to better prepare companies as well as developing nations. In her final media interview as an academic, Curry touched on where climate science is now headed and what she feels it needs to thrive in the future.
Where is the academic discussion of climate science at this current point? Is it just so polarized that we’re never going to come back from it?
The point is, and I don’t know how big it is, is what I would call the nerdy middle. These are the people who focus on one little piece of the puzzle and they just focus on their own research and they feel vaguely uneasy about all this noise and all this stuff going on and they stay out of the public debate and they acknowledge as a scientist, “I really can’t say anything about this because my research is just one little narrow piece and I haven’t taken the time to critically evaluate some of the big issues that are out there in the public arena.”
I don’t know how big that pool of scientists is, but I think it’s pretty big. As it becomes more polarized, we need to protect the nerdy middle, just let them get on with their work. So I’m worried that what I would call the activism, especially on the alarm side, is growing. The people on the other side tend to be the more hardcore scientists anyways who are just sticking to the science and they see how people like me are treated, so they are not going to go there.
What does climate science need in the coming decades to get to where you want to see it?
We’ve lost a generation of climate dynamicists. These are the people who develop theories and dig into data on the system and really try to find out how the system works. We’ve ceded all that to climate models, and the climate models are nowhere near good enough. The climate models were designed to test sensitivity to CO2. They don’t even do a very good job at that, all the issues related to the sun/climate connections, decadal to millennial scale, circulation and oscillation in the ocean and the deep carbon cycle in the ocean. Some of these things we fundamentally don’t know enough about. We need a new infusion from math and physics into our field to shore up the dwindling climate dynamics.
This is what worries me. You just need to cut the funding 80 to 90 percent, everybody go away and then start over with a new generation of math and physicists. I don’t think it’s that bad, but it is pretty bad. It’s the older generation that tends to more skeptical. They come from the old school of climate dynamics and the real fundamental fluid dynamics. It’s really hard mathematically; if you’re going to major in atmospheric science or climate science, there are lots easier paths to take than that hardcore fluid dynamics path. So we’re breeding a generation of climate scientists who analyze climate model outputs who come up with sexy conclusions and get published in Nature like, ‘We won’t be able to grow grapes for wine in California in 2100.’ That kind of stuff, it gets headlines, it gets grants. It feeds our reputation. It’s cheap, easy science. It’s fundamentally not useful because it rests on inadequate climate models, especially when you’re trying to look at regional climate change. I call that climate model taxonomy. This is where the field is going; we’ve lost a generation of climate dynamists, and that’s what worries me greatly.
In the next few years, four to eight or even longer, what do you want to see in the field of climate science; what are you hoping happens? You do believe humans are changing the climate, correct?
Yes, but how much they’re changing the climate, we don’t know. Yes, they do contribute to climate change; very few people would question that. The question is, how much relatively to natural variability? Because we don’t understand natural variability that well, we don’t have a convincing answer for that. Better understanding of natural variability, particularly show our climate connections, but even how volcanoes both above ground and underwater influence the climate, particularly the long-term ocean oscillations and how the chaotic ocean interacts with chaotic atmosphere. That’s reasonably complex, and we don’t understand that.
We need to go back to basics to get the fundamental interactions between the ocean and atmosphere correct, because this, to me, is what’s driving the whole thing. In climate modeling, all the eggs were put in one basket, and we’ve gotten as far as we’re going to get along that particular path. We need to start over with a new path for climate modeling.
Do you feel people are simplifying your work to justify inaction, or to use it to attack people they don’t agree with politically? I saw Larry the Cable Guy refer to you the other day on Twitter in a conversation with a New York Times climate reporter. It was him saying, “We don’t know what’s happening, so what are we going to do about it?”
That’s not an inappropriate use of my work. We don’t really understand what’s happening, and it’s a wicked problem. The one thing we know is that the commitments we’ve made, in Paris, will probably prevent about two-tenths of a degree of warming by the end of the 21st century. What is the point of that? You have to fundamentally ask, are we facing risks in the 21st century, and if they’re really bad risks, what you’re proposing isn’t going to help, so now what?
Nobody’s asking the now what to reduce vulnerability to extreme weather events and to rising sea level, trying to address those problems in ways that don’t rely on humans actually changing the climate, because it doesn’t seem like that is going to work at least on the time scales of the 21st century, and this is even if you don’t believe the climate models. We need to rethink this problem. I’m intensely interested in trying to help developing and undeveloped countries deal with their climate vulnerabilities, but throwing money at their leaders with massive levels of corruption and where the money gets distributed to friends and relatives and never accomplishes anything. We’ve seen that over and over again in some of these countries.
My way of looking at it is that the evidence that we do have leads me to think that things are not as bad as what they’re predicting. However, if they are right — and they could be, I acknowledge that — if they are right, the policies we’ve put into place are woefully inadequate. I can hope that the more pragmatic people that Trump is appointing will come up with more pragmatic ways of dealing with the vulnerabilities that we do have to climate change, whether it’s caused by humans or it’s caused naturally, and how we should deal with the potential risk of a lot of warming from humans.
Best of luck with your new direction. This observation (and the 2 paragraphs around it) seem especially relevant:
“We need a new infusion from math and physics into our field to shore up the dwindling climate dynamics.”
Climate research seems to run along very predictable lines. There are plenty of issues which seem to require the development of theoretical insight, but little evidence of progress, or in fact even interest in these.
Because this is where the models flawed parameterization causes them to run hot.
http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/models/atm-cam/docs/description/node13.html#SECTION00736000000000000000
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I have enjoyed reading your blog and hope you will continue to post. Having followed your for work and commentary for almost ten years, I am surprised you held out at GA Tech for as long as you did. Best wishes as you jump feet first and full time into CFAN.
Dr. Curry… congratulations on your retirement. Many thanks for your patience with me in my Penn State graduate school pursuits in the early ’90s.
Hi Sean, nice to hear from you!
Sean –
Interesting little video clip from your twitter feed.
https://mobile.twitter.com/SeanSublette/status/811947203728121857/video/1
With the caveat that it is a relatively short term of analysis for a relatively small portion of the globe.
May I say, pretty much as a “lurker,” that you are a valuable voice for research and skepticism, and a person of integrity. Good luck in all your endeavours.
“A woman of Integrity” – http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=051ec8db05&e=514e6fe0df
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Congrats, best wishes, and good luck. May the wind be always at your back.
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Judith: Godpeed. And bless you bless you bless you, for knowing that this is about epistemology above all, ie, the philosophical inquiry “:How do you know?”
I meant of course “Godspeed”. How does one edit a comment here?
a mistake and comment is much better than an edit to remove it. Thank you for your comment and follow up correction!
Dear Prof. Curry,
best of wishes to you for your future full-time career in the non-academic field, and most of all for the courage you’ve shown in doing this.
I only hope that this will not bring this excellent blog to a sort of slow death and disappearance… don’t let it happen, pliiiiz! :-)
R_Kersevan, CERN, Geneva
Dr. Curry; Thank you for your work and integrity over all the years. You have made a difference in humanity.
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Reblogged this on I Didn't Ask To Be a Blog.
Mark Steyn is singing JC’s praises right now on the Limbaugh show
Best wishes in your new incarnation, Judy, and thank you for your efforts at keeping climate science honest.
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Congratulations on your retirement, and best wishes for fulfillment in your new journey. I retired 3 years ago after a 45 year career in higher education administration. I empathize with your position, although my challenges were more with the CRAZZINESS of the politics infecting our system and my institution.
Best wishes, Judy!!! Although I’ll admit that I have been secretly hoping that you might be tapped for at least an advisory role with the new administration. They certainly need wise counsel and yours is among the best.
Congrats on a successful career. Keep speaking out and speaking up. It’s always good to be on the side of right and there is certainly a shortage of people with the courage to do that when it comes to this topic.
It’s good to be on the side of right and it is always good to discuss and debate about what is really right.
That is Judy Curry’s best accomplishment.
I’m sorry to be so late in the day.
I am sure that you will feel a sense of relief after moving out of academia and have the opportunity to develop your work in a less toxic atmosphere. As for Georgia Tech, they don’t deserve you.
When the history of the Climate wars come to be written, the majority of your peers will have vanished without trace, and I expect that Mann, Jones etc will not be remembered in a favourable light, unlike your good self.
The best of luck with your new endeavour.
When I retired, in 2007, my life did not get less hectic. I don’t know how I had time to work. I started climate study in 2008. Our six grandchildren started in 2004. Our six grandchildren, age 6 to 12, live in the local area and attend 5 different schools.
Life may get better, but it may not get easier.
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Dr. Curry:
Climate Science is just a hobby for me. As I pursued information to support my hobby, I tried to find scientists that I could trust, scientists that could let the data take them to a reasonable hypothesis, and then allow scientific method run its “acid test”. Certainly, one of the finest scientists that quickly learned to trust was YOU! I followed your blog, I watched your congressional testimony on youtube and read your tweets. I feel like I know you although, I have never met you.
I will continue to follow you because I can trust what you say!
All the best in this new chapter of your profession!
Dick Piland
Niwot, CO
Dr. Curry, I am a GT grad BAE 74 MSAE 78, and former employee of GTRI. Several years ago I read about your work in the alumni magazine and while I wanted to trust the integrity of my Alma mater, it seemed you had “drank the Kool-Aid.” I’m glad to see that I was wrong about you, but I continue to be concerned about the integrity of GT based upon other stories in that same publication. A million thanks for standing up for true science, and may your future be blessed with all you desire.
Dear Judith Curry, I do hope you didn’t fall prey to a so-called “consensus”. Whatever… Vous avez été une référence pour moi et pour tous ceux qui attendaient un autre point de vue. Soyez assurée que je continuerai à vous lire, car vous avez tant de choses à nous dire !
May the farce be with some others…
Best of luck with your transition, Judith. It requires courage to abandon the ivory tower, but later in life one regrets the things that didn’t do, not the ones that did do. You have nothing left to demonstrate in Academic science.
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“In the real world, nothing happens at the right place at the right time. It is the job of journalists and historians to correct that.” — Mark Twain
Welcome back.
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Good luck in your business endeavors. Creating a new business around a new product that is in demand is a very exciting and rewarding experience. I hope you enjoy years of success. Running a business is fascinating and provides endless opportunities to learn and grow. Welcome to the club.
The whole of academia is now in criss for two reasons. First what is the point in lecturers, when you only need one lecturer in the world in any one subject and the rest can just watch on the web. Second, these days any decent amateur can pick up almost any subject relatively quickly and become an “expert”. And often – because they have wider experience outside academia and if retired can devote their entire time to researching the subject – THE AMATEURS ARE BETTER THAN THE ACADEMICS.
And climate was a new way of doing “science” – one that justified a lot of other work and so created a whole new type of area for academia to justify paying itself at public expense. Indeed, I think most academics don’t care at all about climate, so long as there is perceived to be some sort of crisis needing all the additional research.
But climate is not proving to be a crisis, and sooner or later academia is going to have to admit that – and when it does, a huge amount of research done on the basis of there being “a crisis” will not have any justification for funding.
Congratulations, best of luck and heart-felt gratitude on your contributions! Thank you so much.
Since at least the Renaissance, citizen science is the legacy of science itself. The tragedy is that government (and corporate) science after WWII, while opening the endeavor to those of less than independent means, imposes political and business restrictions that poison the free expression of ideas. Ideas, by humans of any stripe, are the heart and soul of science.
I have enjoyed reading your comments for years. I saw your posts on Steve McIntyre’s site what seems like a dozen years ago. I wish you the best of luck and success at CFAN or where ever the future takes you.
Brooks Hurd
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Judith,
I think you have made a good decision (for the reasons you stated). I think this will unleash you and enable you to become even more influential in future. Learning curve is fastest for the first years of a new career then slows progressively – like the effect of increasing CO2 concentration on GW :)
I really hope you can keep CE going, improving and becoming ever more influential. I hope you can get some good contributors – especially on the justification for the belief that GHG emissions are a significant threat to the global economy.
I’d like thank Peter Webster too for his personal note. It is wonderful. Made my eyes water in appreciation of all you have done and who you really are.
Let me add my best wished for your future success, Dr. Curry. When I got my PhD, I considered going into academia, but the prospect of spending my entire career becoming the world’s expert on a very narrow slice of physics didn’t appeal to me, so I went the National Lab route.
My experience is that, on average, academics and non-academics have about the same level of integrity. I’ve seen scientists of great integrity in academia, government, and industry. Tenure does not seem to have any effect on people’s ability to follow the evidence wherever it leads.
It seems that the comfy seat you took on tenure is all worn out and not so comfy any more, and it’s time to head off to find a new one. I do hope your new seat will once again restore the enthusiasm of discovery and wonder.
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Judith,
I’ve been really please to follow your blog – particularly the technical climate posts which have significantly helped me find my way through the over-hyped fog.
Your social posts have also been illuminating. I wonder if you’ve come across the following from the University of Cambridge, Centre for Business Research:-
WP477: What’s Happening to Our Universities?
http://www.cbr.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/centre-for-business-research/downloads/working-papers/wp477.pdf
They have a lovely metaphor of the boiled frog. Lots of little apparent improvements over a large number of years ….
Dr. Curry,
I find your decision to resign your post both sad and encouraging. I can both sympathize and empathize with your position. Climate science is not my academic/professional specialty, although, it has factored into some of my research. I completely understand one’s disillusionment due to the politicization of science. When I made the decision to pursue a career in the sciences, I was under the impression that “science” was the pursuit of facts and truths about how the universe came to be and continues to “work”. Apparently, the socio-political aspects, including money, far outweigh facts and truth. As much as I loved teaching and conducting research with colleagues, as well as my own projects, I, too, finally had enough of the political correctness that has corrupted science.
Best wishes to you in your future pursuits.
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You are a shining example to us all. Very best wishes.
Best wishes! I’ve enjoyed reading your blog over the years and your scientific integrity in the face of criticism and political correctness has been a real inspiration.
And now, just yesterday, we are being told that NOAA had it right. Sigh.
Best wishes in your new endeavors and congrulations for your courage