The Kochs Lose a Friend. But Does He Give Refunds?

Add another name to the list of scientists that understand global warming is both real and the product of human activity.  Come on down Richard A. Muller:

CALL me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.

My total turnaround, in such a short time, is the result of careful and objective analysis by the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, which I founded with my daughter Elizabeth. Our results show that the average temperature of the earth’s land has risen by two and a half degrees Fahrenheit over the past 250 years, including an increase of one and a half degrees over the most recent 50 years. Moreover, it appears likely that essentially all of this increase results from the human emission of greenhouse gases.

These findings are stronger than those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations group that defines the scientific and diplomatic consensus on global warming.

I don’t know what is more pleasing: that the denialist camp has lost one of its last credible members — James Inhofe and the Heartland Institute (see its charming billboard above) do not a movement make — or that the largest financial backer of Muller’s research is… The Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.

I imagine the Kochs want their money back right about now.