Ridiculing former vice president and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Al Gore as “the Goracle, high priest of global warming” on the October 15 broadcast of her 1310 KFKA show, host and Independence Institute director of operations Amy Oliver touted Colorado State University professor emeritus of atmospheric science William Gray as “a guy who knows climates.” Oliver then referred to a speech Gray recently gave at the University of North Carolina in which he called the theory of global warming “ridiculous.” As Media Matters for America has documented, however, the overwhelming majority of scientists disagree with Gray's claim that rising global temperatures are part of “a natural cycle,” and agree that climate change is caused primarily by human activity.

Before reading from an online article about Gray from Australia's Sydney Morning Herald dated October 14, Oliver suggested that liberals “want the right nowhere near abortion” but “they want to mandate on environmental issues,” adding, "[I]t's their new religion."

From the October 15 broadcast of 1310 KFKA's The Amy Oliver Show:

OLIVER: They want the right nowhere near abortion -- but by gosh, they want to mandate on environmental issues. And it's their new religion. It is -- well, it's not their new religion. It is their religion. This is from the Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, Australia, I think. Isn't that funny? Can't get it on local media. "One of the world's foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize, he's called it 'ridiculous' and the product of 'people who don't understand how the atmosphere works.' "

Now, it was interesting, Stump the Professor this Sunday said the Nobel Prize, peace prize is great, but it'd be nice if it were based on some science. “Dr. William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the Earth.” Now, we can acknowledge, yeah, that the Earth has warmed. What is it, 0.6 degrees Celsius? But the question is, what is the cause, and what should you do about it? “His comments came on the same day -- Dr. Gray's comments came on the same day that the Nobel committee honored Mr. Gore for his work in the support of the link between humans and global warming. Dr. Gray says” -- by the way, a professor, who pioneered the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts -- this is Dr. Gray. This is a guy who knows climates. He says, “We're brainwashing our children. They're going to the Gore movie, An Inconvenient Truth, and being fed all this. It's ridiculous.” By the way, judge in Britain said, found nine falsehoods in the Goracle's movie.

“In his first appearance since the award was announced in Oslo, Mr. Gore said, Al Gore: 'We have to quickly find a way to change the world's consciousness about exactly what we're facing.' But Dr. Gray, whose annual forecasts of the number of tropical storms and hurricanes are widely publicized, said a natural cycle of ocean water temperatures -- related to the amount of salt in ocean water -- was responsible for global warming that he acknowledges has taken place.” Yes, there's been global warming. But are we so arrogant to believe that humans are the only cause? And are we so arrogant to believe that we somehow have a monopoly on the, quote, perfect climate? If you don't want to pollute, great -- I don't want you to either. But what Al Gore, the Goracle, high priest of global warming, the archbishop of global warming -- I've heard those too -- and the zealots that follow him are looking to do would cripple our economy. And by the way, I've got a backgrounder here that was just released from the Heritage Foundation, “Global Climate-Change Bills Before Congress.” Wait'll you hear what those were going to do to the economy.

Dr. Gray went on to say “that the same cycle meant a period of cooling would begin soon and last for several years. And he says, 'We'll look back on all of this in 10 to 15 years and realize how foolish it all was.' During his speech to a crowd of about 300 that included meteorology students and a host of professional meteorologists, Dr. Gray also said those who had linked global warming to the increased number of hurricanes in recent years were simply in error. His statistics cited showing that there were 101 hurricanes from 1900 to 1949, which was in a period of cooler global temperatures, compared to 83 from 1957 to 2006, when the Earth warmed.” So put that in the Nobel Peace Prize pipe and smoke it. “He said the human impact on the atmosphere is simply too small to have a major effect on global temperatures.” Unbelievable.

As Media Matters has noted, on April 26, 2006, RealClimate.org, which describes itself as “a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists,” responded to a paper written by Gray by detailing “the fundamental misconceptions on the physics of climate that underlie most of Gray's pronouncements on climate change and its causes” and “the gaping flaws” in his “scientific argument.” Colorado Media Matters, likewise citing the RealClimate critique, noted its conclusion that Gray has “fail[ed] to adapt to a modern era of meteorology, which demands hypotheses soundly grounded in quantitative and consistent physical formulations, not seat-of-the-pants flying.”

A June 11, 2006, article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (accessed through the Nexis database) reported that Judith A. Curry, chair of Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, said that “Gray's message that global warming is a hoax is being heard because of his media connections, but she [Curry] points out he has not published any research to back it up.” The article quoted Curry as saying: “His ideas on global warming are not taken seriously in scientific circles.”

Additionally, a May 28, 2006, Washington Post Magazine article by Joel Achenbach reported that Gray “concede[d] that he hasn't published the idea [his theory about recent warming trends] in any peer-reviewed journal.” Achenbach also noted that Gray's rejection of climate models puts him “increasingly on the fringe” in the field of meteorology. When Achenbach “ask[ed] Gray who his intellectual soul mates are regarding global warming,” Gray responded, “I have nobody really to talk to about this stuff.'” In the article, Gray was quoted as saying, “Gore believed in global warming almost as much as Hitler believed there was something wrong with the Jews.” Gray reportedly expressed regret for that comment later.

In touting Gray, Oliver also failed to mention that the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) disagrees with the assertion that rising temperatures are part of a “natural cycle.” In fact, according to the panel's recent conclusions, evidence that the Earth's climate is warming is “unequivocal” and that most of the observed warming is “very likely” due to human influences.