David Stooksbury, who was the state climatologist for the past 12 years, was eminently qualified to do the work that he does for Georgia. I don’t know of anyone in the state who was better qualified.
He is an associate professor of engineering and atmospheric sciences at the University of Georgia. He worked for NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) high plains climate center in Nebraska for six years before moving to UGA. He has compiled voluminous amounts of research data and analysis of the droughts that have plagued Georgia for the past decade. He is respected enough by his peers to serve as the secretary-treasurer for the American Association of State Climatologists.
The woman who had been working as Stooksbury’s assistant also has impressive credentials. Pam Knox was the state climatologist of Wisconsin from 1989-1998 and had been the assistant state climatologist of Georgia since 2001. She has served on the American Meteorological Society’s Committee on Applied Climatology. She has taught meteorology and physics at the college level.
“I think we’ve done a pretty good job for the past 12 years of building up an office whose work is well-respected around the country,” Stooksbury said last week.
In many states, government employees with that admirable record of expertise and achievements would be commended and rewarded.
In Georgia, they get fired, which is what Gov. Nathan Deal did to Stooksbury and Knox last week. Deal not only dismissed them, he didn’t bother to tell them that they had been replaced and the governor’s office has provided no credible explanation for why they were so abruptly canned.
Deal signed an executive order on Tuesday ordering the appointment of two mid-level employees from the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) to replace Stooksbury and Knox. The governor evidently was a little embarrassed by what he did, because his office did not make any public announcement of the personnel change. When asked repeatedly by reporters for the reasons why Deal fired two people so expert in climatology, the governor’s spokesman robotically repeated the same prepared talking point over and over: “EPD is a natural home for this function. It’s a rational consolidation.” He would say nothing more.
To add insult to injury, Deal never bothered to contact either climatologist to tell them that they had been fired.
“I have still not heard directly from the governor’s office,” Stooksbury said during an interview more than three days after Deal signed the order to replace him. He said he first learned of his change in employment status when “I got a call from somebody out of state who said, ‘I see you’ve been replaced.’”
Why should anybody care about who holds the position of state climatologist? Because this is a period when droughts and other extreme climate conditions endanger Georgia’s well-being and its largest industry, agriculture.
Among the activities conducted by Stooksbury’s office is the operation of a website that provides information on how farmers can get better crop yields during the current climate extremes. He advises coastal communities on how to cope with the rising sea levels caused by the ongoing warming of the earth’s climate.
As we have seen with Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Irene, it is also advisable to have an expert climatologist on board who can warn you when and where a tropical storm is going to strike your state.
“There is this perception along the Georgia coast that we’ve never been hit by a hurricane,” Stooksbury said. “Climatologists know that is wrong.”
“Climatologists will tell you that in the 1800s, Georgia had six major hurricanes make landfall,” he pointed out. “We had a storm surge in Brunswick in the 1890s that put water in the streets. A climatologist would say, random events tend to cluster, random events are not evenly spaced out. Hurricanes are random events. Along the Georgia coast, we’ve had them in the past and we’ll have them in the future.”
Deal has replaced Stooksbury with Bill Murphey, the chief meteorologist for the Environmental Protection Division. Murphey has degrees in physics and atmospheric sciences from Georgia Tech and has worked as a meteorologist for the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York. He does have background and experience with climate issues, although his work with EPD has primarily involved the operation of air quality monitoring stations.
Murphey is also a state employee ultimately answerable to the governor. Stooksbury and Knox work at UGA with much of their budget coming from independent research grants.
“You’ve kind of lost that independent voice for informing the public and informing decision-makers,” Stooksbury said. “I’m not sure that is good for the state in the long term. In a university setting, there is more independence, more access to the latest scientific information.”
There is also this to consider: the whole science of climatology has become increasingly politicized in recent years with many leaders of one of our major political organizations, the Republican Party, actively denying the accumulated scientific data supporting the argument that our climate is changing dramatically as the earth gets warmer. Perhaps a Republican governor would not want a climatologist who is not under his control and who would insist upon such quaint notions as making decisions that are based on facts and data.
“I’ve tried not to make any comments on policy,” Stooksbury said. “I am a scientist. In public, I’ve been very quiet.”
As the governor, of course, Deal has the absolute authority to make personnel decisions such as this one, no matter how mystifying they may appear. He at least has put someone in the position who is generally familiar with the issues and science of climatology.
As for Stooksbury, he has academic tenure at UGA and will continue with his teaching and research at the state’s flagship university.
“Next week I’ll be teaching vector analysis and coastal meteorology and grading papers, just like I’ve always done.” He said. “The governor has made his decision. We’ll continue to move forward and serve the people of Georgia that way.”
8 Comments
Why are 90% of the politicians in GA cavemen? It is so embarassing. What’s wrong with the voters in GA that they keep picking morons to represent us?
The GOP jihad against credible independent scientific inquiry continues. Nationally & locally, if you want to actually do real science? You just better not have any GOP political masters in your ultimate chain of command. Sooner or later you’ll be embarrassed & gone.
Stooksbury has been the consummate reliable professional here for more than a decade on with excellent service to the citizens of Ga. It’s the farmers and fishermen and anyone else needing reliable long term weather guidance that will suffer for this low political hit job. We’ll all feel this loss keenly eventually too with the need for accurate & reliable water planning needs for plenty of future projects & endeavors. That’s what’s missing here. JMP
It does not matter what the politics is that is behind this. It is wrong, period. BB
Talk about a total lack of professional courtesy, among other things, in this case. An “executive order”, not communicating directly with the people affected (who have to learn about their change in status via the media), and what was the role of UGA in this matter? Most state climatologists are housed at a prestigious university in their state and not subsumed into an existing state agency, where they are subject to the political agenda of the administration. Where is the independence in that kind of placement? We already know that these “small government” Republicans will do everything and anything to bend the “facts” to their ideology.
David Stooksbury is protected by tenure, but a person who was the WI State Climatologist (arguably a more advanced State until the recent Koch Brothers financed Scott Walker take-over) and probably even more qualified than Stookesbury, is left to twist in the wind. So, is this the “new normal” in how highly qualified, educated people are to be treated by robot ideologues, not only here, but elsewhere in the country? Just when we need the best information, analysis and creativity in discerning just what is happening vis-a-vis climate in not only our State, but country and world. Maybe Ralph Deal wants to create an Institute to Restore the Dark Ages.
This is not new to Governors. In 2005 or 2006, the Oregon State Climatologist was ‘fired’ by the newly elected (gasp) Democratic governor because he was more neutral on climate change than the Governor liked. State Climatologists typically stay out of the frey, but in some cases they get caught in the crossfires.
As far as the qualifications of the various SC’s, most are long term and experienced faculty. I have met Dr Stooksbury professionally several times and IMHO he was one of the best SC’s in the nation (disclosure: I used to work in the climate services field).
Sadly, this is the result of politics creeping into science, specifically climate change. Both sides are putting the ax to well respected scientists because of political ideologies.
Observer, Much of that activity against the scientific community is instigated, propagated, and cheered on by the GOP & the Right. It’s not just climate science, it’s also against most Bio sciences too. That singular rare instance you cite is quite rare indeed, and it’s in fact a pretty muddy example. Not saying presently what happened here, but it looks and smells like the same typical MO. During a long series of droughts of historic proportions, we’ve now got little ‘legacy’ guidance about what might be done to help our communities. And while political interference of science has a long and disreputable reputation almost everywhere? Demonization of and the wholesale attacks on the entire scientific enterprise has been the pattern and practice of the ‘modern’ GOP for over a generation by now. JMP
Actually, no it’s not a ‘GOP and Right’ propagated activity or a muddy example. In OR, it was overtly stated by the Governor that he was gunning after Taylor because of his professional belief on the subject. In most states SC’s are NOT appointed by the Governor- it’s a combination of agreements between one of the universities/state agencies, NOAA (NCDC) and the AASC. He was looking for a loophole to close down an academic’s professional and scientific opinion and he found it. Can’t be muddy on that. Taylor had a view (which I disagree with actually) that the new, very liberal Governor did not like. He found a way to silence him.
I have seen it very clearly from the left besides the OR incident. I have often seen the same tactics propagated by those on the left side of the spectrum, especially if the biological opinion on a project (produced by government scientists) did not suit the political goals of the elected official.
Usually left/right ideologies have nothing to do with it- often it is tied to whatever campaign contributor is trying to squeeze whatever cash project through. In this case, it appears that for whatever reason the Governor of GA wanted to shut down Dr S’s statements on the current drought situation. Personally, I think it’s insane. It’s dry, everyone knows it’s dry, and eventually water rights/restrictions will be enforced.
The bottom line is this: policy makers should take the science for what it is and make their decisions from that. The dismissal of both SC’s is a shame. We in science should be worried that ANY elected official (regardless of political ideology) would remove a professional scientist because their scientific position does not agree with that of the politician. I may not agree with a fellow scientist’s position on X topic, but I defend their right as a professional to have it. This trend worries me greatly- it should worry everyone else too. Next time, it could be me, or you.
Although sociocultural biases can taint scientific progress (see http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/oikos94.htm), it’s even worse in (a) government and especially (b) consulting and political circles. Although the GOP knows that climate change is happening, that doesn’t buy votes like pandering to oil companies does. The latter’s record profits during the recent, great recession is quite telling. It really is time for everyone to enter the 21st century.