William Briggs

William M. Briggs

Credentials

  • Ph.D., Statistics, Cornell University (2004).1William M. Briggs, PhD,” CV via wmbriggs.com. Document creation date 5/7/2019.
  • M.S., Atmospheric Science, Cornell University (1995).2William M. Briggs, PhD,” CV via wmbriggs.com. Document creation date 5/7/2019.
  • B.S., Meteorology and Math, Central Michigan University (1992).3William M. Briggs, PhD,” CV via wmbriggs.com. Document creation date 5/7/2019.

Background

William M. “Matt” Briggs is a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute and former visiting professor of statistics in the Department of Mathematics at Central Michigan University.4WILLIAM BRIGGS,” The Heartland Institute. Archived October 7, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/pNPTN

The Heartland Institute has received over $560,000 from ExxonMobil, was named in 2019 bankruptcy filings for the Murray Energy company (listing $130,000 going to Heartland), and has become notorious for its opposition to the mainstream consensus on climate change.5 Lee Fang. “COAL GIANT PROVIDED SECRET FINANCING TO GROUP CHALLENGING CLIMATE LAWSUITS,”The Intercept, December 17, 2019. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/hUjRt 6 Dean Kuipers. “Unabomber billboard continues to hurt Heartland Institute,” Los Angeles Times, May 9, 2012.

According to his profile at wmbriggs.com, “My PhD is in Mathematical Statistics, though I am now a Data Philosopher (I made that up), Epistemologist, Probability Puzzler, Unmasker of Over-Certainty, and (self-awarded) Bioethicist. My MS is in Atmospheric Physics, and Bachelors is in Meteorology & Math.”7About & Contact,” William M. Briggs. Archived October 7, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/xSb7U

He has written several books including one on how to test psychic phenomena titled So, You Think You’re Psychic, a book that “contains simple, practical procedures that anyone can use to test for the existence of several different paranormal abilities.8 William M. Briggs. So, You Think You’re Psychic? 2006.

Stance on Climate Change

October 2019

Below is an excerpt from a document titled the Realist Catholic Climate Declaration, which Briggs appears to have helped draft:9Realist Catholic Climate Declaration,” Realclimate.wixsite.com. Archived October 8, 2020. 10Draft Realist Catholic Climate Declaration: Please Share!William M. Briggs, October 7, 2019. Archived October 8, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/yveCN

“The earth’s climate has always changed, is changing now, and will never cease changing. The extent to which man is responsible for climate change is not known, only surmised. There is no earthly force capable of stopping climate change.

“Extreme caution, even skepticism, is warranted in any statement about the climate given the decades of failed and overreaching forecasts and hyperbole from official and interested sources. Beyond individual prudent stewardship, no Catholic is obliged to support any environmental measure.

“The salvation of souls is of more pressing concern than the air temperature. Pray to God and pray for your neighbor, not to the planet.”

September 12, 2017

“The Pope is right. It is a good idea to ask actual scientists about their best guess of the uncertainties involved in climate change. One thing every climate scientist, myself included, will tell you is that it is 100% certain the climate will change,” Briggs wrote at The Stream.11Pope Francis Says Ask Scientists About Their Uncertainties on Global Warming. Good Idea,” The Stream, September 12, 2017. Archived October 9, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/dMGnj

“It’s just as certain that nothing on earth can stop the climate from changing. Let me emphasize that ‘nothing.’ It means just what it says. Nothing.

“The climate of the earth has never stood still, and never will. That means efforts to ‘battle’ or ‘stop’ climate change are futile. This position in physics is known as climate realism.”

Stance on LGBT & Diversity

Briggs is a “senior contributor” to The Stream, a publication that describes itself as “championing freedom, smaller government and human dignity.” According to its website, “The Stream offers a rich and lively source for breaking news, Christian inspiration and conservative commentary while challenging the worst in the mainstream media.” There, Briggs has written critical commentary about the LGBT community, same-sex-marriage, and mainstream climate change science. He has suggested bans on conversion therapy are a product of a “corrupt democracy.”12William M Briggs,” The Stream. Archived October 13, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/kMEfj 13About Us,” The Stream. Archived October 13, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/WVze8

Briggs has described diversity as a “weakness” and “a cult.” In an article on his website, Briggs wrote:14In Celebration of Cult of Diversity, Google Sacrifices Employee,” The Stream, August 8. 2017. Archived October 9, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/6qwmg 15The Theory of Diversity Explained,” William M. Briggs, August 7, 2017. Archived October 9, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/rNUjy

“Thanks to Google we are reminded that Diversity is the dumbest idea in the West, bar none. Even communism, even atheism, makes more sense. Diversity is our weakness. Diversity, based on the false ideology of Equality, will if it is not stopped destroy us.”

He has also suggested that “Western Colonialism did Some Good”:16Western Colonialism Did Some Good,” The Stream, July 11, 2018. Archived October 9, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/grlws

“Indeed, it is impossible not to believe some culture is superior. Not necessarily on all matters, of course, but some,” Briggs wrote at The Stream.

If some cultures are superior, it is not wrong in principle for one culture to assert its values over another’s. At least under certain conditions. And as sometimes happened during the colonial period.”

He has also equated diversity with “unhealthy sexual desires”:

“Diversity is our weakness. Diversity is the process of giving special consideration to those who have favored demographic or biologic characteristics or who have non-procreative sexual desires,” he wrote at The Stream.17 “‘Diversity’ Is Our Weakness,” The Stream, July 8, 2018. Archived October 9, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/u2BGa

“Now you might think it insane to accord special preference to people because they express enthusiasm for and participation in non-procreative sexual practices. You might say that a civilization that takes ‘pride’ in such extreme self-indulgences is effeminate and courting death. And you would be right.

“But the promotion of unhealthy sexual desires is not what Diversity is about. Diversity is about power. Diversity is therefore never strictly about the subjects in which Diversity is pushed. The subjects are always incidental. Who controls the subjects is paramount.

Briggs has commented: “scientifically speaking, men who believe they’re women (and vice versa, but you get the idea) are, at best, mentally disturbed. It being both a physical and metaphysical impossibility that a man can be a woman, something in the minds or bodies or both of ‘transsexuals’ has gone seriously, alarmingly wrong.”18Under Ash Carter, the Military is Now Looking for a Few Good Men, Women or Whatever,” The Stream, July 1, 2016. Archived October 13, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/VJ288

“[P]ro-transgender, pro-sodomy, pro-perversion speech of any kind is hate speech and must be condemned, expunged, ridiculed, excoriated, punished,” Briggs also wrote on his website.19Love Is Hate: Pro-Transgender Speech Is Hate Speech,” William M. Briggs, October 2, 2020. Archived October 13, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/bRFt9

In the discussion of sexual scandals at the Church, Briggs has said rather than “having priests openly define themselves as their temptations, as advocated by among others the Washington Post,” that “The Church instead needs to return to a proper understanding of the nature of man.” In that article, Briggs describes LGBT as follows:20The McCarrick Scandal & Objectively Disordered Sexual Desires,” The Stream, October 9, 2020. Archive URL:https://archive.vn/V43Xv

“All know the acronym/phrase ‘LGBT’ is shorthand for an ever-expanding list of kinds of sexual desire. We began with LGBT and we are now at LGBTQWERTY, or whatever. I used to be derisive of lists like that, but I now believe this is the one thing sexual desire ideologues get right.

“It really is true that sexual desire is broad, much broader than we used to understand. A man may desire sex, or more usually simulated sex, with himself, with another man, with a child, with a couch on the side of a road (a real case), with a goat, with another man’s wife, with a dead body, with those missing limbs because they are missing limbs, with only females of certain races, with men who pretend to be women, and on and on and on.

“He may desire sex (or simulated sex) in one way today and another tomorrow. Desire can be fluid. For instance, many men do not realize that they desire simulated sex with other men until they are introduced to the concept from older men. And we recall that some men who were called ‘gay’ have fathered children. The number of possible propensities, or ‘orientations,’ is practically infinite.

[…]

“It is thus no surprise that the man who defines himself by his temptations is the man more likely to slip. Since desire is fluid and temptations are as many, as orientation ideologues say, it is also no surprise that this class of men is more likely to sin in many different ways. And that is precisely what is observed.

“This is why the idea to fix the scandal by having priests openly define themselves as their temptations, as advocated by among others the Washington Post, will only make everything worse.

“The Church instead needs to return to a proper understanding of the nature of man.”

In another article at The Stream, Briggs wrote of a since-deleted TED talk on pedophilia (“Jonas” is the name of a character in the TED talk described as a pedophile):21Pity The Poor ‘Born That Way’ Pedophile!The Stream, June 18, 2018. Archived October 8, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/134qp

“If [Mirjam] Heine’s arguments do not seem familiar, they ought to. Heine cribbed her script from the ‘gay’ ‘rights’ movement. She had only to substitute ‘pedophilia’ for ‘homosexuality.’

“It was bound to happen. Once we began identifying ourselves as our sexual desires — you are not a man but a ‘gay’ or a ‘straight’ or one of dozens of other ‘orientations’ — it was only a matter of time before every sexual desire got its own ‘rights’ and in the same way.

“Heine began at ‘anger and disgust’ over pedophilia, but her ‘perspective [was] completely changed’ after she heard of Jonas’s ‘cruel fate.’

“It took between thirty and forty years for homosexuality to turn from revulsion to Pride. It took Heine only a fraction of the time for her conversion. How long will it take us?”

Briggs also wrote of the Paris Climate Accord in the context of gender equality and transgender rights:22Global Warming: Thirty Years of Hype, Hysteria and Hullabaloo,” The Stream, June 24, 2018. Archived October 9, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/XCsMn

“The undead corpse of global warming is animated now only by the hopes of a handful of true believers.

“Smarter activists see the futility of climate change and have begun the work of metamorphosing the cause into something grander.

“The seeds for this growth were planted in the Paris ‘climate’ accord, which called for ‘gender equality, empowerment of women, and intergenerational equity’ as well as ‘climate justice.’

“All that was missing was transgender ‘rights.’ But don’t worry. That’s being taken care of, too.”

In an article on “Gmarriage,” which Briggs defines as “government-defined marriage, which is not actual marriage, which can only be between a man and woman,” Briggs concluded:23A Mild & Temporary Victory Over Gmarriage,” The Stream, June 6, 2018. Archived October 9, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/oiYbd

“As a parting thought, consider just what is ‘sexual orientation.’ Desire for sex with your dog? Your sister? A child? Dead body? Roller coasters?

Scoff if you like, but wait and see.”

In a 2015 article on conversion therapy, Briggs wrote:24They Enshrined ‘Homosexual’ as an Identity; Next They Will Ban Gay ‘Conversion’ Therapy,” The Stream, May 23, 2015. Archived May 27, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/roQcl

“Anyway, once these bans on ‘conversion therapy’ become common, how long before it is ruled illegal for a man to claim he is a ‘former gay’ or to tell children they have a ‘choice’? Well, these are just the kind of things you can expect in a corrupt democracy. ‘Truth’ is decided by vote.”

Comments Surrounding 2021 Capitol Insurrection

William Briggs was among dozens of the individuals and organizations profiled in DeSmog’s Disinformation Database who posted online or gave interviews about the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection. Some posted claims of election fraud, similar to those that drove the Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6. Some circulated dubious information about the insurrection itself. DeSmog has preserved a selection of notable posts related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, including some that were later deleted or removed.

On Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the Capitol insurrection in the US, Briggs posted the following messages on Twitter:

His @FamedCelebrity account later posted this message on Jan. 11, 2021:

All of these posts have since been deleted. Briggs has previously indicated that he removes social media posts after a week:

Key Quotes

October 6, 2020

In a post at his website, Briggs commented that increases of testing for COVID would “make a dead epidemic seem still alive” and “make coronadoom zombies.”25It’s OVER, Yet The Coronadoom Corpse Walks On: Updates — Coronavirus Update XXXIV,” William M. Briggs, October 6, 2020. Archived October 7, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/rZVJm

“I cannot stress enough how idiotic levels of increased testing can and will make things seem worse than they are,” Briggs wrote.

He concluded:

“It is over. It is gone. It is not here, except as a residual. Yes, there will be updates to the figure, since most recent counts are always late, but this has been so every week. The signal is obvious. It is vamoosed. Since this bug, like all bugs, will be with us forever, we can never wait for 0 attributed deaths. If we wait for 0 deaths, we will wait forever.”

September 7, 2020

“We come now to COVID-19, the coronadoom. It cannot be considered unusual,” Briggs wrote at The Stream. “It will not even join the Disease Hall Of Fame. Asian flu in 1957, which beat COVID-19, killed 1 to 4 million, and the same with 1968’s Hong Kong flu. (Fauci includes neither of these.)”26Anthony Fauci: Pandemics are Increasing Because We’ve Provoked Mother Nature,” The Stream, September 7 2020. Archived October 9, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/g4LY0

“Flu and its complications (like pneumonia) regularly and routinely kills hundreds of thousands to millions worldwide. Each and every year. Even in the presence of vaccines. This has been so throughout history, and there is no reason to suppose it will change in the future.

“One thing that has changed has been our perception of disease. We have grown exponentially more fearful, and we now must have somebody to blame.”

[…]

“My earnest thought, which I’ll add to the collective, is that we must never, ever again panic over not-at-all unusual wholly expected common disease outbreaks. Panic kills. It makes us stupid. It causes us to react in ways that do more harm than good.”

June 30, 2020

In an article at The Stream, Briggs suggested the US was heading towards “herd immunity” with regards to the COVID pandemic:27Why You Shouldn’t Panic About ‘Spikes’ and ‘Surges’ in New Coronavirus Cases,” The Stream, June 30, 2020. Archived October 8, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/HZXxd

“These numbers suggest we are inching closer to herd immunity, the point at which spreading the disease to new people becomes much harder. The continued fall in both official COVID-19 and all-cause deaths, also suggest we should be less worried, not more.

Surely the press and government officials are bright enough to grasp these same statistics. So, why do they insist that the crisis is growing worse? I’ll let you answer that for yourself.”

April 18, 2018

Briggs wrote at the conclusion of an article at The Stream suggesting “A Society Run By Atheist Scientists Would Be Horrible”:28A Society Run By Atheist Scientists Would Be Horrible,” The Stream, April 18, 2018. Archived October 9, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/wrn0i

“Since scientists almost nowhere receive any moral training, are not required to read history or study philosophy, and cannot look on religion as anything but an abstract thing, they will be less equipped than non-scientists at forming moral judgments. A society in which science ruled would therefore almost certainly be a very scary place.”

August 8, 2017

Following the firing of a Google employee for comments attacking the company’s diversity policy, Briggs commented in an article at The Stream:29In Celebration of Cult of Diversity, Google Sacrifices Employee,” The Stream, August 8. 2017. Archived October 9, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/6qwmg

“Alas, ‘viewpoint diversity’ is not diversity. The last thing cultists want is an opinion that differs from their own, even slightly. They must have absolute, blind obedience. Silence will not do. Diversity demands complicity. You must put the pinch of incense into the fire.

From Google’s actions, and from our common experience with those universities and elements of government who subscribe to the cult, we conclude the following facts. Diversity is not diversity. Diversity is mandatory uniformity. Diversity is enforced quotas. Diversity is binding conformity.

Diversity is a cult. Diversity is our weakness.”

January 6, 2016

“Pro-gun, rightly defined, is pro-life.”30Pro-Gun Is Pro-Life,” The Stream, January 6, 2016. Archived October 10, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/pJ1Xe

Key Deeds

September 24, 2020

Briggs was featured in Marc Morano’s film Climate Hustle 2: Rise of the Climate Monarchy. The film was produced by the fossil-fuel funded Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) and featured a “Thinning Roster of Climate Science Deniers” according to DeSmog’s reporting.31 Ben Jervey. “Climate Hustle 2: Showcasing a Thinning Roster of Climate Science Deniers,” DeSmog, September 24, 2020.

During the film, Briggs claimed environmentalists want “bigger government, more regulation, more control, more everything that’s against freedom.” He added, “That’s what they want. And global warming seems to give them that.” He claimed kids were being “propagandized” in the school system to accept mainstream climate science.32 Climate Hustle 2: Rise of the Climate Monarchy. CFACT/ CDR Communications, Inc., 2020.

During a discussion on how climate change could be used as a pretext for authoritarian political goals, Briggs characterised environmentalism as a eugenicist movement, stating:

“The racism is an inherent problem that Africans are lesser creatures to these people otherwise they wouldn’t be saying such monstrously stupid things.”

Briggs was also featured in the original Climate Hustle film, also produced by CFACT.

October 2019

William Briggs is a signatory of the “Realist Catholic Climate Declaration.” According to a post at his website, Briggs also appears to have been involved in the drafting of the declaration. “This statement is to be in contradistinction to the hyperbolic and inaccurate ‘U.S. Catholic Climate Declaration’,” Briggs wrote. “The goal is to have something short, sweet, certain, and Catholic.”33 Charles Rotter. “Realist Catholic Climate Declaration,” Watts Up With That? October 13, 2019. Archived October 7, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/WRh1I 34Draft Realist Catholic Climate Declaration: Please Share!William M. Briggs, October 7, 2019. Archived October 8, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/yveCN

“We need this done lickety-split to counter the curiosities of the Amazon synod. End of this week, I mean,” he wrote on October 7, 2019, urging readers to share and critique the most recent draft.35Draft Realist Catholic Climate Declaration: Please Share!William M. Briggs, October 7, 2019. Archived October 8, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/yveCN

The published declaration reads as follows:36Realist Catholic Climate Declaration,” Realclimate.wixsite.com. Archived October 8, 2020.

“The Magisterium of the Catholic Church makes no mention of earth’s optimal climate, or the best rate of change of the climate, nor should it. Neither optimum is known to anybody.

“The earth’s climate has always changed, is changing now, and will never cease changing. The extent to which man is responsible for climate change is not known, only surmised. There is no earthly force capable of stopping climate change.

“Extreme caution, even skepticism, is warranted in any statement about the climate given the decades of failed and overreaching forecasts and hyperbole from official and interested sources. Beyond individual prudent stewardship, no Catholic is obliged to support any environmental measure.

The salvation of souls is of more pressing concern than the air temperature. Pray to God and pray for your neighbor, not to the planet.”

Notable signatories to a published version of the declaration include the following:37Realist Catholic Climate Declaration,” Realclimate.wixsite.com. Archived October 8, 2020.

March 20, 2018

The Heartland Institute reported Briggs was among their policy advisors who had filed an amici curiae brief to “demonstrate that there is no ‘consensus’ among scientists that recent global warming was chiefly anthropogenic, still less that unmitigated anthropogenic warming has been or will be dangerous or catastrophic.”38PRESS RELEASE: HEARTLAND INSTITUTE POLICY ADVISORS JOIN AMICI CURIAE BRIEF IN CALIFORNIA ‘CLIMATE TRIAL’,” The Heartland Institute, March 20, 2018. Archived October 8, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/8Jr9D

The submission was in response to a request for an order of March 6, 2018 for a tutorial hearing on climate science to be held on March 21, 2018. The hearing was designed to “inform” the lawsuits filed by San Francisco and Oakland, California against major oil companies including BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon, and Royal Dutch Shell for “billions in expenditures to abate the global warming nuisance.”

“These companies knew fossil fuel-driven climate change was real, they knew it was caused by their products and they lied to cover up that knowledge to protect their astronomical profits. The harm to our cities has commenced and will only get worse. The law is clear that the defendants are responsible for the consequences of their reckless and disastrous actions,” Oakland city attorney Barbara J. Parker said when the lawsuits were filed in September 2017.39 Larraine Chow. “San Francisco Becomes First Major US City to Sue Fossil Fuel Industry Over Costs of Climate Change,” EcoWatch, September 22, 2017.

March 2016

Briggs attended a talk by Mark Steyn at the Princeton Club in midtown Manhattan. The event was sponsored by The New Criterion and co-sponsored by the CO2 Coalition.40Climate Surprise: Why More CO2 is Good for the Earth,” The Stream, March 31, 2016. Arhived August 6, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/SenNp

According to Briggs, “Not only are things not as bad as we thought, they are much, much better. And they’re improving. Crop output is up, the world is greener, storms are down in frequency and number, and on and on, despite the forecasts of doom foisted on the public by politicians and media.

“But why are things better? Because of the beneficial effects of releasing carbon-dioxide into the atmosphere. Craig Idso, a bona fide scientist who also spoke at the event, cataloged the good CO2 does. Plants grow not just a little better when CO2 is increased, but they are vastly improved.”

He added:41Climate Surprise: Why More CO2 is Good for the Earth,” The Stream, March 31, 2016. Arhived August 6, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/SenNp

“In times past, atmospheric CO2 levels were up to 30 times higher — pause and reflect on the number — than they are now; and indeed we are now in a historic, almost dangerously low, period. Yet even though CO2 was then so much higher than mankind could ever hope now to achieve even if we burn every drop of oil that exists, there was no runaway global warming. Why should we expect it now?”

November 18, 2015

Briggs was featured as part of a Cornwall Alliance video series titled “Greener on the other Side: Climate Alarmism – Fact, Not Fear.” DeSmog noted significant overlap between those appearing in the Cornwall Alliance film and in the first Climate Hustle release. The two films also shared the same production company — CDR Communications.42Greener on the Other Side – An Open Letter to Pope Francis on Climate Change,” YouTube video uploaded by user “Cornwall Alliance For the Stewardship of Creation,” November 18, 2015. 43 Graham Readfearn. “The Evangelical Christian Climate Deniers Behind Marc Morano’s Climate Hustle Documentary,” DeSmog, November 19, 2015.

July 12, 2015

Briggs gave a presentation at the Heartland Institute’s Tenth International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC10) in Washington, DC. His presentation was on “The Psychology of Climate Alarmism.”44Prof William Briggs – The Psychology of Climate Alarmism – 10th ICCC,” YouTube video uploaded by user “1000frolly PhD.” Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

“Scientists, as it turns out, are split over global warming,” Briggs claimed in his presentation. “And I want to be very careful here. By ‘scientists,’ I mean genuine experts with training in fluid flow, thermodynamics and the like. I do not include reporters, economists, sociologists, anybody else or others whose opinions on, for instance, the best cloud parameterization scheme is lacking.”45Prof William Briggs – The Psychology of Climate Alarmism – 10th ICCC,” YouTube video uploaded by user “1000frolly PhD.” Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

He goes on to claim the proposed solution to global warming is “world government”:46Prof William Briggs – The Psychology of Climate Alarmism – 10th ICCC,” YouTube video uploaded by user “1000frolly PhD.” Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

“Global warming of doom is a vague concept, but roughly it’s this. Anything, anything that has or will go wrong is. Or will be caused or exacerbated by global warming and global warming itself is caused by mankind. If global warming of doom creates problems, what are the solutions? These are just as fuzzy as the problems, but grossly the solution is this: that government, preferably world government, should eliminate unfettered capitalism and that all activities should be monitored for their influence on the environment and subsequently banned or heavily regulated… .Global warming of doom exists because the solution does not.47Prof William Briggs – The Psychology of Climate Alarmism – 10th ICCC,” YouTube video uploaded by user “1000frolly PhD.” Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

January 2015

Briggs co-published an article with Christopher Monckton, Willie Soon, and David R. Legates in Science Bulletin. The paper was titled “Why models run hot: results from an irreducibly simple climate model.” Briggs claimed response to the article caused his website to be hacked. He summarized the article’s key points as follows:48Climate Paper Causes Chaos, Angst, Anger, Apoplexy! (Hacking?)William M. Briggs, January 27, 2015. Archived October 10, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/E0CJH

  • “Researchers claim global warming predictions are ‘greatly exaggerated’”
  • “Large climate models typically require computers to perform calculations”
  • “They consider factors such as animal numbers and tectonic variations”
  • “By comparison, a team of researchers has created a ‘simple’ model”
  • “It looks at levels of solar energy absorbed and reflected by Earth”
  • “Using this simple model, they claim current predictions are wrong”
  • “Once errors are corrected, global warming in response to a doubling of CO2 is around 1oC or less – a third of the predicted 3.3C”

The Heartland Institute hosts a copy of the study on its website.

March 23, 2013

Briggs co-authored a paper in Science & Education with David R. Legates and Willie Soon titled “Learning and Teaching Climate Science: The Perils of Consensus Knowledge Using Agnotology.” According to the abstract, students should be exposed to climate science skepticism. “All sides must be covered in highly debatable and important topics such as climate change, because authoritarian science never will have all the answers to such complex problems,” the abstract reads.49 Legates, D.R., Soon, W. & Briggs, W.M. “Learning and Teaching Climate Science: The Perils of Consensus Knowledge Using Agnotology,” Sci & Educ 22, 2007–2017 (2013).

Writing at Skeptical Science, John Cook—a research assistant professor at the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University—commented: “The paper comments extensively on Bedford’s agnotology paper. Unfortunately, it comprehensively misrepresents Bedford’s arguments.”50New paper on agnotology and scientific consensus,” SkepticalScience, June 19, 2013. Archived October 9, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/IAPxv

As a response, Cook co-authored a response to Legates’ paper with Daniel Bedford in Science & Education. The paper is titled “Agnotology, Scientific Consensus, and the Teaching and Learning of Climate Change: A Response to Legates, Soon and Briggs.51 Bedford, D., Cook, J. “Agnotology, Scientific Consensus, and the Teaching and Learning of Climate Change: A Response to Legates, Soon and Briggs,” Sci & Educ 22, 2019–2030 (2013).

March 2008

Briggs spoke at Heartland Institute‘s 2008 International Conference on Climate Change in New York City. His presentation was titled “Climate Change Impacts on Tropical Storms.”52William Briggs ICCC1,” YouTube video uploaded by user “The Heartland Institute,” July 23, 2013. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

Briggs brought up a graph and commented:

“This looks a lot like if you’ve seen the hurricane numbers, it looks a lot like the hurricane plots. It looks a lot like a plot that [Kerry] Emanuel published in Science, for instance, showing an increase in the number of hurricanes in the North Atlantic. Well. What this is, is just absolutely simulated uncorrelated Poisson numbers […] absolutely made up numbers. […] This is just completely made up data.”

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