A Bright Light for Truth in the 'Climate Change' Debate, John Coleman, Dies at Age 83

P. Gardner Goldsmith | January 23, 2018
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Political disputation often leads to vexation, if not anger. So it’s nice to find public figures or personal friends who offer some levity in the midst of the murk. And it's worth noting the loss of one such provider of light.

John Coleman, the first meteorologist on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the founder of The Weather Channel and subsequent long-time weather reporter at his local San Diego, CA, television station, KUSI, passed away Saturday, January 20. He was well known for being a pleasant, gentile, and energetically intelligent man -- and, most recently, for offering detailed accounts about how the “Global Warming/Climate Change” fraud grew from its earliest days.

Mr. Coleman took many risks in his career. Born in Alpine, Texas, in 1934, he was still in college at the University of Illinois when he got his first broadcasting gig in 1953, handling a music program and doing the weather reports for WCIA, in Campaign. In 1972, he and his team in Campaign created the first “chroma-key” weather map, and, three years later, he took on the first meteorology post for “Good Morning, Amerca” in 1975. He continued there for seven years, and founded The Weather Channel in 1981. He also handled weather duties for WCBS TV in New York, and WMAQ TV in Chicago, and received the “Broadcast Meteorologist of the Year” award from the American Meteorological Society in 1983, before finishing his career with twenty years worth of work at KUSI in San Diego.

And while at KUSI, Mr. Coleman took even more professional risks. He not only lambasted the promoters of what was originally called “Global Warming,” calling it the “greatest scam in history,” but also embarked on a continuing effort to create videos and give presentations on how the scam started, how its theories were incorrect and not supported by empirical evidence, and how politically connected organizations were manipulating the data.

Here is one of his succinct and valuable analyses of that kind of politically driven “science”:

Thanks to the internet, Mr. Coleman’s courageous and salient observations and refutations have been seen by millions, and many more people know that the science does not back-up UN and US government-supported claims about the climate, and that, in fact, scientists connected with government funding have been caught over and over trying to manipulate the data to support their broken theories.

He offered his refutations with clarity, speed, and the energy of a 30 year-old, even creating a half-hour long documentary on the subject that can be found online.

The world has lost a brilliant and upbeat man, but we who admired Mr. Coleman and appreciated his work and approach to it can be happy we had the opportunity to enjoy his expertise and good spirits, his honesty and his integrity. This is a man who quit the American Meteorological Society when, as he said, “it became very clear to me that the politics had gotten in the way of the science.”

Heartfelt sympathies are pouring in to his loved-ones and friends. And those of us who never met Mr. Coleman, but admired him for his steadfast hold on the pursuit of truth will always remember the information he gave us, the way he did it, and the example he showed.

In all the stormy darkness of politics, sometimes, there are breaks in the clouds.

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