Just what IS a climatologist? What degree do they have? I always hear that GW advocates only take the word of climatologists-- weather forecasters, geologists, etc etc opinions don%26#039;t count.

Here are the resumes-- and educational background for several %26quot;climatologists%26quot;.
http://www.sercc.com/personnel

Until VERY recently universities did not teach %26quot;climate%26quot; as a stand-alone degree-------- so basically right now most folks claiming to be climatologists actually have degrees in other types of Earth sciences.

Additional Details

5 days ago

Edit-- so it appears that the current crop of %26quot;climatologists%26quot; are no different than physicists, mathematicians, geologists, and meteorologists-- or anyone else having multiple degrees in the physical sciences-- or a career in Earth %26quot;sciences%26quot;.

4 days ago

Edit-- then why -- when a group of %26quot;Earth%26quot; scientists reject GW theory --- are they immediately rejected by the GW advocates?? with the statement, %26quot;they are not climatologists%26quot;. Actually there is no such thing as a Climatologist!
http://www.unl.edu/nuhusker/majors/ASC/m...

Climate science is interdisciplinary, so there are climate scientists that are meteorologists, geologists, oceanographers, physicists, chemists, ecologists, etc. and they can be in all sorts of different academic departments. I actually think you%26#039;ll find that the advocates don%26#039;t use the term %26quot;climatologist%26quot; so much as %26quot;climate scientist%26quot; or %26quot;atmospheric scientist.%26quot; Historically climatology typically dealt with the division of the Earth into various climatic zones distinguished by their vegetation. In fact, that was the way that climatologists mapped climate in regions with sparse meteorological data. I doubt that most of the people doing research on global warming would call themselves climatologists, simply because climatology has meant something a bit different historically. I think climate science is a relatively new term that encompasses the Earth%26#039;s climate and its physical processes as a whole.

I%26#039;m in a doctoral program in climate science, but I don%26#039;t think the degree will say that, it will actually say %26quot;earth science%26quot; (it could also have said oceanography). Before I entered this program I had graduate degrees in physics and atmospheric science. Most of the people that enter the program have advanced degrees in physics, chemistry or even engineering.

There are lots of geologists and meteorologists that are doing research in climate science, and their opinions certainly count. However there are many people that neither do research in the field nor have any training (like TV weatherman John Coleman) that try to dupe people into believing that they are experts when they are not.

EDIT: Hmm, I%26#039;m not quite sure people are getting the nuance here. While climate scientists can be physicists, or chemists, or geologists, etc., most physicists, chemists, geologists are not climate scientists. They study other things. And perhaps the %26quot;meteorologists%26quot; that were being pooh-poohed were TV weathermen instead of real meteorologists.

And don%26#039;t worry 2B or not 2B, the programs in climate science are extremely interdisciplinary: my program includes graduate level study in atmospheric science, oceanography, mathematics, and chemistry and physics applied to the ocean and atmosphere. I%26#039;m sure most programs are similar, they have to be, the study of climate includes all these things.

Another EDIT: Ben O, don%26#039;t try to twist my words around, when I talked about people%26#039;s opinion counting I was responding specifically to the question asked, something which you did not even attempt in your %26quot;answer.%26quot;

The ones I know all have Phd%26#039;s in physics and between 20-30 years working in the field with various specialisations.
I have no problem with a meteorologist making statements on climate as they are related fields and many climatologists started in meteorology, the trouble is people who %26quot;say%26quot; founded the weather channel are not %26quot;meteorologists%26quot; but TV presenters and things like the OISM petition that gather (if you believe them) the %26quot;opinions%26quot; of dentists and M.D.s these are not climate related fields.
On the subject of how long %26quot;climatologist%26quot; has been a vocation, you say %26quot;Until VERY recently universities did not teach climate%26quot; yet your own link has the very first person %26quot;Dr. Peter Robinson%26quot; listed as state climatologist 1976-1980 thats 32 years ago and working in %26quot;Applied Climatology%26quot; at NC Uni since 1971.

I think Pegminer answered this quite well, but I%26#039;ll add a few things:

Being a climatologist depends less on your degree, and more on your research. There are climatologists with degrees in mathematics, atmospheric sciences, meterorology, climatology, oceanography, physics, chemistry, geography, geology, astrophysics, statistics, astronomy, engineering, earth sciences, environmental sciences, and more specific fields within those already mentioned. But as long as your research is the study of climate in its many facets, you could be considered a climatologists.

--------
Edit:
Beren wrote
%26quot;I would say anybody that has published in a peer reviewed climatology journal could be called a climatologist. %26quot;

I wouldn%26#039;t necessarily say that is true. It takes more than one publishing in a climate related journal to be considered a climatologist.

Excellent point, but this is only another %26#039;Inconvenient Truth%26#039;, or fact that alarmists will try to either ignore or dismiss completely.

They will still keep shouting that %26#039;The Sky is Falling%26#039; however!

Climate study should not be taught as a stand-alone degree unless it encompasses many other doctrines and principles of physical science.

Edit:
Excellent point Randall E made, I had to think for a few minutes of what the reference to B and D meant.
I would probably not have been so %26#039;Politically Correct%26#039; or subtle however since I do not treat this forum as some sort of point scoring game.

It will be interesting to see if either of them pop their heads up for this question and see what they have to say.

I know one who studied atmospheric physics, wrote his PhD in the field and did his post-doc in the same field (around 20 years ago)

But to answer honestly, hard physics and chemistry are really the basic knowledge for a sound understanding.
It all then comes to your specialization in your PhD, the kind of modeling your work on.

Some very regarded universities listed in the worldwide top100 have faculties for climatology. Randall: this is extremely dishonest as everything was researched based on the fact that CO2 is a greenhouse gas and with the question of what the implication of an increase in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere would be.