Phil Mote single-handedly damaged the economy of Washington State when as state climatologist he published a cherry picked data analysis allegedly linking western snowpack to global warming. Action taken by the Governor and Seattle’s equally clueless mayor have moved the state in the wrong directions with regards to energy policy and planning and left the state unprepared for the snow and cold of recent winters, costing lives. Mote’s paper while state climatologist for Washington State was published readily by the sadly advocacy driven AMS. The much more qualified Oregon state climatologist he subsequently replaced, George Taylor and the Assistant Washington State Climatologist Mark Albright (who Mote stripped of his title for questioning Mote’s hypothesis) and even UWA warmist Professor Cliff Mass published papers that showed by analyzing the entire record you see no trend but a cyclical change related clearly to the PDO. See how with the recent change to the negative PDO, heavy snow has returned to the Pacific Northwest. Given the imminent return to La Nina and forecast for deepening of the negative PDO stage, another wild winter with deep snowpack is likely.

Here is a letter from another fine scientist, Dr. Gordon Fulks to Dr Robinson congratulating him on his victory. It is followed by Mote’s politically driven attack sent to the University democratic club.
Dear Dr. Robinson,

Congratulations on winning the Republican nomination for Congress in the 4th District of Oregon.  I am one of many scientists in Oregon who appreciate your magnificent efforts to set the record straight on Global Warming.

Of course those who have greatly benefited from the AGW gravy train, like Professor Phil Mote at OSU, see you as a threat to their continued funding and are already helping your opponent (see below).  Their blatant use of their official positions to promote your opponent clearly demonstrates that they have abandoned any pretext of objective science.  Although trained as a scientist, Phil is now a pure advocate who is busy promoting Ocean Acidification as the next scare to replace Global Warming when Global Warming loses its luster as a funding vehicle.

If elected, you will likely be the only person in Congress with any scientific training.  I hope you will lead an effort to change the way the Federal government supports scientific research by especially targeting those who use scare tactics to obtain funds.  It is long past time to return federally-funded science to the objective pursuit it once was.

Best of luck in November,

Gordon J. Fulks, PhD (Physics, University of Chicago)
Corbett, Oregon USA

Here is Mote’s purely political letter to the democratic club at the university.

Art Robinson, self-styled climate expert from the charming hamlet of Cave Junction, Oregon, and the person primarily responsible for the Oregon Petition Project (here ), won the Republican primary in the election held Tuesday, and will face Rep. Peter deFazio in the fall for the privilege of representing a Congressional district that includes both Oregon State University and University of Oregon.

A Robinson victory would be put us in the tragic ranks of our climate colleagues at University of Oklahoma (Senator “global warming is a hoax” Inhofe) and Univ of Alaska (Rep. “scientists have their opinion, I have mine” Young)

Philip Mote, Director
Oregon Climate Change Research Institute and Oregon Climate Services
College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331-2209
pmote@coas.oregonstate.edu

Apparently OSU was not happy with the Mote email. He issued an apology.

From: Phil Mote Date: May 22, 2010 6:51:02 AM PDT
To: “GECO@lists.oregonstate.edu”
Subject: [GECO] my Thursday message

Thursday I sent a message to the Global Environmental Change Organization at Oregon State University.  Normally, messages to this group address science topics related to environmental change and involve announcements of seminars, conferences, and other opportunities.  The message I sent was a mistake and I apologize.

First, it sounded very much like a political endorsement, which not only was not what I intended, but also could be interpreted as an inappropriate use of an OSU e-mail account or of the listserve.

Second, my e-mail drew attention to a candidate’s past activity in an area that, as far as I can tell from his web site, has not been a factor in his campaign.

Third, I used inflammatory language that is not appropriate for scholarly discussion of climate change issues.  My tone was not constructive and my characterization of Mr. Robinson, Cave Junction, and other political leaders was inappropriate.

Finally, my e-mail included a factual error:  While many who live in Corvallis may reside in the 4th Congressional district, the OSU campus is in the 5th district. 

Regardless of anyone’s views involving global and environmental change, one of the greatest challenges we face is to conduct discussions and debate in a civil and measured way.  Scientists in particular have an obligation to conduct and communicate research objectively.  My e-mail Thursday failed to meet this standard and for this I apologize.

I appreciate those who have brought this to my attention.  If you forwarded my message, please forward this one too.

Regards,
Phil Mote, Director
Oregon Climate Change Research Institute and Oregon Climate Services
College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331-2209