David Russell Legates is a former
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
of
geography
Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...
at the
University of Delaware
The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...
.
He is the former Director of the Center for Climatic Research at the same university and a former
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
state climatologist. In September 2020, the
Trump administration Presidency of Donald Trump may refer to:
* First presidency of Donald Trump, the United States presidential administration from 2017 to 2021
* Second presidency of Donald Trump, the United States presidential administration since 2025
See also
* ...
appointed him as deputy assistant secretary of commerce for observation and prediction at the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...
.
Legates has spent much of his career casting doubt on the severity of
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
and the human causes of warming.
He is affiliated with the
Heartland Institute
The Heartland Institute is an American conservative and libertarian 501(c)(3) nonprofit public policy think tank known for its rejection of both the scientific consensus on climate change and the negative health impacts of smoking.
Founded ...
, a
think tank
A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...
that promotes
climate change denial
Climate change denial (also global warming denial) is a form of science denial characterized by rejecting, refusing to acknowledge, disputing, or fighting the scientific consensus on climate change. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetor ...
.
Legates' viewpoint, as stated in a 2015 study that he co-authored, is that the Earth will experience about 1.0 °C (1.8 °F) warming over the 2000 to 2100 period.
Early life and education
Legates received a bachelor's degree in 1982, a master's degree in 1985, and a Ph.D. in climatology in 1988, all from the University of Delaware.
Scientific career
Legates was a
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
of
geography
Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...
at the
University of Delaware
The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...
.
He has also taught at
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...
, the
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...
, and the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...
. He has been a Visiting Research Scientist at the
National Climate Data Center.
Legates started his career working on precipitation probability modeling. He extended his research to the study of global precipitation and temperature measurement correlation and performed critical analyses of the quality of traditional water budgeting methods applied to recent better quality measurement data. He also became concerned with the study of the applicability of global circulation prognostication models at the regional and local level. Legates and his team argued for the necessity of technological progress in precipitation measurement used for validating
climate change scenarios
A climate change scenario is a hypothetical future based on a "set of key driving forces".IPCC, 2022Annex I: Glossary an Diemen, R., J.B.R. Matthews, V. Möller, J.S. Fuglestvedt, V. Masson-Delmotte, C. Méndez, A. Reisinger, S. Semenov (eds) In ...
, and for validation of existing data used for that purpose. They demonstrated disagreement between satellite-based and in-situ precipitation measurements, and pointed out inconsistencies among satellite data processing algorithms. Legates argued for a better adequacy of observation-based climatologies compared to those compiled subjectively. His team concluded that uncorrected centered-pattern correlation
statistics
Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...
applied to the validation of general circulation prognostication models used to predict large-scale climate change may be inappropriate and may yield erroneous results. They proposed modified goodness of fit test methods more suitable for use in hydrologic and hydroclimate model validation. Legates and his coworkers became concerned with the quality of surface instrumental temperature data analysis, treatment and presentation of trends used in the communication of global warming research results.
He co-developed methods to correct biases in gauge-measured precipitation data for wind and temperature effects, with direct applicability in climate change, hydrology and environmental impact studies. His group observed that gauge undercatch was mostly caused by wind turbulence—especially for snow—and has a significant effect on the calculated Arctic water budget. They also studied the correlation between the observed variability in Western US snowpack accumulation and atmospheric circulation in historical measurement data and developed temperature-snowfall correlations based on first principles and observation in order to improve the global radiation balance estimation used in climate change predictions. Legates also developed a calibration method which validates
NEXRAD
NEXRAD or Nexrad (Next-Generation Radar) is a network of 159 high-resolution S-band pulse-Doppler radar, Doppler weather radars operated by the National Weather Service (NWS), an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ...
radar precipitation data with gauge measurements to improve the accuracy of precipitation estimates.
Legates and his coworkers extended their research to the development of correlations between satellite crop imaging data and landscape change, crop type and its evolution, and their effects of global climate change. They have also tackled rainfed crop management, modeling and optimization. The group developed a hydrologic model based on meteorological, soil and vegetation measurement data. His groups has demonstrated poor quality of correlation between hydrological cycle data, global runoff and global warming.
Legates and coauthors (including
Willie Soon
Willie Wei-Hock Soon (born September 30, 1965) is a Malaysian astrophysicist and aerospace engineer who was long employed as a part-time externally funded researcher at the Solar and Stellar Physics (SSP) Division of the Harvard–Smithsonian Ce ...
,
Sallie Baliunas
Sallie Louise Baliunas (born February 23, 1953) is a retired astrophysicist. She formerly worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian and was the Deputy Director of the Mount Wilson Ob ...
, and
Timothy F. Ball) authored a controversial (and non peer-reviewed) paper in the journal ''
Ecological Complexity
''Ecological Complexity'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the field of biocomplexity in the environment and theoretical ecology with special attention to papers that integrate natural and social processes at various spatio ...
'' attempting to disprove an increase in Hudson Bay temperatures in the past 70 years, and cautioning about polar bear-human interaction as a likely cause for any observed decline in bear populations. In this paper the authors expressed doubts regarding the predictive quality of global warming models at the entire Arctic scale and any extrapolation of polar bear population trends.
Legates's research has been funded by
Koch Industries
Koch, Inc. () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas, and is the second-largest privately held company in the United States, after Cargill. Its subsidiarie ...
, the
American Petroleum Institute
The American Petroleum Institute (API) is the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry. It claims to represent nearly 600 corporations involved in extraction of petroleum, production, oil refinery, refinement, pipeline ...
, and
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...
.
Climate change
Legates has published research papers, opinion editorials, and spoken openly in opposition to the
scientific consensus on climate change
There is a nearly unanimous scientific consensus that the Earth has been consistently warming since the start of the Industrial Revolution, that the rate of recent warming is largely unprecedented, and that this warming is mainly the result o ...
. More recently, he has been known for his dismissal of
anthropogenic
Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to:
* Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity
Anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows:
* Human impact on the enviro ...
cause of the observed
global warming
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...
patterns and the severity of its consequences at the local geographical scale.
Legates is a signer of the
Oregon Petition, which stated: "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth".
In his testimony to the
United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
The United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works is responsible for legislation and oversight of the natural and built environment and for studying matters concerning environmental protection and resource conservation and util ...
regarding the
Mann
Mann may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Mann'' (film), a 1999 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama
* Mann (chess), a variant chess piece
* ''Mann'' (magazine), a Norwegian magazine
* Mann (rapper), Dijon Shariff Thames (born 19 ...
,
Bradley and
Hughes hockey stick graph, Legates summed up his position as: "Where we differ with Dr. Mann and his colleagues is in their construction of the hemispheric averaged time-series, their assertion that the 1990s are the warmest decade of the last millennium, and that human influences appear to be the only significant factor on globally averaged air temperature."
[Statement of David R. Legates to the Committee on Environment and Public Works](_blank)
March 13, 2002.
In his lectures, Legates has acknowledged that humans have a direct impact on the environment. However he has disputed large scale climatological studies where he claims that researchers fail to incorporate sufficient data involving increased solar activity, water vapor as a
greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the gases in the atmosphere that raise the surface temperature of planets such as the Earth. Unlike other gases, greenhouse gases absorb the radiations that a planet emits, resulting in the greenhouse effect. T ...
, data contamination through expansion of the
urban heat island effect
Urban areas usually experience the urban heat island (UHI) effect; that is, they are significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas. The temperature difference is usually larger at night than during the day, and is most apparent when winds ar ...
surrounding data collection points, and many other key variables in addition to the human chemical emissions that are the sole focus of many climatological studies.
In October 2009, Dr. Legates and 34 cosigners submitted a letter to the EPA outlining specific objections to the proposed endangerment rule.
Legates is a signatory of the
Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation's
An Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming.
In February 2007, Delaware governor
Ruth Ann Minner
Ruth Ann Minner ( Coverdale; January 17, 1935 – November 4, 2021) was an American politician and businesswoman who served as the 72nd List of governors of Delaware, governor of Delaware from 2001 to 2009. She previously served in the Delaware G ...
wrote a letter to Legates, then Delaware's state climatologist, stating, "Your views on climate change, as I understand them, are not aligned with those of my administration."
The governor went on to write:
Legates continued to serve as Delaware's climatologist until 2011.
Legates was a co-author of a 2015 study published by the ''
Chinese Science Bulletin
''Science Bulletin'' (shortened as ''Sci. Bull.'') is a semi-monthly peer-reviewed international journal sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Published by Elsevier on behalf of Science ...
'' that used a simple climate model predicting an overall trend of approximately 1.0 C warming for the 2000 to 2100 period, drawing upon the historical record of approximately 0.34 C warming from 1990 to 2014. The study's authors, a team made up of Legates with
Dr. Willie Soon, Dr. William M. Briggs, and
Lord Christopher Monckton, stated that they somewhat agreed with the
IPCC
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to "provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies". The World M ...
's ideas but found the organization's temperature predictions to be largely overstated. The study specifically asserted that warming "may be no more than one-third to one-half of IPCC's summary of current projections".
Think tanks
Legates is affiliated with the
Heartland Institute
The Heartland Institute is an American conservative and libertarian 501(c)(3) nonprofit public policy think tank known for its rejection of both the scientific consensus on climate change and the negative health impacts of smoking.
Founded ...
, a leading promoter of
climate change denial
Climate change denial (also global warming denial) is a form of science denial characterized by rejecting, refusing to acknowledge, disputing, or fighting the scientific consensus on climate change. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetor ...
.
When the Heartland Institute presented him with a Courage in Defense of Science Award at its climate conference in 2015, Legates said it was recognition for having been “beaten over the head by a bunch of thugs,” meaning climate scientists and politicians who criticized his work.
He also was a senior scientist of the now closed-down
Marshall Institute, and has been a research fellow with the
Independent Institute
The Independent Institute is an American libertarian think tank founded in 1986 by David J. Theroux and based in Oakland, California. The institute has more than 140 research fellows and is organized into seven centers addressing a range of pol ...
, and an adjunct scholar of the
Competitive Enterprise Institute
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a non-profit libertarian think tank founded by the political writer Fred L. Smith Jr. on March 9, 1984, in Washington, D.C., to advance principles of limited government, free enterprise, and individ ...
.
Competitive Enterprise Institute: David Legates
/ref>
Trump administration
In September 2020, Legates was appointed as deputy assistant secretary of commerce for observation and prediction at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...
in the Trump administration Presidency of Donald Trump may refer to:
* First presidency of Donald Trump, the United States presidential administration from 2017 to 2021
* Second presidency of Donald Trump, the United States presidential administration since 2025
See also
* ...
. Many observers believe that Legates does not have the competence or objectivity for this position.
While detailed to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is a department of the United States government, part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, Executive Office of the President (EOP), established by United States Congres ...
Legates commissioned a set of nine briefs known as the "Climate Change Fliers," released in January 2021. The briefs attacked the consensus on climate change, many were written by prominent climate change denier
Climate change denial (also global warming denial) is a form of science denial characterized by rejecting, refusing to acknowledge, disputing, or fighting the scientific consensus on climate change. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetor ...
s. The briefs were not vetted and not issued by OSTP. Nevertheless they were published with an Executive Office of the President seal and bore a White House OSTP copyright. The head of the agency ordered the documents withdrawn and terminated Legates from his OSTP position.
References
External links
U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works Hearing Statement
- 07/29/2003
{{DEFAULTSORT:Legates, David
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
American climatologists
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration personnel
First Trump administration personnel
University of Delaware faculty
University of Delaware alumni