Dr. Roy Spencer: The Meteorologist Who is a Free Market Thinker

It is rare to come across a person who is as diverse as Roy Spencer. He describes himself as a climatologist, author and a former NASA scientist. Other than his many contributions academically, he is also attributed with many memorable quotes that b science and politics. One of these is, “I view my job as a legislator, supported by the taxpayer, to protect the interests of the taxpayer and to minimize the role of government.” What his job really is requires more in-depth investigation.

Climate Disinformer

He came into prominence as a naysayer of global warming in 2006, when he criticized the film An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore. He then went on to claim in an eminent talk show that he did not believe that a catastrophic man-made global warming was occurring at all. Other than having authored books such as Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor and The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled the World’s Top Climate Scientists, he has also been featured in movies like The Great Global Warming Swindle.

He is also a signatory to An Evangelical Declaration to Global Warming, which believes that nature is self-regulating and the changes in the environment cannot be attributed to human activities. He takes a stringent stance against policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, referring to supporters as Global Warming Nazis, since according to him, they were proffering policies that would kill more people than even the Nazis did.

Scientist

While Spencer is most famous for being the forerunner among those who denied and disinformed with regard to the greenhouse effect and global warming, he has also contributed to the world of science in many ways. In fact, his word had to be taken seriously, given that he has to his credit a BS degree in Atmospheric Studies from the University of Michigan and a PhD in Meteorology from the University of Wisconsin Madison, along with a number of serious publications that are recognized as valuable contributions by his peers.

In 1984, he joined NASA’s Marshall Flight Center as a visiting scientist and later went on to become Senior Scientist for Climate Studies. However, he is also a proponent of other unpopular theories in the scientific fraternity, such as that of Intelligent Design. In his book The Evolution Crisis, Spencer wrote, “Science has startled us with its many discoveries and advances, but it has hit a brick wall in its attempt to rid itself of the need for a creator and designer.”

Author of Fundanomics

As a proponent of many an unpopular but conservative ideas in science, Roy Spencer has attracted a lot of attention in the past. In comparison to the riveting debate that his stance on most subjects elicit, Roy Spencer’s book on Free Market economics has gone fairly unnoticed. Marketed as the most concise exposition of factors that energize the free market and released on Independence Day, 2011, the book captured the American optimism with regard to opening of the economy.

While some may argue that he oversimplifies the factors affecting economics, but he argues that simplification is essential because unless the “fundamental force unleashed by liberty and pursuit of happiness is understood, citizens would continue to be misled by economists and political leaders.” The book deals with what the author refers to ‘economic myths’, dedicating each chapter to each myth. He attempts to disambiguate fallacies like circulating more money, striving for full employment and spreading the wealth around as possible solutions to economic inequality. He also examines government regulations, most of which prove to be counterproductive.

He believes that rather than government interference, philanthropic capitalism could be a better solution to raise the living standards of all.

Roy W. Spencer stated that his tiny treatise on Free Market Economics was aimed at home-schoolers, who could use a simplified way to understand what has been unfairly made more complex than it really is. Whether or not he is right about global warming being a recurrent and natural phenomenon, or that the universe has an intelligence that created it, he could not be more on target with regard to explaining what is quite simply, the way of the world. Read in tandem with Ayn Rand, it can help the lay person understand how opening up the economy allows for a broad creative space for individuals to prosper in.