Friday, November 10, 2006

How many climate scientists are there mommy?

Jim Clarke, a rather disembling cleverer is trying to tie folk at the other place up by claiming he wants to know how many climate scientists there are. The answer in the US is 13,746. AGU has a directory of members sorted by primary area of interest the numbers are

  • 1956 Atomspheric
  • 1564 Biogeochemistry
  • 334 Cryosphere
  • 751 Global climate change
  • 4736 Hydrology
  • 2326 Ocean sciences
  • 634 Paleoclimate
  • 2004 Volcanology (you can argue here if you want)
If we look at foreign members we get a total of 19340, which in the spirit of Iraq Body Count we can take as a lower limit, but certainly within a factor of 2.

(if you ain't a member of the AGU you ain't no damn climate scientist in the US, just like the AMA)

5 comments:

M.J. S. - (Wacki) said...

Awesome find Rabbet. I consider this blog just as valuable as RC.

M.J. S. - (Wacki) said...

Hey Eli, do you have a do you have a direct link for this info? I can't seem to find these stats online. Well, google is only showing your page.

AGU WHO said...

"if you ain't a member of the AGU you ain't no damn climate scientist in the US, just like the AMA"
I've been a Geologist who specializes in "Environmental Geoscience" for 20 years now. I have 7 publications with the National Academy of Science as well as other peer reviewed publishers. I certainly fall in to the criteria of a Paleoclimatologist. I am not a member of the AGU. To say I am not a climate scientist because I don't belong to the AGU is like saying a person couldn't possibly lose weight because they don't belong to Jenny Craig. How is a hydrologist a climate scientist? Does Darcy’s law bring insight to climate change? Between Hydro and Volcanologist, half of your list has little to do with climate change. How many of your ocean sciences people deal with gasses in the atmosphere? And no, whale flatulence doesn’t count.

Anonymous said...

No matter how I try I can't get the figures to add up to 13,746. Can you show how this is obtained.

EliRabett said...

AGU Who, you can't afford the $20??

Anon: No, but the point stands.