Editing Patrick Michaels (section)

==Views on climate change==
Michaels said that he does not contest the basic scientific principles behind greenhouse warming and acknowledges that the global mean temperature has increased in recent decades.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2007-02-01-oppose_x.htm |title=Live with climate change |work=[[USA Today]] |date=February 1, 2007 |access-date=March 13, 2014 |author=Michaels, Patrick}}</ref> He is quoted as being skeptical of [[global warming]],<ref name=Seattle>{{cite news|title=The truth about global warming |date=October 11, 2005 |work=[[The Seattle Times]] |first=Sandi |last=Doughton |access-date=May 4, 2007 |url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002549346_globewarm11.html |quote=one of the most widely quoted global-warming skeptics |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070425173920/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002549346_globewarm11.html |archive-date=April 25, 2007}}</ref> and was described by [[Michael E. Mann]] as a "prominent [[climate change denial|climate change contrarian]]".<ref name="Mann2013">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klerAgAAQBAJ&q=Michaels&pg=PA106 |title=The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines|date=October 1, 2013|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-15255-6|pages=106|author=Michael E. Mann}}</ref> He contends that the changes will be minor, not [[Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth|catastrophic]], and may even be beneficial.<ref name="Michaels2000">{{cite journal | publisher=Regulation | volume=23 | issue=3 | date=Fall 2000 | access-date=March 14, 2007 | title=The Way of Warming | first=Patrick | last=Michaels | author2=Paul C. Knappenberger | author3=Robert E. Davis | url=http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv23n3/michaels5.pdf | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070215212203/https://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv23n3/michaels5.pdf | archive-date=February 15, 2007 }}</ref>

A 2002 article published in the journal ''[[Climate Research (journal)|Climate Research]]'' by Michaels and three other scholars predicted "a warming range of 1.3–3.0°C, with a central value of 1.9°C" over the 1990 to 2100 period, although he remarked that the "temperature range and central values determined in our study may be too great". He made the argument that the [[climate feedback]] system involving current warming trends was weaker than generally asserted, coming to a conclusion that set his views apart from that of the IPCC's estimates.<ref name=variability>"[https://www.int-res.com/articles/cr2003/23/c023p001.pdf Revised 21st century temperature projections]", Patrick J. Michaels, Paul C. Knappenberger, Oliver W. Frauenfeld and Robert E. Davis, Climate Research, Vol. 23: 1–9, 2002.</ref>

In 2009, Michaels authored a Cato report arguing that "Congress should pass no legislation restricting emissions of carbon dioxide, repeal current ethanol mandates, and inform the public about how little climate change would be prevented by proposed legislation."<ref name=CATOHandbook2009>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-handbook-policymakers/2009/9/hb111-45.pdf
|first=Patrick
|last=Michaels
|year=2009
|title=CATO Handbook for Policy Makers
|publisher=CATO Institute
}}</ref>

In 2018, Michaels asserted on Fox News, "[P]robably about half, maybe half of that nine-tenths of the degree [of total warming] might be caused by greenhouse gases." ''[[Climate Feedback]]'', a [[fact-checking]] website for media coverage on climate change, wrote of Michaels' assertion, "No evidence or research is provided to support this claim, which contradicts the published scientific literature."<ref>{{Cite web |first=Scott |last=Johnson |url=https://science.feedback.org/review/on-fox-news-patrick-michaels-falsely-claims-humans-are-only-responsible-for-half-of-global-warming/ |title=On Fox News, Patrick Michaels falsely claims humans are only responsible for half of global warming|date=July 9, 2019|website=Science Feedback |publisher=Climate Feedback |language=en-US |access-date=September 16, 2024}}</ref>