Gary D. Sharp

Gary D. Sharp

Credentials

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Marine Biology, Univ. of California (1972).1โ€œGary D. Sharp: Resume,โ€ Sharpgary.org. Accessed February, 2012.
  • Master of Science, Biology, San Diego State University (1968).2โ€œGary D. Sharp: Resume,โ€ Sharpgary.org. Accessed February, 2012.
  • Bachelor of Science, Zoology, San Diego State University (1967).3โ€œGary D. Sharp: Resume,โ€ Sharpgary.org. Accessed February, 2012.

Background

Gary D. Sharp was Adjunct Professor of the Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia from 1993 to 2004. He currently works as an independent consultant in โ€œocean resources related climate-oceanography.โ€4โ€œGary D. Sharp: Resume,โ€ Sharpgary.org. Accessed February, 2012.

Sharp operates a small website that links to articles and resources from many well-known climate change skeptics and promotes Sharp’s book, Out of Fisherman’s Hands.

Stance on Climate Change

โ€œModest changes in temperature are not about to wipe them [coral reefs] out. Neither will increased carbon dioxide, which is a fundamental chemical building block that allows coral reefs to exist at all. It is their and our friend, generally, not the enemy.โ€ Congress and environmental organizations, he wrote, should โ€œfocus their concern โ€“ against the real pollutants and real human damage caused to these rain forests of the sea.โ€5Gary D. Sharp. โ€œCoral Bleaching: What (or Who) Dunnit?โ€ TCS Daily, April 26, 2006.

Key Quotes

โ€œThe oceans are now heading into one of their periodic phases of coolingโ€ฆ . Modest changes in temperature are not about to wipe them [coral] out. Neither will increased carbon dioxide, which is a fundamental chemical building block that allows coral reefs to exist at all.โ€6โ€œWe cannot let the Kyoto debacle happen again,โ€ The Guardian, February 4, 2007. Accessed November 16, 2011.

Key Deeds

May 2010

Sharp was a speaker at the Heartland Institute’s Fourth International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC4) in Chicago. DeSmog has done research on the co-sponsors of the conference and found that 19 of the 65 sponsors (including Heartland itself) have received a total of over $40 million in funding since 1985 from ExxonMobil, Koch Industries family foundations or the Scaife family foundations.

Sharp’s speech, titled โ€œProjecting Climate Changes and Ecological Responses – Coping with Changesโ€ can be viewed below.7โ€œ4th International Conference on Climate Changeโ€ (PDF), The Heartland Institute. Retrieved February, 2012, from Laurence I. Gould’s personal website at the University of Hartford.

March 2008

Sharp is listed as a โ€œClimate Expertโ€ who signed the 2008 Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change.8โ€œCLIMATE EXPERTS WHO SIGNED MANHATTAN DECLARATION,โ€ International Climate Science Coalition. Accessed February, 2012.

The Manhattan Declaration was first presented at the Heartland Institute’s 2008 International conference on Climate Change and declares that โ€œglobal warming is not a global crisis.โ€

Those who sign must also agree that โ€œglobal climate has always changed and always will, independent of the actions of humans, and that carbon dioxide (CO2) is not a pollutant but rather a necessity for all life;โ€ and that โ€œcostly regulations on industry and individual citizens to encourage CO2 emission reduction will slow development while having no appreciable impact on the future trajectory of global climate change.โ€ The declaration also notes that โ€œwarmer weather is generally less harmful to life on Earth than colder.โ€

The Manhattan Declaration is promoted by the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) which is directed by Tom Harris. The Advisory Boards of the ICSC are filled with global warming skeptics including Tim Ball, David Bellamy, Scott Armstrong, Vincent Gray, Kesten Green, Chris de Freitas, and Nils-Axel Morner.

December 2007

Sharp signed a 2007 open letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon which claims that global warming is a natural phenomenon, and that the IPCC’s assessment reports are not adequate as justification for climate change policy.9โ€œOpen Letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations,โ€ December 16, 2007. Reprinted by the Science and Public Policy Institute.

April 2006

Sharp was a signatory to a 2006 open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper that urged the government avoid implementing anti-climate-change policy.

November 2004

Sharp was signatory to a 2004 open letter to John McCain which denounced findings by the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA). The letter was signed by other skeptics including Richard Lindzen, Tim Ball, David Legates, Pat Michaels, Roy W. Spencer, Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas.

The letter concludes that the โ€œArctic climate has and will continue to exhibit intricate patterns not reliably reproduced by global climate simulations, thus underscoring their scientific incompleteness and need for advances in Arctic climate science, in measurements, theory and models.โ€10โ€œClimate Experts Respond to Arctic Climate Impact Assessment,โ€ PRNewswire, November 16, 2004. Republished by the Frontier Center for Public Policy, November 20, 2004. Archived June 19, 2010.

In summary, the letter describes temperature changes in the Arctic as being a natural variance in temperatures.

Affiliations

  • The Center for Climate/Ocean Resources Study

Sharp runs the โ€œCenter for Climate/Ocean Resources Studyโ€ in Salinas, California. A search for the Center for Climate/Ocean Resources Study yields Sharp’s personal website and the listed address for the Resources Study also appears to be Sharp’s home address.

Publications

According to a search of Google Scholar, Sharp has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals on fisheries. He also appears to have published two papers on the subject of climate:

The Fisheries and Aquaculture Department (FAO) does not appear to be a peer-reviewed journal.14โ€œAbout us – Fisheries and Aquaculture Department,โ€ Accessed November 16, 2011.

His second paper is a summary of a 1990 symposium and was not published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Other Publications:

  • Gary D. Sharp, Leonid Klyashtorin, and James Goodridge. โ€œClimate and Fisheries: Costs and Benefits of Changeโ€ (PDF) International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade.
  • Gary D. Sharp, Menakhem Ben-Yami, and James R. McGoodwin. OUT OF FISHERMEN’S HANDSโ€ฆ Fishermen’s Role In Society and Natural Systems (PDF).
  • Gary D. Sharp & CAS Hall, โ€œNeoclassical Economics and Fisheriesโ€ in Making Development Work:a new role for science, Gregoire Leclerc and Charles A.S. Hall (Eds) 2007 University of New Mexico Press
  • Gary D. Sharp, Leonid Klyashtorin & George Taylor, โ€œClimate and Fisheries: Forecasting Contextual Changes, Instead of Hindcasting from Meaningless Means,โ€ Proceedings of the 2004 World Fisheries Conference, Vancouver, B,C. -2007 American Fisheries Society Press.

Other Resources

Resources

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