User:Yae4/Harold Ambler

Harold Ambler (born 1965) is an American author, musician, and teacher. Ambler was noted for his 2009 article on Huffington Post, entitled "Mr. Gore: Apology Accepted" in which he said, "Mr. Gore has stated, regarding climate change, that 'the science is in.' Well, he is absolutely right about that, except for one tiny thing. It is the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of humankind."

After the article was published on Huffington Post, it was widely criticized, and Huffington Post published an "update" by Ariana Huffington stating "we have an editorial process in place. The associate blog editor published the post. It was an error in judgment. I would not have posted it. Although HuffPost welcomes a vigorous debate on many subjects, I am a firm believer that there are not two sides to every issue, and that on some issues the jury is no longer out. The climate crisis is one of these issues."

In 2009 Ambler was interviewed about the Huffington Post controversy and other topics including his book on Brown Crew, and his upcoming book on Climate in an appearance on Fox News Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld. In 2011 Ambler's book, Don't Sell Your Coat, Surprising Truths About Climate Change was published. In March 2012 Ambler was interviewed by Ann Marie Spatharakis on WBLQ of Westerly, Rhode Island, and also appeared for interviews on Spatharakis' WBLQ show "Inside the Studio." In appearances on Fox TV, in March, April and May 2012, and February 2013, Ambler was interviewed and discussed several topics, including the Huffington Post incident, his book Don't Sell Your Coat, his motivations, celebrities and environmental issues, and tar sands oil extraction and the Keystone pipeline.

Education and work background
Ambler was educated at Dartmouth and Columbia and started his journalism career at The New Yorker. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, The AtlanticWire, New York Daily News and wattsupwiththat.com. In 2008 while living in Austin, Texas, his album "Carousel" was released by Big Day Records, after recording sessions in 2003 and 2005 in Massachusetts, and was reviewed favorably by the Austin Chronicle. Ambler performed music in Austin regularly from 2007 to 2009. He performed at the Wakefield, RI inaugural River Fest, Oktoberfest in 2016. As of August 2019, Ambler performs music at local venues in Rhode Island.

Ambler co-wrote and edited a 600-page history of rowing for Brown University, Ever True: The History of Brown Crew, published in March 2009. In 2011 Ambler's book, Don't Sell Your Coat, Surprising Truths About Climate Change was published by Lansing International Books. In May 2012, Ambler co-wrote an article, "Climategate Continues" in National Review. In June 2012, Ambler was a guest on MRC TV, where he explained his views on Hillary Clinton's visit to the Arctic Ice Shelf, and manipulation of politicians' views on climate change. (2:20-5:15) In March 2012, in a letter published in the Wall Street Journal, Ambler stated he received no money from "Big Oil," but mainstream climate scientists had received more than $1 billion from energy companies.

Personal background
Ambler was born in 1965 in La Jolla, California. He grew up near San Francisco, and graduated from Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto in 1983. In 1987, he graduated from Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in English. In 1989, he received a master’s in English from Columbia University. For three more years he did work toward a Ph.D., studying the work of Samuel Beckett. Ambler lives in Rhode Island and teaches at Rocky Hill School, a private school in East Greenwich.

Ambler says he has been "obsessed" with weather and climate from a young age, and has studied both ever since. With English degrees from Dartmouth and Columbia, his career started in journalism at The New Yorker magazine, from 1993 to 1999. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, The AtlanticWire (the Atlantic Monthly’s online presence), Watts Up With That?, The Providence Journal, Rhode Island Monthly, and Brown Alumni Monthly. On his blog, Ambler describes himself as a nature-loving person, and a surfer.

Ambler says he was "once an adherent of the view that human activity was dangerously raising Earth's temperature and changing its climate in destructive ways," but in 2008 an article by Khabibullo Abdussamatov prompted him to study "the evidence presented by global warming skeptics." Ambler is married to painter and illustrator Kim Edge-Ambler, and has two daughters, one of whom was "traumatized" by an evacuation drill in 2013.

Reception
In a March 2009 interview on Fox News Red Eye, Ambler was asked his opinion of an upcoming jet trip and speech by Prince Charles to say the world has less than 100 months to act to avoid irreversible climate changes. He also was asked to discuss the background and aftermath of his Huffington Post piece published the previous January, and to respond to challenges to his background and qualifications to question climate "theology" as a musician and sports enthusiast, without formal science background. Ambler also explained the connection between his book, Ever True, about rowing, and his interest in climate, saying as an outdoors person with background in water polo, surfing and rowing, he had a long-term, deep interest in both weather and climate, and "as a concerned citizen, he has the right to study and comment" as much or more than most celebrities.

In his book, The Joy of Hate: How to Triumph Over Whiners in the Age of Phony Outrage, Greg Gutfield described Ambler as a "delightful gentleman" you should know, someone who worked "in all the right places" including The New Yorker, a singer in a band, a rower, a blogger, and a liberal. He also described the personal backlash toward Ambler as being treated as a heretic or a leper, discussed a "hate speech" threat against Ambler, which he declined to prosecute, and quoted Ambler saying, "It's witch-burning all over again," in response to the hatred directed at him.

DeSmog blog was critical of Ambler's writing on Huffington Post. On January 8 and 9, 2009, Senator James Inhofe discussed Ambler's Huffington Post article in Senate speeches. In his 2010 book, Straight Up, Joseph Romm criticized Ambler and his Huntington Post article, but referred to blog posts for "detailed debunking."

In March 2012 Ambler was interviewed about his book Don't Sell Your Coat by Ann Marie Spatharakis on WBLQ of Westerly, Rhode Island, and was later interviewed about music and more on Spatharakis' WBLQ show "Inside the Studio." In September 2012 Bjørn Strong of Oslo Afternoon Post was critical of Ambler's arguments in Don't Sell Your Coat. In a "snapshot analysis report," the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) used Ambler's April 2012 appearance on Fox News as one of four "illustrative examples" of "denigrating climate science."

In June 2014, Ambler was a speaker at the Libertarian Party National Convention. Sandy Fitzgerald of Newsmax discussed Ambler's book and blog on weather and climate, and Ambler's views on Antarctic Sea Ice. In 2017, Sue Lani Madsen of The Spokesman-Review, used Ambler as one of three examples of proponents of non-anthropogenic theories of climate and adaptability, calling him "a journalist and self-identified liberal" who questioned mainstream narratives.