Alabamian nationally known as leading weather authority

John Christy has two childhood memories that stand out — the day he became a Christian at a Royal Ambassadors (RA) camp when he was 10 and his love for weather observation. As a child he would climb to the roof of his Fresno, Calif., home to take rainfall measurements and by the time he was a teen he had built a fully functional weather station.
   
Christy, director of Atmospheric Sciences at University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH) and member of Farley Community Church in Huntsville, said weather has always been a part of who he is.
   
His devotion to God led him to Kenya where he worked as a  journeyman, and then in the 1970s to South Dakota where he served as pastor of one of the only Southern Baptist churches in the state. Inspired by South Dakota’s open skies, Christy finally surrendered to his childhood dream to study the weather. He and his wife, Babs, moved to Champaign, Ill., where Christy earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in atmospheric sciences.
   
“It became evident to me that my career goals had more of a scientific bent than I originally thought,” Christy said.
   
Since graduating from the University of Illinois in 1987 his exploits have been many. His groundbreaking research of the earth’s climate and criticisms of the radical global warming movement have thrust Christy into the forefront of his field.
   
He has written more than 40 articles in journals such as Nature, Science and Oceanic Technology. In 2000, Gov. Don Siegelman appointed him as Alabama’s State Climatologist, and in 2001 Christy was a lead author of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He has testified before Congress and the Senate four times since he became director of the UAH Earth Science System Center.
   
Time quoted him in its 2001 expose on global warming and Disney’s Discover magazine featured his life and work in its Feb. 2001 issue. Knowing that his research and findings have the power to affect communities such as the one he served in Kenya makes Christy all the more conscious of his religious convictions.
    
“I go before Congress and refute the catastrophic events that radical environmentalists say will be brought on by global warming with facts and evidence because their policies raise the cost of fossil fuels, which hits the poor first and the hardest.”
    
His facts and evidence go against mainstream atmospheric and environmental science that claims  the earth’s temperature is rising at such a dramatic rate most of the earth will soon be blue, the ozone will be completely depleted and much of the natural world destroyed.
   
“There is simply not evidence to back this doomsday scenario,” Christy explained. “I believe the earth is warming, but not at the rate most claim.”
    
In 1996 Christy and another scientist,  Roy W. Spencer, developed a global precise record of earth’s temperature from operational polar-orbiting satellites. In other words, they found a better way to measure the earth’s temperature. The research won Christy a medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement from NASA and provided him the figures to refute exaggerated claims about climate increases.
    
“There is a prevailing attitude among some environmentalists that [humans] are an infestation of the planet and that the government should limit growth and progress so that the planet might be saved. My faith teaches me that human life is precious above all and that we should preserve life first.”
   
When Christy is not addressing heads of state and world governments, he’s teaching an adult Sunday School class at Farley Community Church. The value of God’s creation is a favorite subject of his.