Wait until a skeptic dies, then immediately claim that he agreed with some of your alarmism?

From a New York Times obituary on Robert Jastrow (who headed NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies for 20 years):

Dr. Jastrow also became a prominent skeptic on climate change issues, arguing that scientists who warned of a global warming crisis were misattributing nature’s effects on climate to the effects of mankind. Dr. Arking, a climate scientist at John Hopkins University who continued to visit his old mentor on a regular basis until two days before his death, recalled arguing the issue with Dr. Jastrow, finding him less and less willing to make any concessions in their discussions.

“I tried to dissuade him on some issues,” Dr. [Albert] Arking said, recalling that Dr. Jastrow responded: “Yeah, you’re probably right, but this is the way we have to put it. We have to convince people that this is not the catastrophe that people were making it out to be.”

From an December 2001 piece by Frederick Seitz and Robert Jastrow:

We find the scientific evidence clearly indicates the global warming in the last 100 years is likely not due mostly to human activities.

Update 1: A related Newsbusters article is here, entitled "NYT Disgracefully Advances Global Warming Alarmism in an Obituary".

Update 2: A very interesting followup with Dr. Arking is here.