Richard Muller
Climate change skeptics may have almost the entire Republican Party in their camp, but what they don't have are serious scientists, nearly all of whom accept the basics of climate science. Richard Muller was a notable exception, until 2011. A physicist at the University of California, Muller was a longtime climate skeptic who questioned the quality of the temperature data that climate models are based on. So Muller was the logical person to run a major analysis on manmade climate change-funded in part by the archconservative Koch Foundation. But to the surprise of other skeptics, Muller concluded that climate change was indeed real, and that the globe had warmed about 1.6°F since the 1950s. Muller hasn't exactly converted overnight to the Church of Al Gore, but his admission — made, no less, in the pages of the Wall Street Journal — is a blow to those who still refuse to accept the reality of manmade climate change.