When it comes to the science behind global warming, the Aggies are ganging up on one of their own.

Gov. Rick Perry's alma mater, Texas A&M University, boasts some of the world's leading experts on climate change, and they're at odds with their fellow Aggie on what the evidence shows — and not just a little.

Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences at A&M, took issue with the governor's campaign-trail skepticism about whether the scientific evidence of warming is “settled” in an article in the Houston Chronicle.

And Gerald North, A&M's distinguished professor of atmospheric sciences and oceanography, puts 35 years of experience behind the view that there's no longer any doubt that the planet is warming.

“The evidence has been piling up for 30 years now.”

North and another A&M colleague, Gunnar W. Schade, plan to speak Saturday in San Antonio at an event called Moving Planet, sponsored by a local group called 350 San Antonio, at the Pearl Brewery.

North, 73, arrived at what he called “Aggie-Land” in 1986, long after Perry stopped leading yells for the A&M football team. They met once, he said, but global warming didn't come up.

In the past quarter-century, North said, scientific models have shown again and again that the planet is getting hotter and that humans are causing it. He estimated that 98 percent of the scientists who have done serious research on the subject agree on both points.

A physicist by training, North began exploring the science behind global warming not because it was the sexy topic of the day but because it piqued his curiosity.

“I got interested in this problem 35 years ago because it's such an interesting scientific problem,” he said. “The politics is really quite secondary.”

He tiptoed when I asked about Perry but still managed to convey what he thinks.

“I really don't know what he believes,” North said. “What he says — I have to be careful here. Let's take him at his word that he believes exactly what he says. Given that, I think he's not listening to the right people.”

Back in July, two U.S. scientists published a paper in the journal Remote Sensing claiming that new data from NASA blew a hole in the science behind global warming.

According to The Guardian, the paper was downloaded 56,000 times within a month before other scientists began to challenge its conclusions. The media, including the Express-News, gave it a good ride.

Less publicized was the fact that the editor of the journal subsequently resigned, conceding that the science behind the paper was “fundamentally flawed and therefore wrongly accepted by the journal.”

North keeps what politicians say about warming at arm's length, although he did write a 2007 paper about the film produced by former Vice President Al Gore. “An Inconvenient Truth” had a few errors and exaggerations, North wrote, but the “bulk and sense of the movie are correct scientifically.”

North didn't have a lot to say about Perry's claim that a lot of scientists have hyped global warming to make money. But he took issue with Perry's decision to invoke Galileo Galilei, who was vilified when he asserted that the world isn't the center of the universe.

Galileo, Perry said during a GOP presidential debate, “got outvoted for a spell.” North said the governor misstated the controversy surrounding the 17th century physicist and astronomer.

“I think Galileo's fight was with a bunch of religious fanatics,” North said. “I don't think that's the situation here. Galileo's fight was not with a bunch of other scientists.”

If anything, he said, Perry's position is “exactly the opposite” — in other words, on the side of the deniers of science.

North has written a book about the looming consequences of warming for Texas.

“The main impact for Texas and the Southwest is that we're going to get less rain. And water is going to be a real problem.”

Don't take it from me, governor. Take it from an Aggie.

For more information about Saturday's event, go to 350sanantonio.org.

jstroud@express-news.net