Against the vast majority of scientific opinion and even the policy initiatives of Oregon's governor, the weather expert who tracks climate change for Oregon is an increasingly lonely voice.

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George Taylor says there are signs of global warming but burning fossil fuels aren't necessarily to blame.

Taylor, who heads the Oregon Climate Service at Oregon State University, says natural changes have a bigger influence on global temperatures than people do, and the world has been warmer in the past.

Other scientists say Taylor overlooks convincing evidence that burning fossil fuels is driving the climate to unprecedented extremes.

One of those scientists is Philip Mote, Taylor's counterpart in Washington state and a lead author of an assessment of climate change from an international scientific panel due soon.

"There are wrinkles that are still being debated," Mote said. "But basically the debate about whether there's a human influence is over."

He said sophisticated climate models and observations of ocean temperatures and other factors show that only escalating greenhouse gases can explain current climate trends.

Mote is also part of a University of Washington research group trying to prepare the region for the harsh reality of global warming, such as shrinking glaciers and mountain snowpacks that leave rivers running low in summer.

Although Taylor is often referred to as the state climatologist for Oregon, that job was dissolved by the 1989 Legislature.

Taylor runs the Oregon State-based Oregon Climate Service, which performs many of the same duties that the state climatologist once did. But Gov. Ted Kulongoski is careful to point out that Taylor is not a state official.

"He's not the state climatologist," the governor told The Oregonian newspaper. "I never appointed him. I think I would know. He's not my weatherman."

Taylor and Mote were to critique each other's work during a Tuesday night appearance at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland.

"George Taylor's position is, global warming is not real, and Phil Mote is the other way," said Kyle Dittmer, president of the Oregon Chapter of the American Meteorological Society, which sponsored the event with OMSI. "They're essentially looking at the same data through two very different glasses."

Dittmer, who works for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission studying the effects of climate change on stream flow and salmon, said he finds evidence of global warming "incredibly compelling."

Taylor is listed as a scientific adviser for a group that receives money from ExxonMobil and says on its Web site that escalating greenhouse gases are good for the Earth, promoting plant life and bringing "growth and prosperity to man and nature alike."

Taylor says the human influence on climate is not the dominant factor, but it makes sense to control greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere.

"The prudent path is really reducing emissions and adapting to weather extremes," he said.

Taylor also said there are pros and cons to rising temperatures, suggesting that increased carbon dioxide "is not necessarily a bad thing in every way."

"There are going to be winners and losers, just as there would be if there is global cooling."