We've all heard about the "Petitions" of "Scientists" who disagree with
Climate Science.
This sordid little episode in the history of climate denial points up once again the fundamental dishonesty of the climate denial industry.
32,000 leading scientists? Really?
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Well, no. Not Really.
But to get to the bottom of this crock , we'll have to go back in history, and meet someone who really was, at one time, a leading scientist.
Dr. Frederick Seitz, a distinguished physicist, was president of the National Academy of Science from 1962, to 1969.
In the 1970s, Dr Seitz was president of Rockefeller University.
At some point when he moved out of the lab, and into the world of big time fund raising, some kind of change began to occur. Dr Seitz began to see the world a bit differently.
In the late 70s, Dr Seitz began a long stint as a consultant to the tobacco industry. In this capacity, Dr Seitz directed as much as 45 million dollars of Tobacco funded research. Interestingly, not one study directed by Dr Seitz came up with any hint that cigarettes were harmful to health.
When asked about the moral implication of taking money and shilling for big tobacco, Seitz stated, any money was good, " As long as it's green. I'm not quite clear about this moralistic issue."
But towards the end of the 80s, big tobacco and Dr Seitz had a falling out. In this letter released during the tobacco lawsuits of the 1990s, and available online, a tobacco executive recommends against further reliance on Dr Seitz, who, he says, has become"....quite elderly and not sufficiently rational to offer advice."
Dr Seitz, however, did not see things that way. Over the years he had been working to prove the safety of cigarettes, he had become politically active in right wing causes, and served on several fossil fuel funded think tanks. From this platform Dr Seitz had begun to argue that environmental toxins were not nearly so harmful as people had been lead to believe, that pollution was no threat to atmospheric ozone, and that the science behind global warming was flawed.
In 1996, seven years after he had been declared mentally incompetent by those that worked most closely with him, Dr Seitz authored a letter to the Wall Street Journal, in which he stated that the process behind the international consensus on Climate Change, was fraudulent, and dishonest - although he had not been involved in that process, and had no background in climate science.
He complained about a corruption of the peer review process, a charge that is highly ironic in light of subsequent developments.
Mentally deficient or not, because of his background as president of the National Academy, the letter made a bit of a splash in media circles, but was roundly condemned, and completely debunked by working climate scientists in the field.
But the letter brought Dr Seitz, to the forefront of the climate denial fraternity, and it caught the attention of another group that was about to make a statement on global climate.
The Oregon Institute for Science and Medicine, located in Cave Junction Oregon, is a small non profit organization founded by Dr Arthur Robinson, a chemist. The group markets a unique set of products such as books on Nuclear War Survival skills, along with plans for a home made radiation detector.
In addition, Dr Robinson is the author of a home schooling course, designed to protect children from the Public School's socialist values. The program materials include, among other things, the encyclopedia britannica from 1911.
Dr Robinson had grown concerned about yet another example of creeping socialism, the science of global warming. In 1999, he was ready to do something about it.
That year, all across the country, thousands of scientists received a package with a cover letter signed by Frederick Seitz. The letter made reference to Dr Seitz background in the National Academy, and implied that the Academy had serious questions about the science behind global warming.
The letter came with a document made to look like a peer reviewed scientific study, laid out in a style identical to that of the publications of the National Academy, complete with a volume number and publication date.
Groups like the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the National Academy itself, were besieged by calls from hundreds of scientists concerned that a fraud was being perpetrated. The venerable journal Science covered the controversy, and asked Dr Robinson about the curious design of the mailer.
"I used the Proceedings as a model," he says, "but only to put the information in a format that scientists like to read, not to fool people into thinking it is from a journal."
The National Academy was not convinced. In an unprecedented rebuke to a former president, the Academy released a statement on the affair.
"The National Academy is concerned about confusion caused by a petition."
and a "....manuscript in a format that is nearly identical to that of scientific articles published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
The NAS Council would like to make it clear that this petition has nothing to do with the National Academy of Sciences and that the manuscript was not published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences or in any other peer-reviewed journal.
The petition does not reflect the conclusions of expert reports of the Academy.
It's unknown how many scientists believed the scam was a legitimate survey, but by 2000, the project had collected 17,000 signatures. The internet being what it is, however, pranksters had already begun to out-fraud Dr Robinson's fraud.
A number of names appearing on the petition seemed to lack scientific credentials, names such as Hawkeye Pierce, Ginger Spice, and Micheal J. Fox.
Dr Robinson acknowledged in the Seattle times that little attempt was made to verify credentials of those who responded.
"When we're getting thousands of signatures", he said, "there's no way of filtering out a fake,.."
In 2007, the petition was mailed out again, with the identical letter from Dr Seitz, and another phony scientific study. Counting the 17000 signers of the original fraud, the signature count is now up to 32,000.
If you're interested, you too, can be a leading scientist. No need for hours of classes, long boring field study, or dissertations. Simply fill out the handy form, and send it in. No one will check up on you.
Currently, the web page is still soliciting additional signatures, and mentions thousands of purported Phds, MDs, DVM and other degree holders as signatories.
One good thing about this survey.
Prior to this, it wouldn't have been obvious that many of our leading climate scientist, were veterinarians. Who knew?
and, it turns out,
We're blessed with many more leading scientists than we thought we had. Could this be a leading scientist? Or This? Or This? Or this?
Could these be leading scientists?
With Dr Robinson's help, anyone can be a climate expert.
This sordid little episode in the history of climate denial points up once again the fundamental dishonesty of the climate denial industry.
Those that repeat the claims about the supposed 32,000 scientists, are either ignorant, or participants in the scam.
And the reliance on pseudo science and propoganda as fact, probably speaks volumes about General Motors, and why the company is in the state it is now.
Thanks again for all the comments, pro and con, about this series.
The series has logged 10s of thousands of views, and is reaching opinion leaders and
policy makers all across the planet.
I will get to all your requests, so please keep telling your friends, and coming back to the climate denial crock of the week.