Unnoticed by everyone but Sou at Hot Whopper, Anthony Watts's attempt to create a denier version of the American Geophysical Union or American Meteorological Society has borne fruit. In early June, Watts announced that his "Open Atmospheric Society" officially received tax exempt, 501c(3) status from the IRS. Watts first announced his Society last September, but has since struggled to gain members, with a mere 85 email followers to date.
OAS has also only received $330 of its $2,000 funding goal, failing to raise any funds since Sou wrote about it back in September. This makes sense, because Watts hasn't mentioned the OAS since September. When Watts first announced the OAS, he put out a press release responding to a tornado study. Since then, there has been radio silence.
At Hot Whopper, Sou points out the only person formally affiliated with OAS is Watts, the acting Executive Director. So already the group is in violation of its Charter, which says a Board of Directors must be in place, "within 6 months of the OAS commencing operation." And given that the OAS sent out a press release last September, a board should have been in place as of March.
This means we still don't know when to expect the first issue of the "peer-reviewed" climate change denial journal, which is clearly the end goal of this Potemkin project.
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