Gordon Fulks' "Climate science: The real reason we need to worry", The Oregonian, December 27, 2010, is a fairly typical climate change denial screed. Fulks attacks as "propagandists" people and groups concerned about the impact of climate change, charging them with "vast conflicts of interest and/or little scientific expertise." He does not disclose any conflict that he or CPI may have, nor discuss his own expertise in climate science.
This diary contributes my bit of research on the place in the denial echo-chamber of Fulks and Cascade Policy Institute, the conservative think for which he is an academic adviser. I have not found DK diaries or stories mentioning Fulks or CPI. Anyone who can further fill background or information on the roles of the Fulks or CPI in the climate change debate, please comment!
The Cascade Policy Institute
Oregon’s Premier Public Policy Think Tank: Restoring Oregon’s Pioneer Spirit
Founded in 1991, Cascade Policy Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research and educational organization that focuses on state and local issues in Oregon. Cascade’s mission is to develop and promote public policy alternatives that foster individual liberty, personal responsibility and economic opportunity. Cascade promotes property rights, incentives, markets and decentralized decision-making. [...]
Gordon J. Fulks, Ph.D. is an academic adviser to CPI. According to his bio at CPI, he
is a physicist known recently for his Op-Eds in The Oregonian on Global Warming. One of them titled "Global Warming: Climate Orthodoxy Perpetuates a Hoax" criticized Governor Kulongoski for forcing State Climatologist George Taylor out of his position at Oregon State University because he expressed doubts about Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW).
Further, the bio brags
he has never accepted ANY money to promote or oppose any theory because that is unethical, and he is considerably more experienced than most who have.
He claims expertise in
studying the solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays, using a large charged-particle spectrometer flown in the Arctic. [...] supporting the US Defense Nuclear Agency on nuclear weapon effects. [...], he supported the Department of State designing new embassies and working at the US Embassy in Moscow.
"More recently", and possibly relate to climate science,
he has consulted for business and government clients seeking to better understand electromagnetic phenomena, related scientific scares, and the concept of ‘acceptable risk.’
Fulks tells us we should question the expertise of "New York Times, President Obama, the National Academy of Sciences, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Yale University, and The Oregonian". He says these groups have interlocking relationships which "are highly incestuous, with vast conflicts of interest and/or little scientific expertise." He even attacks "young scientists" as a group, specifically naming Reed College's Juliane Fry, for potential conflicts of interest in their desire for "fame, funding and tenure". Thus, he tries to disqualify whole groups of people such as government scientists and young scientists for potential, rather than actual conflicts of interest.
By this reasoning, a cynic might wonder whether Dr. Fulks and the conservative Cascade Policy Institute (CPI) are cultivating funding opportunities from oil companies such as ExxonMobil and Koch Industries. Oil companies and non-profits they fund spend millions each year to discredit the idea of human-influenced climate change. (See Greenpeace report, "Koch Industries: Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine.") In fact, Koch Industries web page on "Climate Controversies and Energy Needs" links to "Climate Chains" a video produced by CPI, attacking climate change legislation. The video's web page offers "Special thanks to: CEI. AEI. Heritage Foundation" It is a fair guess that CEI is the Competitive Enterprise Institute and AEI is the American Enterprise Institute. These and the Heritage Foundation are or have been supported by Koch Industries and ExxonMobile (Greenpeace report cited above, pdf).
I agree with Dr. Fulks that we should be wary of conflicts of interest. Has he fully disclosed his own?
Any response to this question or to help understand the background and role of Gordon Fulks or the Cascade Policy Institute in the climate change debate would be welcome in the comments!
