The NYT, relying on FOIA information obtained by Greenpeace.
He (Dr. Soon) has accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers. At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work.
The documents show that Dr. Soon, in correspondence with his corporate funders, described many of his scientific papers as “deliverables” that he completed in exchange for their money. He used the same term to describe testimony he prepared for Congress.
Climate Change
is a conspiracy ... er, Climate Change Denial seems to be. Pro tip: most scientists don't view testimony before Congress as a deliverable product.
Charles R. Alcock, director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center, acknowledged on Friday that Dr. Soon had violated the disclosure standards of some journals.
“I think that’s inappropriate behavior,” Dr. Alcock said. “This frankly becomes a personnel matter, which we have to handle with Dr. Soon internally.”
And I hope they scrupulously follow the existing rules to the letter. Dr. Soon is entitled to his academic freedom; he is not entitled to use that principle to excuse unethical behavior.
As the article points out, this is essentially what Big Tobacco did regarding cancer and cigarettes; hire tools who will debase science for money, in order to maintain the illusion that there's disagreement. Only this time it's not just the smoker who dies; it's the planet.
While we're at it, Dr. Soon's science is not taken seriously. His thesis is that the sun accounts for global warming; that hasn't be a credible thesis for at least one solar cycle (11 years).
Many experts in the field say that Dr. Soon uses out-of-date data, publishes spurious correlations between solar output and climate indicators, and does not take account of the evidence implicating emissions from human behavior in climate change.
... SNIP ...
“The science that Willie Soon does is almost pointless,” Dr. Schmidt said.
Pointless to a scientist, perhaps, but it seems the Koch brothers see a point.