DeSmog is thoroughly investigating 61 signatories to an anti-climate-change petition sent in April, '06 to Canada's Prime Minister. Supporters claim it is signed by "60 leading scientists." We will report daily on their credentials and their connections (or their lack of connections) to the oil or tobacco industries.
A little walk I took B4 bedtime...
Nils Axel-Morner
Water dowsing expert
Axel-Morner, James Randi and "dowsing"
Axel-Morner claims to be an expert in "dowsing," the practice of finding water, metals, gemstones etc. through the use of a Y-shaped twig. Axel-Morner's attempt to prove his dowsing abilities is chronicled by James Randi, the well-known myth buster, who has offered the longstanding One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge.
Research and Background
Axel-Morner is a retired professor from the University of Stockholm. According to a search of 22,000 academic journals, Axel-Morner has published 65+ original research papers in peer-reviewed journals, mainly in the area of paleoseismicity, in other words the study of historical earthquake activity.
Axel-Morner and the NRSP
Listed as an "allied expert" for a Canadian group called the "Natural Resource Stewardship Project," (NRSP) a lobby organization that refuses to disclose it's funding sources. The NRSP is led by executive director Tom Harris and Dr. Tim Ball. An Oct. 16, 2006 CanWest Global news article on who funds the NRSP, it states that "a confidentiality agreement doesn't allow him [Tom Harris] to say whether energy companies are funding his group."
DeSmog uncovered information that two of the three Directors on the board of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project are registered energy industry lobbyists and senior executives of the High Park Advocacy Group, a Toronto based lobby firm that specializes in “energy, environment and ethics.”
Peter Dietze
Electrical engineer
he has a Lionel in his room, too.
Climate change research
Deitze is an electrical engineer. According to a search of 22,000 academic journals, Dietze has not published any research in a peer-reviewed journal on the subject of climate change. There is a "P.Dietze" listed in three research papers from the 1970's on electrical engineering.
Dietze, TASSC, big tobacco and the "European Science and Environment Forum"
Dietze was listed as an "Academic Member " (pdf.) of the European Science and Environment Forum, an organization that was formed in 1994 by Roger Bate, Dr John Emsley and Professor Frits Böttcher with an aim to be the European version of the tobacco industry funded front group TASSC. The European Forum touted itself as "an independent, non-profit-making alliance of scientists whose aim is to ensure that scientific debates are properly aired, and that decisions which are taken, and action that is proposed, are founded on sound scientific principles."
Like TASSC, the European Forum issued reports questioning the scientific evidence linking second-hand tobacco smoke and the risk of lung cancer.
The European Forum has also been known in the past to work closely with the George C. Marshall Institute, an Exxon-funded US think tank that has been at the forefront of the industry-funded attack on climate change science.
Dietze and the "NRSP"
Listed as an “Allied Expert” for the Natural Resource Stewardship Project (NRSP), a lobby organization that refuses to disclose it's funding sources. The NRSP is led by executive director Tom Harris and Chair of Scientific Advisory Committee, Dr. Tim Ball. In an Oct. 16, 2006 CanWest Global news article about who funds the NRSP, Tom Harris, stated that "a confidentiality agreement doesn't allow him to say whether energy companies are funding his group." Although Harris has since denied that such an agreement exists, he has failed to respond to follow-up questions about the source of NRSP funding.
Dietze and the "Leipzig Petition"
Deitze was a signatory to the 1995 "Leipzig Declaration," which was a project of Fred Singer's Science and Environmental Policy Project and a group called the European Academy of Environmental Affairs. The Declaration stated that: "there does not exist today a general scientific consensus about the importance of greenhouse warming from rising levels of carbon dioxide."
According to Sourcewatch, when a Danish journalist attempted to contact the 33 European scientists listed on the petition, 12 denied signing the petition and some had not even heard of the Leipzig Declaration. Of those that did admit signing the letter, one was a doctor and another was an expert in flying insects. The Declaration was then revised and Dietze's name, among others, was removed .
It is interesting to note that a similar tactic was used in the Oregon Institute's petition that DeSmog reported on earlier in our research of the letter of 60 scientists to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Fred Singer and his organization and the Geroge C. Marshall Institute were also heavily involved in the Oregon Petition.
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Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen
Member of the "Scientific Alliance"
Editor of "skeptic journal"
Boehmer-Christiansen is the editor of a journal called Energy and Environment. In a 1995 article written by Paul Thacker, Energy and Environment was described as being a journal skeptics can go to when they are rejected by the mainstream peer-reviewed science publications. Boehmer-Christiansen explained at the time that "it’s only we climate skeptics who have to look for little journals and little publishers like mine to even get published.” According to a search of WorldCat, a database of libraries, the journal is found in only 25 libraries worldwide. And the journal is not included in Journal Citation Reports, which lists the impact factors for the top 6000 peer-reviewed journals.
After a great deal of controversy involving a research paper published by two well-known climate change "skeptics," Sallie Baliunas and Willie Soon, in a journal called Climate Change, it was Boehmer-Christiansen's Energy and Environment that ran a more extensive version afterwards.
Boehmer-Christiansen and the “Scientific Alliance”
An advising member of the “Scientific Alliance,” an organization formed by a UK businessman who was fed up with "all this environmental stuff."
The Alliance describes itself as “a forum for addressing environmental problems based on sound science.” Other members include Sallie Baliunas and Benny Pesier. According to a July ‘01 article, the Scientific Alliance was set up by Robert Durward and a public relations firm called “Foresight Communications.”
Originally, Durward, owner of a rock quarry in the UK, formed the Alliance out of frustration over an aggregate tax being proposed for the quarry industry. On top of fighting the tax, the Alliance also provided “expert” scientific advice on subjects like transport, climate change and biodiversity. Durward described himself, “as a businessman who is totally fed up with all this environmental stuff… much of it unjustified, such as the climate change levy.” At the time of the Alliance’s formation, Durward refused to disclose who the financial backers of the project were.
In December 2004, the Scientific Alliance teamed up with ExxonMobil funded George C. Marshall Institute to produce a paper titled "Climate Issues and Questions."
In January 2005, the Scientific Alliance held a half-day seminar on the "alarmism" around the issue of climate change. Speakers included Fred Singer , Richard Lindzen and Benny Peiser.
Research Background
According to a search of 22,000 academic journals Boehmer-Christiansen has published 4 research articles in peer-reviewed journals mainly on the subject of environmental policy. Boehmer-Christiansen is currently listed as a Reader in Geography at the University of Hull.
Baliunas and Big Oil
In the recent Union of Concerned Scientists report on Skeptics, Exxon and the tobacco industry, Baliunas is listed as being affiliated with nine organizations that have received funding from ExxonMobil. The organizations are:
Annapolis Center for Science Based Public Policy (Science and economic advisory council member)
Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (Academic and Scientific Advisory Board Member)
Competitive Enterprise Institute (Report Author)
George C. Marshall Institute (Senior Scientist and Chair of Science Advisory Board)
Global Climate Coalition (Featured Scientist)
Heartland Institute (Writer/contributor)
Heritage Foundation (Writer/contributor)
Robert Wesson Endowment Fund Fellow (1993-4,), Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace
Tech Central Station (Science Round Table Member)
Baliunas and the NRSP
Baliunas is listed as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for a Canadian group called the "Natural Resource Stewardship Project," (NRSP) a lobby organization that refuses to disclose it's funding sources. The NRSP is led by executive director Tom Harris and Dr. Tim Ball. An Oct. 16, 2006 CanWest Global news article on who funds the NRSP, it states that "a confidentiality agreement doesn't allow him [Tom Harris] to say whether energy companies are funding his group."
DeSmog recently uncovered information that two of the three Directors on the board of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project are senior executives of the High Park Advocacy Group, a Toronto based lobby firm that specializes in “energy, environment and ethics.”
Baliunas and the Climate Research controversy
In 2003, Baliunas co-authored a highly controversial paper that reviewed previous scientific papers and came to the conclusion climate hasn't changed in the last 2000 years. But 13 of the authors of the papers Baliunas and Soon cited refuted her interpretation of their work, and several editors of Climate Research resigned in protest at a flawed peer review process which allowed the publication.
Among the sharp criticisms of the Climate Research paper was one from Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. When von Storch, then the journal’s editor, read Mann’s critique, he said he realized his journal should never have accepted the study: “If it would have been properly reviewed, it would have been rejected on the basis of methodological flaws.” Shortly after, Von Storch, along with two other members of the Climate Research editorial board resigned in protest - "they submitted flawed research," Von Stroch stated at the time.
After the controversy a more extensive version of the research was published in Energy and Environment. According to a search of WorldCat, a database of libraries, Energy and Environment is found in only 25 libraries worldwide. And the journal is not included in Journal Citation Reports, which lists the impact factors for the top 6000 peer-reviewed journals. The editor iof Energy and Environment, Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen has stated that "it’s only we climate skeptics who have to look for little journals and little publishers like mine to even get published.”
desmogblog.com
Zbigniew Jaworowski
Retired Radioactivity Professor
Research and Background
Jaworowski is a retired professor of atomic radiation. According to a search of 22,000 academic journals, Jaworowski has published 17 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, mainly on the subject of radioactivity.
Jaworowski and the US Senate Committee
An outspoken critic of mainstream climate science, Jaworoski authored a statement dated March 19, 2004 entitiled "Climate change: incorrect information on pre-industrial CO2," which he claims was a "statement written for the hearing before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation." However, apparently there is no record that Jaworowski ever made such a presentation to the US Senate, or provided this paper to them. Despite no record of Jawarowski presenting to the committee, Steve Milloy wrote a Fox News op-ed stating that Jaworowski had presented to the Senate Committee.
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August Auer
Former TV weatherman
Background and Research
Auer is a retired professor from the University of Wyoming and a former news weatherman. According to a search of 22,000 academic journals, Auer has not published any research articles in peer-reviewed journals in 10 years, the last being in April 1997. In all Auer has published 13 research articles in peer-reviewed journals, mainly in the area of meteorology.
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Freeman Dyson
Retired professor
Research on Global Warming
Dyson is retired physics professor who is well known for his work in the area of electrodynamics. According to a search of 22,000 academic journals, Dyson has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles mainly in the area of quantum mechanics.
Dyson acknowledges the reality of human-induced climate change
In a March, 2003 article Dyson wrote for the New York Review of Books, Dyson states:
"As a result of the burning of coal and oil, the driving of cars, and other human activities, the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing at a rate of about half a percent per year... the physical effects of carbon dioxide are seen in changes of rainfall, cloudiness, wind strength, and temperature, which are customarily lumped together in the misleading phrase "global warming."'
"It is better to use the phrase "climate change" rather than "global warming" to describe the physical effects of carbon dioxide."
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Benny Peiser
Denier
Peiser makes invalid claims on scientific consensus
Peiser's "claim to fame" in the war on climate change science was a 2005 study that he claimed refuted an earlier study by Dr. Naomi Oreskes. Originally published in the prestigious publication, Science, the Oreskes study looked at 928 research papers on climate change and found that 100% agreed with the scientific consensus. Peiser originally stated in January, 2005 that Oreskes was incorrect and that "in light of the data [Peiser] presented... Science should withdraw Oresekes' study and its results in order to prevent any further damage to the integrity of science." On October 12, 2006, Peiser admitted that only one of the research papers he used in his study refuted the scientific consensus on climate change, and that study was NOT peer-reviewed and was published by American Association of Petroleum Geologists Peiser's incorrect claims were published in the Financial Post section of the National Post, in a May 17, 2005 commentary authored by Peiser himself. (Source: www.staff.livjm.ac.uk/) (Source: www.sciencemag.org/) (Source: www.abc.net.au/)
Research on climate change
According to an ISI search of publications Peiser has published 3 research papers in peer-reviewed journals: Sports Medicine, 2006; Journal of Sports Sciences (2004); and, Bioastronomy 2002: life among the stars (2004). None of these studies are related to human-induced climate change.
Peiser and the "Scientific Alliance"
An advising member of the “Scientific Alliance,” an organization formed by a UK businessman who was fed up with "all this environmental stuff."
The Alliance describes itself as “a forum for addressing environmental problems based on sound science.” According to a July ‘01 article, the Scientific Alliance was set up by Robert Durward and a public relations firm called “Foresight Communications.”
Originally, Durward, owner of a rock quarry in the UK, formed the Alliance out of frustration over an aggregate tax being proposed for the quarry industry. On top of fighting the tax, the Alliance also provided “expert” scientific advice on subjects like transport, climate change and biodiversity. Durward described himself, “as a businessman who is totally fed up with all this environmental stuff… much of it unjustified, such as the climate change levy.” At the time of the Alliance’s formation, Durward refused to disclose who the financial backers of the project were.
In December 2004, the Scientific Alliance teamed up with ExxonMobil funded George C. Marshall Institute to produce a paper titled "Climate Issues and Questions."
In January 2005, the Scientific Alliance held a half-day seminar on the "alarmism" around the issue of climate change. Speakers included Fred Singer and Richard Lindzen.
Peiser states "an overwhelming majority of climatologists is agreed"
On October 12, 2006 Peiser states: "I do not think anyone is questioning that we are in a period of global warming. Neither do I doubt that the overwhelming majority of climatologists is agreed that the current warming period is mostly due to human impact." However, he also states that "... this majority consensus is far from unanimous," and that "there is a small community of sceptical researchers that remains extremely active." (Source: www.abc.net.au/)
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