#6 Dunlap, Jacques - History of Climate Science Denial, Credentials of Authors and Editors

This is the sixth installment of Dunlap, Jacques' (2013) study of the history of our dysfunctional public climate science education dialogue.  They focused on the influence of "conservative think tanks (CTTs) on the output of "skeptical" book publications.  This section deals with the academic credentials, or lack thereof, of authors and editors of contrarian books.

Here are facts about why out and out lying has been allowed to became the mainstay of the Republican climate science contrarian PR strategy.  Facts that it would be good for younger activists to be aware of.  Given that the study has a CCA License I've decided to Repost the complete text in a few installments.  I thank Riley Dunlap and Peter Jacques for the opportunity to Repost their impressive work.

 I follow with excerpts and related links to a number of eye-opening articles

No apology is owed Dr. S. Fred Singer, and none will be forthcoming

By James Hoggan

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A "Fred" of all trades: Who is Dr. S. Fred Singer?

Research.greenpeace

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Patrick Michaels: Serial Deleter of Inconvenient Data

Dana Nuccitelli 

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Pat Michaels: “fraud, pure and simple”

Tim Lambert

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Patrick Michaels hackery through history

By David Roberts

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Merchants of Doubt Film Debuts, 

Textbook Denial Attack Campaign Led By Fred Singer Ensues

By Kevin Grandia

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Greenpeace Releases 20-Year History of Climate Denial Industry

By James Hoggan

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Interactive Map to Explore Financial and Corporate Connections

ExxonSecrets.org

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Those ‘Secret’ Documents Outing ExxonMobil Were Actually Publicly Available

Chris White

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The Secret Donors Behind the Center for American Progress and Other Think Tanks

By Ken Silverstein

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{Who Pays for Think Tanks?, Rick Carp} Fair.org

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Secret funding helped build vast network of climate denial thinktanks

Suzanne Goldenberg,

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How Conservative Philanthropies and Think Tanks Transform US Policy

By Sally Covington 

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Report: Think tanks tied to Kochs

By Tal Kopan 

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Eight Pseudoscientific Climate Claims Debunked by Real Scientists

by Joshua Holland

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Heritage Foundation

RightWingWatch.org and SourceWatch.org

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32000 Scientists (say global warming is a scam)

Surveilling the Scientists

Climate Denial Crock of the Week - That 1500 Year Thing

greenman3610 YouTube videos

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SkepticalScience on Fred Singer and Patrick Michaels

DeSmogBlog on Fred Singer and Patrick Michaels

SourceWatch on Fred Singer

RationalWiki on Patrick Michaels

         #6 Academic Credentials of Authors and Editors      

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The American Behavioral Scientist

Climate Change Denial Books and 

Conservative Think Tanks

Exploring the Connection 

Riley E. Dunlap and Peter J. Jacques

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3787818/

In the beginning, Lord Lawson's Idea... the GWPF

I keep trying to finish my response to Will H's last comment, but in the process, all sorts of interesting diversions distract my attention.  Stories that stand alone and that I see as evidence supporting the message I'm trying to enunciate far better than my clumsy words can.  This one is another look at some of the "great people on the other side" of this debate, their motives and maneuvers.

A popular political myth is that today's vocal opposition to the overwhelming scientific "consensus" is some sort of noble intellectual effort.  When in actuality it's no such thing!  Here's an inside look at just what an orchestrated cynical, power-politics driven act it really is.

Brendan Montague wrote this a couple months back.  I've posting some interesting excerpts, hoping it will encourage you to read the complete version.

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Who Was Actually Behind Lord Lawson's Idea to Create the Global Warming Policy Foundation?

By Brendan Montague • Tuesday, September 8, 2015 

This DeSmog UK epic history post explains how Lord Lawson’s climate denying Global Warming Policy Foundation was actually created.

Dr. Dessler: Alternative Reality of Climate Skepticism

I stumbled onto a recent talk given by Dr. Andrew Dessler that does an excellent job of describing the alternate reality that climate science denialists have so successfully fabricated.  It was sad seeing that it's only had 174 views in the three and half months it's been out.

And since I do get tired of the depressing grind of cataloging, researching and trying to wrap my head around Mr. Steele's malicious nonsense, I decided to listen to the fresh air of a serious scientist discussing the world, even if in this case it's the alternate reality of the manmade global warming denial community.  As is my habit I took some notes and figure I may as well post it over here and perhaps encourage a few more folks to view it... and think about it.  

Dessler's basic message is that we are dealing with an ideological problem and not a scientific one.  Successfully confronting the challenges will take something other than getting more and better scientific information out there.

It makes sense to me.  Consider my pal Mr. Steele's basic MO is to find flaws in wildlife population counts and uses that to deny the physics of global warming and its impacts - it's insane.  But because he's feeding an ideologically entrenched audience, they buy it since they aren't interested in learning, all they want is reassurance.

As for my ideology, I love this planet and it's many wonders and have been attuned to it since early childhood, which is what led me to my love of science, which is the only vehicle to truly appreciating our Earth's wondrous magnificence.

I also love my, now grown, children and am heart broken by the diminished world be are leaving behind for them.  Watching us consume and destroy it's marvels one by one has been a profound tragedy to me.  Thus I engage in this effort to add my feather weight towards counter-balancing the dishonest politically motivated nonsense being produced by the likes of Mr. Steele, Anthony Watts and the rest of the Climate Science Denial Industry.

Andrew Dessler's The Alternative Reality of Climate Skepticism

BakerInstitute

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSvhCzaZKcc

Published on Oct 1, 2014

Oct. 01, 2014

Climate Change Reconsidered - NIPCC Translation - Authors: Idso, Singer, Carter examined

Climate Change Reconsidered - Translation by the Chinese Academy of Sciences

 Craig Idso, S. Fred Singer, Robert M. Carter – June 11, 2013

From the Heartland Institute's news release:
The first 856-page volume of Climate Change Reconsidered, published in 2009, and its follow-up, the 430-page Climate Change Reconsidered: 2011 Interim Report,were produced by a team of scientists originally convened by Dr. S. Fred Singer under the name of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC). The volumes were coauthored and edited by three climate science researchers:

• Craig D. Idso, Ph.D.
, chairman of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, editor of the online magazine CO2 Science, and author of several books and scholarly articles on the effects of carbon dioxide on plant and animal life;

• Robert M. Carter, Ph.D.
, a marine geologist and research professor at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia and author of Climate: the Counter Consensus; and

• S. Fred Singer, Ph.D.
, founder and president of the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) and a distinguished atmospheric physicist and first director of the U.S. Weather Satellite Service.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It's amazing what a few ideologically committed folks with lots of financial support can do.  

Basically, we have a claim that three outlier scientists with a handful of helpers have proven thousands of professional scientists over decades, nay over a century, of research and observation can't do basic science.  Think about it.  

Keep in mind the NIPCC report was done within an Heartland Institution which is openly committed to pushing a "Libertarian" political agenda - ones that clearly places economic interests above and beyond real geophysical realities.  Look at Heartland's "Mission Statement" there is nothing in their about striving to learn about our planet's climate.  

I'm talking about our 'global life support system' and it's treated with thoughtless contempt by Republicans of every stripe... it simply does not make sense to me!