Interesting data on Spencer and the rest;
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There are a small number of skeptical scientists who genuinely beleive what they're saying and it appears that in order to maintain this belief they have dispensed with some of the most important principles of science - to keep an open mind about everything, to be guided by fact not opinion and to remain impartial.
Then of course, there are those funded by and connected to the oil and power indusrty.
Take the letter written to the Sec Gen of the UN. There's 100 signatories on the letter, as normal for any letter or document coming from the skeptics it's necessary to first discount all the irrelevant names.
START WITH 100 NAMES...
It's claimed that the letter is from climate experts but the signatories include politicians, computer programmers, wildlife consultants, engineers etc. Weeding out all the non experts there's a total of 25 signatories that claim to have qualifications or a professional background linked to some form of climate science.
25 NAMES REMAIN...
5 of the 25 have no relevant qualifications or expertise despite claims to the contrary...
• Richard Courtney - Claims to be a climate scientist, is a spokesperson for the coal industry, several links to tobacco and oil funded organisations
• Hans Erren - Described as a climate specialist, is a geographer / geologist
• Asmun Moene - Claims to be former head of the Forecasting Centre, Meteorological Institute, Norway. The Forecasting Centre state he was employed in the 'administration of weather forecasting'. Linked to George C Marshall Instutute which is funded by Exxon, refutes smoking is harmful but unable to find direct links to tobacco industry.
• Gary D Sharp - Listed as working for Center for Climate/Ocean Resources Study, his job is a tuna researcher
• Roy W Spencer - Listed as a climatologist, is a scientific advisor to the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance which is funded by Exxon, has links to multiple organisations also funded by Exxon and the tobacco industry
20 NAMES REMAIN...
11 of these are funded by or directly connected to the oil and power industries...
• Tim Ball - Consultant at Freinds of Science - funded by the oil industry; also an executive of NRSP - controlled by energy industry lobbyists.
• Ian Clark - An executive of NRSP - controlled by energy industry lobbyists.
• Vincent Gray - An executive of NRSP - controlled by energy industry lobbyists.
• William Kininmouth - Funded by Western Mining Corporation
• Douglas Leahey - President of Freinds of Science which is funded by the oil industry
• David Legates - Spokesman for Exxon funded organisations
• Richard Lindzen - Unspecified 'oil and coal interests', funding from OPEC and Western Fuels Alliance. Member of organisations such as Cato, Heartland, George C Marshall etc - all receive funding from Exxon
• James J. O'Brien - Member of several organisations linked to and funded by oil companies. However, he's associated with more organisations that are not funded by oil / coal than ones that are.
• R Timothy Patterson - On the board of Friends of Science, funded by the oil industry
• S Fred Singer - Where to start. Directly funded by, has organisartions funded by, multiple links to Exxon, Western Fuels Alliance, American Petroleum Institute etc etc
• Hendrik Tennekes - Close links to Fred Singer's Exxon funded organisation - SEPP
LEAVING JUST 9 FROM THE ORIGINAL 100...
• Reid Bryson (meteorologist), Stewart Franks (hydroclimatologist), Marcel Leroux (climatologist), Horst Malberg (meteorologist and climatologist), John Maunder (climatologist), David Nowell (meteorologist), Garth W Paltridge (atmospheric physicist), R G Roper (atmospheric scientist) and Gerrit J. van der Lingen (paleoclimatologist).
It's possible that by doing some research on the internet that some of these 9 would be found to have links with the oil or related industries.
So it all boils down to a maximum of nine credible names from a pool of tens of thousands of potential signatories. It's like the Oregon Petition all over again.
It must be really annoying for the skeptics having the IRS make people like Exxon publish accounts that show where their money is going and for foundations etc to have to state where their money is coming from.
Do you think skeptical scientists believe what they say, or are they purposefully dishonest? - Yahoo! Answers