Today's Sunday Rimes runs pseudo-science as if it were real science - their "scientists", however, have links to the Exxon-funded "Heartland Inst." lobby group.
The Sunday Times today run pseudo-science as if it were real science with a story titled:
“World may not be warming, say scientists”
So just who are these ‘scientists’ making the claim at the heart of The Sunday Times’s story?
According to the lobbying transparency organisation SourceWatch, the so-called “Science and Public Policy Institute” (SPPI) – who are named in The Sunday Times as the organisation behind the “research” – are none other than a spin off of the Exxon-funded group “The Frontiers of Freedom”.
The SPPI website shows that they are also linked to the Exxon-funded lobby group, the Heartland Institute. Indeed, the first press release of the SPPI listed a Heartland Institute staffer as its press contact.
The Royal Society has attacked Exxon for its funding of such front groups, which have been described as “the climate denial industry”.
The ‘research paper’ was not ‘peer reviewed,’ which isn’t surprising given that the ‘scientist’ who authored the paper is Anthony Watts, known to the rest of us as one of the world’s leading climate denial bloggers and somebody without any climate science credentials.
The SPPI draws heavily on the papers of Lord Monckton, who the SPPI list among their “personnel”. Viscount Monckton is a UKIP peer who claims to have a Nobel Prize when he doesn’t.
He also claims to have a cure for HIV! Of course he doesn’t. He described the Copenhagen conference as “a sort of Nuremburg rally,” and recently attacked a young Jewish climate campaigner as “Nazi”.
Also today, The Mail on Sunday reports the astonishing claim that “there has been no global warming since 1995”.
In reality, according to both the World Meteorological Society (WMO) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the 2000s were the warmest decade on record.
The Mail’s claim is particularly ironic given that the website of the climate denial lobby group, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, promotes a graph of temperatures beginning in 2001, presumably precisely to conceal the marked warming recorded through the 20th Century and the fact that nine of the ten warmest years occurred this decade.
In related news, it has been reported how a quote held up by sceptics as a ‘smoking gun’, as it was purported to have come from former IPCC and Met Office climate scientist Sir John Houghton, was fabricated.
Benny Peiser of the Global Warming Policy Foundation quoted Houghton as saying “unless we announce disasters no one will listen” – but on the letters page of today’s Observer, Houghton demands a public retraction from Peiser.
The Global Warming Policy Foundation, whilst demanding transparency from the scientific community, refuses to reveal who fund them. As Left Foot Forward has already reported, however, many of their key people have ties to the fossil fuel industry.
61 Responses to “Sunday Times publish pseudo-science as it were fact – their “scientists” have links to big oil”
Anon E Mouse
Kevin – Actually I think you are trying to convince me of your case – I disagree with your conclusion that the increase in CO2 is causing the climate change. It may be one of the factors which is why I always use (man made) in brackets when I comment.
I assumed you’d know about the MWP with the data from ice cores and tree rings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Warm_Period
Unless of course you’re suggesting the data is wrong Kevin…
Anon E Mouse
Kevin – And before you say “But the IPCC has questioned it” – well they would say that wouldn’t they – IPCC and we’re back on the treadmill again.
It’s a good time to be a sceptic….
Oxford Kevin
Mr Mouse,
Mr Mouse,
I fail to see how the wikipedia article shows that temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere during the Medieval Warm Period were warmer than today, and the text at the bottom of the article makes it clear that the evidence in Australia and Antarctica is that during the time of the MWP temperatures were cooler. It seems clear to me from the graph in the wikipedia article that temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere are warmer today than in the MWP. Yet you state that temperatures were far hotter during the MWP in the Northern Hemisphere than they are today. I’ve yet to see the basis on which you have made this claim.
I’m still waiting for your information about vineyards and grapes, the number of, the locations etc. during medieval times and now.
Kevin
Anon E Mouse
Kevin – The reason I posted the Wiki entry was because you seemed not to accept the MWP was known about. And please do not try to suggest that I have made up that MWP as a means of furthering a case I have. I don’t believe in (man made) global warming and have seen nothing to convince me otherwise.
The vineyards I do not have to prove existed any more than I have to prove the Thames once froze over and people had fun fairs and markets on it. They just did.
For me to list them is nit picking.
I do not believe your case is correct Kevin. Sorry but I share the majority view in this country for reasons (I believe) of common sense.
You are trying to forward a minority opinion (one which our leaders use to tax us)and you have produced nothing pre 1800’s to show that your increased CO2 affects the climate.
It is up to you to convince me surely (if you want to do that) and my point is that any data that was manipulated by the CRU should be treated sceptically yet you seem willing to believe what they say without challenge?
Climate: science, politics and honesty
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