JPF Home Page Forums Who is minding the store?

Bill:

I'm always hesitant to post links because its easy to be accused of cherry-picking. You can find things on the web that can support anything. Personally, I try to find non-biased sources though even that can be difficult.

There seem to be two major types of criticism of this petition. One based on their claims about the number of "scientists" and the other based upon the scientific accuracy of their claims.

In regard to the former, Scientific American investigated the petition back in 2001. This is what they wrote:

"Scientific American took a random sample of 30 of the 1,400 signatories claiming to hold a Ph.D. in a climate-related science. Of the 26 we were able to identify in various databases, 11 said they still agreed with the petition —- one was an active climate researcher, two others had relevant expertise, and eight signed based on an informal evaluation. Six said they would not sign the petition today, three did not remember any such petition, one had died, and five did not answer repeated messages. Crudely extrapolating, the petition supporters include a core of about 200 climate researchers – a respectable number, though rather a small fraction of the climatological community."

What they are saying is that, of the 31000 "scientists" who signed, only about 200 of them are knowledgeable enough to have an opinion that matters. And that this is a small fraction of the total people who could legitimately weigh in with an opinion.

I believe this because, based on the data that the petition organizers themselves supplied, I came to a similar conclusion. The overwhelming majority of these people have degrees in areas unrelated to atmospheric sciences. And the majority of those that DO work in the right fields do not have enough experience with this particular issue.

I actually have some personal experience in this matter. I am not an expert on global warming and I'm not an atmospheric scientist. Nevertheless, these folks asked me to sign their petition a few years back. Had I signed it, I would have been one of the 31000 "scientists" they advertise - even though I didn't have the expertise to form an opinion.

As for the scientific accuracy of their claims, well that's another story for another day. I'm getting sleepy...

Scott