As Climate Wars Heat Up, Some Skeptics Are

Targets
MARCH 10, 2015

4:38 PM ET

GEOFF BRUMFIEL

Audio for this story from All Things Considered will be available at approximately 7:00 p.m. ET.

Climate skeptic Willie Soon has argued in the past that too much ice is bad for polar bears. An investigation into Soon's
funding found he took money from the fossil fuel industry and did not always disclose that source.
iStockphoto

Scientists who warn that the earth's climate is changing have been subjected to
hacking, hate mail, and even court action in recent years. That ire usually comes from
conservative groups and climate skeptics seeking to discredit the research findings.
Now it appears that liberals and environmentalists

"If you come

and testify
before the U.S.
Congress, and
people don't
like what
you're saying,
they can make
your life pretty
miserable."

may be using some of the same tactics against the

- Roger Pielke Jr.,

University of
Colorado

intimidation than truth.

handful of scientists who either deny climate change

outright, or think the risks are not as great as stated.
The goal, according to those pursuing the skeptics of
climate change, is to expose ties between those
scientists and industry. But some mainstream
climate scientists are nervous, fearing that
investigations by both sides may be more about

The first target of the latest attacks was Willie Soon,

a solar physicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center

for Astrophysics. Soon claims the sun causes climate change. In contrast, almost all
scientists believe humans are changing the climate.
Soon's views got the attention of Kert Davies, the executive director of the non-profit
Climate Investigations Center. He decided to use the Freedom of Information Act to
expose the climate skeptic's funding. "We got the contracts, Soon's proposals to get the
money from these various oil companies and power companies and also his year-end
reports," says Davies.
In several year-end reports to the utility Southern Company, Soon listed peerreviewed scientific articles as deliverables. "He is telling them, here's what I did for
you, I wrote peer-reviewed science," Davies says.
Publishing those articles without disclosing Southern Company's funding is a big nono in science. In late February, Soon's ties made the front page of the New York

Times. Several journals and his employer have launched investigations. Soon did not
respond to an NPR request for an interview. But, in a written statement, he calls the
accusation "underhanded and unscientific."
Shortly after Soon's ties to industry were exposed, U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz.,
sent letters to the universities of seven climate researchers, asking for details about the
scientists' funding.

Roger Pielke Jr., a researcher at the University of Colorado, is one of seven scientists being scrutinized by a congressman
because of statements on climate change.
International Council for Science/Flickr

Among those named was Roger Pielke Jr., from the University of Colorado. Unlike
Soon, Pielke does believe the climate is changing due to human influences, but he
doesn't necessarily believe it will be catastrophic. The two-page letter on Pielke cited

testimony he had given to Congress, and it requested detailed information and

correspondence regarding his funding sources.
"It's quite simple for me to respond to this, because I have absolutely no corporate
connections," Pielke says. "I mean I'm as clean as they come."
Nevertheless, the letter sends a chilling message to scientists, he says. "If you come
and testify before the U.S. Congress, and people don't like what you're saying, they can
make your life pretty miserable."
IT'S ALL
POLITICS
Senate Says
Climate Change
Real, But Not
Really Our Fault

Other recipients of the letter agree that it constitutes

little more than harassment. "They just assume that
if I have the view I have, I must be getting paid for
that view," says John Christy of the University of
Alabama at Huntsville. Christy adds that all of his

JOE'S BIG IDEA

Climate Scientist
Tries Arts To Stir
Hearts Regarding
Earth's Fate

funding is from State and Federal sources.

"It's a complete fishing expedition," says Judith
Curry, a professor at the Georgia Institute of
Technology, who has doubts about climate change.

MOVIES
'Merchants Of
Doubt' Explores
Work Of Climate
Change Deniers

In a strange twist, the climate skeptics are getting

support from mainstream climate scientists, who
worry that investigations on both sides of the debate
tread on the academic freedom of researchers
everywhere.

"We do have the right as citizens to try and find out what's going on with the funding
of scientists," says Eric Steig, a climate researcher at the University of Washington and
a contributor to the blog Real Climate. But Steig worries that some of the new
investigations might cross the line into harassment, a tactic that has been used by the
political right against mainstream scientists, including himself.

"It was wrong when it was done by Republicans and right-wing think tanks, and it's
wrong when it's done by Democrats and left-wing think tanks," he says.
Steig is not alone in his concern over the new attacks. The American Meteorological
Society and the American Geophysical Union have also been critical of the letters.
Congressman Grijalva says he wasn't trying to target scientists simply because they
disagree with his views on climate change. "But I also want to make sure that if that's
the basis for formation of policy, that it's clean and that it's empirical," he says.
Kert Davies, the environmentalist who investigated Soon, says he wants to see more of
this kind of work from the left: "I would like to send the same letters to a lot of other
scientists, many of whom don't work for public institutions," he says.
There may be more revelations to come: three Democratic senators have sent a
separate letter to 100 corporations and think tanks, asking them to disclose corporate
ties to scientists they fund.
Few think that either side of the political fight over climate change will abandon tough
tactics, however. In the fall, world leaders meet in Paris, to try and reach a deal on
climate. Eric Steig says he hopes the run-up to the summit will be civil. But, he adds, "I
think it's wishful thinking."

climate skeptic

SHARE

20152015 npr

polar bear

climate change