Climate Skeptics Covered in The Deniers by Lawrence Solomon

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Lawrence Solomon ran a series in his column in Canada's National Post from late 2006 through 2007 profiling 37 authors he put forward as 'climate skeptics'--critics of various aspects of climate science. He later worked these into a book entitled The Deniers: The World Renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria, Political Persecution, and Fraud**And those who are too fearful to do so. Archived copies of the original columns (along with other unrelated columns by Solomon) are available here: The Deniers column series. The book has been reviewed critically by here by George Marshall and here by Richard Littlemore of desmogblog.com. One problem with Solomon's work is that some of the people profiled do not express the kind of outright rejection of the IPCC or mainstream climate science that the title would seem to imply. Some have even complained of how their views were represented:

For the ones I see as most clearly misread or mispositioned by Solomon, I've entered (LSDeniers) in parentheses to indicate simply that they were profiled in the series, but their actual views vary considerably from how Solomon positioned them.

Notes column tinted this colour for signers of these 'activist' statements:
SCS03: 2003 'State of Climate Science' letter from 1011 scientists to U.S. congress (81 tagged)
CMOS06: 2006 statement from 120 scientists at the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (all tagged)
CMOS08: 2008 statement from 130 scientists at the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (all tagged)
RealClimate 'activist' website by ten climate scientists, founded 2004
noSw07: April 2007 letter from 37 scientists to Martin Durkin protesting inaccurate portrayal of climate science in his film The Great Global Warming Swindle (all tagged)
Bali07: 2007 appeal letter by 212 scientists from 25 countries, to delegates at the Bali climate talks (all tagged)
CCSP08: 2008 Assessment Report from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program [10 authors tagged so far; not a petition/declaration]
UCS08: 2008 Union of Concerned Scientists' declaration from 1700 U.S. scientists and economists (165 tagged)
Monaco09: Jan. 2009 Monaco Declaration on ocean acidification from 155 ocean scientists from 26 countries (152 tagged)
CLI09June 2009 Open letter to Obama and Congress calling for agressive action on climate change; signed by 20 scientists (all listed)
UKsc09: Dec. 2009 'Statement from the UK science community' re-affirming climate change science and data after East Anglia email break-in, signed by 1700 UK scientists from 67 universities and 55 other institutions (106 listed, 2010-1-17).
Notes column tinted this colour for signers of these 'skeptic' statements
SEPP92 1992 'Statement by Atmospheric Scientists on Greenhouse Warming' from the 'Science and Environment Policy Project', 46 signers
LZ95: 1995 'Leipzig Declaration' organized by Fred Singer, signed by 80 scientists and 25 weathermen
CA02: 2002 skeptics letter to Canadian P.M. Jean Chretien
CA03: 2003 skeptics letter to Canadian P.M. Paul Martin
CA06: 2006 skeptics letter to Canadian P.M. Stephen Harper
UN07: 2007 skeptics letter to U.N. Sec. General Ban Ki-Moon
TGGWS: 2007 TV film The Great Global Warming Swindle interviewees
NIPCC: 2008 Heartland Inst. document Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate, ed. S. Fred Singer, 24 listed contributors
MHND: 2008 'Manhattan Declaration' from skeptics' conference in NYC
Cato09: 2009 newspaper ad by the Cato Institute challenging President Obama's stance on climate change; 115 signers
APS09: 2009 Petition to the American Physical Society to amend their statement on climage change
CCC09: 2009 'Copenhagen Climate Challenge' 158 signers
LISTS column tinted this colour for names who did not sign any skeptic declarations, yet are included on a list of 'skeptic' names by someone else:
JIMM08: Named on 2008 list from U.S. Sen. James Inhofe's staffer Marc Morano
LSDeniers: Profiled in Lawrence Solomons's 2006-7 'The Deniers' column series in Canada's National Post
LISTS column tinted this colour for someone who did sign one of the above skeptic statements, and is also included on a list of 'skeptic' names by someone else.

Some major compilations

I've also tagged authors included in a few major compilations of climate science articles. These are not petitions or calls for action, but further illustrate the author's standing in the literature.For details on these declarations and how I've annotated for them, see notes on open letters

Names are sorted in descending order of number of published works that match the word 'climate' in Google Scholar. This total could include non-refereed pieces such as commentary, editorials, or letters to the editor. (Note that citation stats were collected by hand, over a few months, so exact order might vary slightly as papers continue to gain citations as time passes.)

Anyone working in the field of climate science should have a significant number of hits on this search. The median number for IPCC wg1 authors is 93 articles; for all of the roughly 1800 authors I've checked up to July 2009, including skeptics, the median is 56. For the 386 names I've checked so far who were signers of a climate skeptics' statement, the median is two (2).

70% of the skeptics have fewer than 10 published works that mentions of climate and 60% have fewer than five. At the top of the rankings, there are 25 skeptics who have more than the overall median of 56 works mentioning 'climate', and just 12 above the IPCC median of 93.

In the overall list, there are 908 names with 56 or more works mentioning climate, and 593 names with at least 93 works. In this light, self-declared skeptics make up only 2.75% of the first group, or 2.03% of the second.


Mouse over column heading for explanation

Rank hereNotesListsName (homepage)NAT.PhD yearIPCCGS queriesmost cites2nd most3rd most4th mostClimate totalWikipedia?Areas of researchAffiliation
1 LSDeniers JIMM0814: Richard SJ Tol1997AR2-3 AR4 wg3All PAPS CLIM 264246238212 529 WP? W.P? climate damage costs, statisticsFNU, U Hamburg
2 (LSDeniers) (JIMM08)28: Hans von Storch1979 All PAPS CLIM 987254173166 406 WP? W.P? coastal climate, impacts, SLRU Hamburg, Inst. Of Coastal Res. GKSS
3 LSDeniers165: David H Bromwich1979AR4 wg1All PAPS CLIM 152115112105 214 WP? W.P? hydrology, polar climateByrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University, USA
4 noSw07 Bali07 UCS08(LSDeniers) (TGGWS)186: Carl Wunsch, FAGU, FAAAS1966 All PAPS CLIM 428307303277 206 WP? W.P? ocean circulation, assimilationPAOC, MIT, Cambridge, MA
5 (LSDeniers) NPFhosts209: Stephen E Schwartz, FAGU, FAAAS1968AR4 wg1All PAPS CLIM 1005359309147 195 WP? W.P? radiative forcingBrookhaven National Lab
6ESI01#19LSDeniers JIMM08221: George Kukla1953 All PAPS CLIM 352284252232 190 WP? W.P? ice agesLamont-Doherty Earth Obs., Colubmia U.
7UN07 MHNDLSDeniers JIMM08297: Reid A Bryson1948 All PAPS CLIM 24014911492 167 WP? W.P? regional climate of North America, Indiaemeritus, ex of U Wisconsin
8SotP09ESI01#22 LSDeniers300: William D Nordhaus1967 All PAPS CLIM 1503590459383 165 WP? W.P? economics of greenhouse gas mitigationYale U
9SEPP92 LZ95 CA02 CA03 CA06 TGGWS UN07 Cato09 CCC09LSDeniers JIMM08399: Richard Lindzen, FAGU1964 All PAPS CLIM 372335295274 140 WP? W.P? QBO, maritime clouds, iris effect?M.I.T., Cambridge, MA
10 (LSDeniers)610: Sami K Solanki1987AR4 wg1All PAPS CLIM 1669510185 103 WP? W.P? solar magentic fieldMax Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany, Switzerland
11 LSDeniers JIMM08648: Jasper Kirkbyno cv All PAPS CLIM 1421077259 98 WP? W.P? particle physics, cosmic rays; climate linkCERN, Switzerland
12resigned from IPCC(LSDeniers) (JIMM08)697: Chris Landsea1994AR4 wg1 *resignedAll PAPS CLIM 514333138120 93 WP? W.P? hurricanesNOAA
13 (LSDeniers)804: Anastasios A TsonisPhD All PAPS CLIM 2601149878 81 WP? W.P? chaos theory, attactorsU Wisconsin at Milwaukee
14UN07 MHND Cato09 NIPCC09 CCC09LSDeniers JIMM08833: William M Gray1964 All PAPS CLIM 370361242210 78 WP? W.P? hurricaneshead of Tropical Met Project, Colorado State U
15 LSDeniers938: Rhodes Fairbridge1941 All PAPS CLIM 3101088050 70 WP? W.P? eustatic sea level, paleodeceased, ex of Columbia U
16 LSDeniers JIMM08976: Henrik Svensmarkno cv All PAPS CLIM 381131113110 67 WP? W.P? GCRs and cloudsDanish Met Inst. Copenhagen
17SotP09 UKsc09(LSDeniers) (JIMM08)1035: Duncan WinghamPhD All PAPS CLIM 113766355 62 WP? W.P? Antarctic ice sheet, thinningLeeds and Bath Universities
18NZCSC CA06 UN07 MHND NIPCC08 Cato09 NIPCC09 CCC09LSDeniers JIMM081086: Robert M Carter1968 All PAPS CLIM 59574925 57 WP? W.P? sediments, SW PacificJames Cook University
19 (LSDeniers)1133: Roger Revelle1936 All PAPS CLIM 2601029266 53 WP? W.P? global warming theorydeceased, was with Scripps, UCSD
20 LSDeniers JIMM081223: Claude J Allegre, FAGU, MNAS1962 All PAPS CLIM 220173163139 47 WP? W.P? volcanic gases, isotopes, weatheringInst. De Physique du Globe; U.Paris
21(TGGWS) ?(LSDeniers) (JIMM08)1291: Eigil Friis-Christensen, FAGU1971 All PAPS CLIM 4263908887 43 WP? W.P? GCRs, solar cycle effect on climateDirector, Danish Space Research Inst
22 (LSDeniers) got retraction1318: Nigel O Weiss1968? All PAPS CLIM 180153141124 40 WP? W.P? solar variability and climateemeritus, Cambridge U
23SCS03 CA06 TGGWSLSDeniers JIMM081366: Paul Reiterno cvAR3 wg2 (resigned)All PAPS CLIM 323138130126 37 WP? W.P? medical entomology, disease vectors, malariaPasteur Inst., Paris
24UN07 MHND Cato09 CCC09LSDeniers JIMM081430: Cliff OllierPhD All PAPS CLIM 102423633 33 WP? W.P? landforms, weathering, tectonicsemeritus, U Western Australia
25TGGWSLSDeniers JIMM081449: Nir Shaviv1996 All PAPS CLIM 198625842 32 WP? W.P? GCRsHebrew University, Jerusalem
26NZCSC MHND Cato09 CCC09LSDeniers JIMM081596: David BellamyBSc All PAPS CLIM 622073712 24 WP? W.P? peatlands, wetland ecologyex of World Land Trust
27CA03 CA06 UN07 MHNDLSDeniers JIMM081598: Freeman Dyson, MNAS1947 MSc All PAPS CLIM 749480404318 23 WP? W.P? particle physics (not climate related)retired, ex of Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton, NJ
28LZ95 CA03 CA06 UN07 MHND NIPCC08 NIPCC09 CCC09LSDeniers JIMM081750: Zbigniew Jaworowski1963 All PAPS CLIM 34332119 15 WP? W.P? radioactivity risks, isotopesCentral Lab for Radiological Protection, Warsaw
29CA06 UN07 CCC09LSDeniers JIMM081837: Hendrik TennekesPhD All PAPS CLIM 3179316234120 10 WP? W.P? turbulence, boundary layerretired, ex director of Royal Netherlands Met Inst (KNMI)
30 MHND Cato09 CCC09LSDeniers JIMM081874: Syun-Ichi Akasofu, FAGU1961 All PAPS CLIM 248242175173 8 WP? W.P? solar wind, magnetosphereU Alaska (emeritus)
31UN07 MHND Cato09LSDeniers JIMM081903: Antonio ZichichiPhD All PAPS CLIM 680674580249 6 WP? W.P? particle physics (not climate related)emeritus, EMFCSC, Erice, U Bologna
32UN07 MHND NIPCC08 NIPCC09LSDeniers JIMM081914: Tom SegalstadPhD All PAPS CLIM 23181212 6 WP? W.P? minerology, petrologyU Oslo
33UN07LSDeniers JIMM081921: Edward J Wegman1968 All PAPS CLIM 29615510670 5 WP? W.P? computer science, statisticsGeorge Mason U
34UKsc09LSDeniers1932: Stephen Salterno cv All PAPS CLIM 50292222 5 WP? W.P? wave power engr, ship geoengineering proposalU Edinburgh
35NZCSC CA03 CA06 UN07 MHND NIPCC08 Cato09 NIPCC09 CCC09LSDeniers JIMM081938: Vincent R Gray1946 All PAPS CLIM 261572 5 WP? W.P? coal, lumberemeritus, ex of Colorado State U
36GWBush NASA chiefLSDeniers JIMM082027: Michael D Griffin1977 All PAPS CLIM 721085 2 WP? W.P? space vehicle design, CFDwas Director of NASA under GWBush
37CCC09LSDeniers JIMM082037: Habibullo Abdussamatovno cv All PAPS CLIM 13832 2 WP? W.P? solar magnetic field