The letter below from Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona speaks to the worst sort of witch hunt tactics that we’ve seen yet. I suspect that pulling on these threads will backfire on Grijalva, as this will motivate a lot of people to join the fight against this sort of “climate McCarthyism” The letter is reproduced in full below, with the original PDF also available. It’s like he’s got Mann’s #kochmachine delusions ideas.
Feb. 24, 2015
L. Rafael Reif
President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Dear President Reif:
As Ranking Member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, I have a constitutional duty to protect the public lands, waters and resources of the United States and ensure that taxpayers are able to enjoy them. I write today because of concerns raised in a recent New York Times report and documents I have received that highlight potential conflicts of interest and failure to disclose corporate funding sources in academic climate research. Understanding climate change and its impacts on federal property is an important part of the Committee’s oversight plan.
As you may have heard, the Koch Foundation appears to have funded climate research by Dr. Willie Soon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, some of which formed the basis of testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and the Kansas State Legislature’s House Energy and Environment Committee — funding that was not disclosed at the time. Exxon Mobil, in response to an inquiry from the House Science Committee, may have provided false or misleading information on its funding for Dr. Soon’s work. Southern Services Company funded Dr. Soon’s authorship of several published climate studies; Dr. Soon did not disclose this funding to many of those journals’ publishers or editors.
If true, these may not be isolated incidents. Professor Richard Lindzen at your Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences has testified to the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology on climate change.(1) He has described the scientific community’s concerns as “mainly just like little kids locking themselves in dark closets to see how much they can scare each other and themselves.”(2). In 2009 he spoke at a conference held by the Heartland Institute,(3) a group funded in part by Altria and by the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation that proposed to teach children that climate change is a hoax.(4)
I am hopeful that disclosure of a few key pieces of information will establish the impartiality of climate research and policy recommendations published in your institution’s name and assist me and my colleagues in making better law. Companies with a direct financial interest in climate and air quality standards are funding environmental research that influences state and federal regulations and shapes public understanding of climate science. These conflicts should be clear to stakeholders, including policymakers who use scientific information to make decisions.
My colleagues and I cannot perform our duties if research or testimony provided to us is influenced by undisclosed financial relationships. Please respond to the following questions and requests for documents. Please ensure your response is in a searchable electronic format and that your reply quotes each question or request followed by the appropriate response. These inquiries refer to activities conducted between Jan. 1,2007, and Jan. 31, 2015.
1. What is MIT’s policy on employee financial disclosure? Please provide a full copy of all applicable policies, including but not limited to those applying to Prof. Lindzen.
2. For those instances already mentioned and others that apply, please provide:
a. all drafts of Prof. Lindzen’s testimony before any government body or agency or that which, to your knowledge, he helped prepare for others;
b. communications regarding testimony preparation.
3. Please provide information on Prof. Lindzen’s sources of external funding. “External funding” refers to consulting fees, promotional considerations, speaking fees, honoraria, travel expenses, salary, compensation and other monies given to Prof. Lindzen that did not originate from the institution itself Please include:
a. The source of funding;
b. The amount of funding;
c. The reason for receiving the funding;
d. For grants, a description of the research proposal and copy of the funded grant;
e. Communications regarding the funding.
4. Please provide all financial disclosure forms filed by Prof Lindzen in which MIT is listed as his professional affiliation, even if it is only stated for purposes of identification.
5. Please provide Prof Lindzen’s total annual compensation for each year covered here. Thank you for your attention to this issue. Please provide a full response no later than March 16, 2015. Direct questions to Vic Edgerton at vedgerton@mail.house.gov or (202) 225-6065.
Very respectfully,
Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, Ranking Member
House Committee on Natural Resources
1 — http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/11/18/profess-richard-lindzens-congressional-testimony/
2 — http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/31/1k1.01.htm1
3 — http://heart1and.org/events/NewYork09/speakers.htm1
4 —http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/02/17/428111/exposed-the-19-public-corporations-funding-the-climate-denier-think-tank-heartland-institute/
The original pdf is here: Grijalva-Richard Lindzen MIT_0
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Reality is that Congressman Grijalva is looking for an issue to highlight his presence and appear on talk shows and thus expose his limitations, prejudices, and incompetence for openers. In the process, he has placed himself fair and square on the same pedestal as the Catholic Church during the inquisition of Galileo.
One wonders if in part he is doing this to deflect attention from real issues like border control, national security and economic growth. If not, he has covered himself with indescribable glory.
Did you happen to notice how much time the news media spent talking about a dress this week, vs. anything of real substance?
“Bread and Circuses”
Who is Grivalja?
Grijalva, when in college was a member of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) which, at that time, was a radical group identified with the separatist “Aztlán ” ideology.
Grijalva was an Arizona leader of the Raza Unida Party. According to the standard history of the party by Dr. Armando Navarro, “Grijalva was so militant that he alienated some members of Tucson’s Mexican-American community.
After the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, Grijalva called it a consequence of the violent rhetoric that had been used by Tea Party members. Grijalva singled out Sarah Palin’s rhetoric as “contributing to this toxic climate” and stated that she needs to monitor her words and actions
Grijalva went to University of Arizona and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology. At the time, he was inspired into activism by United Farmworkers leader Cesar Chavez – a man trained by the father of “community organizing,” Saul Alinsky. Grijalva himself told the socialist journal, In These Times – “I’m a Saul Alinsky guy, you know, that’s where I learned this stuff… More than three decades later, in one of his first speeches as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Grijalva echoed the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) in calling for a national holiday to honor Cesar Chavez.
Grijalva wrote for the Movimiento newspaper Coraje! (the word means both “courage” and “anger”), whose logo was a clenched-fisted Chicano saying, “My race first” and the motto, “Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.”
Grijalva was nactive in MEChA, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, a pro-Cuban student group that called the Southwest “Aztlan,” the spiritual home of the Chicano people. The acronym, the Spanish word for “fuse,” was evocative of the group’s confrontational, nationalist ideology, which took its sharpest formulation in the group’s motto: “Por la raza todo, fuera de la raza nada” – “For the race, everything, outside the race, nothing.”
Raul Grijalva has a long history with the Arizona Communist Party USA.
Add Rep. Raul Grijalva to the growing list of Democratic worries this election season. Party operatives say there’s increasing concern that the Arizona Democrat’s reelection bid could turn into a “sleeper” race for Republicans after Grijalva — responding to enactment of a tough new immigration law — called for an economic boycott of his own state amid a housing crisis and record unemployment. Politico
In 2006, Esquire magazine wrote that Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) represented a “brand of Latino populism [that] will likely become commonplace in decades to come.” The observation was an acknowledgement of the growing demographic and political power of Latinos and a prediction about the politicians it will produce. Grijalva, 61, remains committed to many of the ideals he pursued as a young radical in Tucson, even as he has developed a talent for building coalitions among fellow liberals, often across ethnic lines.
Grijalva says the United States bears much of the responsibility for the decades of mass Mexican emigration to the United States. Grijalva wants welcoming U.S. policies for Mexican labor. He invokes the bracero days of his father, whose-sepia toned photograph has a place of honor in his congressional office, to urge accommodation of those still fleeing Mexico’s economic misery.
Grijalva wants a path to citizenship not just for [the current estimated] 12 million illegal immigrants. Like other supporters of “comprehensive” immigration reform, Grijalva wants a path to citizenship not just for those 12 million. He also wants to extend the privilege to hundreds of thousands of low-wage workers who would initially be classified as “temporary.’’
Compiled from several sources including Politico and http://cis.org/grijalva
is anybody still capable of being shocked by stupid since guam nearly capsized?
well, it’s worse than you thought:
he thinks the XL pipeline would be pumping sand.
What on earth was Raul thinking when he issued those letters? Clearly he didn’t wake up one morning and think, hello, I’ll write these letters? So, from whom did he take his orders?