Via Heartland press release:
Dr. Willie Soon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics released the following statement through The Heartland Institute in response to repeated attacks on his character and scientific integrity.
All media inquires should be directed to Heartland Institute Director of Communications Jim Lakely at jlakely@heartland.org, 312/377-4000 or (cell) 312/731-9364. For more information about Dr. Willie Soon see this page: Heartland.org/willie-soon. To see a previous statement about Willie Soon by Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast, click here.
“In recent weeks I have been the target of attacks in the press by various radical environmental and politically motivated groups. This effort should be seen for what it is: a shameless attempt to silence my scientific research and writings, and to make an example out of me as a warning to any other researcher who may dare question in the slightest their fervently held orthodoxy of anthropogenic global warming.
“I am saddened and appalled by this effort, not only because of the personal hurt it causes me and my family and friends, but also because of the damage it does to the integrity of the scientific process. I am willing to debate the substance of my research and competing views of climate change with anyone, anytime, anywhere. It is a shame that those who disagree with me resolutely decline all public debate and stoop instead to underhanded and unscientific ad hominem tactics.
“Let me be clear. I have never been motivated by financial gain to write any scientific paper, nor have I ever hidden grants or any other alleged conflict of interest. I have been a solar and stellar physicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics for a quarter of a century, during which time I have published numerous peer-reviewed, scholarly articles. The fact that my research has been supported in part by donations to the Smithsonian Institution from many sources, including some energy producers, has long been a matter of public record. In submitting my academic writings I have always complied with what I understood to be disclosure practices in my field generally, consistent with the level of disclosure made by many of my Smithsonian colleagues.
“If the standards for disclosure are to change, then let them change evenly. If a journal that has peer-reviewed and published my work concludes that additional disclosures are appropriate, I am happy to comply. I would ask only that other authors-on all sides of the debate-are also required to make similar disclosures. And I call on the media outlets that have so quickly repeated my attackers’ accusations to similarly look into the motivations of and disclosures that may or may not have been made by their preferred, IPCC-linked scientists.
“I regret deeply that the attacks on me now appear to have spilled over onto other scientists who have dared to question the degree to which human activities might be causing dangerous global warming, a topic that ought rightly be the subject of rigorous open debate, not personal attack. I similarly regret the terrible message this pillorying sends young researchers about the costs of questioning widely accepted “truths.”
“Finally, I thank all my many colleagues and friends who have bravely objected to this smear campaign on my behalf and I challenge all parties involved to focus on real scientific issues for the betterment of humanity.
Dr. Wei-Hock “Willie” Soon
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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Je suis Willie Soon !
Dr. Willie Soon has my respect and those attacking him have my total disregard.
Dr. Soon may be wrong to think so much of the Sun’s influence on our climate, but he totally correct to express his scientific opinion. His disclosure practices are consistent with what the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics requires.
Why Does Willy’ Soon have to explain himself whilst others plod along and refuse any requests for openess?
I hope that in some ways good will come from this and those on the other side of the Fence are brought into the same limelight that Willy’ has found himself in.
Even if he was funded by organisations, is that uncommon? Many companies support research into new methods, is that going to become a thing of the past? If so, then advancement will gain a new meaning, I would call it ‘retardment’
순 선생님 대단히 감사합니다
(Honored Teacher Dr. Soon, thank you so very much.
More or less.)
If we teach, or worse intimidate, young scientists into thinking that it is wrong to challenge the prevailing theory then science may as well collect its hat and coat and go home. Any person or institution that encourages this present atmosphere of intolerance is already lost. They are already viewing the world through the dead eyes of totalitarianism.
I would encourage anyone to read or re-read George Orwell’s 1984 and recognize that its contents are a bleak warning and not an instruction manual for campaigning pressure groups.
The young are already taught that the Earth’s climate is being destroyed by human use of hydrocarbon fuels. It is taught to students as young as Kindergarten, and students who turn in reports that question the party line are given lower grades – have calls placed to parents – suspended – and in rare but terrible cases openly mocked by teachers and administrators. Hopefully, Max Planck was wrong, because the new generation are ‘believers’ – not skeptics.
The good part is, indoctrination rarely works except on the people who would have gone that way anyway. We were deluged with crap like this when I was growing up. Sure, I believed it for a while that, e.g., we were going to run out of oil by 1985, and that population would keep growing until we were all starving, and countless other plagues were poised to punish us for our wanton ways. But, as one becomes more aware and life goes on with no apocalypse in sight, one tends to gain a healthy skepticism towards alarmists and doomsday proclamations. Thus it ever was, and thus it ever shall be.
Appreciate your integrity and dedication Dr. Soon. The world and science benefits, it’s just that some hairless primates are desperate hysterical ingrates. Keep your sense of humor.
My highest admiration goes to Dr. Soon and his research. Our planet’s relationship within the Heliosphere is a concept that apparently has struck a nerve in the AGW organism. It is a dangerous competitor of the myopic and arrogant idea that man has accidentally controlled climate through a minute manipulation of it’s composition. It’s historical fit is accurate without any adjustments of the past and it provides sub-theories that are in agreement with the data. Occam’s razor applied would dictate it as the more logical choice. It will be proven true or false within a decade by observed solar occurrences which have already been, and are continuing to be truly unprecedented in the industrial age. This makes it already closer to empirical fact than the failed CO2 models with all their confusion of accessory claims.
IMHO, Mankind’s perspective is still in the Macro-focus mode on climate mechanics. It is time to step back and see this planet in the Heliosphere, where spaceweather and earthweather interact under the influence of orbital variations, and changes in magnetic solar discharge (along with further discoveries, I’m sure). Focus on any individual component of the mechanism of climate as omnipotent will only produce a myth. Only by understanding the constantly changing interplay of every component will there be a mastery of this science.
…a minute manipulation of it’s atmospheric composition.
Perspective wrt media’s recent negative outreach toward skeptical scientist Willie Soon:
1. Journalist(s), with long standing background behavior pattern of maligning the fundamental idea of any fossil related industry providing funding for critical climate research, once again focus on a skeptical scientist wrt funding.
2. The usual gang, who irrationally believes in a strangely un-scientific concept called ‘settled science’, joins in a harmonious anti-skeptic chorus that fervently chants ‘”‘just say no to critical climate research funded by the fossil related industry'”‘.
3. On analysis we see their logic only rests on the presumption that Dr. Soon must be hiding funding because they fervently believe (as does the sacred oracle Oreskes at Harvard) there actually is a clandestine fossil related industry con$piracy; they think there is a con$piracy to be critical of ‘settled science’.
My Post Mortem Report: Those journalists and their supporting choruses view the world as a comicbook-like mythology and they believe they have some higher supernatural access to truth that is not accessible to skeptics who are critical of the belief in a ‘settled science’.
John
In a rush and don’t have time to see how many commenters have noted that the recent inquisition has taken out Pielke, Jr. and now The Southern Company. Intimidation reins. if others have posted similar comments, it still can’t be said enough.
Dr. Soon, you’re a good man, and a person of integrity. I just want to go on the record with that.
They’d rather muzzle than debate.
The natural laws of this world are not against you.
If they were, I think you’d be among the first to admit you were wrong and welcome the correction.
We all know that whatever funding comes from organizations THEY like is fine, but funding from organizations they don’t like is dastardly. It’s long been called a double standard. And that is just what it is. They will argue, “But those who give US money are GOOD organizations (even the oil companies, as long as the money goes to our researchers).” And when those same oil companies give money to skeptics, that money somehow turns heinous.
The shock to me is that this has all taken a decade or more to become their cause celébre. They’ve been making the same allegations for well over a decade, and why is it now that all of a sudden it is big news?
A slow news week?
And Willie Soon is the lightning rod, as it seems he has always been.
But we here at WUWT all know that the real thorn in their sides – the real engines behind the skeptic inroads in the public mind – is not WIllie but Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, and they dare not go after those two.
Steve Garcia,
You are right. They had best not go after Anthony or Steve. It would make the Willie Soon ferfuffle look like a real tempest in a teapot by comparison.
Anthony and Steve are above reproach. I think the alarmist crowd understands that.
Db…. if you think anyone in the whole AGW debate is beyond reproach, I think you need to do a little more reading. No one…. and I mean no one is beyond reproach in this field. Everyone, right or wrong, takes the hits. It’s just the nature of the feeling the topic generates. Perhaps mean AW doesn’t get too much flack here? On that you may well be right, but then this is his domain.
Simon me boi, you just wish it was that simple.
Anyone can post here. This is one of the very, very few sites that does not censor hostile comments. But there are very few comments like that. What, you’re itching to make one?
Of course the petty vermin will make their comments when they can get away with it. But what mainstream folks do it? They can all comment here. Who does? Who attacks Anthony? There are very few, and the few times they have, it has been baseless. They are set straight in short order by the Diogenes crowd here.
Yes, Michael Mann has his vicious, juvenile, and hate-filled tweets, but Mann is just one of the vermin — if his name wasn’t attached, you couldn’t tell him from the worst of the trolls here. Mann is free to comment here, but he won’t. What does that tell you about him? No one admires a coward, and Mann is certainly cowardly. I think even you would admit that. He hides out from any fair, moderated debate, and he sits in his ivory tower goading others to do his dirty work for him. He never meets face to face with skeptics. Never.
You would have a hard time finding a more upstanding guy than Anthony Watts. He has real character, and people can see that. He is certainly no liar — one of the first signs of anyone lacking character. Why do you think WUWT has skyrocketed so fast and so far in only eight years? Anyone can start a blog, even you. Where are your followers? Where are both of mine, for that matter?
No, the reason is Anthony. People know a stand-up guy when they see one because there are so few of them around. So go ahead, take your best shot. Do your worst; whatever. This site will be here, telling it like it is, long after you, me, and the petty ankle-biters are gone.
DB. I have absolutely no intention of having a go a AW. While I don’t agree with all of his science, but I don’t think it is that far from mine. He accepts (unlike you) that AGW is real and that it poses some risk, just not one worth spending lots of money on trying to mitigate. He has solar on his roof and an interested in electric cars…. I could make a list but there is no point. I also think it impolite to be rude on someone else’s blog.
My point is that many do have a crack at AW in the blog-o-sphere and I think he would be the first to admit it is not the domain for those who always to play nicely. He is also someone (like us all) who has made the odd error (no I am not going to list them) and been called on it here. He seems a tough nut and I am sure he has coped.
Oh, and BTW, it is all hand waving.