Team of Scientists’ Open Letter To U.S. Senators: ‘Claim of consensus is fake’

The following letter signed by five physicists was sent to all 100 U.S. Senator’s on October 29, 2009. The letter is reproduced in full below:

A GAGGLE IS NOT A CONSENSUS

You have recently received a letter from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), purporting to convey a “consensus” of the scientific community that immediate and drastic action is needed to avert a climatic catastrophe.

We do not seek to make the scientific arguments here (we did that in an earlier letter, sent a couple of months ago), but simply to note that the claim of consensus is fake, designed to stampede you into actions that will cripple our economy, and which you will regret for many years. There is no consensus, and even if there were, consensus is not the test of scientific validity. Theories that disagree with the facts are wrong, consensus or no.

We know of no evidence that any of the “leaders” of the scientific community who signed the letter to you ever asked their memberships for their opinions, before claiming to represent them on this important matter.

We also note that the American Physical Society (APS, and we are physicists) did not sign the letter, though the scientific issues at stake are fundamentally matters of applied physics. You can do physics without climatology, but you can’t do climatology without physics.

The APS is at this moment reviewing its stance on so-called global warming, having received a petition from its membership to do so. That petition was signed by 160 distinguished members and fellows of the Society, including one Nobelist and 12 members of the National Academies. Indeed a score of the signers are Members and Fellows of the AAAS, none of whom were consulted before the AAAS letter to you.

Professor Hal Lewis, University of California, Santa Barbara

Professor Fred Singer, University of Virginia

Professor Will Happer, Princeton University

Professor Larry Gould, University of Hartford

Dr. Roger Cohen, retired Manager, Strategic Planning, ExxonMobil

List of 160 signers of the APS petition available at http://tinyurl.com/lg266u

Climate Depot’s Related Links:

Scientists Write Open Letter to Congress: ‘You Are Being Deceived About Global Warming’ — ‘Earth has been cooling for ten years’ – July 1, 2009

Climate Revolt: World’s Largest Science Group ‘Startled’ By Outpouring of Scientists Rejecting Man-Made Climate Fears! Clamor for Editor to Be Removed! – July 29, 2009

American Physical Society to review its current climate statement after a group of 80 prominent physicists petitioned APS revise – May 1, 2009

American Physical Society editor conceded a “considerable presence” of scientific skeptics exists – 2008

Polish National Academy of Science ‘published a document skeptical of man-made global warming’ – April 2008

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March 2009 U. S. Senate Report: ‘More Than 700 International Scientists Dissenting Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims’

India Issued a report challenging global warming fears – 2008

Canvass of more than 51,000 Canadian scientists revealed 68% disagree that global warming science is “settled” – 2008

Japan Geoscience Union symposium 2008 survey ‘showed 90 per cent of the participants do not believe the IPCC report’

Skeptical scientists overwhelm Prestigious Geologist conference in Norway in 2008: ‘2/3 of presenters and question-askers were hostile to, even dismissive of, the UN IPCC’ & see full reports here & here

Petition signed by over 31,000 American scientists: ‘There is no convincing scientific evidence that greenhouse gasses are causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating’ – 2009

Scientist William Schlesinger admits in 2009 that only 20% of IPCC scientists deal with climate