Climate Deniers Double Down on Doubt In Defense of Willie Soon

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This is a guest post byย Peter Dykstraย cross-posted fromย Environmental Health News/The Dailyย Climate

The most remarkable aspect of Willie Soonโ€™s soiled science scandal is that in the light of damning evidence of a serious ethical lapse, the climate denial camp shows no interest inย self-policing.

When documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act showed Soon was promising โ€œdeliverablesโ€ for climate research funded by fossil fuel affiliates, the judgment outside the climate denial sphere was swift, largely because the evidence was from Soonโ€™s ownย hand.

But many who embrace climate denial not only saw nothing wrong with this, they circled the wagons around their embattled Man ofย Science.

Many who embrace climate denial not only saw nothing wrong with this, they circled the wagons around their embattled Man of Science.ย 

Soon crossed what most scientists believe are several inviolable ethical lines. While academia doesnโ€™t generally disdain funding from parties who may have an economic or ideological stake in the outcome, transparency is key. Soon, via his unpaid climate-related research with the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, failed to reveal on multiple papers that his climate change-related publications were largely bankrolled by Exxon Mobil, Southern Company, and the Charles Kochย Foundation.

He also gushed about how the results would please prospective funders. โ€œI have aย big super-duper paperย soon to be accepted on how the sun affects the climate system,โ€ he wrote to a Southern Company sponsor. Southern is the biggest electric utility in the Southeast U.S., is heavily coal-dependent, and clearly would have something to gain should a scientific paper throw the sun under the bus for what the vast majority of scientists believe to be fossil fuel-driven climateย change.

The Climate Investigations Center and Greenpeace* obtained and released the documents. Some climate activists crowed. Editorial pages scowled. The Smithsonian promised a swiftย investigation.

Soon’s defenders, meanwhile, pulled out what is now a reliable playbook for conservatives confronted with accusations of errors, omissions and downright lies: They doubled down and went on theย attack.

The Heartland Institute, which has listed Soon as an in-house expert, took the reins as his communications clearinghouse, releasing Soonโ€™sย official statementย on its website along with a volley of counterattack. Heartland chief Joe Bast called climate scientists and advocatesย โ€œmental midgets.โ€ย To be fair, that may signal a softening of Heartlandโ€™s hard line, since three years ago they were likening their foes to mass murderer Tedย Kaczynski.

The Breitbart.com site was particularly unhinged in its response. The release of Soonโ€™s own documents was aย โ€œcrucifixionโ€, and reporting on the documents byย The New York Timesย was a โ€œhit pieceโ€ and a โ€œsmear.โ€ Congressman Joe Sestak (D-Penn.) was singled out for the offense of re-tweeting theย Timesย story. (Heartlandโ€™s Bast co-authored the โ€œcrucifixionโ€ย piece.)

Fox News took a more passive stance, deploying crickets. While Foxโ€™s website lists multiple stories about sexual harassment allegations against R.K. Pachauri, the recently resigned head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Soonโ€™s soiled science appears to have received onlyย one brief mentionย on a Sunday talkshow. The only other reference to climate change on Fox in recent weeks have centered on attempts to prove that a cold, snowy month in much of the U.S. is Exhibit A against climateย change.

Foxโ€™s high-profile primetime host Bill Oโ€™Reillyย didnโ€™t mention the scandal, either. Oโ€™Reillyย once embraced climate science, telling 60 Minutes โ€œGlobal warming is hereโ€ฆ all these idiots that run around and say it isnโ€™t here, thatโ€™s ridiculous.โ€ But as climate denial has embedded itself in conservative doctrine and in Foxโ€™s Fair-and-Balanced reporting, Oโ€™Reilly no longer believes climateย scientists.

Oโ€™Reilly might be excused for skipping the Soon story. Like Soonโ€™s supporters, heโ€™s busy doubling down to defend against his own accusersโ€™ allegations that he embellished his own war-correspondentย stories.

And in that is an illustrative lesson in how climate denial and American conservatism became inseparable: Doubling down against critics is the standard defense, no matter how demonstrable the evidence is against you. Itโ€™s whatย Dick Cheney didย on his whirlwind media tour last December, in which he defended both the Iraq war and the use of torture by American intelligence officials. Itโ€™s what Pat Michaels, another widely-cited skeptical scientist, didย when soliciting coal producersโ€™ moneyย back in 2006. And itโ€™s what Oliver North, the Grandpappy of modern-day doubling down, did in the late 1980โ€™s when he was caught at the center of theย Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal. He became a hero to millions ofย Americans.

To this day, Ollie North still hosts a weekend show on Fox News. So in the event that Willie Soon has to face the music because ethics outweighs doubling down, there may be an opening for a Fox News science show host. It would beย Super-Duper.

*I used to work for Greenpeace in the 1980โ€™s. Thatโ€™s full disclosure,ย Willie.

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