Matt Ridley Caught up in Dollars-for-Denial Scandal

authordefault
on

Matt Ridley has become embroiled in the dollars-for-denial scandal currently engulfing a British climate denial think tank with his position on the advisory board of Sense About Science looking increasinglyย tenuous.

The Conservative member of the House of Lords and coal producer published articles in British and American publications ahead of the Paris climate negotiations aimed at challenging the science of climateย change.

Viscount Ridley supported his arguments in at least one of these articles by referencing publications by Lord Lawsonโ€™s Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF).

He claimed the report had been โ€œthoroughly peer reviewedโ€ – the Times later ran a clarificationย after first describing the same report as โ€œnot peer reviewed.โ€

But an investigation by Greenpeace UK revealed that one member of the GWPF academic advisory council was willing to use the same committee to โ€œpeer reviewโ€ a report praising carbon dioxide which he would write on behalf of a Middle Eastern oilย company.

Strictย Guidance

The revelation is hugely embarrassing for Ridley, who sits on the GWPF advisory council.

He is also currently an academic advisor for the UK charity Sense About Science, which has very strict guidance for any publication claiming to peer review itsย literature.

Max Goldman, from Sense About Science, toldย DeSmog UKย that Ridley did not have a decision making role at the charity and said the future of the advisory board was already underย review.

He said: โ€œMatt was originally made a member due to his writing on biology and genetics, and he has not been involved in any of our work that touches on climate science, such asย Making Sense of Uncertainty.ย 

โ€œI can’t imagine we’d review his membership because it’s not really a formal thing. Our board raised the role of the advisory council at a recent meeting so we will probably be reviewing its role and existence early nextย year.โ€

Asked whether he believed the GWPF had abused its own peer review process, he added: โ€œThe question implies that the GWPF have a standard independent peer review process to abuse. From what you say it doesnโ€™t sound like they have that kind of process in the firstย place.

โ€œIโ€™m not sure it’s our place to advise them, but we encourage everyone to learn how peer review actually works. And we’re always in favour of showing your workings and keeping the publicย informed.โ€

Lord Lawson, the founder and chairman of the GWPF, has defended claims that the GWPF peer reviews itsย reports.

Academicย Magazines

He told the Independent his think tank has aย โ€œvery thorough peer review process โ€ฆ in many ways better than the standard peer review system in most academicย magazines.โ€

Dr Benny Peiser, a former sports scientist and director of the GWPF, tried to attack the peer review process of respectedย publications.

โ€œPeer review cannot only happen through peer-reviewed journals,โ€ he said. โ€œThere have been reports of serious problems within the conventional peer-review process.โ€

Ridley penned an article for the Times newspaper in October this year based on a publication titledย Carbon Dioxide – the Good Newsย drafted at his behest and published by the GWPF.

He told his readers: โ€œThe report was thoroughly peer-reviewed, as was almost all the voluminous literature it cited (Full disclosure: I helped edit theย report).โ€

This assertion appears to be at variance with comments made by Professor William Happer to the Greenpeace investigator, who he believed to be a representative of a Middle Eastern oil company looking to pay him to write a pro-carbon dioxideย report.

Happer agreed to produce the document – asking for his fee to go to the CO2 Coalition in the US – and offered to get it โ€œpeer reviewedโ€ by his colleagues on the advisory board of the GWPF inย London.

He is recorded saying: โ€œI know that the entire scientific advisory board of the Global Warming Policy Foundation was asked to submit comments on the first draft [of a paper]. I am also sure that most were too busy toย respond.โ€ย 

He added: โ€œI would be glad to ask for a similar review for the first drafts of anything I write for your client. Unless we decide to submit the piece to a regular journal, with all the complications of delay, possibly quixotic editors and reviewers that is the best we can do, and I think it would be fine to call it a peerย review.โ€

The Times newspaper ran a news story onย 12 Octoberย this year based on the same report championed by Lord Ridley. The article stated the report โ€œhas not beenย peer-reviewed.โ€

Financialย Interest

However, a correction appeared less than a week later which added: โ€œWe stated that Indur Goklanyโ€™s report, Carbon Dioxide: The Good News, has not been peer reviewed. We should have said it has not been published in a peer-reviewedย journal.โ€

Professor Ross McKitrick, now chairman of the GWPF advisory counci which co-ordinates the so-called โ€œpeer reviewโ€ process, wrote to the Times on 16 October telling the paper the report โ€œunderwent detailed, independent peer review prior toย publication.โ€

He added: โ€œPlease amend your article accordingly.โ€ย McKitrick also lobbied the newspaper onย Twitter.

The layers of contradiction have led to fevered speculation among journalists reporting the COP21 talks in Paris. They think Ridley may have demanded his own publication run a correction, reassuring readers that the paper had in fact been peerย reviewed.

Adam Ramsay, from openDemocracy, an analysis website, said: โ€œThe Times appears to have undermined its own reporter by wrongly correcting an accurate article which informed its readers that the GWPF report was not, in fact, peerย reviewed.

โ€œSenior staff at the newspaper need to investigate how this could have possibly happened, how editorial decisions areย influenced.

โ€œThis is especially true when the people involved in writing about climate change have a direct financial interest in the mining of coal and the undermining ofย science.โ€ย 

Lord Ridley was in a previous career the chairman of Northern Rock when the mortgage lender was bailed out by the government after what a Parliamentary review found had been โ€œrecklessโ€ business strategy.ย 

Related Posts

on

New documents show close coordination between the oil major and a coalition of free-market think tanks at a crucial moment in climate diplomacy.

New documents show close coordination between the oil major and a coalition of free-market think tanks at a crucial moment in climate diplomacy.
Analysis
on

Right wing YouTuber Tim Pool is the latest to own โ€˜climate peopleโ€™ with fake facts spouted by a grizzled TV oilman.

Right wing YouTuber Tim Pool is the latest to own โ€˜climate peopleโ€™ with fake facts spouted by a grizzled TV oilman.
on

Critics say the controversial GWP* method โ€“ which New Zealand appears close to adopting โ€“ is โ€œopen to significant abuseโ€.

Critics say the controversial GWP* method โ€“ which New Zealand appears close to adopting โ€“ is โ€œopen to significant abuseโ€.
on

Lord Moynihan of Chelsea, who holds shares in Shell and TotalEnergies, called the green transition a โ€œchildrenโ€™s crusadeโ€.

Lord Moynihan of Chelsea, who holds shares in Shell and TotalEnergies, called the green transition a โ€œchildrenโ€™s crusadeโ€.