Global warming denialism

I just received a large envelope in the mail from the Petition Project. The letter exhorts me to sign a petition urging the United States Congress “to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan...and any other similar proposals.” That struck me as odd, since President Bush announced that the U.S. was withdrawing from the Kyoto protocol five or six years ago.

Included in the fat envelope was an article entitled, “Environmental effects of increased carbon dioxide,” which appeared in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. Let me say that again: It appeared in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. What do reviewers know for this journal know about atmospheric physics? I trust my doctor to give me advice on blood pressure and diet, but I wouldn't trust him to review a paper on atmospheric physics.

And it gets stranger. The authors are from something called the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine. Again, I think my doctor is great, and when I had Lyme disease a few years ago he referred me to a great specialist who publishes regularly in top medical journals. But I don't think my Lyme disease specialist, smart as he was, would be likely to submit a paper on global warming to any of the journals in which he regularly publishes.

So, I decided to check RealClimate.Org, my go-to source for solid information on climate change. They became aware of the Petition Project about a week ago, and they've set up a wiki that provides more information about the paper (and its earlier versions), the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, and the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

neurodiversity has an interesting analysis of the contents of the journal. “Strange bedfellows” is the title of the post, and that sums it up pretty well. Sourcewatch notes that

The OISM is located on a farm about 7 miles from the town of Cave Junction, Oregon (population 1,126)...The main visitors are tourists who come to hike, backpack and fish in the area's many rivers and streams. Cave Junction is the sort of out-of-the-way location you might seek out if you were hoping to survive a nuclear war, but it is not known as a center for scientific and medical research. The OISM would be equally obscure itself, except for the role it played in 1998 in circulating a deceptive “scientists' petition” on global warming in collaboration with Frederick Seitz, a retired former president of the National Academy of Sciences.¹

When I looked back at the letter urging me to sign the petition, whose name was at the bottom of it but Frederick Seitz. And the whole packet of material has now found its way to my recycling bin.

¹Note: I don't have anything against small, western towns. I'm rather fond of them, actually. After all, I grew up in Burley, Idaho (county seat of Cassia County; population of Cassia County, ca. 20,000).