Climate Denial Crock of the Week

One of the most odious and dishonest practitioners of climate disinformation is Dr. Willie Soon.  See above for a good example of what Exxon, the Koch Brothers, and others have been getting for their generous financial support. (good stuff starts at 2:20)

But, as in physics, often in the affairs of men, what goes around comes around.
It would appear that a rather awesome come-uppance is in the works for Dr. Soon.  The New York Times is reporting on Soon’s forgetfulness in disclosing his ties to coal and oil barons when submitting “studies” to science journals.

NYTimes:

He has accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers. At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work.
–
The documents show that Dr. Soon, in correspondence with his corporate funders, described many of his scientific papers as “deliverables” that he completed in exchange for their money. He used the same term to describe testimony he prepared for Congress.

The issue here is not that Dr. Soon took money from fossil fuel corporations – that happens all the time, and big corporations fund a lot of stuff.
A correspondent emails me –

If Soon did bad research, it can be criticized. It has been. That is part of the process. IT IS NOT WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT HERE.

If Soon got money from Big Fossil, fine. Lots of research is funded by industry, even industry with an interest. It happens. But it has to be done right.

If Soon got money from Big Fossil and didn’t disclose, even if the research was fine, and even if the industry did not have an interest, that is an ethical violation, and that is what #WillieSoonGate is about.

And Dr Soon has more trouble – as Harvard appears to have thrown him under the bus.

Raw Story:

“The company was paying him to write peer-reviewed science and that relationship was not acknowledged in the peer-reviewed literature,” Davies said. “These proposals and contracts show debatable interventions in science literally on the behalf of Southern Company and the Kochs.”

In letters to the Internal Revenue Service and Congress, Greenpeace said Soon may have misused the grants from the Koch foundation by trying to influence legislation.

Soon did not respond to requests for comment. But he has in the past strenuously denied his industry funders had any influence over his conclusions.

“No amount of money can influence what I have to say and write, especially on my scientific quest to understand how climate works, all by itself,” he told the Boston Globe in 2013.

As is common among Harvard-Smithsonian scientists, Soon is not on a salary. He receives his compensation from outside grant money, said Christine Pulliam, a spokeswoman for the Center for Astrophysics.

Meanwhile, a senior Senator has taken an interest.

Boston Globe:

Senator Edward J. Markey is calling on coal and oil companies to reveal whether they are funding scientific climate change studies after his staff reviewed newly obtained documents illuminating the relationship between a researcher for a Cambridge-based institution and energy interests.

The Massachusetts Democrat will send letters to fossil fuel companies, trade organizations, and others with a stake in carbon fuels, aiming to reveal other climate-change-skeptical scientists whose work has been subsidized by those parties, a Markey spokesman said via e-mail.

“For years, fossil fuel interests and front groups have attacked climate scientists and legislation to cut carbon pollution using junk science and debunked arguments,” Markey said in a statement. “The American public deserve an honest debate that isn’t polluted by the best junk science fossil fuel interests can buy. That’s why I will be launching this investigation to see how widespread this denial-for-hire scheme stretches within the anti-climate action cabal.”