Willie Soon

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Willie Wei-Hock Soon (* 1966 in Kangar , Malaysia ) is an American aerospace engineer . Soon achieved international fame primarily through studies and public statements on environmental problems. He is one of the most famous people who sow doubts about global warming on behalf of conservative think tanks and companies in the fossil energy industry .

Life and work

Soon after attending school in Perlis , Malaysia, studied from 1980 at the University of Southern California , where he obtained his bachelor's degree in 1985 and his master's degree in 1987 and his doctorate in 1991 (Non equilibrium kinetics in high temperature gases). He has worked part-time at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics since 1991 . In parts of the press he is often falsely presented as an astrophysicist at Harvard University , but in fact he is a space engineer ; he also never worked at Harvard University. He is associated with a number of key organizations that are raising doubts about global warming, including the Heartland Institute , the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the CO2 Coalition . He has also worked for the George C. Marshall Institute , a politically conservative think tank , which is considered the oldest climate denial organization.

Although unfamiliar to the subject, he gained notoriety primarily through his studies on environmental issues. Because of his rejection of man-made global warming, he was quoted many times by climate change deniers such as James Inhofe and was also allowed to speak before the US Congress . His core thesis is that the majority of global warming is due to solar activity, while humans play only a minor role. In science, his works are largely rejected; Among other things, he is accused of using outdated data, publishing false correlations and ignoring references to human emissions. The Smithsonian Center, where he works, also distanced itself several times from his work.

In 1998, Soon, along with Arthur B. Robinson and Noah E. Robinson, wrote a cover letter for the Oregon petition that looked like an article that had appeared in the high-ranking journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . This misleading cover letter finally added Frederick Seitz to the petition and at the same time encouraged further signatures with his name and his previous role as President of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). This practice was condemned by the NAS, which in an unprecedented response accused its former chairman of willful deception and stressed that Seitz's opinion was very different from the position of science.

In 2003, Soon and Sallie Baliunas published two almost identical articles in the journal Climate Research and in the journal Energy & Environment , in which they rated current global warming as insignificant compared to other historical climate changes of the last millennium. The Climate Research study, which it subsequently became known to be sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute , attracted considerable criticism. Among other things, 13 authors published a review in which they stated that Soon and Baliunas had misrepresented their results. After sharp professional criticism due to methodological deficiencies in the study, the publisher of the journal, Otto Kinne , and the editor-in-chief, Hans von Storch , distanced themselves from the published article. Von Storch also resigned from his post as editor-in-chief, as did two other editors of the journal. Nonetheless, the study was used by the then US administration under George W. Bush as alleged evidence for the claim that climate protection was unnecessary. Among other things, the study was cited by Senator Jim Inhofe as evidence that it is not greenhouse gases but the sun that is responsible for global warming. The Marshall Institute also published it publicly on its website. Also in 2003 he published a book on the Maunder Minimum with Stephen H. Yaskell .

In 2007, Soon co-authored a study that found polar bears are not at risk from climate change. The Republican politician Sarah Palin took this as an opportunity to demand the removal of the polar bears from the list of protected animal species.

In a 2011 opinion piece for the conservative Wall Street Journal , Soon claimed that the US EPA was exaggerating the health hazards of industrial mercury emissions.

Soon also spread his theses as a guest speaker at election events of the right-wing populist tea party movement . In the German-speaking area, Soon's works and a. very well received in the denier networks EIKE and the European arm of CFACT .

Sponsoring by energy companies

In 2011, the environmental protection organization Greenpeace published the results of a study according to which Soon had received more than 1 million US dollars from industry and lobby groups over a period of 10 years . Soon's donors included a. the oil company ExxonMobil , the energy company Southern Co. , the lobby group American Petroleum Institute and a charity owned by Charles Koch . Soon admitted receiving the payments, but denied being affected. Internally, he described his services, which in addition to the commissioned studies also included public appearances, as "deliverable results" for payment.

According to documents published in 2015, he received approximately $ 1.25 million, which means that his research was funded almost entirely by companies in the fossil energy industry. In addition, he is said to have not made the conflict of interest public in scientific papers. In 2005 he received about $ 410,000 from the coal company Southern Co. and in return undertook to publish research on the influence of the sun on climate change. As a result, various journals and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics initiated investigations into the failure to disclose its funding and an undisclosed conflict of interest. The New York Times writes that Soon had waived his funds disclosure on at least 11 papers and violated the ethical guidelines of the journals in which he published on at least 8 papers. As part of the bankruptcy of the world's largest mining company, Peabody Energy , it came to light in 2016 that it had also received money from this company for its climate-skeptical activities. The revelations about this caused a collapse in his scientific career, but he continues to sow doubts about global warming and coordinates actions and people for this. In 2018 he also had to disclose several of his donors after a court case; these were the ExxonMobil Foundation , the Charles G. Koch Foundation, and the coal company Southern Company .

In addition to direct funding from energy companies, Soon was also shown to have ties to at least five ExxonMobil-funded organizations. He was listed as a "featured expert" at the Fraser Institute , as a "senior scientist" at the George C. Marshall Institute and as a "writer / contributor" at the Heartland Institute .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard Maxwell, Toby Miller: The Propaganda Machine Behind the Controversy Over Climate Science: Can You Spot the Lie in This Title? In: American Behavioral Scientist . 2015, doi : 10.1177 / 0002764215613405 .
  2. ↑ Peter J. Jacques: A General Theory of Climate Denial . In: Global Environmental Politics . tape 12 , no. 2 , 2012, p. 9-17 , doi : 10.1162 / GLEP_a_00105 .
  3. ↑ a b c Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Researcher . In: The New York Times , February 21, 2015. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
  4. ^ A b Dan Schwartz: The Last of the Climate Deniers Hold On, Despite Your Protests . In: Vice , November 18, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  5. ↑ See James Lawrence Powell: The Inquisition of Climate Science. New York 2012, pp. 101-103.
  6. ↑ Michael E. Mann , Tom Toles: The madhouse effect. How climate change denial threatens our planet, destroys our politics and drives us insane . Erlangen 2018, pp. 84f.
  7. ↑ Global warming is not so hot: 1003 was worse, reserachers find , in: Harvard Gazette, April 24, 2003
  8. ↑ a b c James Lawrence Powell: The Inquisition of Climate Science. New York 2012, pp. 102f.
  9. ↑ Article: Mann et al. (2003): On Past Temperatures and Anomalous Late-20th Century Warmth , in: Eos, Vol. 84, No. 27, pp. 256-258; Press release: Leading Climate Scientists Reaffirm View that Late 20th Century Warming Was Unusual and Resulted From Human Activity. American Geophysical Union press release . July 7, 2003, archived from the original on December 25, 2013 ; Retrieved December 24, 2014 .
  10. ↑ Politics Reasserts Itself in the Debate Over Climate Change and Its Hazards , in: The New York Times , August 5, 2003
  11. ↑ a b c His skepticism is worth 1 million dollars , by Constantin Seibt , in: Tages-Anzeiger , June 29, 2011
  12. ↑ Soon, Willie Wei-Hock; Yaskell, Steven H .: The Maunder Minimum and the Variable Sun-Earth Connection. World Scientific Publishing 2003
  13. ↑ Climate change skeptics criticize polar bear science , in: New Scientist , July 1, 2007
  14. ^ The Myth of Killer Mercury , by Willie Soon and Paul Driessen, in: The Wall Street Journal , May 25, 2011
  15. ↑ Anna Leuschner, The credibility of science. A scientific and epistemological analysis using the example of climate research , Bielefeld 2012, p. 107f.
  16. ↑ Climate skeptic Willie Soon received $ 1m from oil companies, papers show , in: The Guardian , June 28, 2011
  17. ↑ The Climate Warriors . In: Die Zeit , November 22, 2012. Retrieved April 13, 2016.
  18. ↑ Exxon paid prominent climate change deniers . In: Manager Magazin , February 23, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  19. ↑ Work of prominent climate change denier was funded by energy industry . In: The Guardian , February 21, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  20. ^ Climate skeptic researcher investigated over funding from fossil fuel firms . In: The Guardian , June 11, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  21. ↑ Biggest US coal company funded dozens of groups questioning climate change The Guardian, June 16, 2016
  22. ^ Union of Concerned Scientists : Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air. How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco's Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science . January 2007, accessed July 14, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Soon, Willie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Soon, Willie Wei-Hock
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astrophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Kangar , Malaysia