Wall Street Journal's infamous op-ed authors -- the 16 scientists -- are they really?

Posted by roygrubb on January 27, 2012 | 2 notes

http://roygrubb.tumblr.com/post/16581690077/the-16-concerned-scientists-who-they-are

No Need to Panic About Global Warming say sixteen scientists.  Judge for yourself how many are qualified to opine on climate science.

Claude Allegre, former director of the Institute for the Study of the Earth, University of Paris; Ageochemist and author of The Climate Lie which is alleged to have 100 actual errors and approximations (in French but Google does a reasonable translation).

J. Scott Armstrong, cofounder of the Journal of Forecasting and the International Journal of Forecasting; Professor of Marketing - University of Pennsylvania.

Jan Breslow M.D., Senior Attending Physician, and Head of the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics and Metabolism, Rockefeller University.

Roger Cohen, fellow, American Physical Society;  Manager, Strategic Planning and Programs ExxonMobil Corporation (retired).

Edward David, member, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences; Educated as an electrical engineer 

William Happer, professor of physics, Princeton; Physicist specializing in optics and spectroscopy and Board member, George Marshall Institute which is a recipient of substantial funding from Exxon Mobil.

Michael Kelly, professor of technology, University of Cambridge, U.K.; Professor, Group:Solid State Electronics and Nanoscale Science. Dept. of Electrical Engineering 

William Kininmonth, former head of climate research at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology; Meteorologist. Score 1!

Richard Lindzen, professor of atmospheric sciences, MIT; Interesting and relevant link.

James McGrath, professor of chemistry, Virginia Technical University; current research interests are focused in the area of synthesis and characterization of high performance matrix polymers.

Rodney Nichols, former president and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences; A distinguished career as an advisor and leader, but not a climate scientist. 

Burt Rutan, aerospace engineer, designer of Voyager and SpaceShipOne.

Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut and former U.S. senator; A Geologist.

Nir Shaviv, professor of astrophysics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem; An astrophysicist who attributes GW to cosmic rays.

Henk Tennekes, former director, Royal Dutch Meteorological Service.  Score 2!

Antonio Zichichi, president of the World Federation of Scientists, Geneva. Italian physicist who has worked in the field of nuclear physics.

There are many distinguished people in this list, but precious few researchers in climate science - so this looks like an argument-from-authority.

If it’s an argument from authority these gentlemen want, it’s telling that “[d]espite seven months of intense effort to recruit physicists to sign a politically motivated petition disputing anthropogenic climate change, a mere, 0.45% of the American Physical Society‘s 47,000 members signed on.”