Soon and Baliunas controversy

[[File:Willie Soon.png|thumb|165px|Willie Soon.]]
[[File:Sallie Baliunas.jpg|thumb|165px|Sallie Baliunas.]]
{{DenialismSide}}

The '''Soon and Baliunas controversy''' was an incident in which a paper published by Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas in the journal ''Climate Research'' led to the resignation of a number of its editors. The paper reviewed over 200 previous papers on [[global warming]] and alleged that the 20<sup>th</sup> century hadn't shown any especially large amount of warming.

A number of the scientists whose research was used in the paper complained that their work had been misrepresented. Other scientists trashed everything from the paper's methodology to its conclusions. Due to the number of complaints, editor-in-chief Hans von Storch wrote an editorial on the state of the review process at the journal and questioned the judgment of Chris De Freitas, who had been responsible for the acceptance of Soon and Baliunas's paper. When De Freitas objected, von Storch and a number of other editors resigned from the journal. Von Storch said afterward that deniers "had identified ''Climate Research'' as a journal where some editors were not as rigorous in the review process as is otherwise common."<ref>[http://motherjones.com/environment/2005/05/some-it-hot Some Like It Hot]</ref>
Claire Goodess, one of the editors who resigned, said:

{{cquote|Some journalists are digging even deeper – into the sources of Soon and Baliunas’s funding. Their Climate Research paper includes acknowledgements to [[NOAA]], [[NASA]] and the US Air Force, as well as to the American Petroleum Institute. Yet NOAA flatly deny having ever funded the authors for such work, while the other two bodies admit to funding them, but for work on solar variability – not proxy climate records, the topic that has caused such a storm.<ref name="logical">[https://web.archive.org/web/20080229145739/http://www.logicalscience.com/skeptics/Sallie-Baliunas.html Sallie Baliunas and Willie Soon profile] at Logical Science</ref>}}

[[Michael Mann]] criticized the paper:

{{cquote|“Serious scientists will tell you over and over again that this was a deeply flawed study that should never have been published… Scientifically this study was considered not even worthy of a response. But because it was used politically, to justify policy changes in the administration, people in my field felt they had to speak out.<ref name="logical"/>}}

After the [[George Bush|Bush administration]] attempted to include the paper in an [[EPA]] report, [[James Inhofe|Jim Inhofe]] ([[Wingnut]]-OK) said:

{{cquote|The powerful new findings of this most comprehensive of studies shiver the timbers of the adrift Chicken Little crowd.<ref name="logical"/>}}

The paper was later re-published with additional "research" added by the [[Idso family]]. Of course, Soon and Baliunas's work is still an article of faith among the denier crowd. After all, "it's [[peer-reviewed]]!"

E-mails regarding ''Climate Research'' and the controversy were [[quote mining|quote mined]] during the [[Climategate]] investigations to make it appear as if scientists had been attempting to "censor skeptics" or "subvert the peer-review process" in some way.

==Soon and Baliunas==

Soon and Baliunas have acted as a climate denial duo for quite some time. They are employed both by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the [[George C. Marshall Institute]], a [[think tank]] founded by [[Frederick Seitz]]. When Seitz had begun to help distribute the [[Oregon Petition]], Soon, Baliunas, and [[Arthur Robinson]] attached a brief "review" of denialist research to the petition. Robinson's organization has also published "research" by them claiming that global warming isn't bad because "[[CO2 is Green|carbon dioxide is plant food!]]"<ref>[http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm Environmental effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide], OISM</ref>

In further "research," the two claim that solar cycles were largely to blame for any increased warming. The solar cycle hypothesis has become a common talking point among [[denialism|deniers]], but [[PRATT|repeatedly debunked]]. Solar activity has actually been decreasing in recent history. UV rays are also proposed to be causing this effect, but other research shows that they have only a local effect on temperatures at best, not a global one. The hypothesis also fails to explain a variety of other phenomena, such as the warming at higher latitudes.<ref>[http://www.skepticalscience.com/solar-activity-sunspots-global-warming-advanced.htm Solar Activity] at Skeptical Science</ref> However, the two have been pushing this talking point hard for many years.<ref group=note>[http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/twimberley/EnviroPhilo/ClimHist.pdf Climate History and the Sun] is a rather representative example, where they pull the "[http://www.skepticalscience.com/satellite-measurements-warming-troposphere.htm satellites show no warming]" gambit and [[cherry-picking|cherry-pick]] temperature proxies and use woefully outdated research to claim the [http://www.skepticalscience.com/broken-hockey-stick.htm hockey stick is broken], so therefore it's the sun...or something!</ref>

Baliunas' "[[pseudoskepticism|skepticism]]" dates back to 1995 with her adventures in [[Ozone layer#Ozone depletion denialism|ozone denialism]] when she testified before [[Congress]] that CFCs were not responsible for the hole in the [[ozone layer]] (ironically, a few weeks before the [[Nobel Prize|Nobel]] in chemistry was awarded to the originators of the theory).<ref>[http://johnquiggin.com/2003/09/14/junk-science-on-ozone/ Junk Science on Ozone], John Quiggin</ref> 

Soon himself has admitted to receiving loads of cash from [[oil]] and [[coal]] companies. He has also denied health risks related to [[mercury]] emissions from coal plants. For this, he was rewarded with column inches in (where else?) the ''[[Wall Street Journal]].''<ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/28/us-usa-climate-skeptic-idUSTRE75R2HD20110628 American climate skeptic Soon funded by oil, coal firms], Reuters</ref><ref>[http://mediamatters.org/research/201105270017 WSJ Op-Ed Denies Dangers Of U.S. Mercury Emissions], [[Media Matters]]</ref> In 2015, [[Greenpeace]] revealed that Soon had received $1.25 million in funding from energy companies over a period of 14 years.<ref>[http://uncovermichigan.com/content/23197-climate-change-denier-willie-soon-received-125-million-energy-companies Climate Change denier Willie Soon received $1.25 million from energy companies]</ref><ref>[https://s3.amazonaws.com/ucs-documents/global-warming/Climate-Deception-Dossier-1_Willie-Soon.pdf Deception Dossier #1: Dr. Wei-Hock Soon’s Smithsonian Contracts]</ref>

==External links==
*[http://www.int-res.com/articles/cr2003/23/c023p089.pdf The Soon and Baliunas paper] itself
*[http://www.marshall.org/experts.php?id=44 Soon] and [http://www.marshall.org/experts.php?id=38 Baliunas'] pages at the Marshall Institute
*[http://www.desmogblog.com/willie-soon Soon] and [http://www.desmogblog.com/sallie-baliunas Baliunas'] profiles at DeSmog Blog
*[https://chronicle.com/article/Storm-Brews-Over-Global/27779/ Storm Brews Over Global Warming], Chronicle of Higher Education
*[http://www.int-res.com/articles/misc/CREditorial.pdf Climate Research: an article unleashed worldwide storm], Otto Kinne
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20041011200504/http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/prrl/prrl0319.html American Geophysical Union's response]
*[http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/deja_vu_all_over_again/ Deja Vu All Over Again], Chris Mooney
*[[John Stossel]] thinks Baliunas is [http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3061015&page=1 a top expert on global warming.]
*[http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2011/07/how-soon-is-now/ How Soon is now?] Real Climate
==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category:Denialism]]
[[Category:Climatology]]
[[Category:Global warming]]

Categories: Denialism, Climatology, Global warming