OPINION

The Register’s Editorial: Why climate change deniers warmed up to this scientist

The Register's Editorial staff

If the scientific community isn’t telling you what you want to hear, you might just have to buy your own scientist. That pretty much sums up the public perception of the relationship between the fossil fuels industry and Wei-Hock Soon, a scientist frequently cited by groups denying a link between climate change and human behavior.

Soon has accepted more than $1.2 million from the fossil fuels industry over the past decade, according to the New York Times. He has not disclosed that conflict of interests in several published scientific papers. Documents recently obtained by the environmental group Greenpeace and reviewed by the Times show corporate contributions were linked to specific papers he authored.

Soon is well-known for suggesting variations in the sun, not the burning of fossil fuels, cause global warming. He has testified before Congress and has been identified on conservative news shows as a “Harvard astrophysicist.”

Except he is not an astrophysicist. He has a doctoral degree in aerospace engineering. He has little formal training in climatology. Soon has never been employed by Harvard. He works part-time at the Smithsonian Institution, which has an astrophysics partnership with the school.

But he has managed to produce exactly the kind of “science” welcomed by the oil industries and those who invest in the oil industries.

Among his financial supporters: Exxon Mobile, the American Petroleum Institute, the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and an organization that accepts anonymous donations to funnel to conservative causes.

Now members of Congress are demanding answers. The Smithsonian has asked its Inspector General to investigate. Scientific journals are being questioned about their publication guidelines. The entire ordeal tarnishes the thousands of ethical, objective scientists who work to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interests.