S. Fred Singer

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S. Fred Singer (Deceased)

Credentials  

  • B.E.E. (Electrical Engineering), Ohio State University. [1]
  • A.M. and Ph.D. (Physics), Princeton University. [1]

Background

Siegfried Frederick Singer (S. Fred Singer) was a former space scientist and government scientific administrator. He passed away in 2020 at the age of 95. [1], [75]

Singer founded the Science & Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) in 1990, a 501(c)(3) “educational group” focusing on global warming denial. According to their website, SEPP also reports to cover topics such as nuclear radiation, DDT, science and regulation at EPA, energy policy, and space exploration. [2]

According to SEPP, “sound, credible science must form the basis for health and environmental decisions that affect millions of people and cost tens of billions of dollars every year.” [2]

Leaked documents obtained by DeSmog revealed that Fred Singer had also been receiving $5,000 a month from the Heartland Institute. With the help of Craig Idso, Singer helped develop the Heartland Institute's “Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC),” [3], [4], [5]

Stance on Climate Change

January 2016

“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has to provide proof for significant human-caused climate change; yet their climate models have never been validated and are rapidly diverging from actual observations.  The real threat to humanity comes not from any (trivial) greenhouse warming but from cooling periods creating food shortages and famines.” [6]

“Climate change has been going on for millions of years – long before humans existed on this planet.  Obviously, the causes were all of natural origin and not anthropogenic.  There is no reason to think that these natural causes have suddenly stopped.” [6]

June 2015

”[…] So, has global warming really stopped? We will know for sure in just a few years.

There will certainly be debate also about my proposition of no evidence at all for AGW.We will need a persuasive answer to the puzzle – why do land thermometers show a warming before 2000, but not after 2000?I may have an answer, but must first try to convince my colleagues.

One thing is quite certain, however: Current IPCC climate models cannot explain what the observations clearly show. This makes the models unsuitable for climate prediction – and for policy purposes generally.” [7]

November 2011

Accoridng to Skeptical Science, Singer contends that data collected from tree rings “don't show any global warming since 1940.” [8]

October 2011

“[U]nlike the land surface, the atmosphere has shown no warming trend, either over land or over ocean — according to satellites and independent data from weather balloons.” [9]

Undated

“Climate change is a natural phenomenon. Climate keeps changing all the time. The fact that climate changes is not in itself a threat, because, obviously, in the past human beings have adapted to all kinds of climate changes.” [59]

Key Quotes

February 2016

“I go back to the major error of the UN climate panel, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They have been claiming in all their 5 major reports that CO2 increases are the cause of warming.  I am of the opinion, and have tried to back it up with publications, that these arguments don't hold water and that their evidence does not exist.” [10]

2015

The following is from an article Fred Singer wrote for The Washington Times titled “Global climate policy after Lima”: [11]

“More specifically, on the climate-energy issue, [Republican Senator Chuck] Hagel can point to increasing evidence that nature rules the climate — and always has — not human activities. He can point to the disastrous record of Kyoto and scandalous waste of resources and human efforts — and how 'saving the climate' detracts from solving genuine world problems.

[…] That is why we must strongly oppose creating a second Kyoto in Paris in 2015 — with the active assistance of India, Japan, Australia and Canada, who all share our doubts.” [11]

September 5, 2013

“The forthcoming (Sept. 2013) IPCC report claims that the reported surface warming of 1978-2000 is sure (better than 95% – by IPCC's own unsupported estimate) evidence for AGW. But the missing hotspot is sure (better than 96%, by my personal reckoning) evidence against the existence of any such warming. But before you dispose of the 2000-page-plus IPCC report, stop and consider: it makes a wonderful paper weight or door stop.” [12]

2001

“It is ironic that the attempt by two environmental activists to misrepresent my credentials [letters, Feb. 6] coincides with a sustained cold spell in the United States that set a 100-year record. As for full disclosure: My resume clearly states that I consulted for several oil companies on the subject of oil pricing, some 20 years ago, after publishing a monograph on the subject. My connection to oil during the past decade is as a Wesson Fellow at the Hoover Institution; the Wesson money derives from salad oil.” [13]

Undated

“[S]ince 1979, our best measurements show that the climate has been cooling just slightly. Certainly, it has not been warming.” [59]

“We have to ask, what is the impact of a warmer climate? It's not the warming itself that we should be concerned about. It is the impact. So we have to then ask: What is the impact on agriculture? The answer is: It's positive. It's good. What's the impact on forests of greater levels of CO2 and greater temperatures? It's good. What is the impact on water supplies? It's neutral. What is the impact on sea level? It will produce a reduction in sea-level rise. It will not raise sea levels. What is the impact on recreation? It's mixed. You get, on the one hand, perhaps less skiing; on the other hand, you get more sunshine and maybe better beach weather. 

Let's face it. People like warmer climates. There's a good reason why much of the U.S. population is moving into the Sun Belt, and not just people who are retiring.” [59]

“If it warms, it will be good. So what is the concern, really? Even if the warming should take place, and the warming will be noticeable…if that should be the case, if it is measurable, that does not mean that it is economically damaging. In fact, the opposite is true.” [59]

“Let me say something about this idea of scientific consensus. Well, you really shouldn't go by numbers. I think it's significant to straighten out misconceptions. One misconception is that 2,500 IPCC scientists agree that global warming is coming, and it's going to be two degrees Centigrade by the year 2100. That's just not so.” [59]

Key Deeds

April 6, 2020

Fred Singer passed away at 95 years old. Obituaries were published at the Heartland Institute, the Washington Post, The New York Times, Drilled News, Watts Up With That, Climate Depot, among others. [75], [76], [77], [78], [79], [80]

While blogs like Climate Depot and WUWT promoted Singer as “The Dean of Climate Skeptical Scientists,” Paul Thacker at Drilled went into depth to describe Singer's history of “bullying scientists.”

“Singer seemed to take special pleasure in discrediting scientists who investigated the ways that human activity threatens public health and the safety of our planet, the sort of research that informs regulations to solve problems ranging from acid rain’s toll on forests to DDT’s impacts on wildlife, as well as — of course — the effects of climate change on us all,” Thacker wrote. [78]

Writing at WUWT/Climate Depot, Marc Morano described how he and CFACT's Craig Rucker had bestowed the “DAUNTLESS Purveyor of Climate Truth” upon Singer in 2018.  They described Singer as a “ giant of a man, a renowned pioneering scientist, a prominent climate skeptic and perhaps the most influential skeptical scientist in the climate debate since the 1980s.” [79], [80]

May 15, 2018

Singer wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal titled “The Sea Is Rising, but Not Because of Climate Change.” In the article, Singer claimed, “the temperature of sea water has no direct effect on sea-level rise. That means neither does the atmospheric content of carbon dioxide.” [72]

“This conclusion is worth highlighting: It shows that sea-level rise does not depend on the use of fossil fuels. The evidence should allay fear that the release of additional CO2 will increase sea-level rise,” Singer wrote. [72]

He does admit that “there is also good data showing sea levels are in fact rising at an accelerating rate” however comments that “The cause of the trend is a puzzle.” [72]

“Currently, sea-level rise does not seem to depend on ocean temperature, and certainly not on CO2. We can expect the sea to continue rising at about the present rate for the foreseeable future. […] There is nothing we can do about rising sea levels in the meantime. We’d better build dikes and sea walls a little bit higher,” Singer concluded. [72]

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) offered commentary on Singer's WSJ piece, noting that the counter to Singer's claims, “science is crystal clear” regarding the reason for sea level rise: [73]

“[W]e know that without strong policy to limit CO2 emissions, the rising water will continue to accelerate, inundating all the coastal cities of the world,” UCS noted. “The reason that sea levels are rising faster and faster is because every bit of coal, oil, and gas we burn adds to the CO2 in the atmosphere, absorbing more of the Earth’s radiant heat, and contributing more to the thermal expansion of seawater and the loss of land ice. This is not a mystery. It’s extremely well understood and documented by millions of direct measurements.”

Scientists at Climate Feedback also examined the WSJ article, and found it “grossly misleads readers about science of sea level rise” and that Singer's claims were “contradicted by a wealth of data and research.” According to the scientists' feedback, “Singer bases his conclusion entirely on a cherry-picked comparison of sea level rise 1915-1945 and a single study published in 1990, claiming a lack of accelerating sea level rise despite continued warming. But in fact, modern research utilizing all available data clearly indicates that sea level rise has accelerated, and is unambiguously the result of human-caused global warming.” [74]

March 23, 2017

Singer was a speaker at the Heartland Institute's 12th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC12) on a “Cllimate Science” panel alongside Don Easterbrook and Willie Soon. [66]

Panel 1B) Climate Science

Panel 1B) Q&A

February 23, 2017

Fred Singer was a signatory of a petition (PDF) organized by Richard Lindzen of the Cato Institute urging President Donald Trump to pull the United States out of the United Nations international convention on climate change (UNFCCC). [64]

“In just a few weeks, more than 300 eminent scientists and other qualified individuals from around the world have signed the petition below,” Lindzen wrote in the letter. [64]

DeSmog investigated the list, and found that only a small handful of the signatories could be considered “even remotely ‘qualified’ or ‘eminent’ — but not in the field of climate science.” The list included individuals “interested in climate,” and one signatory who only identified as an “emailer who wished to sign the petition” while some signers provided no affiliation or address whatsoever. [65]

December 12, 2016

Fred Singer was an attendee at a private meeting also attended by Trump's EPA Transition team lead Myron Ebell on Capitol Hill. E&E News reported that the event was not open to the public or to the press and Ebell refused to give any details. The event was hosted by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and held in the hearing room of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee. The EPW committee is chaired by Senator James Inhofe who, like Trump, has described human-caused climate change as a hoax. [60]

DeSmog reported that the event featured the “Who's Who of Climate Science Deniers.”  Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts, who spoke at the event, also wrote that the meeting was a gathering of the Cooler Heads Coalition and listed some of the participants on Facebook: [61], [62]

Malcolm Roberts Facebook Post

Names mentioned above included:

DeSmog also noted that three of the attendees—Myron Ebell, Randy Randol, and Steve Milloy—had all been part of the Global Climate Science Communications Team in the late 1990s, a group organized by the American Petroleum Institute. According to an early memo, the group said “victory will be achieved when […] Average citizens 'understand' (recognize) uncertainties in climate science; recognition of uncertainties becomes part of the 'conventional wisdom'.” [63]

July 8 - 10, 2016

S. Fred Singer was a speaker at 34th Annual Meeting of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness, co-sponsored by Access to Energy, the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, and Physicians for Civil Defense. [14]

Singer spoke alongside Ken Haapala, both representing the Science and Environmental Policy Project. Singer's portion of the presentation focused on “Paris COP-21,” while Haapala spoke on “Legal Actions of EPA, CPP, and SCOTUS.” [14]

DDP listed the following speakers at their event:  [14]

December 7, 2015

S. Fred Singer appeared at the United Nation’s Conference on Climate Change, COP21, in Paris, France with the Heartland Institute, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), and the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) to “hold a ‘counter-conference’ … called the Day of Examining the Data.” [15] 

Other notable climate science deniers that were in attendance at the “counter-conference,” included: Robert Carter, Willie Soon, Christopher Essex, James Taylor, Patrick Moore, Wolfgang Müller, James Inhofe, and Christopher Monckton. [16]

Watch S. Fred Singer's “counter-conference” presentation with the Heartland Institute, below (S. Fred Singer's presentation begins at 1:34:30): [15] 

November 30, 2015

S. Fred Singer is a co-author of a Heartland Institute/NIPCC book titled Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming: The NIPCC Report on Consensus. The book was timed for release on the first day of the United Nations' twenty first conference of the parties (COP21) in Paris.  [17]

According to the the Heartland Institute press release, The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change's book, “emphatically rejects claims of a 'scientific consensus' on the causes and consequences of climate change.” [17]

Contrary to the book's premise, multiple studies and surveys have shown that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree that climate warming trends over the past century are due to human activities (NASA for example). [18]

Other authors include Craig D. Idso of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change (CSCDGC) and Bob Carter of the Institute for Public Affairs (IPA). The NIPCC itself is sponsored by the CSCDGC, SEPP, and The Heartland Institute. [17]

CSDGC, IPA, and SEPP are all secretive about their funding sources. Still, available data at ExxonSecrets and the Conservative Transparency Project show they have received funding from ExxonMobil, Donors Capital Fund, Scaife, and Koch-related Foundations.

June 11-12, 2015

S. Fred Singer was a speaker on Panel 9: “Climate Change Reconsidered II: Human Welfare, Energy, and Policies,” at the Heartland Institute’s Tenth International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC10) in Washington, D.C., with Craig Idso, Bob Carter, and Christopher Monckton. [19]

View S. Fred Singer’s Panel 9 presentation at the Heartland Institute’s ICCC10, below: [20]

May 12, 2015

S. Fred Singer is a signatory to an open letter to Pope Francis on climate change. The letter invites the Pope to reconsider his views on climate change before his upcoming encyclical letter on the environment, which is widely expected to call for measures to prevent climate change in the interests of the world's poor. [21]

The open letter was coordinated and signed by Calvin Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance. According to the letter, “Good climate policy must recognize human exceptionalism, the God-given call for human persons to 'have dominion' in the natural world (Genesis 1:28), and the need to protect the poor from harm, including actions that hinder their ascent out of poverty.” [21]

Another excerpt below:

”[…] the [climate] models are wrong. They therefore provide no rational basis to forecast dangerous human-induced global warming, and therefore no rational basis for efforts to reduce warming by restricting the use of fossil fuels or any other means.” [21]

Judith Curry comments on her blog Climate Etc. that “Arguably the most effective 'pushback' comes from Cal Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance, who coordinated An Open Letter to Pope Francis on Climate Change.” [22] 

March, 2015

S. Fred Singer is one of several climate change skeptics cc'd on an email from S. Fred Singer in hopes of countering the documentary film “Merchants of Doubt,” which exposes the network of climate change skeptics and deniers trying to delay legislative action on climate change.  [23]

The October, 2014 email was leaked to journalists before the documentary was released. “Can I sue for damages?” Singer asked in the email. “Can we get an injunction against the documentary?”[23]

InsideClimate News reports in their article “Leaked Email Reveals Who's Who List of Climate Denialists,” how “Many of those copied on the email thread, such as Singer and communications specialist Steven Milloy, have financial ties to the tobacco, chemical, and oil and gas industries and have worked to defend them since the 1990s.” [23]

InsideClimate News also documented all those who were cc'd on the email, including the following skeptics and groups: [23]

DeSmogBlog covered the emails here: “Merchants of Doubt Film Debuts, Textbook Denial Attack Campaign Led By Fred Singer Ensues” and DeSmogBlog also archived a full copy of the Singer email thread (PDF). 

August 30, 2014

S. Fred Singer, Marc Morano, James Taylor, William O’Keefe, and Tim Phillips were all featured in the film Merchants of Doubt, based on the 2010 non-fiction book by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway. [24]

According to the film's synopsis on its website, Merchants of Doubt “lifts the curtain on a secretive group of highly charismatic, silver- tongued pundits-for-hire who present themselves in the media as scientific authorities – yet have the contrary aim of spreading maximum confusion about well-studied public threats ranging from toxic chemicals to pharmaceuticals to climate change.” [24]

July 7 - 9, 2014

S. Fred Singer was a speaker at the Heartland Institute’s Ninth International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC9) in Las Vegas, Nevada. [25]

DeSmogBlog has done in-depth research on the other speakers and sponsors from Heartland's ICCC9, which can be found here. [26]

November 30 - December 1, 2012

Fred Singer was a speaker (PDF) at the Eighth International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC-8)/Fifth International Conference on Climate and Energy (ICCE-5) sponsored by both the Heartland Institute and the European Institute for Climate and Energy (EIKE). Singer's speech is titled “Checking the Evidence for Man-Made Global Warming.” [27]

May 21 - 23, 2012

Fred Singer was a speaker at the Heartland Institute's 7th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC7). [28]

DeSmogBlog researched the co-sponsors behind Heartland's ICCC7 and found that they had collectively received over $67 million from ExxonMobil, the Koch Brothers and the conservative Scaife family foundations. [29]

January, 2010

In the January 2010 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, Singer was profiled in the top 17 “polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming.” [30]

In an excerpt of the article about “The Climate Killers,” Singer is described as “A former mouthpiece for the tobacco industry” who “is still wheeled out as an authority by big polluters determined to kill climate legislation.” [30]

April, 2008

Singer is the editor, and a contributor to the “NIPCC” report, titled “Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate” (PDF). [31]

The report is published by the Heartland Institute, and also gives credit to Singer's Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP). Contributors include:

March 8, 2007

Appeared in documentary “The Great Global Warming Swindle” which portrays global warming as a hoax. [32]

DesmogUK describes how after the program aired on Channel 4, there were more than 260 complaints from viewers including Sir David King, then chief scientific advisor to the UK Government, who complained that his contribution to the film had been manipulated.  Professor Chris Rapley, then head of the British Antarctic Survey, dismissed the programme as “a tissue of lies.” [33], [34]

The film includes other prominent climate change skeptics like Tim Ball, Nir Shaviv, Nigel Lawson, Richard Lindzen, Patrick Moore, Roy Spencer, and numerous others. [32]

July, 2005

DeSmogBlog reported that S. Fred Singer worked with an organization challenging the claims by the US Environmental Protection Agency that second-hand tobacco smoke is bad for human health. [35]

Here is a memo sent by an official at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution soliciting $20,000 from the Tobacco Institute for the preparation of a “research” paper challenging the health effects of second-hand smoke, and suggesting that Dr. Singer be retained to write the report. [36]

AdTI sent a follow up letter “to thank the Tobacco Institute for its grant of $20,000 to support our research and educational projects.” [68]

Singer Co-Authored the draft paper with Kent Jeffreys, an Adjunct Sholar of AdTI with the title “The EPA and the Science of Environmental Tobacco Smoke.” According to the report introduction: [69]

“Scientific standards were seriously violated [by the EPA] in order to produce a report to justify a political agenda, namely to ban smoking.”

Another Tobacco Institute memo reports on Dr. Singer’s appearance with two Congressional Representatives releasing the paper to the media. [70]

Singer also collaborated on an article for APCO Associates, the PR firm hired by The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), on behalf of Philip Morris for their “junk science” campaign. [37]

May, 2005

In his May 10, 2005 Guardian column, George Monbiot uncovered a story implicating Fred Singer in the spread of misinformation on the state of the world's glaciers. An expanded version of this story made its way into Monbiot's best selling book, Heat. [38]

During his research, Monbiot found a letter by the UK climate change skeptic David Bellamy in New Scientist magazine. Bellamy's letter reported that “555 of all the 625 glaciers under observation by the World Glacier Monitoring Service in Zurich have been growing since 1980.”[38]

When Monbiot phoned the World Glacier Monitoring Service, they reported in indelicate words that this claim was “complete bullshit.” They confirmed that glaciers are retreating around the world. [38]

Monbiot looked for a source for the claim, which appeared dozens of times in different locations. All trails seemed to lead back to the website of the Science and Environmental Policy Project, S. Fred Singer’s group. [38]

When people challenged Singer on his claim, he criticized Monbiot, saying he must have “been smoking something or other.” Singer eventually conceded that the information had originated on his site – posted there by “former SEPP associate Candace Crandall” and that the information “appears to be incorrect and has been updated.” [38]

“Updated,” however, appears to be different than “corrected” as over 18 months later the false claim was still present on his website. Singer also failed to mention that this former associate, Candace Crandall, is his wife. [38]

July 28 , 2003

Singer was the co-author of Independent Institute report titled “New Perspectives in Climate Change: What the EPA Isn't Telling Us” (PDF). [39]

The report criticizes the EPA's 2001 Climate Action Report. Other authors include climate change skeptics John R. Christy, Robert E. Davis, and David R. Legates. [39]

July 18, 2000

Fred Singer testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Climate Change. [40]

Singer concludes in his testimony that “Contrary to the conventional wisdom and the predictions of computer models, the Earth's climate has not warmed appreciably in the past two decades, and probably not since about 1940.” [40]

July, 1998

S. Fred singer testified (PDF) before the House Small Business Committee, stating that “Climate science does not support the Kyoto Protocol and its emission controls on carbon dioxide.” [41]

November, 1995

The 1995 “Leipzig Declaration” was a collaboration between Fred Singer's Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) and a group called the European Academy of Environmental Affairs. The Leipzig Declaration stats that “there does not exist today a general scientific consensus about the importance of greenhouse warming from rising levels of carbon dioxide.” [42], [43]

According to SourceWatch, when a Danish journalist attempted to contact the 33 European scientists listed on the petition, 12 denied signing the petition and some had not even heard of the Leipzig Declaration. Of those that did admit to signing the letter, one was a doctor and another was an expert on flying insects. The declaration was revised in 2005 and many names were removed. [44], [45]

1991

S. Fred Singer was the primary author of a paper in the journal Cosmos, titled “What to do about Greenhouse Warming: Look Before You Leap.” Many have credited this article to Roger Revelle, a man described by some as the grandfather of modern climate change science and whose name woul dhave given the article significantly more credence than Singer's alone. [46]

Evidence suggests that Revell was never an author. Justin Lancaster, a Research Fellow at Harvard University School of Public Health, suggests that Revelle never had complete knowledge of Singer's paper, and that he may have even been pressured into his role in the project. Lancaster's report and evidence are still available here.  [47]

The main conclusions of the Cosmos paper, including the most-referred-to quotes like “Look before you leap” and “The scientific basis for a greenhouse warming is too uncertain to justify drastic action at this time,” both appeared before the publication of the Cosmos article, in a separate paper authored by Fred Singer alone in the journal ES&T (see archived PDF here). [48]

The key points of Lancaster's report are reproduced below: [47]

  1. Revelle did not write the Cosmos article.
  2. S. Fred Singer claimed sole authorship of the major statements of the article in his ES&T paper months before he put the finishing touches on his Cosmos Masterpiece.
  3. If S. Fred Singer is sole author of this material, then Revelle cannot be an author.
  4. If S. Fred Singer is not sole author of this material, then he has admitted in his deposition to ethical concern about one author publishing under his own sole authorship material that was co-authored.
  5. Revelle appears not to have had full information — not about the ES&T publication and not about the many energy-industry agents who were busy at work here.

In a written affidavit (Archived PDF here) by Roger's secretary Christa Beran, it appears that Singer may have also pressured Roger Revelle into his involvement with the paper: [49]

“I do not remember seeing any review by Roger of any text by Dr. Singer before a day in February 1991 when he came to Roger's office. For quite some time Dr. Singer had been trying to get Roger to work on an article that Dr. Singer was writing for the Cosmos Club Journal.  He seemed quite anxious to get Roger's comments. […] After a series of unsuccessful attempts to get Roger to work on this document, Dr. Singer must have decided that the only way he was going to get this thing done was to come in person. [49]

“I remember feeling that Roger was cornered, because I thought I understood from the fact that Roger had procrastinated so long that this enterprise was something he didn't really want to be involved with. […]”

It appeared that Revelle did not have full information about the original ES&T publication. Singer went through three drafts of the paper after receiving comments from fellow climate change skeptics Patrick Michaels, Robert C. Balling Jr., Hugh W. Ellsaesser, and Richard Lindzen, however it also appears that Revelle was unaware of their contributions. While Singer incorporated a number of changes based on suggestions made by these skeptics, unlike Revell, none of their names appear in the final paper.  [47]

The discussion between Singer and Revelle accounted for just 1% of changes in the article's text between galley proof and final article; this said, it is strange that many still refer to the publication as “Revelle's article” and not Singer's. And those changes were not consistent with Revelle's traditional views. Most notably, that warming in the 21st century would be 1-3 degrees Celsius, as opposed to “well below normal year-to-year variation” which, as Revelle had frequently cited in his own lectures, was less than about 0.2 degrees Celsius. [47]

Lancaster reported that in personal discussion, Revelle “gave me the very strong sense that he was intensely embarrassed that his name was associated [with the paper]. He seemed noticeably relieved when we agreed together that perhaps the readership of the Cosmos Club journal would be small and limited. Little did either of us anticipate at that moment what was really going on and what would follow.” [47]

What followed was a continued use of “the Revelle paper” in Congressional and Vice-Presidential debates with climate change skeptics including Singer, Balling and Michaels where it was used “to harrass, embarrass and otherwise discredit Al Gore.” In 2003, Singer published a book chapter titled “The Revelle-Gore Story: Attempted Political Suppression of Science” that continued to criticize Al Gore as well as Lancaster.  [47]

Evidence (from original Lancaster article):

1990

Fred Singer founded the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) in 1990. While engaged in activities denying the existence of man-made global warming, SEPP has received funding from numerous oil companies including Shell, Uniroyal and ARCO as well as $20,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998. [50]

Fred Sietz was the Chair of Fred Singer's SEPP project, and was the co-organizer of The “Oregon Petition” was organized by Art Robinson and Fred Seitz. Seitz was past Chair of Fred Singer's SEPP project. He has also been the former medical advisor to RJ Reynolds medical research program.

A 1989 Philip Morris memo stated that Seitz was: “quite elderly and not sufficiently rational to offer advice.” However, nine years later, it seems that he was “sufficiently rational” to lead the charge on Robinson’s Oregon Petition. It also seems that Seitz was still “sufficiently rational” to sit as the Chair of Fred Singer's, Science and Environmental Policy Project. [51], [52]

The Oregon Petition has been used by climate change skeptics as supposed proof that there is no scientific consensus regarding man-made climate change, however the validity of its signatures has been questioned. [53], [54]

Affiliations  

According to a January 2007 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists called “Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air,” Singer is affiliated with 11 think tanks and associations that have received funding from ExxonMobil. Singer's own “Science and Environmental Policy Project” (SEPP) has received $20,000 from ExxonMobil. [55]

According to SourceWatch, Singer has also done consulting work for other major oil companies including Texaco, Arco, Shell, Sun, Inocal, the Electric Power Institute, Florida Power and the American Gas Association. [57]

Publications

According to a search of 22,000 academic journals, Singer had published 45+ research articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Singer co-authored a global warming denial book called Unstoppable Global Warming, with Dennis Avery, a “Senior Fellow” at an organization called the Hudson Institute, a US think-tank that has received funding from ExxonMobil.

Resources

  1. “S. FRED SINGER, Ph.D.: Professional Background,” Science and Environmental Policy Project. Archived April 17, 2009. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/4oEQa

  2. “About the Project,” Science & Environmental Policy Project. Archived July 2, 2010. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/YSCIl

  3. Richard Littlemore. “What passes for a Brain Trust at Heartland?” Desmog, February 23, 2012.

  4. Brendan DeMelle. “Heartland Institute Exposed: Internal Documents Unmask Heart of Climate Denial Machine,” Desmog, February 14, 2012.

  5. “Heartland Institute NIPCC Climate Denier Craig Idso: 'Climate Change Is Good For You'” Desmog, April 8, 2014.

  6. S. Fred Singer. “Climate Change: The Burden of Proof,” American Thinker, January 29, 2016. Archived September 13, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/LCN7k

  7. S. Fred Singer. “The climate warming pause goes AWOL (or not),” American Thinker, June 4, 2015. Archived September 13, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/MslNm

  8. “Fred Singer Denies Global Warming,” Skeptical Science, November 2, 2011. Archived March 26, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/FNZrv

  9. “Scientific climate,” Nature 478, 428 (27 October 2011). See Singer's comment, “Dear Editors of Nature:,” Comment #28687. Archived image on file at Desmog.

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