“ 20th Century Climate Not So Hot,’’ the Harvard-Smithsonian press release declared at the time of the paper’s release. In 2003, Soon and Baliunas published a research paper that caused an international controversy and won Soon favor among climate conservatives in Congress. Soon’s overarching argument is that temperature change on Earth is not caused by burning fossil fuels but by what he calls the “King Kong of the climate system,’’ the sun - which is his primary area of expertise. Based on their analysis of energy fluctuations from the sun, they raised questions about the role of carbon emissions in global warming. Marshall Institute, a conservative think-tank in Washington. Soon and Baliunas both served as senior scientists at the George C. He won a full-time appointment as an astrophysicist in 1997.
He then won a coveted appointment at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics as a post-doctoral researcher, assisting another prominent climate-change doubter, Sallie Baliunas, who was studying variations in solar radiation. Soon, 48, began his journey to prominence in the world of global-warming doubters in Cambridge, where he arrived in the early 1990s.Ī native of Malaysia, Soon had earned his PhD at the University of Southern California. The fact that all of his grant money since 2006 has been from energy companies or antiregulatory interests has no bearing on his work or findings, Soon said. Soon declined multiple requests for a formal interview but responded to some questions in brief conversations after public appearances in Chicago and Washington. “You have a guy that is aligned and associated with Harvard University, one of the top universities in the United States, and the Smithsonian, also very reputable,’’ said institute spokesman Eric Wohlschlegel. The American Petroleum Institute cited the quality of his academic credentials. Most of Soon’s industry backers either declined to comment or did not respond directly to questions about why they support his work. Industry and conservative sources have been the sole source of his funding since 2006, according to the records. Some of Soon’s papers disclose the sources of his funding, others do not. Over the last dozen years, he has received research funding of more than a $1.2 million from sources such as ExxonMobil Southern Company, a foundation run by the Koch brothers, conservative energy moguls and industry trade group American Petroleum Institute, according to public documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Greenpeace, the environmental advocacy group. But conservatives and energy interests have the lengthiest record of funding and promoting reports that attempt to debunk prevailing theories of climate change.Īs is common among the Harvard-Smithsonian scientists, Soon receives no taxpayer-funded salary his compensation is dependent on outside grant money, according to the Smithsonian Institution. There are shrill and over-the-top voices on the left as well, more focused on pillorying climate-change skeptics than in promoting reasoned debate. The capital is girding for yet another round of lobbying and legal battles over those new rules. If not for that, the climate bill would have passed.”įrustrated, President Obama has opted to bypass Congress and is pursuing stronger regulations through the Environmental Protection Agency. Markey said the bill failed because “polluters manufactured a blizzard of industry-funded doubt. The Senate killed comprehensive climate-change legislation in 2010 after the House passed the bill, which was co-authored by then-representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts.
This muddled picture has made congressional action all but impossible. Gallup, the polling firm, said this year that 57 percent of Americans surveyed believe global warming is a man-made phenomenon, while 39 percent say it is due to natural causes. Voter surveys also show a divided public. By latest count, 127 US representatives and 30 senators believe that global warming is not happening or, if it is, that human activity is not the cause, according to a tally by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a liberal advocacy group. Yet that global scientific consensus is changing few minds in Congress. And here is the official view of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society: “The scientific evidence is clear: Global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society.”
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