Saturday, August 1, 2015

On the Sliming of Dr. Willie Soon by Senator Sheldon "Not the Sharpest Tool in the Shed" Whitehouse

Yes, Mr. Whitehouse is correct in that a) some of the funding for Professor Soon's research has come from a fossil fuel company and b) Soon never disclosed this in his research. But (and as is frequently the case with politicians) he only gives us part of the narrative. a) Only about a third of the $1.2 million went to Soon. b) This was over a ten year period (so only about 40,000 bucks a year). c) It was the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics that actually received the money and it was them who doled it out to Soon. d) It was also the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics that agreed to the nondisclosure aspect of the deal and so Soon was just doing what his bosses wanted. e) The study that Soon had done as a result of this funding was solely about solar activity (http://www.scibull.com:8080/EN/abstract/abstract509579.shtml) and had nothing to do with fossil fuels. f) Another professor at Harvard, a dude named Joel Schwartz, pulled down $31 million dollars from the EPA, wrote a paper which lauded the EPA's decision to shut down coal-fired plants, and even corresponded (begging for more money, of course) with officials of the EPA WHILE HE WAS DOING HIS RESEARCH and crickets from Whitehouse. And f) a letter that was signed by 500 eminent scientists (including Freeman Dyson and Eugene Parker) eventually found its way to Harvard's President (who had also sold Soon down the river) and the message was clear in its support of Willie Soon (Senator Whitehouse, not so much)....................................................................................................Look, I get it. When you're losing an argument and you're losing it as badly as these statist alarmists are, it's human nature to take things down and dirty. But when a U.S. Senator and an esteemed institution such as Harvard do it, that's not something that anyone should take lightly and I'm consoled by the push-back - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THcYLqbArS8

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