Snopes Fact-Checks Scientists-Against-Climate Change Claim

Not All Climatologists: More than 30,000 people may have signed a petition challenging the veracity of anthropogenic global warming, but you don’t have to be a climate scientist, or even a practicing scientist, to sign that document.

Alex Kasprak, October 24, 2016 (Snopes)

“CLAIM: 30,000 scientists have signed a petition arguing that there is no convincing scientific evidence for anthropogenic climate change…WHAT'S TRUE: A petition that has been in circulation since 1998 claims to bear the name of more than 30,000 signatures from scientists who reject the concept of anthropogenic global warming…WHAT'S FALSE: The petition was created by individuals and groups with political motivations, was distributed using misleading tactics, is presented with almost no accountability regarding the authenticity of its signatures, and asks only that you have received an undergraduate degree in any science to sign…ORIGIN: A claim has been floating around since 1998 that thousands of scientists have rejected the concept of climate change, ever since since a self-described research group by the name of the ‘Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine’ solicited signatures…

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…[It is] misleading for the signatories to be considered climate scientists or even top researchers in their field, as some suggest…[B]ased on the group's own numbers, only 12% of the signers have degrees (of any kind) in earth, environmental, or atmospheric science…Further, the petition and its creators are not neutral parties, and the major entities supporting it can easily be described as politically motivated. The petition was organized by Arthur B. Robinson, a conservative politician who founded the aforementioned Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine and who holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of San Diego…Aside from the potential political motivations behind the petition, the misleading tactics employed to gather signatures, and the lack of verification regarding those signatures, the fact remains that the petition is open to anyone with an undergraduate background in science to sign, and a vast majority of the signatories are not climate scientists.” click here for more

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