Oregon Petition

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(Copyedit. Shifted some sections around. Regarding the new section header, I think the word I was looking for is "verifiability", but it didn't flow well with snark.)
(Credibility? Eh? What's that?: I didn't just do that, by the way. In fact, I was never here.)
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The barely legible sample signature on the example slip used by the project could be read to be "Edward Teller", who presumably signed posthumously, and the word ""physics" looks like it was scrawled by a six-year-old. It would obviously be impossible to verify data provided in such a format, and it looks like an invitation for every Tom, Dick and Harry who holds an opinion to send in a form and claim to be a Ph.D.  
 
The barely legible sample signature on the example slip used by the project could be read to be "Edward Teller", who presumably signed posthumously, and the word ""physics" looks like it was scrawled by a six-year-old. It would obviously be impossible to verify data provided in such a format, and it looks like an invitation for every Tom, Dick and Harry who holds an opinion to send in a form and claim to be a Ph.D.  
[[Image:Oregon project.jpg|500px|none|thumb|All it takes is scribble, and ''you too can have a PhD''!]]
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[[Image:Oregon project.jpg|500px|none|thumb|All it takes is a scribble, and ''you too can have a PhD''!]]
  
 
''The Seattle Times'' reported that it includes names such as: "Perry S. Mason" (the fictitious lawyer), "Michael J. Fox" (the actor), "Robert C. Byrd" (the senator), "John C. Grisham" (the lawyer-author).  Not to mention the Spice Girl, a/k/a Geraldine Halliwell:  the petition listed "Dr. Geri Halliwell" and "Dr. Halliwell"<ref>[http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19980501&slug=2748308 Seattle Times and Dr. Halliwell]</ref>.  In an interview with the petition's organizer, Arthur Robinson said, "When we're getting thousands of signatures there's no way of filtering out a fake."  ''[[Scientific American]]'' examined the list and came to the conclusion that a large percentage of the alleged Ph, D. signatures probably ''were'' fake<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20060823125025/http://www.sciam.com/page.cfm?section=sidebar&articleID=0004F43C-DC1A-1C6E-84A9809EC588EF21 Scientific American - Names Faked]</ref>.
 
''The Seattle Times'' reported that it includes names such as: "Perry S. Mason" (the fictitious lawyer), "Michael J. Fox" (the actor), "Robert C. Byrd" (the senator), "John C. Grisham" (the lawyer-author).  Not to mention the Spice Girl, a/k/a Geraldine Halliwell:  the petition listed "Dr. Geri Halliwell" and "Dr. Halliwell"<ref>[http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19980501&slug=2748308 Seattle Times and Dr. Halliwell]</ref>.  In an interview with the petition's organizer, Arthur Robinson said, "When we're getting thousands of signatures there's no way of filtering out a fake."  ''[[Scientific American]]'' examined the list and came to the conclusion that a large percentage of the alleged Ph, D. signatures probably ''were'' fake<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20060823125025/http://www.sciam.com/page.cfm?section=sidebar&articleID=0004F43C-DC1A-1C6E-84A9809EC588EF21 Scientific American - Names Faked]</ref>.

Revision as of 08:53, 4 October 2008

The Oregon Petition—also known as The Global Warming Petition Project—claims to have signatures from 31,072 scientists who deny the existence of anthropogenic global warming. It is probably the best known and most frequently quoted petition used by those who wish to deny there is a scientific consensus in respect of the existence of anthropogenic global warming.

Contents

Credibility? Eh? What's that?

What the "petition" is in fact is (approximately) 31,072 largely unverifiable signatures on a slip of paper [1] which um... isn't really exactly the same thing.

The barely legible sample signature on the example slip used by the project could be read to be "Edward Teller", who presumably signed posthumously, and the word ""physics" looks like it was scrawled by a six-year-old. It would obviously be impossible to verify data provided in such a format, and it looks like an invitation for every Tom, Dick and Harry who holds an opinion to send in a form and claim to be a Ph.D.

All it takes is a scribble, and you too can have a PhD!

The Seattle Times reported that it includes names such as: "Perry S. Mason" (the fictitious lawyer), "Michael J. Fox" (the actor), "Robert C. Byrd" (the senator), "John C. Grisham" (the lawyer-author). Not to mention the Spice Girl, a/k/a Geraldine Halliwell: the petition listed "Dr. Geri Halliwell" and "Dr. Halliwell"[2]. In an interview with the petition's organizer, Arthur Robinson said, "When we're getting thousands of signatures there's no way of filtering out a fake." Scientific American examined the list and came to the conclusion that a large percentage of the alleged Ph, D. signatures probably were fake[3].

Notwithstanding its rather dubious methodology and fake names, that bastion of scientific rigor, Fox News, has quoted the petition in its news stories.[4]

Genesis

The Oregon Petition was initiated by Arthur Robinson, who also co-wrote Fighting Chance with Christian Dominionist writer Gary North (a 1980s paperback calling for the U.S. government to bring back its 1950s Duck and Cover civil defense programs so the U.S. would have a "fighting chance" against the Russians). Arthur Robinson also appears to be the guiding light behind the group "Doctors for Disaster Preparedness", which should be called Doctors for Disaster Denial since the group expends most of its effort denying, rather than preparing for, potential disasters such as global warming, and at whose July 2008 conference one of the featured speakers was none other than Andrew Schlafly.

Certain Oregonians resent the hijacking of their state's name for this piece of crud.

See also

Footnotes

  1. Oregon Project homepage
  2. Seattle Times and Dr. Halliwell
  3. Scientific American - Names Faked
  4. Fox news story
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