Art Robinson

Arthur Robinson

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“”All we need do with nuclear waste is dilute it to a low radiation level and sprinkle it over the ocean – or even over America after hormesis is better understood and verified with respect to more diseases.

—Art Robinson in Access to Energy

Arthur B. "Art" Robinson (1942-) is a former chemist and current crank, woo-meister, and fringe political figure. Robinson was a professor of chemistry at the University of California-San Diego until 1972, when he resigned. In 1980, he created the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM). In 1997, he co-authored the brochure that accompanied the Oregon Petition with his son and Willie Soon.

Pseudoscience career

Robinson's first venture into pseudoscience came during his partnership with Linus Pauling during Pauling's Vitamin C quackery days. He and Pauling founded the Linus Pauling Institute for Science and Medicine in order to promulgate orthomolecular medicine. Pauling's political views as a hardcore leftist and peacenik (he had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963) rubbed many of his colleagues the wrong way and Robinson happened to be a staunch conservative wingnut. Robinson also challenged Pauling's views on Vitamin C. The two had a falling out and Robinson went on to found OISM to further promote his own brands of quackery.

Robinson has a deep history of working with various luminaries in the field of pseudoscience. Fun facts about Art:

• He is the head editor for the newsletter Access to Energy, a position which he took over at the request of its founder Petr Beckmann. The newsletter promotes nuclear power (stopped clock here, but his views on nuclear waste stray into crank territory), anti-environmentalism, global warming denialism, and AIDS denialism (yes, he recycles Peter Duesberg's arguments, of course).
• Doctors for Disaster Preparedness is affiliated with the OISM.
• He co-authored the book Fighting Chance: Ten Feet To Survival with Gary North, a survivalist tract promoting the return of duck-and-cover drills and offering advice on surviving nuclear war. You can also buy CD courses from his website on how to prepare for the coming commie takeover and nuclear holocaust.
• He is a signatory to the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism petition promoting creationism.
• The OISM is also a major proponent of global warming denialism and was responsible for the Oregon Petition, which Frederick Seitz assisted in distributing. The institute has published research by noted deniers Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas.
• He offers his own brand of homeschooling curriculum for sale.
• He wants your pee!

Political career

Robinson ran on the Republican ticket against incumbent Peter DeFazio for a seat in the House of Representatives in Oregon's fourth district. He had an infamous melt-down incident in an interview with Rachel Maddow, where he accused Maddow of smearing him by quoting his own writing from Access to Energy and gibbered incomprehensibly. Robinson's writings have a number of Dominionist themes in them (he did write a book with Gary North) and he implies that homosexuality is the cause of AIDS in his AIDS denial articles. He supports removing all taxes on energy and abolishing the public school system. His homeschooling curriculum uses the books of G.A. Henty, which promote themes of British imperialism and racism.

Robinson had the Ron Paul Stamp of Approval^TM. He lost to DeFazio, but still managed to get 45% of the electorate, thus reaffirming the crazification factor.

Besides his love of radioactive waste, Robinson has said a number of other batshit things on environmental issues, too many to count. His solution to all waste materials? Dump it in the ocean!

“”Wastes dumped into the deep ocean will soon reach the bottom, where they are less hazardous than nearly any other place on Earth. Most materials will remain there: marine organisms are rare in the deep ocean, food chains are long, and few materials will be carried back to mankind. And that is what waste disposal is all about.

Robinson ran for Oregon State Senate in District Two to replace Republican incumbent Herman Baertschiger in 2020, defeating Democrat challenger Jerry Allen with 64.0% of the electorate.

Oregon State incident

In 2011, Robinson claimed a political conspiracy to block his three children attending Oregon State University from getting their doctorates. He set up a site called Oregon State Outrage and he's been cross-posting at WorldNutDaily trying to get people to spam the deans of the university. OSU has declared that Robinson is full of it.

See also

• Crank magnetism
• Doctors for Disaster Preparedness
• Radiation hormesis

External links

• OISM homepage
• Access to Energy newsletter
• Art Robinson for Congress, his campaign site.
• The Robinson Self-Teaching Curriculum, his homeschooling site.
• Oregon State Outrage
• Arthur Robinson profile on Little Green Footballs
• A Scientist Finds Independence, Tom Bethell in American Spectator
• Wingnut is as wingnut does, Eugene Weekly
• Durango Bill's OISM profile
• Cargo Cults in Global Warming, and Arthur Robinson, Ed Darrell
• Art Robinson Sells Books Comparing Africans to Retarded Children, AlterNet
• Oregon Institute of Science and Malarkey, Real Climate
• Rabett Run: Gift for John H., Rabett Power, Critical Review of Robinson, Robinson, and Soon
• The Grandfather Of Alt-Science: Art Robinson has seeded scientific skepticism within the GOP for decades. Now he wants to use urine to save lives. by Daniel Engber (2017)