Hal Lewis, former UC Santa Barbara prof, resigns from APS on "trillion dollar" global warming "scam"

[Taco John]

October 9th, 2010 4:54
Professor Emiritus Hal Lewis Resigns from American Physical Society

The following is a letter to the American Physical Society released to the public by Professor Emiritus of physics Hal Lewis of the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Sent: Friday, 08 October 2010 17:19 Hal Lewis

From: Hal Lewis, University of California, Santa Barbara
To: Curtis G. Callan, Jr., Princeton University, President of the American Physical Society

6 October 2010

Dear Curt:

When I first joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven years ago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by the money flood (a threat against which Dwight Eisenhower warned a half-century ago).

Indeed, the choice of physics as a profession was then a guarantor of a life of poverty and abstinence—it was World War II that changed all that. The prospect of worldly gain drove few physicists. As recently as thirty-five years ago, when I chaired the first APS study of a contentious social/scientific issue, The Reactor Safety Study, though there were zealots aplenty on the outside there was no hint of inordinate pressure on us as physicists. We were therefore able to produce what I believe was and is an honest appraisal of the situation at that time. We were further enabled by the presence of an oversight committee consisting of Pief Panofsky, Vicki Weisskopf, and Hans Bethe, all towering physicists beyond reproach. I was proud of what we did in a charged atmosphere. In the end the oversight committee, in its report to the APS President, noted the complete independence in which we did the job, and predicted that the report would be attacked from both sides. What greater tribute could there be?

How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d’être of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society.

It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.

So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of this challenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone along with it. For example:

1. About a year ago a few of us sent an e-mail on the subject to a fraction of the membership. APS ignored the issues, but the then President immediately launched a hostile investigation of where we got the e-mail addresses. In its better days, APS used to encourage discussion of important issues, and indeed the Constitution cites that as its principal purpose. No more. Everything that has been done in the last year has been designed to silence debate

2. The appallingly tendentious APS statement on Climate Change was apparently written in a hurry by a few people over lunch, and is certainly not representative of the talents of APS members as I have long known them. So a few of us petitioned the Council to reconsider it. One of the outstanding marks of (in)distinction in the Statement was the poison word incontrovertible, which describes few items in physics, certainly not this one. In response APS appointed a secret committee that never met, never troubled to speak to any skeptics, yet endorsed the Statement in its entirety. (They did admit that the tone was a bit strong, but amazingly kept the poisonword incontrovertible to describe the evidence, a position supported by no one.) In the end, the Council kept the original statement, word for word, but approved a far longer “explanatory” screed, admitting that there were uncertainties, but brushing them aside to give blanket approval to the original. The original Statement, which still stands as the APS position, also contains what I consider pompous and asinine advice to all world governments, as if the APS were master of the universe. It is not, and I am embarrassed that our leaders seem to think it is. This is not fun and games, these are serious matters involving vast fractions of our national substance, and the reputation of the Society as a scientific society is at stake.

3. In the interim the ClimateGate scandal broke into the news, and the machinations of the principal alarmists were revealed to the world. It was a fraud on a scale I have never seen, and I lack the words to describe its enormity. Effect on the APS position: none. None at all. This is not science; other forces are at work.

4. So a few of us tried to bring science into the act (that is, after all, the alleged and historic purpose of APS), and collected the necessary 200+ signatures to bring to the Council a proposal for a Topical Group on Climate Science, thinking that open discussion of the scientific issues, in the best tradition of physics, would be beneficial to all, and also a contribution to the nation. I might note that it was not easy to collect the signatures, since you denied us the use of the APS membership list. We conformed in every way with the requirements of the APS Constitution, and described in great detail what we had in mind—simply to bring the subject into the open.

5. To our amazement, Constitution be damned, you declined to accept our petition, but instead used your own control of the mailing list to run a poll on the members’ interest in a TG on Climate and the Environment. You did ask the members if they would sign a petition to form a TG on your yet-to-be-defined subject, but provided no petition, and got lots of affirmative responses. (If you had asked about sex you would have gotten more expressions of interest.) There was of course no such petition or proposal, and you have now dropped the Environment part, so the whole matter is moot. (Any lawyer will tell you that you cannot collect signatures on a vague petition, and then fill in whatever you like.) The entire purpose of this exercise was to avoid your constitutional responsibility to take our petition to the Council.

6. As of now you have formed still another secret and stacked committee to organize your own TG, simply ignoring our lawful petition.

APS management has gamed the problem from the beginning, to suppress serious conversation about the merits of the climate change claims. Do you wonder that I have lost confidence in the organization?

I do feel the need to add one note, and this is conjecture, since it is always risky to discuss other people’s motives. This scheming at APS HQ is so bizarre that there cannot be a simple explanation for it. Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as they used to be, but I don’t think that is an issue. I think it is the money, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. There are indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fame and glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being a member of the club. Your own Physics Department (of which you are chairman) would lose millions a year if the global warming bubble burst. When Penn State absolved Mike Mann of wrongdoing, and the University of East Anglia did the same for Phil Jones, they cannot have been unaware of the financial penalty for doing otherwise. As the old saying goes, you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. Since I am no philosopher, I’m not going to explore at just which point enlightened self-interest crosses the line into corruption, but a careful reading of the ClimateGate releases makes it clear that this is not an academic question.

I want no part of it, so please accept my resignation. APS no longer represents me, but I hope we are still friends.

Hal


Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, former Chairman; Former member Defense Science Board, chmn of Technology panel; Chairman DSB study on Nuclear Winter; Former member Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Former member, President’s Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee; Chairman APS study on Nuclear Reactor Safety Chairman Risk Assessment Review Group; Co-founder and former Chairman of JASON; Former member USAF Scientific Advisory Board; Served in US Navy in WW II; books: Technological Risk (about, surprise, technological risk) and Why Flip a Coin (about decision making)

[Taco John]

Hal Lewis, former UC Santa Barbara prof, resigns from APS on global warming

October 9th, 2010 3:30 pm PT.

Hal Lewis sent a scathing letter to the American Physical Society, announcing resignation from his 67-year membership in the prestigious group on issues of the Society's handling of the global warming science debate. Or lack thereof.

What is the APS?

The American Physical Society is the second largest professional association of physicists in the world, comprising more than 47,000 members. (The largest is a professional physics society in Germany.)

Who is Hal Lewis?

Professor Lewis is a physicist with a long, distinguished career of service to the physics profession and the country including Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara; Defense Science Board; DSB Study on Nuclear Winter; Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; President’s Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee; APS Study on Nuclear Reactor Safety; JASON; USAF Scientific Advisory Board; author of two books; US Navy veteran; and now former Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Aside from those lofty credentials, it's clear to see Hal Lewis as an important person with a record of service to science and to the country.

What happened and why should we care?

Professor Lewis resigned from the APS because of its stand on global warming and its suppression of informed debate on the science.

Read Professor Lewis’s letter of resignation to the APS. While his scientifically formed views on global warming markedly differed from APS, the major reason was that he could no longer tolerate the undermining of legitimate science inquiry going on at the APS.

An honorable Fellow resigns over squashed science inquiry

Professor Lewis detailed five points of contention regarding the APS’s alignment on the so-called “consensus” around global warming. What consensus? The debate isn’t over; it’s only beginning. So said hundreds of APS members, signers of a petition that questioned APS’s conclusive positions on global warming.

Professor Lewis pointed out that despite revelations of data cooking, conspiracy to withhold information requested under the Freedom of Information Act, and conspiracy to prevent opposing research from being published, the APS continued to defend the advocates of global warming using secret committees and other shady tactics.

Follow the money

Lewis charges that money is driving all this. The APS leadership understands that substantial funds from government and other sources would evaporate the instant the global warming bubble burst. Why would the APS voluntarily remove itself from the alarmist money cycle?

A significant loss to the APS, tarnish on its scientific integrity

Well, there you pretty much have it. In essence, a once prestigious physics society has lost one of its most prestigious Fellows. Others will follow. There's a tarnish growing dark on APS's science integrity. Perhaps the APS lost its prestige long before Hal Lewis resigned.


http://www.examiner.com/conservative...global-warming

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Ha ha ha!

I can't help but note that when I clicked on the link, this was the first thing that caught my eye:

Browse San Diego Republican Articles

Amazing how much money the 'cons spend on this sort of denialist propaganda - but I guess it pales in comparison to the hit the polluting industries that fund the GOP would take otherwise, eh?

[W*GS]

I figure you'd bite, TJ.

Lewis hasn't done anything in 20+ years - and "trillions of dollars"? WTF?

More info on this wittle tantrum on Lewis' part:

http://theclimatescum.blogspot.com/2...-with-aps.html

PS - The man has gone off his rocker. Loonyland.

[epicSocialism4tw]

Originally Posted by W*GS

I figure you'd bite, TJ.

Lewis hasn't done anything in 20+ years - and "trillions of dollars"? WTF?

More info on this wittle tantrum on Lewis' part:

http://theclimatescum.blogspot.com/2...-with-aps.html

PS - The man has gone off his rocker. Loonyland.

Whats with all of you morons? If anyone disagrees with you theyre 'crazy'.

You guys are the modern McCarthys.

This guy just spilled the guts of this carcass all over the floor and none of you want to look at the carnage.

He's right. Its about funding.

[Taco John]

Originally Posted by W*GS

I figure you'd bite, TJ.

Lewis hasn't done anything in 20+ years - and "trillions of dollars"? WTF?

More info on this wittle tantrum on Lewis' part:

http://theclimatescum.blogspot.com/2...-with-aps.html

PS - The man has gone off his rocker. Loonyland.

*shrug*

Climate change politics in America is a dead issue. Whether this scientist has done anything in 20+ years or not is beside the point. I expect that you'll flail around and stomp and be angry that people aren't taking you seriously. That's the real tantrum here - because that's all Global Warming politics will ever amount to in America: a tantrum.

So enjoy the endless struggle against a problem that will solve itself in the long run.

[epicSocialism4tw]

Originally Posted by Taco John

*shrug*

Climate change politics in America is a dead issue. Whether this scientist has done anything in 20+ years or not is beside the point. I expect that you'll flail around and stomp and be angry that people aren't taking you seriously. That's the real tantrum here - because that's all Global Warming politics will ever amount to in America: a tantrum.

So enjoy the endless struggle against a problem that will solve itself in the long run.

The glorified weathermen that run the climate science scam saw a massive turn in wealth here. Not only could they seize the wealth of the traditional energy businesses, but they could also begin to sell what amounts to air.

Wags must have money invested or something, because there is really no reason to believe any of the organizations who have supplied 'data' to the climate scam.

[chadta]

[W*GS]

Originally Posted by McSkillet

Whats with all of you morons? If anyone disagrees with you theyre 'crazy'.

Manmade climate disruption deniers are as credible as creationists, flat earthers and 9/11 troofers. Yes, they're crazy.

Originally Posted by McSkillet

This guy just spilled the guts of this carcass all over the floor and none of you want to look at the carnage.

Hardly. Lewis merely repeated the old denier meme that all these thousands of scientists, all over the globe, over decades, are part of a vast conspiracy to defraud taxpayers.

You've plopped yourself solidly into gaff-o land if you agree with Lewis.

Originally Posted by McSkillet

He's right. Its about funding.

How much do you think your average climate scientist earns annually?

[W*GS]

Originally Posted by Taco John

*shrug*

Climate change politics in America is a dead issue. Whether this scientist has done anything in 20+ years or not is beside the point.

Not really. Lewis is out of touch with the science - which makes his criticisms less than valid. He's also tight with Fred Singer, about the last of the old cold war-era physicists who turned to global warming denial because they needed a new enemy, after the USSR was no more. Environmentalism fit their bill.

You really ought to read "Merchants of Doubt", by Oreskes. The same few guys (Singer, Seitz, Nierenberg, Jastrow) keep showing up to deny various scientific truths - that smoking causes cancer, that acid rain exists, that the ozone hole exists, that manmade climate change exists. Their agenda is based on a dogmatic adherence to unregulated markets - which is why libertarians are often global warming deniers. They cannot imagine that there are negative externalities, so they deny them.

Originally Posted by Taco John

I expect that you'll flail around and stomp and be angry that people aren't taking you seriously. That's the real tantrum here - because that's all Global Warming politics will ever amount to in America: a tantrum.

What I believe or what you believe doesn't matter - nature does as it will, regardless of what we want or need.

Originally Posted by Taco John

So enjoy the endless struggle against a problem that will solve itself in the long run.

I didn't know you were fatalist. I doubt Rand had much good to say about such a passivist ideology.

[W*GS]

Originally Posted by McSkillet

The glorified weathermen that run the climate science scam saw a massive turn in wealth here. Not only could they seize the wealth of the traditional energy businesses, but they could also begin to sell what amounts to air.

Man, you are dumb.

Originally Posted by McSkillet

Wags must have money invested or something, because there is really no reason to believe any of the organizations who have supplied 'data' to the climate scam.

Yep, definitely dumb.

Crack open a real book on the science sometime, instead of getting all your "knowledge" from FOX/Limbaugh/Beck. Try to learn, even if it hurts.

[W*GS]

Originally Posted by chadta

[...]

You like pictures, eh? Sorry, but the science can't be well-understood from a few-page board book.

Try this:

[ant1999e]

Originally Posted by L.A. BRONCOS FAN

Ha ha ha!

I can't help but note that when I clicked on the link, this was the first thing that caught my eye:

Amazing how much money the 'cons spend on this sort of denialist propaganda - but I guess it pales in comparison to the hit the polluting industries that fund the GOP would take otherwise, eh?

This from the resident extreme liberal propaganda pusher.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by ant1999e

This from the resident extreme liberal propaganda pusher.

You and the rest of Glenn Beck's minions couldn't distinguish propaganda from fact if your life depended on it.

Odds are you think McClatchy Newspapers is a "leftist info clearing house" just like your fellow moonbat McSkillet.

[DBruleU]

Originally Posted by L.A. BRONCOS FAN

You and the rest of Glenn Beck's minions couldn't distinguish propaganda from fact if your life depended on it.

Odds are you think McClatchy Newspapers is a "leftist info clearing house" just like your fellow moonbat McSkillet.

Dude, you post crapola from sites such as "Smirkingchimp.com" and you expect people to take you seriously?

Man, you're dumb.

[Taco John]

Originally Posted by W*GS

Not really. Lewis is out of touch with the science - which makes his criticisms less than valid.

*shrug* Whatever... I don't have any care for your non-objective take on whether Lewis has credibility in science or not. I think his credentials speak for him well enough.

[epicSocialism4tw]

Originally Posted by DBruleU

Dude, you post crapola from sites such as "Smirkingchimp.com" and you expect people to take you seriously?

Man, you're dumb.

Not to mention bartcop and moveon.org (Soros' anti-Bush propaganda outlet).

That clown has been posting that garbage for years and it speaks volumes of the local liberal brigade that they never called him out on it. They have actually defended that crap. Gaffney and LABF are two peas in a pod, and most of the liberals call out Gaffney only because he's obviously crazy. LABF posts the same type of tripe and they defend him.

[W*GS]

Originally Posted by Taco John

*shrug* Whatever... I don't have any care for your non-objective take on whether Lewis has credibility in science or not. I think his credentials speak for him well enough.

I didn't say Lewis' credentials in science (generally) were suspect, I said that his credentials in climate science are suspect.

In any case, his toss-off of "trillions" is enough to make his critique less than credible - most scientists aren't off by 3+ orders of magnitude. That's sloppy even by astronomy standards.

Another view of Lewis' rant:

http://arthur.shumwaysmith.com/life/...tibly_emeritus

That you gobble up Lewis means my view on libertarians and manmade climate change has a strong data point in my favor.

[chadta]

Originally Posted by W*GS

You like pictures, eh?

no not really, but i just happened to see it on another message board, and wanted to fill the thread with dumb pictures before labf beat me to it

[Bronco_Beerslug]

Originally Posted by Taco John

*shrug*

That's the real tantrum here - because that's all Global Warming politics will ever amount to in America: a tantrum.

So enjoy the endless struggle against a problem that will solve itself in the long run.

Wow, nice prediction Nostradamus.

What is Lewis's background in climate science anyway?

-----------------------------------------------------------------
APS Comments on Harold Lewis’ Resignation of his Society Membership

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a recent letter to the American Physical Society (APS) President Curtis A. Callan, chair of the Princeton University Physics Department, Harold Lewis, emeritus physics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, announced that he was resigning his APS membership.

In response to numerous accusations in the letter, APS issues the following statement:

There is no truth to Dr. Lewis’ assertion that APS policy statements are driven by financial gain. To the contrary, as a membership organization of more than 48,000 physicists, APS adheres to rigorous ethical standards in developing its statements. The Society is open to review of its statements if members petition the APS Council – the Society’s democratically elected governing body – to do so.

Dr. Lewis’ specific charge that APS as an organization is benefitting financially from climate change funding is equally false. Neither the operating officers nor the elected leaders of the Society have a monetary stake in such funding. Moreover, relatively few APS members conduct climate change research, and therefore the vast majority of the Society’s members derive no personal benefit from such research support.

On the matter of global climate change, APS notes that virtually all reputable scientists agree with the following observations:

* Carbon dioxide is increasing in the atmosphere due to human activity;
* Carbon dioxide is an excellent infrared absorber, and therefore, its increasing presence in the atmosphere contributes to global warming; and
* The dwell time of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is hundreds of years.

On these matters, APS judges the science to be quite clear. However, APS continues to recognize that climate models are far from adequate, and the extent of global warming and climatic disruptions produced by sustained increases in atmospheric carbon loading remain uncertain. In light of the significant settled aspects of the science, APS totally rejects Dr. Lewis’ claim that global warming is a “scam” and a “pseudoscientific fraud.”

Additionally, APS notes that it has taken extraordinary steps to solicit opinions from its membership on climate change. After receiving significant commentary from APS members, the Society’s Panel on Public Affairs finalized an addendum to the APS climate change statement reaffirming the significance of the issue. The APS Council overwhelmingly endorsed the reaffirmation.

Lastly, in response to widespread interest expressed by its members, the APS is in the process of organizing a Topical Group to feature forefront research and to encourage exchange of information on the physics of climate.

[Meck77]

Meanwhile Al Gore is in mansion counting his millions. What a ****er.

[Rohirrim]

Meanwhile, it's mid-October and 75 degrees out and my trees have no idea what ****ing color to turn, squirrels are still having babies and the geese don't know whether to fly North or South.

[sirhcyennek81]

Originally Posted by McSkillet

Whats with all of you morons? If anyone disagrees with you theyre 'crazy'.

You guys are the modern McCarthys.

This guy just spilled the guts of this carcass all over the floor and none of you want to look at the carnage.

He's right. Its about funding.

McCarthy ended up being right...thats the difference between him and the global warming/global catastrophic/climate change crowd.

How do people expect us to buy this thoery as being man driven when the name has been changed every time evidence comes to light debunking it? At first it was global cooling. Then global warming. Then climate change. Now catastrophic climate disasters. I am sorry people living in the south pacific may have to move one day. Maybe they shouldnt have ****ing moved to a ****ing atoll in the world's deepest ocean.

Just a thought.

[W*GS]

Originally Posted by Meck77

Meanwhile Al Gore is in mansion counting his millions. What a ****er.

Yep, Al Gore dreamed up global warming to get rich.

'Course, given that he had to have a time machine to go back over a century to do that...

[W*GS]

Originally Posted by sirhcyennek81

How do people expect us to buy this thoery as being man driven when the name has been changed every time evidence comes to light debunking it? At first it was global cooling. Then global warming. Then climate change. Now catastrophic climate disasters.

Explain how the "CC" in IPCC has remained unchanged since 1988.