KEY POINTS:
An American organisation is defending its decision to publish names of scientists in association with an article supporting the theory that most of the recent global warming is natural and not manmade.
Joseph Bast, president of the Heartland Institute, said today that a list of 500 scientists on its website had published work which contradicted some of the tenets of "global warming alarmism".
Many of the scientists, including five in New Zealand, have reacted angrily to being included on the list as they say their research does not support that argument.
But Mr Bast took issue with comments made by New Zealand scientist Dr Jim Salinger, who was included on the list.
Dr Salinger had told the Herald he objected to the implication that his research supported the theory that global warming, which he believed was real, was not manmade but a result of natural cycles.
Mr Bast said Dr Salinger's comment that global warming was real was an empty cliché.
"That list, plus a new list of 700 names whose research has found evidence of a natural 1,500 cycles in global climate, remain on Heartland's website because both lists are accurate."
Mr Bast said the lists were composed by Dennis Avery, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute, and S. Fred Singer, professor emeritus at the University of Virginia.
He said Dr Salinger may have been misled by DeSmogBlog which he called a US "leftist attack group" running a "vicious smear campaign".
Mr Bast said DeSmogBlog had initiated the controversy and could have misled Dr Salinger into thinking he was identified as co-author with Avery or Singer of an article expressing skepticism about man-made global warming.
"He was not. He is merely listed in a bibliography of co-authors of scholarly articles that confirm key facts and theories that undermine the notion that the modern warming is entirely man-made or will be catastrophic."
Mr Bast said the article accompanying the list stated that not all the scientists were sceptical of anthropogenic global warming.
"The presence of alarmists in the list was, in fact, a major point of compiling the list."
Mr Bast also took issue with Greenpeace's description of the Heartland Institute as a US-based neo-conservative think-tank which had emerged over the past year as the ringleader of global warming denial, and was partly funded by Exxon Mobil.
He said the Heartland Institute was not a neo-conservative organisation, and did not deny that global warming was occurring.
It had not received any funding from ExxonMobil since 2006, and had never received more than five per cent of its annual budget from ExxonMobil or any other corporation.
"In 2007 it received 95 per cent of its income from non-energy company sources. It has policies in place that protect its research and publications from any improper influence by donors."
In a press statement released earlier this week Mr Bast said the Heartland Institute had changed the headline that "its public relations department had chosen" for some of the documents related to the lists.
It changed "500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares" to "500 Scientists Whose Research Contradicts Man-Made Global Warming Scares".
Aside from those headlines, none of the articles and news releases produced by The Heartland Institute or the Hudson Institute (the original source of the lists) claimed that all of the scientists who appear in the lists currently doubt that the modern warming is man-made, he said.
The Hudson Institute's news release had said not all of these researchers would describe themselves as global warming sceptics but the evidence in their studies was there for all to see.
"We plan to make no further changes to the articles or to the lists."
Find article at: www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=21978
Reaction at: www.desmogblog.com
