One of the leading scientists who claims global warming is not a serious threat accepted $1.2 million from huge fossil fuel interests over the past decade, according to documents obtained by Greenpeace.
The documents reveal that Wei-Hock Soon, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, accepted money from organizations including Exxon Mobil and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, but often failed to report the funding as potential conflicts of interest in his scholarly papers. In eight cases, according to The New York Times, Soon "appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work."
The documents show that Dr. Soon, in correspondence with his corporate funders, described many of his scientific papers as "deliverables" that he completed in exchange for their money. He used the same term to describe testimony he prepared for Congress. [The New York Times]
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) — the new head of the Senate's environment committee, who claims global warming is a hoax — has often cited Soon's work to support his belief.
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