Last September the Chicago-based conservative think tank Heartland Institute rolled out a list of “500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares.” Heartland Institute identified the researchers as those “whose research in professional journals provides historic and/or physical proxy evidence” that global warming has been caused by a long, moderate, natural cycle rather than by the burning of fossil fuels; that sea levels are not rising rapidly nor are they likely to; that wild species are not being driven to extinction but rather are increasing the biodiversity of our wildlands; and that food production is likely to thrive during the decades ahead.

The article’s author, Dennis Avery, made the determinations on his own and no one from the Heartland Institute — or the Hudson Institute, where Avery also published the article — ever contacted any of the researchers. Last week Kevin Grandia of DeSmogBlog decided to do just that. After sending out 122 e-mails, Grandia heard back from more than 45 researchers who objected to their inclusion on the list.

Minnesota Monitor attempted to contact the three current and former faculty members at the University of Minnesota who appeared on the list. At the time of publication two of the three had denounced their inclusion.

“I was surprised to find my name in the list of ‘Co-Authors’ in the Heartland Institute’s web page,” says Edward Cushing, professor emeritus in the U of M’s Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. “I resent their implication that I agree with one or more of their statements.”

Cushing (pictured above) says that he believes many of his colleagues in the field of paleoecology would also disapprove “if informed that they in some way support the Heartland Institute’s claims.”

Herbert Wright Jr. is a former regents professor in the U of M’s Department of Geology, Ecology and Botany who was also named by Avery. “I requested that my name be removed from the list,” Wright said, “but the perpetrator refused to do so.”

Continued: Click “Read More”Dozens of scientists have demanded that their names be removed from the list and that they be issued an apology, but the Heartland Institute opted instead to simply change the name of the study from “500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares” to “500 Scientists Whose Research Contradicts Man-Made Global Warming Scares.” In a release accompanying the name change, Heartland Institute’s Joseph Bast said the scientists “are embarrassed — as they should be — to see their names in a list of scientists whose peer-reviewed published work suggests the modern warming might be due to a natural 1,500-year climate cycle.”

“I suppose the list included anyone who had published on past climatic changes as inferred from the dated geologic record, even without reference to human factors,” said Wright, who did not seem the slightest bit embarrassed.

Heartland’s seven statements:

The following list includes more than 500 qualified researchers whose research in professional journals provides historic and/or physical proxy evidence that:

1) Most of the recent global warming has been caused by a long, moderate, natural cycle rather than by the burning of fossil fuels;

2) The sun’s varying radiance impacts the Earth’s climate as more or fewer cosmic rays create more or fewer of the low, wet clouds that act as the Earth’s thermostats, deflecting more or less solar heat out into
space.

3) Sea levels are not rising rapidly nor are they likely to;

4) Wild species are not being driven to extinction but rather are increasing the biodiversity of our wildlands;

5) Fewer human deaths are likely rather than more as the current warming continues, since cold is far more dangerous and the Earth is always warming or cooling;

6) Food production is likely to thrive during the decades ahead, rather than collapsing due to climate overheating; or

7) Our storms are likely to be fewer and milder as the declining temperature differential between the equator and the poles reduces their power.

Full text of letter from Cushing:

I was surprised to find my name in the list of “Co-Authors” in the Heartland Institute’s web page. I have published nothing during my career that supports any of the seven numbered statements on their web page. Neither have I had any communication with the Heartland Institute, and I resent their implication that I agree with one of more
of their statements.

My research in is paleoecology, and I have studied how the vegetation of Minnesota has changed during the past 20,000 years — that is, since the last glaciation in the state. The principal technique I have used is pollen analysis, which identifies changes, over centuries and millennia, in the kinds and amounts of pollen that are deposited in lake sediments. Although there is strong evidence that changes in climate have driven great changes in vegetation in the past, that evidence neither directly supports nor directly refutes the claim that climate is not now changing or will not change in the future.

I observe that many of my colleagues in paleoecology, whose published research I know well, are also named on the Heartland Institute’s list. I believe that they would react as I do if informed that they in some way support the Heartland Institute’s claims.

Edward J. Cushing
Professor Emeritus