part 3 with credentials
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)