Harvard-Smithsonian: Drop Koch-Funded Climate Denier Wei-Hock Soon

Dear MoveOn member,

I'm Brad Johnson, a MoveOn member in Oakland, California, and I started a petition to the director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Charles R. Alcock, which says:

End your association with climate denier Dr. Wei-Hock "Willie" Soon, financed by Koch, Exxon, and Southern Company, and stop accepting funding from the fossil-fuel industry.

The fossil-fuel industry's campaign to promote climate denial, led by the Koch brothers, has corrupted Harvard University and the Smithsonian, two of the most trusted scientific institutions in the world.

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, a joint program of the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard University, is harboring a polluter-funded climate denier. Documents uncovered by Greenpeace reveal that Dr. Wei-Hock "Willie" Soon has taken more than $1.2 million from the Kochs, ExxonMobil, coal giant Southern Company, and others to produce "deliverables" that push the long-debunked claim that solar activity, not fossil-fuel pollution, drives global warming.¹

Smithsonian-Harvard's contract with Southern Company forbade disclosure of Willie Soon's funding, a clear violation of scientific integrity and ethics. Some of the Exxon-Mobil money was used to directly fund Harvard-Smithsonian general expenses.

This level of corporate influence in research is unacceptable. Add your name and tell Harvard-Smithonian to end their association with this climate denier.

Harvard-Smithsonian has no fundingdisclosure requirements, nor does it have a conflict-of-interest policy that prevents funding from fossil-fuel companies of climate science research.

Is Harvard-Smithsonian a scientific institution or a fossil-fuel climate-denial public-relations firm?

To restore public trust in the institution, Harvard-Smithsonian director Charles Alcock must
1) sever his institution's ties with Dr. Wei-Hock Soon,
2) end all financial relationships with the fossil-fuel industry, and
3) establish strong financial public disclosure rules for all institute scientists that prevent anonymous or secret funding of research.

Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution are two of the most prominent and trusted scientific institutions in the world. They are taking money from Koch and Exxon to promote climate denial. This must end today.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks!

–Brad

Source:

1. "Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Researcher," The New York Times, February 21, 2015
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=303154&id=109046-10220574-U34mOmx&t=1

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