Harris also refers to a petition signed by 17,000 scientists. It sounds impressive. But it is a crock and has been effectively dismissed. To qualify as scientist all that was required was a B.Sc. degree. How did it come about?
In the spring of 1998, mailboxes of U.S. university graduates were flooded with packets from the Global Warming Petition Project. The packets included a reprint of a Wall Street Journal op-ed with the headline Science has spoken: Global Warming Is a Myth, a copy of a faux scientific article claiming that increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have no deleterious effects upon global climate, a short letter signed by U.S. National Academy of Sciences, past-president Frederick Seitz, and a short petition calling for the rejection of the Kyoto Protocol on the grounds that a reduction in carbon dioxide would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.
The sponsor, the little-known Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, tried to beguile unsuspecting scientists into believing that this packet had originated from the National Academy of the Sciences (NAS), both by referencing Seitzs past involvement with the NAS and with an article formatted to look as if it was a published article in the Academys Proceedings, which it was not. The NAS quickly distanced itself from the petition project, issuing a statement saying, the petition does not reflect the conclusions of expert reports of the academy.
http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/postings/climate-skeptic-response.html
Uh, hon - if you think I believe anything published by the Sierra Club, you're nuts.