Maybe that hed could be punctuated differently or revised? Because I was like, "Scientists who doubt that global warming will turn out to be fake? That's a convoluted way to put it."

@moff: Everybody's a critic.

@moff: Agreed....

"List of 500 Scientist who 'doubt' Global Warming" turns out to be fake.

Makes way more sense...

@Annalee Newitz: It is really confussing.. is it a list of people who doubt global warming turns out to be fake

or is it

a fake list of people who doubt global warming

@Annalee Newitz: But not every critic is a professional copy editor.

The Heartland Institute totally fucked up when they put physicist Dr. Bruce Banner on that list.

@DocGratis: Or is it a globe of lists that warms fake people?

@DocGratis: WE ARE ALL-POWERFUL.

@moff: Don't destroy my ozone. You wouldn't like me when my ozone is gone.

@moff:
Also on the list were
Dr Jonas Venture
Dr Benton Quest
Dr Leonard McCoy
Dr Doom
Dr Girlfriend
Dr Zoidberg

@DocGratis: I know, I know. I'm completely cracked out and writing weird headlines this afternoon! Attempting to remedy situation with coffee.

@ManchuCandidate:
Doctor Who
Doctor Feelgood
Doctor Octagon
Doctor Otto Octavius
Doctor! Doctor!
Spyware Doctor

@ManchuCandidate: Dr Doom: "Bah! The power of Global Warming is minor when compared to the power of Doom!"

Why would 45 scientists contact desmogblog immeadiately after the list is published? Is there a phone tree or something? Sounds like some bs.

Btw, I am not saying that global warming is bogus.

@92BuickLeSabre: Doctor House

Dr. McCoy: "The Ozone Layer is dead, Jim"

The Heartland Institute? Yeh, that sounds like a group I'd totally put my trust in.

Next up: 500 School Superintendents Who Say Abstinence-Only Sex Ed is Working.

I may not be a scientist, but global warming is fake.

@Priam: If you read the desmogblog article, you will see that they contacted 122 of the scientists on the list and 45 of the responded within the 1st 24 hrs. I guess that is like a phonetree or something.

45 is 9% of 500, not 10. Typical mushy-headed loony liberal sky-is-falling fuzzy math!!

Uhh ... 45 out of 500 is 9 percent, if you're so dedicated to facts.

Not that I want a "dirty" environment, but science without criticism is merely dogma.

Unfortunately, this list looks like a black list which is probably why these scientists want off of it.

@ParJoe: I think the point is just that the Heartland Institute is grossly misrepresenting some of the scientists in question's views, not that the scientists aren't open to criticism or rethinking.

This is disgusting. I work for two peer-reviewed science and medical journals, and I am appalled that this piece of propaganda is being presented as serious science. An "abstract" and a list of names, which is clearly unconfirmed, is not research. No quotes, no references, no evidence presented at all. Furthermore, these people are being presented as "co-authors" even though there's no paper being presented. What are they supposed to have co-authored? And considering evidence of man-made global warming is being culled from every scientific field related to life on Earth (climatology, botany, biology, anthropology, archeology, etc.), the fact their fake list only numbers 500 is pretty sad. Of course, they're only trying to impress Joe Shmoe who thinks 500 is a lot of scientists and an unsupported list is serious research. I see 3-4 new research papers every day. I would not count this list as one of them.

Is the heartland institute owned by Exxon?

Kudos for adding this to a science fiction site, very clever. The science list? Fiction!

Some other interesting names on that list:

Doctor Doolittle
Doctor Strange
Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman
Doctor Cottle, Medicine Curmudgeon
Doctor Zhivago
Doctor No
Doctor Demento

Why do global warming deniers not take into account the fact that we can look out the f#cking window or walk out the f#cking door and see and feel how f#cking hot it is compared to five years ago? And can't they have the decency to at least look a little embarrassed?

p.s. -- betting someone's already posted most of those names before I ever click submit.

The only legitimate doctor on that list:
Dr. Dokta Gifmedaneus Agodabadcayzuf Lovinue.

Funny story about that name. It's sort of a mix of russian and german names, mixed with a lot of lysergic acid in the family history. They thought Deiter was mad when he legally changed his name... and he was. He really was.

...or those 45 scientists got immediate phone calls telling them they were going to lose funding or support from their employers because their names were on the list...

Look, for example, at what happened to Dr. William Gray, the most famous hurricane expert around, once his bosses got tired of all of the pressure coming from his skepticism.

@Ghede: I found a picture of him. [arrc.ou.edu]

What I can't figure out is why this is being FRAMED as a religious debate. There are global warming BELIEVERS and there are global warming DENIERS. This is not a frame of mind conducive to enlightened discussion.

Science got lost in this debate. It's pretty obvious the climate is changing, but how it's changing, why it's changing, and what's changing are largely up in the air unless i've been severely misled. Incomplete climate models combined with incomplete data don't paint an accurate picture.

The purpose of F.U.D. outfits like the Heartland Institute is to increase the value of some of the time in:

"You can fool all of the people some of the time."

call me if Dr. Doogie Hauser shows up on the list.

@stefan_jones: And Al Gore can fool some of the people all of the time. So somebody got to less than 10% of the people on the list? The only surprise is that none of them have come up dead (yet). Give it time.

You cannot stick your head out the window and tell that the earth has warmed. The recent very mild warming trend peaked in '98, cooled slightly 'til '02, and has been level since.

Oh, and remember, it's not Global WARMING anymore, it's Global CLIMATE CHANGE. That way you'll never be wrong, and something will always need to be done about it.

As to how come they all heard about it - read the article...

"DeSmogBlog manager Kevin Grandia emailed 122 of the scientists yesterday afternoon, calling their attention to the list."

Dr. Strangelove
The Witch Doctor
Dr. Kildare
Drs. Fine, Howard, and Fine
Dr. Hawkeye Pierce

Has everyone forgotten that this is, at best, an unproven and unprovable THEORY? It's not possible to prove that the earth has only been getting warmer since Man arrived on the scene, because we don't have nearly enough data from before Man came anywhere near the level of development where he might impact the planet on such a scale.

And might I remind everyone that up until about 30 years ago, we were facing the eventual global ice age? This would be why they changed the approach from "global warming" to "global climate change" - so that thirty years from now, they will still be able to claim that there's a problem and money is needed to combat it!

Frankly, I think the people asked by the blogger in question, Mr. Grandia, got cold feet when they were put on the spot and were afraid of reprisal should their beliefs be made public. Believe it or not, academia is far from kind to those who are skeptical of global weather theories.

Speaking of science, Occam's Razor: People ask to be taken off of a list not because there is a grand conspiracy threatening their livelihoods or even lives, but because they don't belong on the list.

Update: Four scientists on the list probably won't be complaining about it, on account of how three of them are dead and one does not appear to exist.

And to the peple who turn up whenever climate change is discussed and hold forth about how the whole field of climatology must be a scam on account of how it ain't no warmer where they live, darn it, do keep on keeping on! We all find your ideas intriguing, and would like to subscribe to your newletter!

@ManchuCandidate: Damn, I actually searched for Dr. Zoidberg on that list. So gullible :P

Seriously though, I think some of them are fakes. They could be economists or sociologists. Can historians call themselves scientists?

@Daniel Rutter: It rained here in Seattle yesterday, so there can't possibly be a drought in Africa!

@Palliard:

Al G and his buds made this into a religious crusade although jihad seems a better word. Anyone with even the smallest doubt gets their heads (metaphorically) chopped off.

So what about the theory that the earth is due for a warmup right before another ice age or something?

@RAHfanboy: What does Al Gore have to do with anything?

I first heard of global warming when I was 12 - that's a little over 2 decades ago. WAAAAAAAY before I'd ever heard of Al Gore.

Hell of a way to throw everyone off the scent by invoking chubby's name as if he invented the whole issue.