A modified version of Alexander Cockburn's Nation Magazine article
"The Greenhousers Strike Back, and Strike Out" has just shown up on
Counterpunch. The main difference between the two articles is that
Counterpunch version puts one degree of separation between our
contrarian left journalist and the sleazy Frederick Seitz, who is to
climatology as Judith Miller is to the subject of arms control in the
Middle East.
In the Nation Magazine piece, Cockburn invoked Seitz's trashy name
directly, while in the Counterpunch article, he allows one Fred
Goldberg to do the dirty work. Goldberg, a Swedish scientist whose
main area of expertise appears to be welding technology, accuses Bert
Bolin, another Swedish scientist and former chairman of the IPCC,
with suppressing counter-evidence on global warming. Cockburn cites
Goldberg as follows:
Professor Fredrik Seitz, former chairman of the American Science
Academy, wrote in the Wall Street Journal already the 12th of June
1996 about a major deception on global warming: "I have never before
witnessed a more disturbing corruption of the peer-review process
than the events that led to this IPCC report." He gave many examples
of changes and redefinitions and finished by demanding that the IPCC
process should be abandoned.
Had somebody subordinate to Bert Bolin within IPCC made these
changes it is reasonable to think that Bert Bolin himself
would correct the errors. That he has not done is why I draw the
conclusion that it must be Bert Bolin himself who is responsible for
the changes and no subordinate person has dared interfere with his boss.
As much as I understand Alexander trying to put a bit of distance
between himself and Seitz, we are obliged to provide some background
on this shady character:
The first mention of Frederick Seitz in Lexis-Nexis is a November 12,
1980 article that informs us of his inclusion on a panel of
scientists that will help President Reagan "strengthen programs in
military, industrial and space technology as a means of reasserting
American strategic and economic supremacy." No doubt Reagan felt that
Seitz's involvement with a pro-nuclear group Scientists and Engineers
for Secure Energy recommended him highly. Throughout the 1980s, Seitz
would write articles to the NY Times arguing that a Chernobyl could
not happen here. The irony, of course, is that Cockburn now views
alarm over global warming as a conspiracy to promote nuclear energy.
When he wasn't pumping for nuclear power, Seitz was making the case for SDI.
full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/05/26/alexander-cockburns-experts/
