Soon's Funding Sources, Disclosure Practices Unusual in Climate Research

"Soon received no government research grants, awarded in tough peer-reviewed competitions, but relied almost entirely on money from fossil fuel companies."

"Under fire for accepting research grants from fossil fuel interests and failing to disclose all of them, climate skeptic Willie Soon challenged journalists last week to examine conflict-of-interest disclosures for mainstream climate scientists.

News reports of Soon's situation are 'a shameless attempt to silence my scientific research and writings,' he said in a statement issued through the Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank. After documents suggesting conflicts of interest in Soon's publications were made public last month, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) initiated an investigation of the funding sources of seven other mainly climate skeptic scientists.

InsideClimate News took up Soon's challenge. After interviewing experts on scientific research and climate denialism, we were not able to find a single case of a conventional climate scientist who had failed to disclose his or her sources of research funding or who had granted rights of prior review of research results and anonymity to his or her funders, as Soon has done."

Lisa Song reports for InsideClimate News March 9, 2015.