Siegfried Fred Singer (September 27, 1924 – April 6, 2020) was an Austrian-born American physicist and emeritus professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia, "Retired faculty" , University of Virginia, accessed December 28, 2010. trained as an atmospheric physicist. He was known for rejecting the scientific consensus on several issues, including climate change, Leaked Email Reveals Who's Who List of Climate Denialists. Bagley, Katherine. Inside Climate News, March 12, 2015 the connection between UV-B exposure and melanoma rates,Singer, S. Fred. "Ozone, Skin Cancer, and the SST" , Science & Environmental Policy Project, July 1994, accessed May 18, 2010. stratospheric ozone loss being caused by chlorofluoro compounds, often used as refrigerants,Singer, S. Fred. "The hole truth about CFCs" , Science & Environmental Policy Project, March 21, 1994, accessed May 18, 2010.
and the health risks of passive smoking.
He is the author or editor of several books, including Global Effects of Environmental Pollution (1970), The Ocean in Human Affairs (1989), Global Climate Change (1989), The Greenhouse Debate Continued (1992), and Hot Talk, Cold Science (1997). He also co-authored (2007) with Dennis Avery, and Climate Change Reconsidered (2009) with Craig Idso.Scheuering, Rachel White, "S. Fred Singer," in Shapers of the Great Debate on Conservation: A Biographical Dictionary, Greenwood Press, 2004, p.115-127, Science & Environmental Policy Project, accessed May 13, 2010.
Singer had a varied career, serving in the armed forces, government, and academia. He designed naval mine for the U.S. Navy during World War II, before obtaining his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in 1948 and working as a scientific liaison officer in the U.S. Embassy in London. "Astrophysics: Capturing a Moon and Other Diversions", Time magazine, February 21, 1969, p. 2. He became a leading figure in early space research, was involved in the development of earth observation satellites, and in 1962 established the National Weather Bureau's Satellite Service Center. He was the founding dean of the University of Miami School of Environmental and Planetary Sciences in 1964, and held several government positions, including deputy assistant administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, and chief scientist for the Department of Transportation. He held a professorship with the University of Virginia from 1971 until 1994, and with George Mason University until 2000.Levy, Lillian. Space, Its Impact on Man and Society. Ayer Publishing 1973, p. xiii for general background.
In 1990 Singer founded the Science & Environmental Policy Project,For an early article of Singer's on this issue, see Singer, S. Fred. "On Not Flying Into a Greenhouse Frenzy", The New York Times, November 16, 1989. and in 2006 was named by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as one of a minority of scientists said to be creating a stand-off on a consensus on climate change.Also see Revkin, Andrew. "Skeptics Dispute Climate Worries and Each Other", The New York Times, March 8, 2009. Singer argued, contrary to the scientific consensus on climate change, that there is no evidence that global warming is attributable to human-caused increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide, and that humanity would benefit if temperatures do rise. He was an opponent of the Kyoto Protocol, and claimed that are not based on reality or evidence.Tierney, John. "Lessons from the Skeptics' Conference", The New York Times, March 4, 2008.
Singer was accused of rejecting peer-reviewed and independently confirmed scientific evidence in his claims concerning public health and environmental issues. From the program The Fifth Estate; updated October 24, 2007. Video not archived. Also see
From 1950 to 1953, he was attached to the U.S. Embassy in London as a scientific liaison officer with the Office of Naval Research, where he studied research programs in Europe into cosmic radiation and nuclear physics. Current biography yearbook, Volume 10, H. W. Wilson Company, 1956; S. Fred Singer, Ph.D. , Science & Environmental Policy Project, accessed May 15, 2010. While there, he was one of eight delegates with a background in guided weapons projects to address the Fourth International Congress of Astronautics in Zurich in August 1953, at a time when, as The New York Times reported, most scientists saw space flight as thinly disguised science fiction.Hillaby, John. "Astronauts soar in eyes of science", The New York Times, August 3, 1953.
He became one of 12 board members of the American Astronautical Society, an organization formed in 1954 to represent the country's 300 leading scientists and engineers in the area of guided missiles—he was one of seven members of the board to resign in December 1956 after a series of disputes about the direction and control of the group.Schumach, Murray. "Planet Scientists Collide, Break Up", The New York Times, December 3, 1956.
In November 1957 Singer and other scientists at the university successfully designed and fired three new "Oriole" rockets off the Virginia Capes. The rockets weighed less than and could be built for around $2000. Fired from a converted Navy LSM, they could reach an altitude of and had a complete telemetry system to send back information on cosmic, ultraviolet and X-rays. Singer said that the firings placed "the exploration of outer space with high altitude rockets on the same basis, cost-wise and effort-wise, as low atmosphere measurements with weather balloons. From now on, we can fire thousands of these rockets all over the world with very little cost.""Maryland U. Fires Three New Rockets," The Washington Post, November 8, 1957.
In February 1958, when he was head of the cosmic ray group of the University of Maryland's physics department, he received a special commendation from President Eisenhower for "outstanding achievements in the development of satellites for scientific purposes." 1970, National Science Policy hearings, US House of Representatives"President Lauds Physicist Singer," The Washington Post, February 4, 1958. In April 1958, he was appointed as a consultant to the House Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration, which was preparing to hold hearings on President Eisenhower's proposal for a NASA, and a month later received the Ohio State University's Distinguished Alumnus Award."Singer Appointed Space Consultant," The Washington Post, April 6, 1958.
He became a full professor at Maryland in 1959, and was chosen that year by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce as one of the country's ten outstanding young men. S. Fred Singer, Ph.D. , Science & Environmental Policy Project, accessed May 13, 2010; Smithsonian Institution Research Information Service. "S. Fred Singer Papers, 1953–1989 (bulk 1960–1980)", accessed May 15, 2010.
In a January 1960 presentation to the American Physical Society, Singer sketched out his vision of what the environment around the Earth might consist of, extending up to into space.Osmundsen, John A. "Scientist 'looks' 40,000 miles out", The New York Times, January 30, 1960. He became known for his early predictions about the properties of the electrical particles trapped around the Earth, which were partly verified by later discoveries in satellite experiments. In December 1960, he suggested the existence of a shell of visible dust particles around the Earth some 600 to in space, beyond which there was a layer of smaller particles, a micrometre or less in diameter, extending 2,000 to .Plumb, Robert K. "Scientists' Calculations Indicate Shell of Dust Surrounding Earth", The New York Times, December 28, 1960. In March 1961 Singer and another University of Maryland physicist, E. J. Opik, were given a $97,000 grant by NASA to conduct a three-year study of interplanetary gas and dust."M.U. Professors get NASA grants," Associated Press, March 22, 1961.
Time magazine wrote in 1969 that Singer had had a lifelong fascination with Phobos and Mars's second moon, Deimos. He told Time it might be possible to pull Deimos into the Earth's orbit so it could be examined. "Scientist Urges U.S. Seizure of a Martian Moon", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 27, 1969, p2 During an international space symposium in May 1966, attended by space scientists from the United States and Soviet Union, he first proposed that crewed landings on the Martian moons would be a logical step after a crewed landing on the Earth's Moon. He pointed out that the very small sizes of Phobos and Deimos—approximately in diameter and sub milli-g-force surface gravity—would make it easier for a spacecraft to land and take off again.Sullivan, Walter. "World's Space Scientists Take Look at the Future", The New York Times, May 19, 1966.
In 1964, he became the first dean of the School of Environmental and Planetary Sciences at the University of Miami in 1964, the first school of its kind in the country, dedicated to space-age research.Terte, Robert H. "A Dean for Earth and Space", The New York Times, March 15, 1964. In December 1965, The New York Times reported on a conference Singer hosted in Miami Beach during which five groups of scientists, working independently, presented research identifying what they believed was the remains of a primordial flash that occurred when the universe was born.Sullivan, Walter. "Scientists Trace Birth of Universe With Light Waves", The New York Times, December 20, 1965.
Singer accepted a professorship in Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia in 1971, a position he held until 1994, where he taught classes on environmental issues such as ozone depletion, acid rain, climate change, population growth, and public policy issues related to oil and energy. In 1987 he took up a two-year post as chief scientist at the U.S. Department of Transportation, and in 1989 joined the Institute of Space Science and Technology in Gainesville, Florida where he contributed to a paper on the results from the Interplanetary Dust Experiment using data from the Long Duration Exposure Facility satellite. Long duration exposure facility (LDEF) interplanetary dust experiment (IDE) impact detector results When he retired from Virginia in 1994, he became Distinguished Research Professor at the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University until 2000. S. Fred Singer, Ph.D. Professional background , Science & Environmental Policy Project, accessed May 13, 2010.
Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway say that Singer was involved in the Reagan administration's efforts to prevent regulatory action to reduce acid rain.Oreskes, Naomi and Erik M. Conway, "Chapter 3: Sowing the Seeds of Doubt", in Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010: p66-106.
In October 1967, Singer wrote an article for The Washington Post from the perspective of 2007. His predictions included that planets had been explored but not colonized, and although rockets had become more powerful they had not replaced aircraft and ramjet vehicles. None of the fundamental laws of physics had been overturned. There was increased reliance on the electronic computer and data processor; the most exciting development was the increase in human intellect by direct electronic storage of information in the brain—the coupling of the brain to an external computer, thereby gaining direct access to an information library.Singer, S. Fred. "Looking Back From A.D. 2007", The Washington Post, October 1, 1967.
He debated the astronomer Carl Sagan on ABC's Nightline, regarding the possible environmental effects of the Kuwaiti oil fires. Sagan argued that if enough fire-fighting teams were not assembled in short order, and if many fires were left to burn over a period of months to possibly a year, the smoke might loft into the upper atmosphere and lead to massive agricultural failures over South Asia. Singer argued that it would rise to then be rained out after a few days."First Israeli scud fatalities oil fires in Kuwait", Nightline, ABC News, January 22, 1991. In fact, both Sagan and Singer were incorrect; smoke plumes from the fires rose to 10,000–12,000 feet and lingered for nearly a month, but despite absorbing 75–80% of the sun's radiation in the Persian Gulf area the plumes had little global effect.
The public debates in which Singer received most criticism have been about second-hand smoke and global warming. He questioned the link between second-hand smoke and lung cancer, and was an outspoken opponent of the mainstream scientific view on climate change; he argued there is no evidence that increases in carbon dioxide produced by human beings is causing global warming and that the temperature of the Earth has always varied. A CBC Fifth Estate documentary in 2006 linked these two debates, naming Singer as a scientist who has acted as a consultant to industry in both areas, either directly or through a public relations firm. Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway named Singer in their book, Merchants of Doubt, as one of three contrarian physicists—along with Fred Seitz and Bill Nierenberg—who regularly injected themselves into the public debate about contentious scientific issues, positioning themselves as skeptics, their views gaining traction because the media gives them equal time out of a sense of fairness.
Singers's opinions conflict with the scientific consensus on climate change, where there is overwhelming consensus for anthropogenic global warming, and a decisive link between carbon dioxide concentration and global average temperatures, as well as consensus that such a change to the climate will have dangerous consequences.
In 2005, Mother Jones magazine described Singer as a "godfather of global warming denial." However, Singer characterized himself as a "skeptic" rather than a "denier" of global climate change.
Rachel White Scheuering writes that, when SEPP began, it was affiliated with the Washington Institute for Values in Public Policy, a think tank founded by Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon. A 1990 article for the Cato Institute identifies Singer as the director of the science and environmental policy project at the Washington Institute for Values in Public Policy, on leave from the University of Virginia.Singer, S. Fred. , Regulation 13(1), Winter 1990, Cato Institute. Scheuering writes that Singer had cut ties with the institute, and was funded by foundations and oil companies. She writes that he was a paid consultant for many years for ARCO, ExxonMobil, Shell, Sun Oil Company, and Unocal, and that SEPP had received grants from ExxonMobil. Singer said his financial relationships did not influence his research. Scheuering argues that his conclusions concur with the economic interests of the companies that pay him, in that the companies want to see a reduction in environmental regulation.
In August 2007 Newsweek reported that in April 1998 a dozen people from what it called "the denial machine" met at the American Petroleum Institute's Washington headquarters. The meeting included Singer's group, the George C. Marshall Institute, and ExxonMobil. Newsweek said that, according to an eight-page memo that was leaked, the meeting proposed a $5-million campaign to convince the public that the science of global warming was controversial and uncertain. The plan was leaked to the press and never implemented.Begley, Sharon. "The Truth About Denial", Newsweek, August 13, 2007. The week after the story, Newsweek published a contrary view from Robert Samuelson, one of its columnists, who said the story of an industry-funded denial machine was contrived and fundamentally misleading.Samuelson, Robert. "Greenhouse Simplicities", Newsweek, August 20–27, 2007. ABC News reported in March 2008 that Singer said he is not on the payroll of the energy industry, but he acknowledged that SEPP had received one unsolicited charitable donation of $10,000 from ExxonMobil, and that it was one percent of all donations received. Singer said that his connection to Exxon was more like being on their mailing list than holding a paid position.Harris, Dan et al. "Global Warming Denier: Fraud or 'Realist'?", ABC News, March 23, 2008; Singer, S. Fred. "Letter to ABC News from Dr. S. Fred Singer" , Science & Environmental Policy Project, March 28, 2008, accessed May 16, 2010. The relationships have discredited Singer's research among members of the scientific community, according to Scheuering. Congresswoman Lynn Rivers questioned Singer's credibility during a congressional hearing in 1995, saying he had not been able to publish anything in a peer-reviewed scientific journal for the previous 15 years, except for one technical comment.
Singer wrote the "Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change in the U.S." in 1995, updating it in 1997 to rebut the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol was the result of an international convention held in Kyoto, Japan, during which several industrialized nations agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Singer's declaration read: "Energy is essential for economic growth ... We understand the motivation to eliminate what are perceived to be the driving forces behind a potential climate change; but we believe the Kyoto Protocol—to curtail carbon dioxide emissions from only a part of the world community—is dangerously simplistic, quite ineffective, and economically destructive to jobs and standards-of-living."
Scheuering writes that Singer circulated this in the United States and Europe and gathered 100 signatories, though she says some of the signatories' credentials were questioned. At least 20 were television weather reporters, some did not have science degrees, and 14 were listed as professors without specifying a field. According to Scheuering, some of them later said they believed they were signing a document in favour of action against climate change.
Singer set up the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) in 2004 after the 2003 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Milan. NIPCC organized an international climate workshop in Vienna in April 2007, to provide what they called an independent examination of the evidence for climate change.Johnson, Harriette and Bast, Joseph L. "Climate Change Conference Invigorates Global Warming Debate", Environment News, The Heartland Institute, May 7, 2008. Singer prepared an NIPCC report called "Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate," published in March 2008 by the Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank.Singer, S. Fred (ed.). "Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate", Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, March 2, 2008, accessed May 17, 2010. ABC News said the same month that unnamed climate scientists from NASA, Stanford, and Princeton who spoke to ABC about the report dismissed it as "fabricated nonsense". In a letter of complaint to ABC News, Singer said their piece used "prejudicial language, distorted facts, libelous insinuations, and anonymous smears".
On September 18, 2013, the NIPCC's fourth report, entitled Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science, was published. As with previous NIPCC reports, environmentalists criticized it upon its publication; for example, David Suzuki wrote that it was "full of long-discredited claims, including that carbon dioxide emissions are good because they stimulate life". After the report received favorable coverage from Fox News Channel's Doug McKelway, climate scientists Kevin Trenberth and Michael Oppenheimer criticized this coverage, with Trenberth calling it "irresponsible journalism" and Oppenheimer calling it "flat out wrong".
1962: National Weather Center and University of Miami
1967–1994
Public debates
Writing
Second-hand smoke
The report criticized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for their 1993 study about the cancer risks of passive smoking, calling it "junk science". Singer told CBC's The Fifth Estate in 2006 that he stood by the position that the EPA had "cooked the data" to show that second-hand smoke causes lung cancer. CBC said that tobacco money had paid for Singer's research and for his promotion of it, and that it was organized by APCO. Singer told CBC it made no difference where the money came from. "They don't carry a note on a dollar bill saying 'This comes from the tobacco industry,'" he said. "In any case I was not aware of it, and I didn't ask APCO where they get their money. That's not my business."
Global warming
SEPP and funding
Criticism of the IPCC
Climategate
Death
Selected publications
See also
Notes
Further reading
External links
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