Talk:Fred Singer

Latest edits

I've reverted the latest changes - the reason for this is:

• This breaks with WP:WEIGHT and WP:V. Samuelson's opinion column carries significantly smaller weight than a frontpage journalistic article with the full editorial review of Newsweek. The text about an Exxon campaign being discredited is not in the reference - the only thing Samuelson calls discredited is a specific instance with the AEI (ie. not Singer).
• This removes contnt that is supported by a reliable secondary source. With no good rationale - if we are going to "trim it" then we should cut down or consolidate text from various references - not remove the refs.
• This because it is wrong. It wasn't astronomical observations - but erroneous interpretation of these. Do please note that it wasn't Singers erroneus interpretation. To my view it is far better to state that Singer was basing this on wrong data, than to say that he misinterpreted astronomical observations.

--Kim D. Petersen (talk) 10:37, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

• (a) The Newsweek piece isn't about Singer.
• (b) SEPP's executive board has 5 members. It isn't "SEPP = Singer".
• (c) This entire article as metastasized into a COATRACK to impugne Singer for his CC views. The material on AGW far outweighs the entire rest of the article. For a scientist with as lengthy, varied, and distinguished as Singer, this is clearly undue weight.
• (d) Re: Phobos, the original astronomical data was in error. Better observations led to a different conclusion. In any case, Singer never made the original allegation or wrote a paper or any other piece of it. He made one remark about it 50 years ago, and you're giving his bio entry greater length for this than even his original remark? This is clearly undue weight.

FellGleaming (talk) 13:37, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

Addendum: Reading the sources in full, it seems the entire article section on Phobos is entirely in error. Singer did not conclude the satellite was hollow, and his suggestion it may potentially be artificial was clearly predicated with caveats, which are not captured in the article text. Further, its a single off hand remark in a 60 year career; it's not only not notable, but seems included as a simple attempt to poison the well. FellGleaming (talk) 17:30, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

This concerns me. Is there anywhere easy I can find the references in full? --BozMo talk 18:56, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Nothing whatsoever about this anywhere on the web but here. Three sources in the article. Two make no mention of Singer at all. The third, Astronautics, is reportedly published by the AAS, but they don't list it. They list one with a similar name, the Journal of Astronautical Sciences. It could have been renamed, but this one has been published since 1954.

In any case, the quote within the reference is: " ""My conclusion there is, and here I back Shklovsky, that if the satellite is indeed spiraling inward as deduced from astronomical observation, then there is little alternative to the hypothesis that it is hollow and therefore martian made. The big "if" lies in the astronomical observations; they may well be in error. Since they are based on several independent sets of measurements taken decades apart by different observers with different instruments, systematic errors may have influenced them.""."

Assuming this is accurate, he hasn't expressed anything definite, and clearly has serious doubts about the data. And if its not accurate, why is it even in the article?

And of course, the larger issue is notability. Why is this even in the article, if not for well-poisoning? A brief offhand remark that attracted no notability 50 years ago, made by a person still alive today? How is this relevant to such a lengthy and varied career? FellGleaming (talk) 19:20, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

No one has weighed in to support this albatross of a paragraph. I intend to delete it if no one raises a cogent objection by tomorrow. Fell Gleaming^(talk) 13:43, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

I've removed the material. It's potentially a very interesting bit of history, so if someone can suggest how to readd it without BLP concerns, I would certainly favor it. In the meantime, the material is below. Fell Gleaming^(talk) 23:25, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

In the absence of significant third party coverage of this, I agree that it is a miscellany which shouldn't be there. If it looks like other people did or do discuss that opinion much we would need to reconsider. --BozMo talk 05:34, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Material removed
In 1960, Singer was one of several scientists who speculated that the Martian moon Phobos was artificial in origin. The claim was based on the erroneous conclusion that Phobos was hollow. Later observations demonstrated conclusively that Phobos was not hollow, rendering the artificial origin speculation moot.

At first glance, I thought the removal of the Phobos-as-hollow-artifact stuff was reasonable and well argued. But, I got curious, and did a little digging, and...nope, can't find any publication called Astronautics, can't find any evidence that Singer ever made any such statement. So, I removed this unverifiable material from the Phobos article as well.--CurtisSwain (talk) 21:16, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Excellent; thank you Curtis. Someone went to immense trouble to use Wikipedia as a platform to punish Singer for his CC views. Fell Gleaming^(talk) 21:21, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

I went looking for who did this, and guess who I found? [1]. WMC, reinserting the bald faced claim that "Singer proposed Phobos is a space station built by aliens". Fell Gleaming^(talk) 21:30, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

FG it is not a bald faced claim - it was reliably sourced then. Perhaps you forgot? You did remove it yourself (including the reference) a few days ago. You on the other hand are seriously out of order here by casting aspersions at another editor . --Kim D. Petersen (talk) 22:59, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Curtis, you may want to look back in the archives - Astronautics did exist, and the article as well - you can even request a copy if you want (i can't remember if i still have it around) - but at the time of the insertion, the reference was found and distributed to those who (just like you) had trouble accepting it :)

The thing to keep in mind here is the date, and the basis Singer had for this. Both taken into account there really isn't anything odious about it. It is only with todays eyes that it looks strange. --Kim D. Petersen (talk) 23:02, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Relevant archive discussions [2][3][4][5] - the first one is the one to read on Astronautics - the reason you can't find it is that the journal was renamed. --Kim D. Petersen (talk) 23:08, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

In this case the aspersions are highly warranted. The issue isn't the source. Even if the source exists, its a complete and utter mischaracterization of that source. Further, even had the source been correctly summarized, simply mentioning it prominently in the lede is still another abuse. I'm curious who actually had the gall to characterize Singer as simply "an electrical engineer" in those early versions. I'd look back through the records, but I'm afraid of what I might find. Fell Gleaming^(talk) 23:32, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

May i ask you to refactor and remove everything that is a personal attack, or assumptions of bad faith in the above. Remove this comment when you do. Article talk space is not an acceptable venue for such- if you have a problem, you must take it to enforcement, ANI or another place where it is acceptable. --Kim D. Petersen (talk) 23:39, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

I think the Singer talk page is an entirely appropriate venue to discuss a pattern of tendentious edits to that article. Or are you claiming that beginning the intro of a scientist of Singer's stature with the claim "he's an electrical engineer who thought the martian moons were built by aliens" was done in the best interests of Wikipedia? Fell Gleaming^(talk) 23:50, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Fell - Any problem that may have existed in the lede was rectified long ago, and nowhere does the article claim "he's an electrical engineer." The central issue here is the Phobos-as-hollow-artifact stuff. I originally supported its removal, thinking, "If it ain't on the Internet, it doesn't exist." But, Kim has cleared that up for us. I agree that it isn't significant enough to be in the lede, but including it along side Singer's later views on Phobos is certainly appropriate, as it is a very interesting notion. Yes, Singer's statement was predicated with caveats, and those caveats were included in the material that was deleted from this article. Therefore, the material should be restored.--CurtisSwain (talk) 23:29, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Done.--CurtisSwain (talk) 05:03, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but the restoral has several problems:

• Your new source still doesn't mention Singer.
• So far we have only Kim's word that any source mentions Singer, and that the source is accurately represented.
• The material is written to suggest Singer, among others, made the speculation and came to "erroneous conclusions", when Singer was openly critical of the data used to reach this conclusion (again, assuming Kim's source even exists)
• The new sources found, if anything, suggest that Singer had no real association with this hypothesis. If anything at all, he made one offhand, mildly critical comment on the subject. Unless he can be shown to have any real involvement with supporting or promulgating the idea, it does't rise to the notability of appearing in his bio.
• Given the lengthy history of tendentious edits and coatracking this article has seen, the inclusion appears designed simply to cast Singer in a poor light, rather than write a balanced, well-informed biography.

If you can find a way to rewrite the material and solve these problems, by all means do so. It's certainly an interesting bit of past history. But its inclusion in this particular bio, with its particular wording, has severe and what appears to be irreconcilable problems. Fell Gleaming^(talk) 14:14, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict)This statement: "So far we have only Kim's word that any source mentions Singer" is utter nonsense, and a rather clear case of WP:IDIDNTHEARTHAT. Do please read the archives. If you ask nicely it may even be that Raul still has a PDF of the reference, and will send it to you. Otherwise a library can be recommended. --Kim D. Petersen (talk) 14:21, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

You are obviously failing to WP:AGF. Kim has provided the source reference for you - it is not "only Kim's word that any source mentions Singer, and that the source is accurately represented," you are required to assume that Kim is accurately presenting the source in the absence of a history of source misrepresntation. Hipocrite (talk) 14:19, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

Known for, etc

Re [6]. Singer is "known", overwhelmingly, as a climate change denier (and an oznoe skeptic too).

Also, SV added that he "specializing in planetary science, global warming, and ozone depletion". I think that is misleading / wrong in the context of his professional career, which was ages ago, when he specialised in, oh, dunno really, the page says designing instruments for ozone (but that was in pre-ozone-depletion days). A an amateur (or perhaps semi-paid) denier he has indeed written lots about GW etc.

William M. Connolley (talk) 12:10, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

SV's edits, and blind reverst, have broken this; hence the tag William M. Connolley (talk) 13:06, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

This section appears to be a PoV challenge. I'm not taking sides, but there is ample precident that if there's a PoV dispute ongoing, tags should be on the article - in fact, theres at least one admin that I'm certain you'll defer to who has actually edited through full protection just to insert such a tag. Hipocrite (talk) 18:17, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps true elsewhere but on the CC pages Connolley, et. al. have fought edit wars over tags on articles and hence the standard is that there needs to be an agreed consensus that the tags belong there. Thus far, there is only William complaining. William does not a consensus make. --94.136.50.63 (talk) 18:35, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Tags are supposed to be added as a last resort. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 18:56, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

You've reverted attempts to remove "specializing in planetary science, global warming, and ozone depletion." You have not yet responded to WMC above asking "I think that is misleading / wrong in the context of his professional career, which was ages ago, when he specialised in, oh, dunno really, the page says designing instruments for ozone (but that was in pre-ozone-depletion days). A an amateur (or perhaps semi-paid) denier he has indeed written lots about GW etc," yet you have reverted his removal of "ozone depletion." You can't both refuse to solve the PoV dispute via discussion while at the same time reverting, and also refuse to allow the fact that there is an unfinished discussion on this talk page. It appears to me that we are actually at last resort here - what else do you suggest WMC do? Hipocrite (talk) 19:02, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Having reviewed this, the article stated "specializing in planetary science, global warming, and ozone depletion." This was sourced to the back cover blurb (of questionable reliability) which states "... He devised the instrument used to measure stratospeheric ozone from satellites and was the first to point to and calculate the human-based production of atmospheric methane..." I do not see any evidence to generalize from the fact he made a detector and calculated methane to what he specialized in as an atmospheric physicist. I don't think that source is strong enough or specific enough to use as a main-descriptor in his headline. Hipocrite (talk) 19:15, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

professor emeritus

[SV copied a pile of stuff from her talk page, which is bad. If you want to know what it was, it is this diff [7] William M. Connolley (talk) 20:42, 13 May 2010 (UTC)]

As an intro, I'll self revert my recent sampsonite attempt on request. I'm concerned, however. Could someone reference that Singer is a professor emeritus? Hipocrite (talk) 13:05, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Fair point. Will [8] do? William M. Connolley (talk) 13:09, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Not really, as it's self published. UVA dept of environmental science disagrees - http://www.evsc.virginia.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/ Has other PE's listed, but not Singer. Hipocrite (talk) 13:11, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

I've added a source. [9] Perhaps we could drop the dept a note to ask whether their list is up to date. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 13:31, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

He left UVA in 1994, according to his self-published CV (which does not list a emeritus position). That would be pretty out of date. Is the source you provided avaiable online, or do I need to go to the library? Hipocrite (talk) 13:35, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

It is (available, that is), at [10]. Where does this describe him as a PE? Hipocrite (talk) 13:37, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Google Books lets people in different places see different things, but I can see it here, p. 52 (scroll to the end), which I think is the last page, or possibly the back cover. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 13:40, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

I guess that works. I'm very concerned that he's not a PE. Is it appropriate to ask UVA if he is, or is that harassing? Hipocrite (talk) 13:44, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

No, it's fine to ask them. I can drop them a note if you like. Or you can if you prefer. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 13:46, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Either way. No time now, but I'll do this evening. Hipocrite (talk) 13:48, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

FWIW the reference appears to imply he was a PE in 2000. That does not mean he still is. These things often carry residence or other requirements and are not always until the grave. --BozMo talk 14:08, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

For virginia though [11] implies it would be permanent. So its probably ok --BozMo talk 14:13, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Not really, as it's self published - curiously, SV was quite happy with self-pub stuff over at McI William M. Connolley (talk) 14:30, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't know what "curiously" or "over at McI" refer to, and it was Hipocrite who wrote "Not really, as it's self-published," not me. Snide comments just waste time, William, especially when they miss the mark. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 14:38, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

It means this [12]. Care to re-think? William M. Connolley (talk) 14:51, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

And? Please make your points in one post rather than several cryptic remarks followed by questions from others trying to work out what you're saying. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 15:18, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

OK, let us do this very slowly. Over at McI, you've said that self-published refs are fine, if uncontroversial. So the same applies here. But you haven't said it here William M. Connolley (talk) 15:29, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Self-published refs are fine in BLPs if by the subject. See V and BLP. I'm still not getting your point. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 15:41, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

It is by Singer. I'm still not getting your point. Please read this exchange and reflect on whether more efficient communication would be worth a try William M. Connolley (talk) 15:58, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Please stop the games. I have no idea what you're talking about and I doubt anyone else does either. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 16:01, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Oh dear. Is Please read this exchange and reflect on whether more efficient communication would be worth a try advice that only you are allowed to give and others are obliged to take? William M. Connolley (talk) 20:38, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

(←) I don't know why this is causing problems. Whatever that reason is, stop now. My point on self-published sources is that they are reliable untill their reliability is called into doubt or if they are self-serving. From WP:BLP - "Living persons may publish material about themselves, such as through press releases or personal websites. Such material may be used as a source only if ... it is not unduly self-serving ... there is no reasonable doubt as to its authenticity." Given that a more reliable source - UVA, appears to state differently, there's now reasonable doubt, so testimony transcripts are no longer acceptable sources. The published afterword, however, is, so I will wait till my UVA question is responded to. Hipocrite (talk) 16:04, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Here is a self-pub-by-Singer source from 1996 [13] (we can assume that Singer == SEPP, yes?). My name is S. Fred Singer. I am professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia William M. Connolley (talk) 20:46, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't think anyone understands your point. There are self-published sources written by Singer saying he is professor emeritus, and there are non-self-published sources saying the same thing, probably because he says it. We use both, and we're allowed to use both per V and BLP. Hipocrite or I, or both, are going to email the university to double-check. What is the remaining issue? SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 23:19, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

You bafflement is plain. But an email from you, copied here, purporting to be from the university, would be meaningless. We have Singer saying it, what more do we need? William M. Connolley (talk) 08:50, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

I didn't say we needed any more. It is Hipocrite who wants to check it, and it's fine to do that. And "purporting to be from the university"? You're suggesting we might forge an e-mail? SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 07:59, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

(←) My problem is that we have sources that lead one to believe he is emeritus. We have other sources that lead one to believe he is not. What we need is the word - even if it's not includable in article space as WP:OR - from the source that is definitively accurate. If they say he is emeritus, then we'll include it, sourced to something. If they says he's not emeritus, we just won't say he's emeritus. Hipocrite (talk) 12:09, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

professor emeritus. Generally

I don't know a definitive definition, or even if one exists but locally and elsewhere the usage seems to be this: (where are the formatting buttons!!!)

• An emeritus professor is someone who was a full, paid, professor, who has retired with respect to payroll, but who continues to maintain an office. He may well teach or research, but it is the office door and physical inbox that counts.
• In most non-payroll terms, an emeritus professor is not retired. He still goes to work, although he do so part time, even very part time.
• When the person fully retires (gives up his office, pigeon hole and parking privilege), he no longer appears on the university, school and department registers, and is in practice no longer referred to as emeritus. He is now past tense (like the dead and otherwise departed), and is referred to according to his most senior title of his career, which is probably "Professor", although it can be a political or military title instead.

Thus, emeritus would seem to describe the twilight period between formal retirement of the professor, and the retirement-proper, and is bound by the payroll-pension transition at the beginning, and the complete loss of office space at the end. — Preceding unsigned comment added by SmokeyJoe (talk • contribs)

Well, there is professor emeritus William M. Connolley (talk) 15:31, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Professor emeritus is an honor that, as far as I know, most retiring professors do not receive. Receiving it can imply that the university considers the professor to be unusually valuable or still active in research. At least sometimes, emeritus professors can still apply for grants through the university. Cardamon (talk) 19:27, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Professor emeritus, to my knowledge, is not something received officially, but is a title put on doors, websites and other registers to signify that the professor has formally retired but continues to enjoy privileges as if he has not retired. It shouldn't so much be said that it reflects anyone's judgment of value, just that the person continues to be active and the department lets them continue to control some real estate. Certainly emeritus Professors can and do receive grants, employ staff, support others' applications and receive money (directed or not, but usually directed, so as to be untaxable) in lieu of payment for teaching. Generally, they can't hold bureaucratic positions, such as head, or dean. Generally, they don't want to, with this being the real benefit of the transition.

I don't like the lost formatting buttons, but I do like how I can now colour code links like professor emeritus by size, so that I immediately know that the linked article is barely more than a stub. I'd add material there if I could actually attribute any of this. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 21:17, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Hey, nice link. Gladdens the heart. :) SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 21:52, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Source query

What is the relationship between this source and saying that Singer does not support the cancer-secondhand smoke link? Apologies if I'm being dense. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 23:15, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Singer vs Lancaster

Perhaps I'm missing it, but I don't see anything about Singer's suit against Justin Lancaster in this article. According to The Real Global Warming Disaster and The Deniers, Justin Lancaster, acting on behalf of Al Gore, accused Singer of misrepresenting Roger Revelle's role in helping co-author an article that was critical of human-induced global warming. Because Lancaster refused to withdraw his accusations, Singer sued and Lancaster issued an apology and retraction, which he later partially retracted. Gore then, according to Booker and Solomon then asked Ted Koppel to investigate Singer's sources of funding, to which Koppel allegedly replied, "There is some irony in the fact that Vice President Gore-one of the most scientifically literate men to sit in the White House in this century-[is] resorting to political means to achieve what should ultimately be resolved on a purely scientific basis." There is a section on this in the Revelle article. Should it be mentioned here? Cla68 (talk) 00:14, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

I would say definitely yes. I'm about to go offline so I can't do anything right now, and I'm anyway still trying to get up to speed. If you have material to hand, please feel free to add it. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 00:51, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Old discussion and old text. Similar text was still there until 10 April 2010. Q Science (talk) 05:46, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Ah, I see. Thank you. One problem with this kind of issue is explaining it briefly enough so that it doesn't violate WP:UNDUE, but completely enough so that it gives both sides of the story. I'll look into it further and try to come up with some text that will hopefully pass muster. Cla68 (talk) 06:03, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

I would strongly recommend not restoring the Singer-Revelle-Lancaster material. In particular, under no circumstances should there be a link to the original depositions or testimony in the case. Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 23:45, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

I haven't checked Infotrac or ProQuest NewsStand yet for anything on it. Booker and Solomon cover the incident quite thoroughly in their books, but I can understand an argument that additional sourcing besides those two is desired. Cla68 (talk) 23:53, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Here is what I've found so far in Infotrac and NewsStand:

• Two articles/editorials in the National Review
• Two editorials by Singer in The World and I and Insight on the News
• An article in Reason
• Two articles in the Boston Globe
• An article in The Advocate
• An editorial in the Washington Times
• A column by Lawrence Solomon in the National Post
• An article in the San Francisco Chronicle
• An article in the The San Diego Union-Tribune
• Forty-one additional articles/editorials/letters to the editor in NewsStand under the search term, "Al Gore; Fred Singer"
• An interview with Singer that touches on the subject in The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

I would say that there is plenty of sourcing to do a separate article on this topic and have a link to it from a small section in this article. Cla68 (talk) 04:24, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Further Reading

The "Further Reading" section is very large, and more than half of it seems devoted not to sites about Singer, but to his own writing. That seems definitely coatracky to me. I suggest to eliminate most or even all of those links. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 08:14, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

I'm collecting them here because they tell the story of his career and the development of his views. Not sure what you mean by coatracky. I'll be using them to add to the bio. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 09:26, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

This article is supposed to be about Singer, not be a platform for his views. Those are all primary sources. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 11:30, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

It's about his life, his views, his career—everything that we can source reliably. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 13:08, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

About, yes. Parroting, no. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 20:34, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

I removed this section. It just looks like spam. SV: if indeed I'll be using them to add to the bio. then keep them off in your userspace somewhere rather than using the article as a workspace William M. Connolley (talk) 07:38, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

It is hardly spam, i reverted you as there is no consensus for it`s removal. mark nutley (talk) 08:03, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

MN, blind reverting with your favourite mantra is hardly helpful. The discussion has been here for some time and you didn't bother contribute. The point is: why such a vast list? SV appears to be suggesting, above, that she is just using it as a workspace, which is Bad William M. Connolley (talk) 08:06, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Name

I can't find a reliable source that calls him Frederick (just WP and some mirrors). He's unlikely to be called that if he was born in Vienna, and most of the sources call him Fred, so I've changed it to that for now. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 09:28, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

If he was born in Vienna, "Fred" is a lot less likely than "Frederick" - possibly it was Friederich and was anglicised on emigration. He is listed as "Frederick Singer" on IMDB. The German national library has him as Sigfried and Fred (and by initials), as has the library of congress. If he is "Frederick", he rarely uses that name. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 11:30, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Lead

William, this article was in very bad shape, and still needs a lot of work. It would be better if you didn't edit it given the previous problems and complaints, and adding that he's first and foremost a global warming skeptic is really inappropriate. [14] SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 19:32, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

This article is in terrible shape after your edits. It is full of things either uncited, or cited to Singer-self pub stuff, and repeats unverified claims by Singer. Please don't do that. If you can't do better, it would be better if you didn't edit this article. As to your request - Ive' already rejected it. I can only presume you're repeating it here in the hope taht someone else will notice it, which seems unlikely William M. Connolley (talk) 19:38, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

After I reverted WMC's attempt to say Singer is a skeptic before we even say he's a physicist, WMC responded by adding the POV tag, removing material sourced to the New York Times, and adding six citation-needed tags to the lead. I've reported it to the climate change probation page, and requested that WMC be asked not to edit this article. [15] SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 20:36, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

I notice you've removed any ref to Singer as a GWS from the first sentence. That seems very odd to me. Do you really believe that aspect of his career is so non-notable? Personally, I think he is far more notable for GWS - all the argument here bears that out, no-one bothers argue over atmospheric phyicists - and that should come first. But even if you disagree about the order, it seems very odd to whitewash GWS entirely from the first sentence. Try googling Singer. Note the tagline of SEPP William M. Connolley (talk) 21:59, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

The lead should reflect the contents of the article. I don't see any appointments obviously related to "physics" beyond the early 1960s. Beyond that, the positions are related to "environmental science". Similarly, if you look over the last 20 years of his articles indexed by ISI, you'll see that they are mostly editorials and LTEs attacking climate change, peak oil, the link between UV B and skin cancer, the link between CFCs and ozone depletion... Little "atmospheric physics", lots of 'environmental skepticism'.

I have a second concern, and that's calling him an "atmospheric physicist". I seem to see that only in self-published sources. Third party sources call him a retired professor of environmental science. And looking at the last two decades of his output, that seems a lot more reasonable. Calling him an "atmospheric physicist" (and not an 'environmental skeptic') does not seem to be in keeping with the way that he is described by reliable sources. Guettarda (talk) 04:33, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Incidentally, "atmospheric physicist" is mentioned nowhere in the body of the article. Guettarda (talk) 04:35, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

NPOV tag / blind reverts by SV

I see the blind reverting is back [16]. Singer is far and away best known as a global warming skeptic. Whatever he did for science is long forgotten, however wonderful it may once have been. Reverting it out of the lede is whitewashing. And, as I've said before, he isn't an AP. He *was* an AP. He is now a retired AP William M. Connolley (talk) 19:42, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Seems to me he's done plenty of work other than pertaining to global warming / climate chaneg. Yet you want to instantly have khim labelled for his views on global warming. Hmmm, interesting. Minkythecat (talk) 22:19, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

I just reverted a pair of sockpuppet edits. To be clear, I have no opinion on whether either edit should stand, other than that the matter should be discussed here. - 2/0 (cont.) 22:25, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks William M. Connolley (talk) 22:39, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

@Mtc: yes of course Singer has done other stuff, though if you look you'll find that was all a very long time ago. But do you (like, it would seem, SV) think that FS's global warming skepticism forms such aminor portion of his notability that it shouldn't be mentionned anywhere in the first paragraph? William M. Connolley (talk) 22:39, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

In fact, this is now utterly bizarre. The first para lists a pile of skeptic books (Hot Talk, Cold Science (1997), and co-author of Unstoppable Global Warming (2007) with Dennis Avery, and Climate Change Reconsidered (2009)) but can't bring itself to say what he says himself: that he is skeptical of GW William M. Connolley (talk) 22:41, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Well I've re-added the dreaded S-word, since no-one at all seems to think he isn't William M. Connolley (talk) 21:04, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Sources

I see that someone added a whole bunch of {fact} tags to the lede which looks awful. Some of this information can be sourced to the following page on NASA's web site.[17] A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 22:57, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Yes, they do look awful, don't they? Still, they do serve as a reminder that the article has a pile of unsourced statements. Which would you prefer: silent unsourced statements or cn'd unsourced statements? If you can find sources for them, then great - please ad them in William M. Connolley (talk) 10:12, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Note

Just noting here that I'm currently adding material that I can find about Singer in newspaper archives. The presentation may look a bit disjointed for now—as in "he did this, then this, then that," but hopefully once we have it up we can work on presenting it as a flowing narrative. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 20:53, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Request for help

I would like to add one sentence to the end of the lead—with in-text attribution—saying that Singer has been criticized for his position on global warming. So it will read something like "Singer has been criticized for this by a number of scientists, including Eminent Scientist No 1, who in 2010 wrote blah blah."

Can anyone direct me to the most eminent of Singer's critics on this issue, and some source material? SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 22:33, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

I've added this so we have criticism in the lead for now:

He has been criticized for speaking out against the mainstream position on this and other environmental issues, one researcher telling ABC News that Singer is what he called a career skeptic.

Sourced to this article. It's not ideal because ABC News cites Kert Davies, the research director of Greenpeace U.S., who isn't a neutral source. Also, Davies's academic background [18] is degrees in Environmental Studies from Hampshire College and the University of Montana. I'd prefer to find a scientist with a comparable background to Singer so that we can attribute in-text without it looking like an inappropriate match. But it's better than nothing for now, I think. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 00:48, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

No, it's worse than nothing. You've cited someone with little scientific expertise, and have misstated their views to boot. Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 01:00, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Then help me to find a better source, please. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 01:10, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

And before someone asks, RealClimate or any other partisan blog probably are not adequate sources. Cla68 (talk) 01:38, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Notwithstanding that the commentary of a partisan source is adequate for disqualifying a Wikipedia editor? Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 02:08, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Blogs are not allowed as sources in BLPs unless maintained by the subject, per WP:BLP. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 02:11, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

But an editorial by a partisan commentator, containing numerous factual errors and having an agenda against Singer, would be OK? Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 02:15, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't know which editorial you mean specifically. If you mean Solomon, which isn't being used here, I'm not sure what your point is. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 02:32, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I thought the question was simple enough. If you'd rather not answer, that's ok. Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 02:39, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

SBHB, what I'd really like here is just to build this page up so that it tells Singer's story, with no games on talk. I have no POV about it, and no POV about climate change, except that politically I'm almost certainly closer to WMC than to Singer. My sole purpose here is to try to improve the article. If you can help me with that, given that it seems to be your area, that would be greatly appreciated. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 02:46, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Actually it's not my area. My main interest is in the science of climate and climate change (along with music that most normal, decent people can't stand listening to). Singer's involvement developing the physical science of climate change was quite minor -- when he was a practicing scientist he was mainly an instrument developer -- see his CV. Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 04:23, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

The thing I'd particularly appreciate help with is in finding a heavyweight academic source in a reliable publication for a sentence of criticism in the lead about Singer's stance on climate change. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 04:26, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

That could be a challenge. To be blunt, few of the actual scientists in the field take his views seriously enough to bother disputing them. (I could tell some interesting stories, but nothing that would be citeable...) Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 04:32, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

So who are his main critics? SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 04:34, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Dunno. Again, most people in the field don't take his, erm, novel and imaginative views seriously enough to bother. Probably there are science bloggers who have deconstructed his stuff but Cla68 (somewhat reasonably) won't accept blogs. Try Monbiot or somebody like that if you want the mainstream media. Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 04:41, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Blogs aren't allowed per BLP and Monbiot isn't really mainstream; it's fine to use him but I wouldn't want to single him out in the lead. If Singer's position really is untenable—and his position seems to boil down to the atmosphere being more complex than the climate models allow for—it's unlikely that not one single scientist has criticized him, or in some other way disagreed with him by name, in a mainstream publication. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 04:56, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Then go and find that publication. That's not meant as a snipe; if we were talking journal articles I might be able to help you out, but I don't give too much attention to rooting out such things in the mainstream press where the quality of reporting on climate change tends to be frustratingly poor. (A newspaper article I read a couple of months ago consistently confused "altitude" with "latitude" -- hey, they're the same except for the order of the first two letters, right?) Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 05:11, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

There is [19], which gives an idea of how serious scientists take Singer's climate sceptic work - the words to look for are "fabricated nonsense". However, ABC names no names. As Boris wrote, few scientists engage outside the scientific arena, of which Singer hasn't been a significant part for years. From what I can see in the previews, Naomi Oreskes' Merchants of Doubt will treat Singer and SEPP from a social sciences perspective. Boris, Singer is listed as a co-author of A comparison of tropical temperature trends with model predictions - hasn't that been ripped to shreds in a formal reply? --Stephan Schulz (talk) 10:03, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Repeating retired in the first sentence

Short Brigade has restored this. [20] Saying he's a professor emeritus means he has retired as a professor, so I can't see why we're repeating "retired" twice in the first sentence. It's also not true that he hasn't been professionally active for years; he continues to write and speak about his work. It makes the sentence look pointy, the writing poor, and it's verging on OR. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 23:04, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

He doesn't appear to me to be retired, except from his universty position, and professor emeritus is what that means. I don't think retired should say that in the lede. Cla68 (talk) 23:11, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

He hasn't done research in atmospheric physics in many years, hence "retired American atmospheric physicist." My intent was to say that he has retired from atmospheric physics, though as you note he continues to write and speak on the general topic of global warming as well as other subjects so is not "retired" in the broader sense. If you can think of a better way to clarify his current status let's discuss it. Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 23:43, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

There was a better way already in the sentence before you edited it. He is an atmospheric physicist (I added a 2009 NYT ref for that) and professor emeritus of environmental science at the University of Virginia. We have sources for the latter, but we're going to go the extra mile to check with the university that the sources aren't out of date. In all the articles like this that I've edited, introducing someone as professor emeritus of X is the standard way to introduce them, regardless of any other current status. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 23:56, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

• Per unanimous agreement across all reliable sources (see earlier discussion here), we will describe him as "an atmospheric physicist", not a "retired atmospheric physicist". There isn't a single news or book source out there that calls him a "retired atmospheric physicist". --JN466 17:39, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Affiliation

Why is Singer's older affiliation with the University of Virginia mentioned in the lede in preference to his more recent position at George Mason University? Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 23:38, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

At which university did he spend the majority of his career? Does he have emeritus status with Mason? Cla68 (talk) 23:42, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

He was nominally affiliated with U.Va. from 1971-94 (though during the seven years I was in his department, he was seldom physically present). Don't know if he has emeritus status at GMU; some universities don't grant emeritus for soft-money positions. Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 00:05, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Misinterpretation or misrepresentation of sources

I have encountered a disturbing number of misinterpretations or misrepresentation of sources in some of the recent edits. For example I've already raised objections (and reverted) the contention that Singer has been "criticized for speaking out against the mainstream position," and I've also noticed that the text says "had Singer's design been heeded, the U.S. could have beaten Russia" when the source in fact says "if Dr. Singer's plea had been heeded by the U.S. could have beaten Russia." Please be more careful to properly represent the contents of sources. Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 04:09, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Please AGF, SBHB. If you see a way that source material can be presented more accurately, please fix it. As I posted earlier, I'm just looking through old archives and adding details from them, in the hope of getting a first draft up. It can all be checked and polished for accuracy and flow.

As for plea/design, is there a substantive difference in this context? The point is that they didn't take on board his idea and that this had a consequence, he says (or the newspaper says, but I assume he was the source). I'm also not sure I agree with your particular criticism of the ABC source (though I agree for other reasons that it wasn't ideal). He has been criticized for speaking out, has he not?

That's two examples you've given out of a fair bit of new material. You said there were a disturbing number. What were the others? SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 04:16, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Two is disturbing enough, don't you think? Anyway there's a clear difference between "plea" and "design." The text implies that the problem was with not adopting the MOUSE design specifically. But "plea" could well mean that the govt rejected his broader arguments for space exploration, and in fact that's the meaning that seems most likely to me -- otherwise why not simply say they rejected Singer's instrument design? (And design of the satellite itself was never the main challenge to getting something into orbit; remember, all Sputnik did was send radio beeps.) It would be great if we had the full Baltimore Sun article available for review. As for "speaking out," that's simply not what the source says. Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 05:02, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Two out of the large number of new sources I've introduced in the last few days, both of them arguable, is not a disturbing number, so I'd appreciate if you'd strike through that part of your post. Anything you see that's not quite right is because I'm handling material I'm not familiar with. Help tweaking it to get it right would be great.

Yes, plea could mean what you say or it could mean what I say. If you can fix that sentence so it summarizes the source better, please do. I did look for the full article but I only found a mention in an offline archive. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 05:11, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I can't fix it, as I think I'm already up to three fixes in the past 24 hours. Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 05:51, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

It wouldn't be a revert. :) SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 05:52, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I bet you say that to all the boys... Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 05:54, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

And it never works. :) SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 05:57, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

POV tag?

Could someone explain the reason for the POV, so that we can discuss and address the issues? I briefly scanned this talk page and it's not entirely clear why this article is tagged. ATren (talk) 09:18, 17 May 2010 (UTC) [21]

I believe WMC tagged it as he could not get his way in having Singer described as a sceptic in the first sentence of the lede :) Personally i think the article is look far better than it did due to SV and Cla working on it, i say lose the tag mark nutley (talk) 09:26, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I plan to give it a day or so, and if there is no response to this, I will remove it. ATren (talk) 09:36, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

It isn't hard, the text is above. The problem is SV's whitewashing William M. Connolley (talk) 10:37, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Whitewashing of what specifically? ATren (talk) 12:38, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

See text from 13:06, 13 May and edits preceeding William M. Connolley (talk) 12:49, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

WMC, that version was 208 revisions ago. What specific issues remain in the current version? Can you please summarize the problems so that we can work to address them and remove the tag? ATren (talk) 05:38, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Please just take the trouble to actually read what I wrote then. We're inching closer - SV now appears to admit that calling him a GW skeptic is acceptable, and calling him retired is acceptable, which makes the entire probation request rather laughable, but we're not there yet William M. Connolley (talk) 07:33, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Primary source

We seem to be using this document as a source for Singer receiving $143,000 for preparing the NIPCC report, "Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate." Apart from this being a primary source, which isn't appropriate for this kind of claim, I can't see that it says anything about the NIPCC. Do we have a secondary source for this? SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 10:19, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, I do see now where it mentions the NIPCC. But see below. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 10:40, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Singer's Science & Environment Protection Project (SEPP) received $143,000 for preparing an NIPCC report called "Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate," published by The Heartland Institute in March 2008 One of the refs for this is to a pdf at guidestar.org, i have no idea if they are reliable but this is not the issue. I have read through the pdf and the payments made in the invoice are to four people, not just singer. This money thing will have to go as the current source is not correct mark nutley (talk) 10:24, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I think you are confused. The document SV linked to above is the tax return for for SEPP, the organization. This is a public document, or, as it says on the form, "Open for public inspection", because SEPP is a tax-exempt organization. The Guidestar link is just a convenience link, you can also get the a copy via some process I don't care about from the IRS. But GuideStar itself is a tax-exempt charity and lives of reporting on charities, so yes, they are a reliable source. The document shows the $143,000 as income for SEPP (on page 8), as claimed in your (and our) quote. SEPP will very likely have disbursed this money to other people, quite likely including Singer. But that is a separate transaction. However, I suspect you simply misread page 5, which lists SEPP's officers. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 11:11, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Have any secondary sources discussed this payment? SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 11:13, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

If this document shows that the cash was given only to sepp then why is it written in the article that it all is going to singer? mark nutley (talk) 11:30, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Mark. Please. Read the very quote you gave. It's not. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 11:48, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Sorry stephan, your correct, it says sepp got the cash, not singer. It`s just the way it is written makes it look like singer gets the cash, my fault for reading to quickly again :) mark nutley (talk) 11:58, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

The $143,000 edit was added in January by User:Eli Rabett, [22] a little-used SPA run by someone who has a blog that opposes climate-change skepticism. It was added in violation of Wikipedia:BLP#Misuse of primary sources, which says primary sources should be used in BLPs only to back up secondary sources. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 16:11, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

SV is right Do not use trial transcripts, other court records, or other public documents to support assertions about a living person, unless a reliable secondary source has published the material this source can`t be used mark nutley (talk) 16:32, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

No strong opinion, but you repeat your error above. It's not used to make an assertion about a living person. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 16:35, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

This pdf has singers address in it, and his phone number. It can`t be used, is there a way to purge it from WP so it`s no longer accessible from here? even in history? mark nutley (talk) 16:43, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

(comment moved from another section by SV) Can you two stop flirting and concentrate on what to do about (link removed) being in the page history? mark nutley (talk) 17:27, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I removed it from the article. Not sure what you mean about the page history. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 17:29, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict)

I mean it can still be viewed, as it has singers address and phone number in it it has to be purged mark nutley (talk) 17:31, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Why? William M. Connolley (talk) 17:32, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't see that as a problem, Mark; I've seen them on a few documents published by him. Also, removing things from that long ago would be difficult. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 17:33, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Well it has to be done, we can`t have someones personal information here, Do not use public records that include personal details there`s a reason for that, there are a lot of loonies out there who could misuse such information, whom should i speak to about this being purged? mark nutley (talk) 17:37, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

(undent) That document is problematic. Please don't link to it again. It's probably too deep to be oversightable, but WP:OVERSIGHT would be the final call. Hipocrite (talk) 17:42, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Thank you Hipocrite, i`ll go post over there now mark nutley (talk) 17:43, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Done, i have e-mailed the oversight guys, hopefully they can rid us of this troublesome document mark nutley (talk) 17:49, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I also want to note here that the same SPA/blogger, Eli Rabett (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), was using other primary source documents that he had posted to a personal website and which he then linked to in his edit summaries of this article. This was just a few months ago, and several experienced editors/admins were editing the article at the time, but no one stopped him. It's depressing to see this, because it means people were paying the BLP policy no need. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 08:33, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Another source request

Ben, can we have a source that shows he is best known for his contributions to books on climate-change skepticism? SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 11:23, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Just a general comment about sources. I'd be cautious about using online resources to judge what he's best known for. This guy's career spans many decades and it's possible the majority of reliable sources on Singer are in print format. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 12:32, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

What offline source would you prefer? Certainly, the online sources are overwhelming. Every bio of him mentions it, and often starts with it. EG "Founded by atmospheric physicist and global-warming skeptic S. Fred Singer" sepp.org. This article itself makes it clear that his main accomplishments are in that field - look at his selected publications. Frankly, apart from the scepticism, would he even be notable? He's been present at some good stuff, but hard to attribute more than a few bits of it directly to him. Cheers, Ben Aveling 12:59, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

books about climate skepticism

Are the books cited in the lede 'about' climate skepticism, or are they examples of climate skepticism? Regards, Ben Aveling 12:47, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Since they are *by* Singer they are almost without a doubt examples of "skepticism": he is not a historian William M. Connolley (talk) 17:21, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Suboptimal, again

We're off in suboptimal-land again it would seem. He is known for his contributions to books about climate skepticism, including... - but there is no ref for this. It isn't a self-refing statement, and in fact it is wrong. He has made contributions to books about climate skepticism, including... is self-refing and correct, but not very notable. The elephant you dancing around is that what he is *known* for is GW "skepticism" / denial William M. Connolley (talk) 13:44, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I've optimised it. I removed "The Changing Global Environment (1975)" - why is this believed to be skeptical? Singer was fairly sanemainstreamcorrected by BozMo early on; see [23] for example William M. Connolley (talk) 15:36, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Known for

Those of you who want to say he is known only for climate-change skepticism should read through some of the newspaper and magazine archives. This is from The New York Times alone, and these are only the ones in the article; there are several others. Also see Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report. If he had never involved himself in climate-change skepticism, he would still be notable, and indeed his skeptical views are of interest only because he was notable already.

Not about CC-skepticism

• Hillaby, John. "Astronauts soar in eyes of science", The New York Times, August 3, 1953.
• Schumach, Murray. "Planet Scientists Collide, Break Up", The New York Times, December 3, 1956.
• Sullivan, Walter. "Scientists Wonder If Shot Nears Moon", The New York Times, November 5, 1957
• The New York Times. "10 Young Men Cited by Junior Chamber", January 5, 1960.
• Osmundsen, John A. "Scientist 'looks' 40,000 miles out", The New York Times, January 30, 1960.
• The New York Times. "Physicist to Help U.S. Speed Weather Satellite System", July 6, 1962.
• Terte, Robert H. "A Dean for Earth and Space", The New York Times, March 15, 1964.
• Sullivan, Walter. "Scientists Trace Birth of Universe With Light Waves", The New York Times, December 20, 1965.
• Sullivan, Walter. "World's Space Scientists Take Look at the Future", The New York Times, May 19, 1966
• Singer, S. Fred. "Lessons of the Split in OPEC", The New York Times, May 21, 1977.
• Singer, S. Fred. "A Crisis for OPEC", The New York Times, March 31, 1981.
• Singer, S. Fred. "Against Sending Troops to the Gulf", The New York Times, March 7, 1984.
• Singer, S. Fred. "Intervening in the Oil Market", The New York Times, April 13, 1986.

CC skepticism

• Gleick, James. "Science and Politics: 'Nuclear Winter' Clash", The New York Times, February 17, 1987.
• Singer, S. Fred. "On Not Flying Into a Greenhouse Frenzy", The New York Times, November 16, 1989.
• Cushman, John H. "Industrial group plans to battle climate treaty", The New York Times, April 26, 1998.
• Woodwell, George M. and Holdren, John P. "Climate-Change Skeptics Are Wrong", The New York Times, November 14, 1998.
• Stevens, William K. "Global Warming: The Contrarian View", The New York Times, February 29, 2000.
• Jacoby, Jeff. "The jury is still out on global warming", The New York Times, August 20, 2007.
• Tierney, John. "Lessons from the Skeptics' Conference", The New York Times, March 4, 2008.
• Revkin, Andrew C. "Cool View of Science at Meeting on Warming", The New York Times, March 4, 2008.
• Revkin, Andrew. "Skeptics Dispute Climate Worries and Each Other", The New York Times, March 8, 2009.
• Zeller, Tom. "And in This Corner, Climate Contrarians", The New York Times, December 9, 2009.

SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 16:43, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I think you are talking to the empty set. But see my parallel comment below. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 16:45, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Indeed, who has suggested Those of you who want to say he is known only for climate-change skepticism - this looks like willful misrepresentation by SV. People have been suggesting that we shouldne't be afraid to say that he *is* known as a skeptic - as well William M. Connolley (talk) 17:15, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Unsourced and likely wrong...

I've just tagged "He is known for his work on space research, atmospheric pollution, and climate change". Is there a source for this statement? It looks wrong to me. For one, in the context it suggests scientific work in climate change, and his contributions there are marginal at best. For another, there is no source given what he is known for - I certainly did not know him for his work on atmospheric pollution. Why don't we drop the "known for" that's very hard to verify with secondary sources, but simply restate this as "He has worked in space research, atmospheric pollution, and is a well-known climate change skeptic"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by The man with no rice (talk • contribs)

I have reworded the text to incorporate this suggestion, though I had to tweak a bit to make it flow with the following sentence. ATren (talk) 16:53, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Could either of you please respond to my last post in the section Misrepresentation of Sources? please mark nutley (talk) 17:03, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Lead (again)

I was just thinking we finally had a good lead after ATren's edit, [24] then WMC added more commentary to it. [25] Changing Global Environment is a book Singer edited, not wrote, and the thing about mainstream opinion is OR. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 17:22, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Funny how blind you are. is well-known as the author of several books which are skeptical of climate change, including is just as OR. But as you say it, I'll believe you, and have edited it to make him the editor. You could have done that, instead of complaining William M. Connolley (talk) 17:25, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Also, Singer did write the intro and one of the chapters. It makes for quite a fun read William M. Connolley (talk) 17:29, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Back to our regularly scheduled program. The intro now reads in part "...and is well-known as the author of several books which are skeptical of climate change, including Global Climate Change (1989), Hot Talk, Cold Science (1997), Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years (2007 with Dennis Avery), and Climate Change Reconsidered (2009 with Craig Idso). But much earlier in his career he edited The Changing Global Environment (1975), which follows the mainstream of the time in describing global warming as a likely potential problem." I have two problems with that. First, he is not particularly well-known as the author of these books (we have no source for that claim, either), but rather as an AGW sceptic in general. Secondly, I don't think the 1975 book is relevant for the lede. It's a normal scientific collection of papers, almost certainly with low print run and unknown outside specialised circles. Putting this up here distracts from more important stuff and is undue weight. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 20:45, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I agree with your fundamental point - he is known a "skeptic", not an author. For the 1975 book, well, at least it isn't now listed as a skeptical work, which is better than when I found it :-) William M. Connolley (talk) 21:08, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

This is not really true. He IS an author. Pleasure Mesh (talk) 21:55, 17 May 2010 (UTC)Blocked sockpuppet. - 2/0 (cont.) 14:24, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

"Selected" publications

Who "selected" these, and how? William M. Connolley (talk) 17:23, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

These were chosen by the Wikipedia community. This is an encyclopedia everyone can edit. Pleasure Mesh (talk) 21:59, 17 May 2010 (UTC)Blocked sockpuppet. - 2/0 (cont.) 14:25, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Stopping for now

I've decided to stop trying to expand this article so long as the situation with WMC continues. He's removing material from The New York Times from the lead, [26] adding his own unsourced opinion, [27] and he has now removed the entire Further reading section and the categories, [28] though the cats were all non-controversial, and the articles in FR all mainstream. This was combined with him accusing me of "writing lies" in edit summaries. [29]

There's no point in trying to improve an article with this kind of thing going on. I've left a note for the admins on the probation page, [30] but I can't see what else to do for now. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 08:17, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

How about working with instead of complaining about other editors? --Stephan Schulz (talk) 08:22, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

...and applying WP:AGF. I'm fairly sure William didn't remove the categories intentionally. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 08:28, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

That point works both ways. Minkythecat (talk) 09:18, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Dean of...

Copied from the probation page, since it seems SV regards taht as write-only: He also removed material that was sourced to The New York Times. Indeed I did. Here is the diff [31]. I removed what looked like hyperbole to me. Shall we google it to see if it is true? [32]. 1,120 hits, looks good doesn't it? But actually there seem to be only 11, and they are *all* reprints of the NYT article. Which is to say that *no-one* calls him the DoCC, except Revkin, once William M. Connolley (talk) 10:13, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Clarify: The large GHits estimate given by Google on the first page is off, the results run out on the second page (it shows 13 in total for me). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 10:43, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

(removed comment ATren (talk) 19:24, 18 May 2010 (UTC))

I've removed it again. There is no consensus for it and its an entirely irrelevant detail. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 11:18, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

@ATren: can you explain why you're re-adding something that we know to be incorrect, please William M. Connolley (talk) 11:19, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

(removed comment ATren (talk) 19:24, 18 May 2010 (UTC))

[Revkin asserts that he is widely called the Dean of something. That maens, that re-treads of Revkins article can't verify that: what you need are uses of that phrase *before* Revkins article. But, there are none William M. Connolley (talk) 11:51, 18 May 2010 (UTC)] Note: this comment later redacted William M. Connolley (talk) 20:02, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Please stop attacking other editors.

Journalists interview people, they don't simply do Google searches. The New York Times reporter could be referring to people calling Singer that when he spoke to them. The point is that it's a reliable source and it's an appropriate thing to have in the lead. Your disagreeing with a reliable source doesn't affect its reliability. See WP:V. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 11:57, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

could - many things could be. The article in question is not even about Singer, but about a conference. The appellation of Singer is a mere aside in the article. It's not supported by any other sources, it's certainly not widespread, or it would have left traces in Google, and it's not at all important. Even assuming it were true, it would fail WP:UNDUE not only for the lede, but for the article. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 12:14, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

(removed comment) ATren (talk) 19:24, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

If you and WMC want to take a hand grenade into a phone booth and battle it out like real men, you're welcome. As long as there are innocent bystanders, tone it down. Thanks. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 12:17, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

(removed comment) ATren (talk) 19:24, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Have you considered the possibility that it is you who "doesn't get it"? --Kim D. Petersen (talk) 12:29, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

• Actually, if you ignore the precise (and somewhat unusual) formulation "climate contrarians" in the NYT article, you do get a few more matches, including one in a 2005 Rolling Stone article. [33]. There may be more such matches to be found, if one looks with a bit of ingenuity. While the precise wording may be unique to the NYT article, and the "often" may be open to question, the idea of calling Singer "the dean of" climate skeptics did not originate in the NYT article. --JN466 12:20, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

This is a more useful contribution than all the bickering above. Maybe we can find a compromise such as putting a somewhat weaker statement (i.e. without "often") into the "Global warming" subsection? I still don't see it in the lede. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 12:26, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

• What concerns me looking through the history of this article is how WP:V, WP:NOR, and WP:BLP have been largely ignored by several editors. From this point on I suggest we stick to them rigidly. It will cut down on a great deal of arguing about people's personal opinions. Anyone wanting to argue against the policies should do so on the policy talk pages, but this isn't the place for it. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 12:30, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

I was wondering how the other sources already cited in the article (and several more I found on the Web, see below) describe Singer in relation to climate-change skepticism. I've boldfaced the ones consistent with describing him as "dean of". I get the impression from all of this that when writers (that is, reporters and commentators of various stripes) attempt to describe Singer's role among opponents to AGW orthodoxy, it's consistent with "Dean of". The other descriptions don't seem to attempt to describe his role in that movement, but they're not inconsistent with "Dean of".

10 quotes/links:
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
Results: Nova (see little box near top) [34] Singer has been a leading skeptic of the scientific consensus on global warming. Daily Telegraph [35] an American atmospheric physicist Professor Fred Singer George Monbiot, 2006 [36] a maverick environmental scientist called S Fred Singer. ABC News (U.S.), March 2008 [37] Singer, an 84-year-old Princeton-trained physicist, is the grandfather of the global warming skeptics who dispute the established scientific consensus that global warming is real, that it is caused by the pollution humans are pumping into the atmosphere, and that it will be catastrophic if measures are not taken immediately. New York Times news article, April 1998 [38] Fred Singer, a physicist noted for opposing the mainstream view of climate science. George Monbiot, 2005 [39] one of the very few climate change deniers who has a vaguely relevant qualification (he is, or was, an environmental scientist). Andrew Revkin, New York Times, March 2008 "=&scp=48"fred singer=&pagewanted=print S. Fred Singer, a physicist who runs a group challenging climate orthodoxy I also did a Google News search for "Fred Singer" + "climate change" and F.S. + "global warming" and got: Book review, Washington Times, May 10 [40] Fred Singer, a pioneer of modern atmospheric science Blog by Peter Galuzka, Washington Post website, May 6 [41] S. Fred Singer, now a familiar face on the conservative speaker circuit San Diego Voice opinion/reporting article, May 14 [42] a group of skeptics long led by two prominent Cold War-era physicists: S. Fred Singer and Fred Seitz, who died in 2008. In her forthcoming book, Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes, a University of California, San Diego science historian, traces back to them much of the climate skeptic movement that Coleman champions.

Calling him "dean of" seems fair, and seems to reflect what Revkin says at the New York Times, what Rolling Stone says, what ABC says, what a critic like Naomi Oreskes says (at least as interpreted by the San Diego publication, she actually goes farther in assessing his importance). Isn't the essential concept here that Singer is one of the (or maybe the) oldest and most looked-up-to guy in his movement? It seems like an opinion about him that's worth mentioning, even in the lead, although it's basically a judgment call we could make either way. -- JohnWBarber (talk) 18:29, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

I absolutely agree that FS is one of the old-timers of the "skeptic" movement. It is rather ironic that you are agreeing with this, when just a little while back SV was edit warring to keep this out. Indeed, if you look at the probation enforcement request that SV filed you'll see two diffs in the what-did-he-do-wrong section; one of them is addig a POV tag (oh, the shame!) and the other is [43]: WMC edited the article to say that Singer is a global warming skeptic. So if we're all now agreed this is obvious, fine. But that he is often called "The Dean of..." is wrong, as the links above show William M. Connolley (talk) 20:13, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

You're substituting your own opinion for that of The New York Times. That's a violation of policy. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 21:17, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

We don't put everything from every paper into this article. No, we use our judgement as to what is appropriate and what isn't. "It is in an RS, therefore it must go in" is the cry of the POV pusher through the ages. Don't do it. Now, let us try the point you're evading: we're all now quite certain that FS is a GW skeptic. So how do you justify a RFE based on two diffs, one of which says... that FS is a skeptic? William M. Connolley (talk) 21:33, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't know what you mean. I have difficulty parsing your writing. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 21:39, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Well, I have to be cautious here, as people have complained before about me being patronising. Is it the acronyms? Or the difficult grammar? I'm quite happy to try to be more comprehensible if you're finding this tricky. Are all the sentences confusing, or only some of them? William M. Connolley (talk) 21:45, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

I often have difficulty understanding your writing, as well as the point you're trying to make. This—"we're all now quite certain that FS is a GW skeptic. So how do you justify a RFE based on two diffs, one of which says... that FS is a skeptic?"—means nothing to me. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 21:50, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Ah, OK, let me try expanding it: "we're all now quite certain that Fred Singer is a Global Warming skeptic. So how do you justify a Request For Enforcement based on two diffs, one of which says... that Fred Singer is a skeptic?" - how is that? William M. Connolley (talk) 21:55, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

(a) You're misrepresenting the request, (b) you know how disruptive you've been, and so do most if not all of the editors who've interacted with you, (c) this page is to discuss article content. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 22:16, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

In light of (c), are you willing to withdraw (b), along with the remaining slams you've made against other editors of the article? Could everyone -- and that means everyone, including me -- stop the bickering and get on with the article? SV's draft in her userspace is not too bad, though it relies too heavily on a single source (Scheuering) and contains a few things I think are uncomfortably close to WP:OR. But those things can be fixed (at least in principle). Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 00:04, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Who have I "slammed" apart from WMC? I ask because yesterday you accused me of a "disturbing number" of mistakes with sources; that turned out to be two, neither of them mistakes in my view. So I'm wondering if the "remaining slams [I've] made against other editors" are going to boil down to one. :) SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 01:05, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Before and the "not too bad" version. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 00:16, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

I'm talking about it here because you refuse to talk about it elsewhere (oh - and would you consider taking your own advice to "Please stop attacking other editors."). (a) and (b) are both false (you might want to try looking in a mirror). As Boris says - if you believe (c), try acting like it. So: to discuss the content of *this* page: we're all agreed - including you - that describing Singer as a Global Warming Skeptics is accurate and appropriate - yes? William M. Connolley (talk) 07:35, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

We could replace the "dean of" sentence with

A prominent and longstanding leader among global warming skeptics,<Footnote: CBC> Singer has been called that movement's "grandfather" by ABC News<Footnote> and "the dean" of climate skeptics by Rolling Stone<Footnote> and others.<Footnote NYT's Revkin>

I think that's consistent with WP:ATTRIBUTEPOV. Eventually, we can probably round up a better citation of Naomi Oreskes somewhere (her book, Merchants of Doubt, officially comes out next week). We could also add the Nova source (first one on my hatted list, above: has been a leading skeptic). It's significant that when various reliable sources describe his place in the "climate contrarians" movement, they make this point, and I think that makes it important enough to include in the lead. This point, which could be expanded a bit, also fits in well with the first sentence in the "Global warming" subsection: In the same 2006 CBC documentary, Singer was named as one of a small group of scientists who have created what CBC called a stand-off that is undermining the political response to global warming.[36] -- JohnWBarber (talk) 02:57, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

I think it's still undue weight, in particular for the lede, but at least it's no longer actively wrong. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 11:24, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

I still don't like it. Singer is very rarely called Dean of, or Grandfather of, anything. There is just no point in using that quote. Also, I'm not happy with "leader among" - I think that it is questionable whether he is that in reality, and in wiki-world you haven't provided a source. Why not just A prominent and longstanding global warming skeptic<Footnote: CBC> - what do we need the rest for? William M. Connolley (talk) 11:52, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

what do we need the rest for? This is the second time in 24 hours that I've come across an editor saying there's no "need" for something (another editor said there's no "need" for a picture of something in a "See also" section). If we're not talking policy violations or the like, needs just don't enter into the matter. I agree, not all of it is essential to the article (the part that WMC suggests does seem essential), but I think we're looking for "optimal" here. Singer is very rarely called Dean of, or Grandfather of, anything. It's hard to evaluate how often or rare that is, but I agree that there's a suspicious lack of ghits for Revkin's assertion (compare with Helen Thomas, doyenne of the White House press corps, or the late Hank Jones, "dean of jazz pianists"). My suggested language gets us away from "often" and "rarely" because it seems to me it's important that journalists from some prominent news organizations who are trying to give readers an assessment of his place in this movement have called him that (not always in those words, but similar ones). I think their judgment is worth including in the lead because it's an evaluation by people trying to be neutral as well as critics of the movement (and, if you believe Revkin, by people in the movement) about his influence and/or the respect given to him. How else would that be conveyed in a Wikipedia article? Wouldn't you want a range of sources for that? Why wouldn't that topic be important enough to cover in the lead? leader among I got that from the CBC sentence I quoted and from Nova's "leading" (Merriam-Webster def [44]), and in what I consider basically a political movement (a herd of independent minds), if you're influential and prominent that makes you a "leader" in the only sense that counts. Why not just "A prominent and longstanding..." see WP:ATTRIBUTEPOV (I just fixed the link for that). Also, it seems to downplay what some important sources are saying -- that he's one of the most prominent and longstanding. If we can get that idea across and not violate WP:ATTRIBUTEPOV, I'm flexible as to wording. -- JohnWBarber (talk) 21:16, 19 May 2010 (UTC)--coupla small revisions -- JohnWBarber (talk) 21:44, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Protected

I have put the page under full protection for three days to give everyone the chance to reflect and discuss. --BozMo talk 12:03, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

User subpage editing

Because of the problems on this page, I've started expanding the article at User:SlimVirgin/FS (started before the article was protected). Anyone interested in adding content is welcome to join me there or on the talk page. SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 14:36, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

I think the current version reads well and seems pretty balanced, I don't see the merit of a personal fork. Forks like this always muddy the waters. Fences&Windows 22:53, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Hard to understand

NIPCC

Does anyone know what this means?

In 2008, Singer's Science and Environmental Policy Project completed the organization of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) as the culmination of a process that began in 2003. The NIPCC calls itself "an international coalition of scientists convened to provide an independent examination of the evidence available on the causes and consequences of climate change in the published, peer-reviewed literature – examined without bias and selectivity." The Science and Environmental Policy Project received $143,000 for preparing the report in 2007. The 2008 NIPCC document titled Nature, Not Human Activity Rules the Climate: Summary for Policymakers of the Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel of Climate Change, published by The Heartland Institute, was released in February-March 2008. Singer served as General Editor and also holds the copyright.

SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 00:00, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

What part of it do you not understand? mark nutley (talk) 09:03, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Yes. Lots of people know what it means William M. Connolley (talk) 07:32, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Passive smoking

I'm trying to fix this section, but the part in bold is not very clear:

British journalist George Monbiot wrote in The Guardian in 2006 that in 1993 APCO, a public relations firm, sent a memo to Ellen Merlo, vice-president of Philip Morris USA, the tobacco company, which mentioned Singer. Philip Morris had just commissioned APCO to fight the EPA. The memo said: "As you know, we have been working with Singer and Dr. Dwight Lee, who have authored articles on junk science and indoor air quality (IAQ) respectively ..." Monbiot writes that an article written by Singer—"Junk Science at the EPA"—said that the dangers of environmental tobacco smoke were based on what Singer called a shocking distortion of scientific evidence, and that the EPA had had to rig the numbers in its report on passive smoking. It was this report, according to Monbiot, that Philip Morris and APCO had wanted to discredit. Monbiot added that he had no evidence that Singer had been paid by Philip Morris.

Which is the "Junk Science at the EPA" reported that Singer is supposed to have written? I can't find it anywhere but in the Monbiot article. Is it the same as the anti-EPA report that Singer reviewed for the Alex de Tocqueville Institution? (See first paragraph of this section)? SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 00:10, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

It was part of the discovery in the Tobacco trials and released as part of the Master Settlement Agreement. Hipocrite (talk) 12:44, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Great Global Warming Swindle

I'm wondering why this is mentioned. I've watched a bit of it and can only see him appear for seconds; or did he play a larger role? SlimVirgin ^{talk contribs} 01:38, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

He is listed in the credits, but billed as 13th. Cla68 (talk) 04:27, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

If only in it for seconds as claimed, is it a relevant enough appearance to be in the article? Did the documentary extensively use any of his research? Minkythecat (talk) 09:16, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

[45] William M. Connolley (talk) 12:07, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

The onset of middle age may have worsened my admittedly poor eyesight, but looking at the linked diff and the Ofcom ruling, nowhere in the Ofcom ruling is Singer mentioned, nor the alleged distortion of comments by King - hence using the reference to claim "Ofcom upheld King's claim of unfair treatment in the program" is a false claim. In which case, why precisely was that text added? To attack Singer? Minkythecat (talk) 12:27, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

I suggest you hunt down User: Cap'nTrade and find out. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 12:33, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Given he appears to be retired... WMC linked that diff - bit curious as to why, given the claim made in the diff doesn't seem to stand up? Minkythecat (talk) 13:14, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Bit curious in what way? He answer's SV's question. Q: "why is this in the article". A: "because someone put it here in 2008". Guettarda (talk) 13:41, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

The 2008 diff has a reference that doesn't back the claim... hence it's utterly pointless bringing it up. So again, excluding the discreditted diff, was Singer's involvement within the program enough to merit a mention? If he only appeared for seconds, should it even be in the article? Minkythecat (talk) 14:08, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Err, I provided the diff as a point of information, no more. Please don't try to blame me for what is in it. As for only appearing for seconds: do you have a RS for that? Or, just how long does he appear for? William M. Connolley (talk) 14:47, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Hardly blaming you. Just curious as to why it was linked. With regards to Singers participation being for seconds, someone else mentioned that - which is why I asked for evidence. Minkythecat (talk) 14:55, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Strangely enough the reference should have supported the claim - but for some strange reason the html version of Bulletin 114 isn't complete. The pdf version of Bulletin 114 (same ref really) does support it.[46](see page 36-42)

Here's the relevant part of the complaint (page 37):

The closing words of the programme were from a contributor, Professor Frederick Singer, who stated that:

“There will still be people who believe that this is the end of the world – particularly when you have, for example, the chief scientist of the UK telling people that by the end of the century the only habitable place on the earth will be the Antarctic. And humanity may survive thanks to some breeding couples who moved to the Antarctic – I mean this is hilarious. It would be hilarious actually if it weren’t so sad.”

Sir David King, the Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government, 2000 to December 2007, complained to Ofcom of unfair treatment in the programme as broadcast.

OfCom found that the statement was about Sir David King (without reasonable doubt), and that it was seriously misrepresenting what Sir David had said. --Kim D. Petersen (talk) 15:31, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Here are some of the MSM reportings that mentioned this: The Independent,The GuardianThe Times --Kim D. Petersen (talk) 15:42, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Yup, odd that - don't know why the web site omitted that section. Didn't Ofcom note that there were many reports of King's original comment which he failed to challenge with regard to the "only" comment? Certainly the breeding bit was mixed up. Minkythecat (talk) 16:08, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

It sounds like Singer appeared prominently in that documentary, and I'd add that word to the sentence. If we could do it very concisely, I think it would be worth including something about a broadcasting-standards board (assuming that's Ofcom's role here) later finding that the documentary prominently featured Singer misrepresenting King's statements on global warming, as long as it's a pretty cut-and-dried, dead-to-rights kind of thing. -- JohnWBarber (talk) 22:09, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

The sources appear to me to support including a mention of Singer's participation in that documentary. Cla68 (talk) 22:48, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Editprotected

{{editprotected}} Please replace ref #1 with http://www.virginia.edu/registrar/records/98ugradrec/chapter14/uchap14-2.28.html , which an authoratative reference as opposed to the back cover blurb of a book.

"Retired Faculty". University of Virginia. Retrieved 19 May 2010.

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit protected}} template. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 16:22, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

FFS. Does anyone have a problem with this totally non controvercial housekeeping edit? Speak now or... Hipocrite (talk) 16:24, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Agreed (minus the profanity, naturally, since I'm on civility parole and am a Good Boy) William M. Connolley (talk) 16:35, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

It is controversial though Hipocrite, please see the sections above mark nutley (talk) 17:01, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

What is controvercial about replacing a dodgy source with a source that is official, exactly? Please be explicitly clear - I'm seriously considering filing yet another RFE about your behavior. Hipocrite (talk) 17:19, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

But is it, any more? We now have an official statement from U Virginia that he is retired. Are there still people who claim he isn't? William M. Connolley (talk) 17:15, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

 Done — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 19:08, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Editprotected 2

{{editprotected}}

• In the lead paragraph, please describe the subject of this WP:BLP as "an American atmospheric physicist", not "a retired American atmospheric physicist"

• Note that this reflects unanimous agreement across all reliable sources available in google news and google books.
• There isn't a single news or book source out there that calls him a "retired atmospheric physicist" or, for that matter, a retired American atmospheric physicist. --JN466 17:47, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

• Strongly oppose without taking a positon on the merits. This actually is the controversy, unlike my suggestion, which is a non-controvercial housekeeping that everyone should be fine with. The proposer is aware that everyone will not be fine with his suggestion. Hipocrite (talk) 18:19, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
• Oppose: clearly controversial, and known to be wrong [47] William M. Connolley (talk) 18:24, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Attending admin please note that the current wording is not backed up by a single source, and is in fact unsourceable. The fact that Singer has retired from his job at the university does not make him "a retired atmospheric physicist". All published sources without exception are agreed that he is "an atmospheric physicist". The most recent source, from March this year, actually calls him "a leading atmospheric physicist" and discusses a report Singer is said to have authored in June 2009.

This is a WP:BLP. It is completely unacceptable for a BLP to have a statement in its lead sentence that is not just unsourced, but unanimously contradicted by every press and book source published about the man. Per WP:BLP, "Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced—whether the material is negative, positive, neutral, or just questionable—should be removed immediately and without waiting for discussion." --JN466 18:28, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

www.dnaindia.com does not appear, on it's face, to be a reliable source. Is it frequently used by other, obviously reliable sources? Does it have a reputation for accuracy and fact checking? Hipocrite (talk) 18:30, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Good lord, take your pick. --JN466 18:37, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Hmm. WMC has provided a source listing him as a retired faculty member in a different subsequent specialty and you give no source stating he is non retired, just ones which do not mention retired? It does not look clear enough cut to edit under protection to me. The first sentence does show his age as eighty five so I do not think it gives a vastly different impression to include the word retired? --BozMo talk 18:37, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Found refs calling him a retired professor very easily so I think this falls under normal content disputes, not BLP exceptions. --BozMo talk 18:43, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Singer is retired from the university's faculty. He is not "a retired atmospheric physicist". He continues to work and publish as such. We can call him a "retired professor emeritus", if you like, but that would be tautological. --JN466 18:44, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

This is from yesterday. The man attended the The Fourth International Conference on Climate Change last Sunday. --JN466 18:54, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Here is the conference program. --JN466 18:57, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

It must be obvious to you by now that this isn't going to work. But anyway: the "conference" you're talking about is a joke: it is the "skeptics" get-together, not a real scientific conference. That Singer is going is indeed informative, but not in the way you think, and certainly doesn't prove he isn't retired. And to state the obvious (but only because you seemto have missed it): your source is not reliable William M. Connolley (talk) 19:00, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict)

I would not call a conference with around 84 eggheads as not "Scientific". Jayen is correct though, he is retired from the uni only, he continues to work so he is not a retired atmospheric physicist at all is he mark nutley (talk) 19:11, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Is equally obvious that he held a session at the conference two days ago, and that your description of him as a "retired atmospheric physicist" is unsourced. --JN466 19:10, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

NYT calls him a retired physicist [48] as do plenty of other sources. I do not have a view on changing the article but this is not as clear cut as you make out. --BozMo talk 19:28, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit protected}} template. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 19:04, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

• BLP noticeboard discussion here, as consensus on this issue seems impossible on this page. --JN466 19:51, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
  • The BLP discussion seems to have run its course: [49]. Current consensus at BLPN is to remove the word "retired" from the lead sentence. Unless this changes, I will place another editprotected request tomorrow. --JN466 00:53, 20 May 2010 (UTC)
    • Sorry, I don't see the consensus at BLPN. Hans Adler's suggestion for "compromise language that neither says directly that he is retired or no longer doing research, but also does not suggest that he is still doing research" is a better approach although it will take more effort to reach agreement. Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 01:28, 20 May 2010 (UTC)
      • Agreed. Forum-shopping to BLPN is unacceptable William M. Connolley (talk) 08:39, 20 May 2010 (UTC)