October 9, 2010
Hal Lewis sent a scathing letter to the American Physical Society, announcing resignation from his 67-year membership in the prestigious group on issues of the Society's handling of the global warming science debate. Or lack thereof.
What is the APS?
The American Physical Society is the second largest professional association of physicists in the world, comprising more than 47,000 members. (The largest is a professional physics society in Germany.)
Who is Hal Lewis?
Professor Lewis is a physicist with a long, distinguished career of service to the physics profession and the country including Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara; Defense Science Board; DSB Study on Nuclear Winter; Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; President’s Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee; APS Study on Nuclear Reactor Safety; JASON; USAF Scientific Advisory Board; author of two books; US Navy veteran; and now former Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Aside from those lofty credentials, it's clear to see Hal Lewis as an important person with a record of service to science and to the country.
What happened and why should we care?
Professor Lewis resigned from the APS because of its stand on global warming and its suppression of informed debate on the science.
Read Professor Lewis’s letter of resignation to the APS. While his scientifically formed views on global warming markedly differed from APS, the major reason was that he could no longer tolerate the undermining of legitimate science inquiry going on at the APS.
An honorable Fellow resigns over squashed science inquiry
Professor Lewis detailed five points of contention regarding the APS’s alignment on the so-called “consensus” around global warming. What consensus? The debate isn’t over; it’s only beginning. So said hundreds of APS members, signers of a petition that questioned APS’s conclusive positions on global warming.
Professor Lewis pointed out that despite revelations of data cooking, conspiracy to withhold information requested under the Freedom of Information Act, and conspiracy to prevent opposing research from being published, the APS continued to defend the advocates of global warming using secret committees and other shady tactics.
Follow the money
Lewis charges that money is driving all this. The APS leadership understands that substantial funds from government and other sources would evaporate the instant the global warming bubble burst. Why would the APS voluntarily remove itself from the alarmist money cycle?
A significant loss to the APS, tarnish on its scientific integrity
Well, there you pretty much have it. In essence, a once prestigious physics society has lost one of its most prestigious Fellows. Others will follow. There's a tarnish growing dark on APS's science integrity. Perhaps the APS lost its prestige long before Hal Lewis resigned.
