S. Fred Singer

[BodybyFisher]

I have always said that the Kuwait oil fires HAD to impact the atmosphere

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwaiti_oil_fires

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Singer

Fred Singer

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S(iegfried) Frederick Singer

Born October 27, 1924 (1924-10-27) (age 83)

Vienna, Austria

Nationality United States

Fields Physics, Atmospheric Science

Electrical Engineering

Institutions Princeton University, University of Virginia

George Mason University

University of Miami

Ohio State University

Notable awards White House Presidential Commendation

Gold Medal, Distinguished Federal Service

Siegfried Frederick Singer (born September 27, 1924 in Vienna) is an American atmospheric physicist. Singer is Professor Emeritus of environmental science at the University of Virginia, [1] specializing in planetary science, global warming, ozone depletion, and other global environmental issues. Singer received a B.E.E from Ohio State University in 1943; an A.M. in physics from Princeton in 1944; and a Ph.D in physics from Princeton in 1948. Singer has received an honorary Doctorate of Science from Ohio State University in 1970.[2]

Singer invented the backscatter photometer ozone-monitoring instrument for early versions of US weather satellites [3][4][5] Singer was Director of the Science and Environmental Policy Project, Washington Institute for Values in Public Policy, Chief Scientist, United States Department of Transportation from 1987 to 1989, Deputy Assistant Administrator for the United States Environmental Protection Agency from 1970 to 1971, and the first Director of the National Weather Bureau's Satellite Service Center, where upon his leave he received a Gold Medal for Distinguished Federal Service.[6][2][7] In 1964, he became the first dean of the School of Environmental and Planetary Sciences at the University of Miami.[6][8]

Singer has also been a consultant to the House Select Committee on Space, NASA, GAO, NSF, AEC, NRC, DOD (Strategic Defense Initiative), US DOE Nuclear Waste Panel, the US Treasury, and the state governments of Virginia, Alaska, and Pennsylvania, and to various industries including GE, Ford, GM, Exxon, Shell, Sun Oil, Lockheed Martin and IBM.[9]

In the 1950s, Singer was Director of the Center for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Maryland.[10]

Singer is skeptical of scientific findings on human-induced global warming[11][12][13], the connection between CFCs and ozone depletion[14], and the link between second hand smoke and lung cancer.[15][16] Singer has also worked with organizations with similar views, such as the Independent Institute,[17] the American Council on Science and Health[18], Frontiers of Freedom[19], the Marshall Institute, the National Center for Policy Analysis,[20] and the Science & Environmental Policy Project, which Singer founded.

Contents [hide]

1 Degrees

2 Career

3 Space and exploration

4 Kuwait oil fires debate

5 Global warming

5.1 NIPCC

6 UV-A and melanoma

7 Publication on health effects of tobacco

8 Notes and references

9 Publications

10 See also

11 Further reading

[edit] Degrees

Singer holds a B.E.E. in Electrical engineering from Ohio State University and an A.M. and PhD in Physics from Princeton University.[1]

[edit] Career

In the 1940s and 50s Singer designed the first instruments used in satellites to measure cosmic radiation and ozone.[1]

Previous government and academic positions:[1]

Director of the Center for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Maryland (1953-62)

Special advisor to President Eisenhower on space developments (1960)

First Director of the National Weather Satellite Service (1962-64)

Founding Dean of the School of Environmental and Planetary Sciences, University of Miami (1964-67)

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water Quality and Research, U.S. Department of the Interior (1967- 70)

Deputy Assistant Administrator for Policy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1970-71)

Professor of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia (1971-94)

Chief Scientist, U.S. Department of Transportation (1987- 89)

[edit] Space and exploration

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[21][22][23].

In 1981, he proposed a manned mission to the moons. Singer cited the following benefits of a manned mission to Mars over a further delayed direct landing on Mars: [24]

Minimal Δv’s needed to reach Phobos’s surface

Ability to monitor Mars from a stable platform in low Mars orbit (LMO)

Ability to teleoperate robots on Mars without significant time delay

Opportunity to advance the scientific investigation of small bodies

Potential of finding H2O on Phobos which might be used as a resource

In 1994, Singer contributed to a paper on the results from the Interplanetary Dust Experiment using data from the Long Duration Exposure Facility satellite.[25] Singer also has been a proponent of manned exploration to Mars.[26]

[edit] Kuwait oil fires debate

During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Dr. S. Fred Singer debated Carl Sagan on the impact of the Kuwaiti petroleum fires on the ABC News program Nightline. Sagan said we know from the nuclear winter investigation that the smoke would loft into the upper atmosphere and that he believed the net effects would be very similar to the explosion of the Indonesian volcano Tambora in 1815, which resulted in the year 1816 being known as the year without a summer, in massive agricultural failures, in very serious human suffering and, in some cases, starvation. He predicted the same for south Asia, and perhaps for a significant fraction of the northern hemisphere as well as a result. Singer, on the other hand, said that calculations showed that the smoke would go to an altitude of about 3,000 feet and then be rained out after about three to five days and thus the lifetime of the smoke would be limited.[27] According to a later study, the Kuwaiti oil fires, "had no lasting meteorological impacts at any of the locations examined, and there has been no change to the seasonal synoptic weather patterns throughout the Persian Gulf Region". However, Persian Gulf cities like Dhahran, Riyadh and Bahrain experienced days with smoke filled skies and carbon fallout."[28]

[edit] Global warming

In his extensive 2000 PBS interview, Singer noted the urban heat island effect influences surface temperatures.[29] He said surface temperatures showed both heating and cooling. In 2003, Singer stated that the warming from surface thermometer data was contradicted by satellite and radiosonde data etc.[30][31] Singer has emphasized natural factors over anthropogenic causes to explain global warming. Singer wrote:

The Earth currently is experiencing a warming trend, but there is scientific evidence that human activities have little to do with it. Instead, the warming seems to be part of a 1,500-year cycle (plus or minus 500 years) of moderate temperature swings.[32][33]

Singer has critiqued other scientists' research in Eos, December 16, 1997.[34] Singer co-authored two 2004 articles in Geophysics Research Letters.[35] In 2006, he gave an invited paper on Sea Surface Temperatures. [36] In 2007, studies Singer co-authored found tropospheric temperature trends of 'Climate of the 20th Century' models differed from satellite observations by twice the model mean uncertainty. Models of layers near 5 km were 100% to 300% higher than observation, and above 8 km models and observations had opposite signs.[37] [38] He is the co-author of the New York Times Bestseller Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years [39] with Dennis T. Avery of the Hudson Institute.

A 2007 Newsweek cover story on climate change denial reported that: "In April 1998 a dozen people from the denial machine — including the Marshall Institute, Fred Singer's group and Exxon — met at the American Petroleum Institute's Washington headquarters. They proposed a $5 million campaign, according to a leaked eight-page memo, to convince the public that the science of global warming is riddled with controversy and uncertainty." The plan was reportedly aimed at "raising questions about and undercutting the 'prevailing scientific wisdom'" on climate change. According to Newsweek, the plan was leaked to the press and therefore was never implemented.[40]

In 2007, the nonprofit advocacy group Union of Concerned Scientists called Singer a "climate contrarian." [41] ABC News has reported that Singer insists he is not on the payroll of the energy industry, but admits he once received an unsolicited $10,000 from Exxon.[42].

[edit] NIPCC

In 2008, Singer's group, the Science and Environmental Policy Project, completed the organization[43] of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) as the culmination of a process that began in 2003. "The foundation for NIPCC," stated Singer, "was laid ... when a small group of scientists from the United States and Europe met in Milan during one of the frequent UN climate conferences." It was not until a workshop with many more scientists, from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, was held in Vienna in 2007 that the NIPCC organizational effort formally began, however. [44]

According to the abstract of the 2008 Summary for Policymakers of the Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, the result of The 2008 International Conference on Climate Change held in New York City, the NIPCC is

"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. It includes many research papers ignored by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), plus additional scientific results that became available after the IPCC deadline of May 2006."[45]

The NIPCC document titled "Nature, Not Human Activity Rules the Climate,"[46] published by The Heartland Institute[47] was released in February-March 2008. Singer served as General Editor and is the copyright owner. It is unclear if the report is the "report itself" or the summary of an as-yet unreleased report since the report's second page subtitles it "Summary for Policymakers of the Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change."

Climate scientists from NASA, Stanford University and Princeton who were contacted by ABC News dismissed Singer's most recent report on global warming as "fabricated nonsense."[42]

[edit] UV-A and melanoma

Singer has stated there is a connection between UV-A and melanoma, as well as between the shorter-wavelength UV-B radiation and basal and squamous cell skin cancers. However, he believes that there is "no clear relation" between UV-B and melanoma rates, based on published research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. UV-B radiation and melanoma[48][49][50][51][52]

[edit] Publication on health effects of tobacco

In 1994 Singer was Chief Reviewer of the published report Science, economics, and environmental policy: a critical examination published by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (AdTI), a conservative think tank of which he was a Senior Fellow.[53] Singer was a co-author of early drafts of the report and had been singled out as the man for the job in a memo from AdTI to the Tobacco Institute [54]. A notation on that memo from Walter Woodson, Vice President-Public Affairs of the Tobacco Institute to Sam Chilcote, Jr, President of the Tobacco Institute, said that the job would be well worth the $20,000. The report attacked the United States Environmental Protection Agency for their 1993 study about the cancer risks of passive smoking and called it "junk science".[55]

Writing for The Guardian, George Monbiot stated that in 1993 APCO, a public relations firm, sent a memo to Philip Morris vice-president Ellen Merlo stating: "As you know, we have been working with Dr. Fred Singer and Dr. Dwight Lee, who have authored articles on junk science and indoor air quality (IAQ) respectively ..."[56] Monbiot wrote that he did not have direct evidence that Singer had been paid by Philip Morris.