?Scientific American took a random sample of 30 of the 1,400 signatories claiming to hold a Ph.D. in a climate-related science. Of the 26 we were able to identify in various databases, 11 said they still agreed with the petition?one was an active climate researcher, two others had relevant expertise, and eight signed based on an informal evaluation. Six said they would not sign the petition today, three did not remember any such petition, one had died, and five did not answer repeated messages. Crudely extrapolating, the petition supporters include a core of about 200 climate researchers; a respectable number, though rather a small fraction of the climatological community.?
The Seattle Times also investigated the Orgeon Petition, and found that some questionable people had signed.
?Several environmental groups questioned dozens of the names: ?Perry S. Mason? (the fictitious lawyer?), ?Michael J. Fox? (the actor?), ?Robert C. Byrd? (the senator?), ?John C. Grisham? (the lawyer-author?). And then there?s the Spice Girl, a k a. Geraldine Halliwell: The petition listed ?Dr. Geri Halliwell? and ?Dr. Halliwell.?
Asked about the pop singer, Robinson said he was duped. The returned petition, one of thousands of mailings he sent out, identified her as having a degree in microbiology and living in Boston. ?It?s fake,? he said.
?When we?re getting thousands of signatures there?s no way of filtering out a fake,? Robinson, 56, said in a telephone interview from Oregon.?
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