The petition first emerged in April 1998 and was organized by Art Robinson of the self-proclaimed
“Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine” (OISM)
Along with the petition there was
a cover letter from Dr. Fred Seitz (who has since died), a notorious climate change denier (and big tobacco scientist) who over 30 years ago was the president of the National Academy of Science.
the article said, the emissions amounted to
“a wonderful and unexpected gift from the Industrial Revolution” by stimulating atmospheric carbon dioxide and increasing plant growth.
The petition and the documents included were all made to look like official papers from the prestigious
National Academy of Science. They weren’t, and this attempt to mislead has been well-documented.
The petition was so misleading that the National Academy
issued a news release stating: “The petition project was a deliberate attempt to mislead scientists and to rally them in an attempt to undermine support for the Kyoto Protocol. The petition was not based on a review of the science of global climate change, nor were its signers experts in the field of climate science.”