The list of 500 is available in this document.
The list is grouped by country and starts with:
SCIENTISTS AND PROFESSIONALS FROM BELGIUM
Rob Lemeire, Publicist on Environmental and Climate Issues, ECD Ambassador
Eric Blondeel, retired Civil Engineer.
Emiel van Broekhoven, Emer...
I was going through that list, and they've got a whole bunch of signatories that aren't climate scientists. There's an Electrical Engineer who's listed as "Climate Advisor" for a conservative think tank, a microbiologist, a pharmacologist, an astrophysicist. This isn't a list of climate scientists, it's just a list of college graduates.
@DenisS right, they don't claim they are "scientists" only, the letter says "more than 500 knowledgeable and experienced scientists and professionals in climate and related fields".
With 7 billion people in the world, and tens of millions having PhDs, it is easy to find 500 "qualified people" who hold to pretty much any view (especially by taking a wide view of who is a qualified professional). "500 professionals think there isn't an emergency" doesn't in any way contradict "99% of experts believe climate change is a man-made problem".
The phrase "500 prominent climate scientists and professionals" is a classic example of marketing misdirection. It literally means "500 people, at least two of whom are prominent climate scientists, and the rest of whom are professionals of some other sort"
@DavePhD The article linked in the question says these are scientists and researchers, and heavily implies that they are climate scientists. The letter you linked does not say this. Your answer needs to make this discrepancy clear.
@DavePhD The word "researchers" appears in the article linked in the question (though not the quote in the question), but not in the letter. I'd say the wording of the claim, as stated in the letter, is true but misleading; the wording from the article as quoted in the question is false.
@FooTheBar Definitely not all scientists or PhDs. I wouldn't consider all PhDs scientists though, not if their PhD is divinity, law, economics, language, history, etc.
FWIW I am an electronic engineer, but I have written a few journal papers on climate. You can't tell whether someone knows what they are talking about as easily as looking at their degree title. The key point is not that there are 500 scientists willing to sign, but that there are only 500 signatures. I suspect you could get 500 scientists that would sign more or less any letter on any scientific topic if you tried hard enough. Crackpots are not in any shortage at the current time!
@DikranMarsupial I agree, PhD mostly just focuses on one narrow topic. It might mean the person is qualified in the narrow area of their thesis, but not necessarily beyond that.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guus_Berkhout The first name on the list is an engineer who worked for the oil and gas industry. I've only looked into one or two other names as I'm at work, but the words "climategate" "climate-change-denier" etc all come up in close association to their names when you do a quick google search
@DevSolar Yeah, I did look at that. I just found it especially hilarious that the first name on the list is a blatant oil industry shill. I mean at least lead off with your allegedly legitimate scientists! You don't have to make your own list that easy to debunk
A more honest say of putting the headline would have been "After extensive searching, we only found 500 people willing to sign this declaration". The GWPF is clearly relying on the (quite human) assumption that 500 is a lot of people.
GWPF is "Just reporting" articles like the above much the same way that Breitbart and InfoWars are "Just reporting" what they just happen to hear from other sources and can therefore not be blamed on them if it turns out to be mistakenly or maliciously false.
Discussion on answer by DavePhD: Did …
Discussion on answer by DavePhD: Did …