May 3 2008
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2008/05/03/who-is-william-connolley-solomon.aspx
Next to Al Gore, William Connolley may be the world's most influential
person in the global warming debate.
He has a PhD in mathematics and worked as a climate modeler but those
accomplishments don't explain his influence - PhDs are not uncommon and,
in any case, he comes from the mid-level ranks in the British Antarctic
Survey, the agency for which he worked until recently.
He was the Parish Councillor for the village of Coton in the U.K., his
website tells us, and a school governor there, too, but neither of those
accomplishments are a claim to fame in the wider world. Neither are his
five failed attempts to attain public office as a local candidate for
South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council
as a representative for the Green Party.
But Connolley is a big shot on Wikipedia, which honours him with an
extensive biography, an honour Wikipedia did not see fit to bestow on
his boss at the British Antarctic Survey. Or on his boss's's boss, or on
his boss's boss's boss, or on his boss's boss's boss's boss, none of
whose opinions seemingly count for much, despite their impressive
accomplishments. William Connolley's opinions, in contrast, count for a
great deal at Wikipedia, even though some might not think them
particularly worthy of note. "It is his view that there is a consensus
in the scientific community about climate change topics such as global
warming, and that the various reports from the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) summarize this consensus," states his Wikipedia
page, in the section called "Biography."
Connolley is not only a big shot on Wikipedia, he's a big shot at
Wikipedia -- an Administrator with unusual editorial clout. Using that
clout, this 40-something scientist of minor relevance gets to tear down
scientists of great accomplishment. Because Wikipedia has become the
single biggest reference source in the world, and global warming is one
of the most sought after subjects, the ability to control information on
Wikipedia by taking down authoritative scientists is no trifling matter.
One such scientist is Fred Singer, the First Director of the U.S.
National Weather Satellite Service, the recipient of a White House
commendation for his early design of space satellites; the recipient of
a NASA commendation for research on particle clouds -- in short, a
scientist with dazzling achievements who is everything Connolley is not.
Under Connolley's supervision, Singer is relentlessly smeared, and has
been for years, as a kook who believes in Martians and a hack in the pay
of the oil industry. When a smear is inadequate, or when a fair-minded
Wikipedian tries to correct a smear, Connolley and his cohorts are there
to widen the smear or remove the correction, often rebuking the
Wikipedian in the process.
Wikipedia is full of rules that editors are supposed to follow, as well
as a code of civility. Those rules and codes don't apply to Connolley,
or to those he favours.
"Peisers crap shouldn't be in here," Connolley wrote several weeks ago,
in berating a Wikipedian colleague during an "edit war," as they're
called. In such a war, rival sides change the content of a Wikipedia
page from one competing version to another, often with bewildering
speed. (Two people, landing on the same page seconds apart, might obtain
entirely different information.) In the Peiser case, a Wikipedian
stopped a prolonged war by freezing a continually changing page, to
prevent more alterations until the dispute was settled. As occurs on
such occasions, readers are alerted that Wikipedians are warring over
the page, and that Wikipedia was not endorsing the version of the page
that had been frozen. To Connolley's chagrin, however, the version that
was frozen cast doubt on claims of a consensus on climate change.
Although this was done within Wikipedia rules, Connolley intervened to
revert the page and ensure Wikipedia readers saw only what he wanted
them to see.
Peiser is Benny Peiser, a distinguished UK scientist who had
convincingly refuted a study by Naomi Oreskes that claimed to have found
no scientific papers at odds with the conventional wisdom on climate
change. The Oreskes study -- cited by Al Gore in his film, An
Inconvenient Truth -- is an article of faith to many global warming
doomsayers and guarded from criticism by Connolley et al. Peiser and
other critics of Oreskes's study, meanwhile, get demeaned.
Connolley and his cohorts don't just edit pages of scientists actively
involved in the global warming debate. Scientists who work in unrelated
fields, but who have findings that indirectly bolster a critique of
climate change orthodoxy, will also get smeared. So will non-scientists
and organizations that he disagrees with. Any reference, anywhere among
Wikipedia's 2.5-million English-language pages, that casts doubt on the
consequences of climate change will be bent to Connolley's bidding.
Connolley no longer works as a climate modeller - he now works as a
software engineer for a company called Cambridge Silicon Radio. And as
an engineer of opinion at Wikipedia.
--
Warmest Regards
Bonzo
"Let me say it plainly: The environmental movement has been taken over
by anti-capitalist radicals who are using it to wage war against
capitalism and campaign for liberal Democrats. Protecting the
environment is now number three, or lower, on their list of priorities."
Joe Bast, President, Heartland Institute, One-time Ardent
Environmentalist, Has seen it from both sides.
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