Leipzig Declaration

The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change is a statement made in 1995, seeking to refute the fact that there is a scientific consensus on the global warming issue.[1] It was issued in an updated form in 1997 and revised again in 2005,[2] claiming to have been signed by 80 scientists and 25 television news meteorologists while the posting of 33 additional signatories was pending verification that those 33 additional scientists still agreed with the statement.[3] All versions of the declaration, which asserts that there is no scientific consensus about the importance of global warming and opposes the recommendations of the Kyoto Protocol, were penned by Fred Singer's Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP).

The first declaration was based on a 9–10 November 1995 conference, organized by Helmut Metzner in Leipzig, Germany.[4] The second declaration was additionally based on a successor conference in Bonn, Germany on 10–11 November 1997. The conferences were cosponsored by SEPP and the European Academy for Environmental Affairs and titled International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy.

Today, the declaration is regarded as disinformation campaign, exercised by the climate change denial movement using the fake-expert-strategy, to cast doubt on the scientific consensus about global warming.[5][6][7]

  1. ^ "The Leipzig Declaration On Global Climate Change". SEPP. Archived from the original on 1998-12-06.
  2. ^ "The Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change (2005, revised)". SEPP. Archived from the original on 2006-08-27.
  3. ^ "Signatories to the Leipzig Declaration". SEPP. Archived from the original on 2006-09-28.
  4. ^ "Obituary in "The Week That Was". SEPP. 25 Dec 1999. Archived from the original on 2002-12-18.
  5. ^ John Cook et al: Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: Exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence. PLOS ONE 2017, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0175799.
  6. ^ G. Thomas Farmer, John Cook: Climate Change Science. A modern Synthesis. Volume 1 – The Physical Climate. Dordrecht 2013, p. 450.
  7. ^ Lawrence Powell, James: The Inquisition of Climate Science. New York 2012, p. 11-12.