MEET TUCKER CARLSON'S SCIENCE ADVISOR

In January, Twitter ubergeek Tucker Carlson interviewed Willie Soon, who delivered a Putin length stemwinder. Awed by Carlson's rigorous fact checking, Soon limited himself to  statements  falling into three categories:

1.  :  That's mildly interesting 

2.  :  That's not true.

3.  :  That's wrong by several orders of magnitude.

While  introduced  Soon as an " Astrophysicist and geoscientist who spent 31 years at Harvard."

Which is odd as he never studied, taught  or held an appointment there, and has a PhD in aerospace engineering, not astrophysics  Soon's only claim to Harvard fame was being repramanded for falsely claiming affiliation:

Allegations Against Smithsonian Researcher Bring Attention to Harvard 

By MEG P. BERNHARD and ZARA ZHANG, CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS February 25, 2015

Although a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who has come under fire amid conflict of interest allegations has no formal affiliations with Harvard, the scientist’s use of Harvard’s name on research has brought attention to the University amid the public controversy.

Wei-Hock Soon, the controversial researcher based in Cambridge who claims that variations in the sun’s energy can largely explain climate change... is employed part-time by the Smithsonian side of the center and has no formal affiliations with Harvard, according to Charles R. Alcock, director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. 

Soon is not an employee of Harvard, and there are no records indicating that he has applied for or been granted funds administered by the University, according to a statement from University spokesperson Jeff Neal…

According to W. John Kress, interim undersecretary for science at the Smithsonian Institution,... Soon does not formally study climate change…

Soon did not respond to a request for comment on his relationship with and employment at Harvard.

Although Soon is not a University employee, he has a Harvard email address and... some news outlets have referred to Soon as a “Harvard astrophysicist.” Michael B. McElroy, a professor of environmental studies at Harvard, said it is common practice for scientists to submit journal articles without prior review by their affiliate organizations. Even so, McElroy said he thinks that Soon ... used Harvard’s name inappropriately.

“The sense was communicated that this was a certified Harvard piece of work. But to my knowledge, neither one of them actually work for Harvard,” McElroy said. "

Soon's current academic post is , as he admitted to Carlson, as a John Birch Society summer camp science counselor. Soon, who has an aerospace engineering , not an PhD. never attended Harvard or served on its faculty.  

In 1994, lobbyist and Moonie science guru S. Fred Singer helped Soon secure a Smithsonian Institution post. After coauthoring a paper on solar variabilty with a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, which should not be confused with the Harvard Observatory. Soon used the Center as funding conduit, but was terminated nine years ago after it discovered that the "soft money" it received on his behalf was being granted in exchange for "deliverables" written in support of coal company efforts to downplay or deny the role of CO2, in climate forcing. 

In the course of the interview Soon told Carlson

• We don't know that oil and gas are fossil fuels.
• It's too cold to grow wine in England.
• There is more uranium in sea water than rocks *
• Curbing coal mining invites ecological collapse

While some might wonder how life survived  the 4 billion year Gas of Life drought preceding the advent of coal mining Carlson nodded cheerfully throughout Soon's spiel.

However,  those viewing it at leisure with access to science resources on the web 

may find it edifying to keep score on science according to Soon asth interview progresses, using the handy peer review toolkit developed by Professor John Baez of the University of California:

A simple method for quantitatively rating potential contributions to science:

To score each Soon comment , add as you read:

1. 1 point for every statement widely known to be false.
2. 2 points for every clearly vacuous statement.
3. 5 points for each such statement  adhered to despite careful correction.
4. 5 points for each thought experiment contradicting a  real one.
5. 10 points for each existing acronym expropriated,  e.g. CERES
6. 20 points for complaining an index like this "suppresses original thinkers" 
7. 20 points for every use of anecdote or myth as fact.
8. 20 points for each use of  " communist libtard" or "reactionary racist."
9. 30 points for each public appearance with a person in a polar bear or chicken little suit

   

   Willie Soon , at right
   40 points for claiming that a  "scientific establishment"  or modern-day Inquisition is engaged in a "conspiracy" to suppress your work.
   50 points for for comparing those opposing your ideas to Nazis, gangsters, or the KGB.
   60 points for putting words in Einstein's mouth or chalk
   100 points for displaying both in a single photoshopped image while pretending to take a call from President  Trump:

   

   Willie channels bogus Einstein quote while taking a call  from a Trump impersonator
   

Edited from Original  30 point list © 1998 John Baez

https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/crackpot.html

* The concentration of uranium in rocks is ~ 600 times higher than seawater, and  as rocks are  ~2.8 X denser than sea water Soon is off by a factor of a thousand.