Desmog Video

Jack Barrett

Barrett and the “Scientific Alliance”

Barrett is an advising member of the “Scientific Alliance,” an organization formed by a UK businessman who was fed up with "all this environmental stuff." (source)

The Alliance describes itself as “a forum for addressing environmental problems based on sound science.” Other members include Sallie Baliunas and Benny Pesier . According to a July 2001 article, the Scientific Alliance was set up by Robert Durward and a public relations firm called “Foresight Communications.”

Originally, Durward, owner of a rock quarry in the UK, formed the Alliance out of frustration over an aggregate tax being proposed for the quarry industry. On top of fighting the tax, the Alliance also provided “expert” scientific advice on subjects like transport, climate change and biodiversity. Durward described himself, “as a businessman who is totally fed up with all this environmental stuff… much of it unjustified, such as the climate change levy.” At the time of the Alliance’s formation, Durward refused to disclose who the financial backers of the project were.

In December 2004, the Scientific Alliance teamed up with the ExxonMobil-funded George C. Marshall Institute to produce a paper titled "Climate Issues and Questions."

In January, 2005, the Scientific Alliance held a half-day seminar on the "alarmism" around the issue of climate change. Speakers included Fred Singer , Richard Lindzen and Benny Peiser.

Climate change research

Barrett is a former researcher in chemistry at King’s College in London. According to a search of 22,000 academic journals, there is a "JC Barrett" listed as a co-author of a single research paper on cloud densification published 13 years ago.

Barrett and the "Leipzig Declaration"

Barrett was one of the signatories to the "Leipzig Declaration," and according to Sourcewatch, was also a keynote speaker at the Leipzig Declaration launch. The Declaration was a project of Fred Singer's Science and Environmental Policy Project and a group called the European Academy of Environmental Affairs. The Declaration stated that: "there does not exist today a general scientific consensus about the importance of greenhouse warming from rising levels of carbon dioxide."

According to Sourcewatch, when a Danish journalist attempted to contact the 33 European scientists listed on the petition, 12 denied signing the petition and some had not even heard of the Leipzig Declaration. Of those that did admit signing the letter, one was a doctor and another was an expert in flying insects. The Declaration was then revised and many names were removed, but Barrett's has remained.

It is interesting to note that a similar tactic was used in the Oregon Institute's petition that DeSmog reported on earlier in our research of the letter of 60 scientists to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Fred Singer and his organization and the Geroge C. Marshall Institute were also heavily involved in the Oregon Petition.