Dennis Avery may have done the fact-challenged (yes, again) WaPo columnist George Will one better by actually admitting he’d “misstated” that CO2 levels at Mauna Loa were declining (when they were, in fact, quite clearly rising), but the remainder of his column was so error-filled that I thought it deserved another look.

Take the first half of the piece, in which he approvingly cites Australian – and Oxford-trained – research physicist Tom Quirk to make the jaw-dropping argument that natural climate variability, and not anthropogenic activity, is to blame for elevated atmosphere CO2 levels. A quick look at Avery’s list of citations informs us that Quirk’s article appeared in a recent issue of Energy and Environment, a “peer-reviewed” journal curated by Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen, which does not inspire great confidence in its scientific rigor.

As most of the blogosphere will remember our Heartland 500 story from the other week, I thought it was time for a quick update.

For those who don't remember, take a quick read of this quote and you'll get the picture:

I view that the inclusion of my name in such a list without my permission or consensus has damaged my professional reputation as an atmospheric scientist."

That quote is from Dr. Ming Cai, Associate Professor, Department of Meteorology, Florida State University. Dr. Ming Cai (along with many other researchers) was none to pleased being listed as a "co-authors on a paper produced by Dennis Avery, Senior Fellow at the Heartland Institute, titled "500 Scientists Whose Research Contradicts Man-Made Global Warming Scares."

“This is just another example of lack of scruples that climate skeptics have shown in pursuing short-term financial advantages, and basically condemning the next generations to suffer the consequences of climate change due to our lack of prudent and responsible planning."

With those words, the University of Maryland’s Distinguished Professor Eugenia Kalnay dismissed the Heartland Institute’s wholly discredited list of 500 Scientists with Documented Doubts about Man-Made Global Warming Scares.

Prof. Kalnay, with dozens of her colleagues, is outraged that Heartland Senior Fellow Dennis T. Avery included their names as contributors to a climate-change denial paper without their permission and in direct contradiction to their scientific work.

We can now count the dead and the imaginary among the shrinking number of scientists in the Heartland Institute list of 500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares.

"Bond, G., Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory;" "Bradbury, J. Pratt, USGS;" and "Keeling, Charles D., Scripps Institute of Oceanography" are all deceased and therefore unable to join the chorus of legitimate scientists who are demanding that their names be removed from the list.

UPDATE: we have received notes now from 45 outraged scientists whose names appear on the list of 500. We've published more quotes here.

Dozens of scientists are demanding that their names be removed from a widely distributed Heartland Institute article entitled 500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares.

The article, by Hudson Institute director and Heartland "Senior Fellow" Dennis T. Avery (inset), purports to list scientists whose work contradicts the overwhelming scientific agreement that human-induced climate change is endangering the world as we know it.

DeSmogBlog manager Kevin Grandia emailed 122 of the scientists yesterday afteroon, calling their attention to the list. So far - in less than 24 hours - three dozen of those scientists had responded in outrage, denying that their research supports Avery's conclusions and demanding that their names be removed.

I view that the inclusion of my name in such a list without my permission or consensus has damaged my professional reputation as an atmospheric scientist."

Dr. Ming Cai, Associate Professor, Department of Meteorology, Florida State University.

Earlier today we broke the story about dozens of scientists outraged at the use of their good names in an article by Heartland Institute's "Senior Fellow" Dennis Avery (inset) posted on their website entitled 500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares.

The letters are pouring in from angry scientists, with over 45 scientists now demanding that there names be stricken from the list, some are going much further and threatening legal action.