Who the Heck Is Charles R. Hosler?

The News & Observer's letters page today published yet another rant denying the reality of global warming by Charles R. Hosler of Fearrington Village, a retirement community near Chapel Hill, N.C. It's the latest of dozens of letters Hosler has penned on the topic published in the past several years by Triangle-area newspapers including the N&O, Durham Herald-Sun and Chapel Hill News.

In his latest letter, Hosler criticized a recent N&O Point of View article in which N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network Director Jim Warren asserted that "[g]lobal warming is accelerating toward potentially catastrophic weather changes -- including more severe storms and droughts."

Hosler scoffs at Warren's claims. "Dr. John Christy, professor and director of the Earth Systems Science Center at the University of Alabama, has shown that the frequency of hurricanes, thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes has not increased in recent years," he writes.

It's interesting that Hosler trots out Christy to back up his global warming skepticism. Christy became famous in the early 1990s for claiming that satellite data showed global temperatures were actually falling. However, other scientists found errors in his interpretation of the data -- and Christy himself has backed off from his earlier contrarian view on climate change.

Just last month -- in response to a scientific study commissioned by the Bush administration that found the lower atmosphere was indeed growing warmer and that there was "clear evidence" of human impact on climate -- Christy told the New York Times that he endorsed the conclusion that "part of what has happened over the last 50 years has clearly been caused by humans."

That's not the position taken by Hosler, however. In letter after letter published by local papers, he has vehemently denied global warming is actually occurring and that humans are exacerbating the problem through greenhouse gas pollution:

* In a March 20 letter published by the N&O, Hosler claimed, "There is no scientific evidence that anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are effectively influencing global climate changes."

* On Feb. 8, the Durham Herald-Sun published a letter in which Hosler wrote, "The often repeated statement that 'there is a scientific consensus that global climate change is occurring more rapidly' is false."

* Last September, the Chapel Hill Herald ran a letter in which Hosler said, "Any global warming from human activities, that can be attributed to global climate changes, is negligible, as documented by numerous scientific studies."

This begs the question: Who is Charles R. Hosler -- and what makes him qualified to speak on global warming?

The N&O identifies him as a retired meteorologist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a consultant to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission from 1958 to1967. A Google search of his name turns up a couple of scientific articles he's published -- one on radon and air pollution in Washington published in 1966 by the Journal of Applied Meteorology, and another on measuring temperature in the planetary boundary layer published by the same journal in 1972.

But most of the hits suggest that Hosler's position on global warming is informed less by science and more by politics. In fact, he's part of a political network that aims to cast doubt on the reality of climate change -- a network that's funded in large part by fossil fuel interests.

I first began suspecting as much last year when I was reporting on climate change and North Carolina for the Independent Weekly. John Hood and Roy Cordato of the John Locke Foundation -- a Raleigh-based think tank that promotes an anti-regulatory political agenda and that has been one of the loudest voices of climate change skepticism in the state -- referred me to Hosler as one of the organization's scientific advisors on global warming. As I discovered through my reporting, the John Locke Foundation received significant funding directly from fossil fuel interests and from organizations that are supported by fossil fuel interests, but it did not openly disclose that fact. Its financiers included a fund operated by the Koch family, the largest privately held oil conglomerate in the United States, and the Center for Energy and Economic Development, which represents the coal-based electricity industry.

My suspicions grew when I discovered that Hosler's letters to local papers have been republished by by JunkScience.com -- a Web site run by Steven Milloy. According to ExxonSecrets.org, a database sponsored by Greenpeace International, Milloy is a onetime lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute. Hosler's letters have also been republished by the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP), which has received at least $20,000 from Exxon Mobil since 1998.

SEPP was the sponsor of the Leipzig Declaration, a petition stating that there is "no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate." About 17,000 people have reportedly signed the petition -- including Hosler. However, journalists have raised serious questions about the legitimacy of many of the other signatures. For example, in a special report by the Danish Broadcasting Company, reporter Øjvind Hesselager attempted to contact the declaration's 33 European signers and found that four of them could not be located, 12 denied ever having signed, and some had not even heard of the document.

Furthermore, Hosler draws heavily on fossil fuel-funded sources for his work. For example, in a letter published last February by the Chapel Hill Herald titled "Global warming concern is not warranted," Hosler refers readers to four Web sites for additional information. One of them is the SEPP Web site. The others are:

* the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank that has received at least $280,000 from Exxon Mobil since 1998;

* Tech Central Station, a Web site published by the Republican lobbying and public-relations firm DCI group that has received at least $95,000 from Exxon Mobil since 1998 as well as funding from General Motors; and

* World Climate Report, a newsletter-turned-blog edited by outspoken global warming skeptic Patrick Michaels and sponsored by the Greening Earth Society -- a project of the Western Fuels Association that was established to spread the message that global warming is good for the Earth.

It's telling that Hosler does not refer readers to the work of legitimate scientific organizations such as the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union or the American Association for the Advancement of Science -- all of which have concluded that the evidence for human modification of climate is compelling. In fact, Hosler has nothing but scorn for the IPCC, which in a January 2002 letter to the Herald-Sun he charges with having become "too politicized."

How ironic. Hosler criticizes the scientific organizations for becoming too political, yet he has no qualms about accepting the scientific claims of blatantly political organizations funded by the very industry whose profits are most threatened by efforts to address global warming.

Clearly, Hosler should be taken with a big grain of salt.