Clintel's World Climate Declaration

In recent years, contrarians have been promoting Clintel's World Climate Declaration over the Oregon Petition, even though it's comparatively small. The declaration is admittedly globally-focused, but it has only 2072 signatures as I'm writing this. A pdf with all the signatories is here.  Like the Oregon Petition, to qualify to sign, you don't have to have any knowledge about or expertise in climate science. In fact, you don't even have to have a BS degree. You only have to claim to be either a "scientist" or "professional." To its credit, though, this declaration at least tell you the qualifications that the signatories claim to have. Here's a sampling:

1. Bart Vos - Msc Petroleum Engineering, Lifetime of Experience in the Geo-energy Industry
2. Christopher J.S. Game - Retired Neurophysiologist
3. Chris Martz - Meteorologist and policy analyst for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), SIGNATORY 2000 OF THE DECLARATION (correction: he has a BS in meteorology but is not a professional meteorologist).
4. Darko Krstic - editor of https://philosophyofgoodnews.com/
5. David Burton - System and Computer Scientist, Expert Reviewer of AR5 and AR6, Member of the CO2 Coalition and Creator of the SeaLevel.info website (correction: he's a computer scientist who is also blogger and signed up to review IPCC assessment reports, which just about anyone can do)
6. David Knox - IT professional, bachelors in business (Uni of South Australia) and a Masters degree in business administration (Charles Sturt University)
7. David Z. Lubowski - Conjoint Professor in Surgery, University of New South Wales
8. Denis Dupuy - Urologist, climate realist
9. Diederik Zwager - MSc Petroleum Engineering, CEO Air Drilling Associates
10. Don Andersen - Retired Teacher, Programmer
11. Eric Danie - Retired IT Consultant
12. Erl Happ - Managing Director at Happs
13. Ernest Calvin Beisner - Expert on the Ethics and Economics of Climate and Energy Policy, Founder and Spokesman of The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation (correction: he has a PhD in Scottish history and has taught church history, ethics and theology courses in seminaries) 
14. Hamish Grant - MR Spectroscopy & Imaging Consultant
15. Ian Longley - Geologist, Bsc (Hons) Petroleum Geologist, Fellow of the Geological Society
16. Ing. Hans Konrad Johnsen - Dr.Eng, Petroleum technology, Research and Development
17. James Walter - Medical Doctor
18. Jan Holtrop - Emeritus Professor of Petroleum Engineering, Delft University ofTechnology
19. Jarvis Hayman - Retired Surgeon, Recently retired Archaeologist and Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University
20. John Robson - Historian, Journalist, Documentary Filmmaker (correction: he's a historian and vlogger)
21. John Warnock - Astro Economist
22. Jorge Luis Balino - PhD in Nuclear Engineering, Career in R&D and Education in topics related to Nuclear and Petroleum Engineering
23. Judy Ryan - Editor Principia Scientific Institution Australia
24. Klaus-Jürgen Goldmann - worldwide experienced petroleum geologist
25. Matthew J. Fagan - Founder and President of FastCAM Inc.
26. Mike Jonas - IT consultant, retired, frequent contributor to Watts Up With That?
27. Mr. Anthony Jackson - Bachelor of Arts degree, Bachelor of Laws degree, retired
28. Paolo Martini - Independent Petroleum Geologist, ex-Eni
29. Paul Buncle - Medical Practitioner
30. Paul S. Forbes - Financial Advice Specialist
31. Paul Homewood - Climate & Energy Policy Analyst (correction: he's a retired accountant and climate blogger)
32. Pavel Kalenda - CSc., Coal Expert, private expert firm
33. Peter Champness - Retired Radiologist
34. Philip Wood - Qualified Lawyer in four Jurisdictions
35. Tom Hoornstra - Air-Conditioning Engineer
36. Wolfgang Monninger - PhD, lifetime career in Petroleum Geology (Exploration, Petrophysics)

So this is another list padded with political activists, those who have worked for the fossil fuel industry, and/or have no expertise or experience in climate science or research. At least some have inflated their credentials. Of the 11 credentialed climate scientists (active and retired) that I've been able to find, only 6 have signed it so far (Legates, Lindzen, Lupo, Miskolczi, Scafetta, and Shaviv). Globally, the number of climate scientists that do climate-related research is estimated to be in the tens of thousands. If we take a rough estimate of 20,000 practicing climate scientists globally, only 6 signed this petition - that is, only 0.03% of climate scientists that could sign the petition bothered to sign it. In fact, only half of the contrarian climate scientists I know of have signed it to date. There are roughly 8.8 million active research scientists globally and tens of millions SETM professionals. That means that even if we all of the 2072 signatories were "research scientists," only 0.02%. of them signed the petition. However, there are actually about 1.25 billion "professionals" globally, so 2072 signatories indicates that 0.0002% of professionals globally signed this petition.

And it doesn't appear that many of the climate scientists that signed the petition have done much beyond adding their signatures to the list. Their publication "Frozen Views of the IPCC" was authored by Marcel Crok and Andy May, neither of which have any qualifications or expertise in climate science. Of the contributing authors (Vinós, McKitrick, Scafetta, Hansen, Vahrenholt, and Humlum) only Scafetta has any expertise or experience in climate science. And their lack of expertise shows in their publications (see here).

The document above shows both the incompetence and the deceitfulness of "the Clintel Group." The incompetence can be seen in by the fact that CO2 was written "CO2" instead of CO2 every single time it was written in the document. The deceitfulness can be seen in the fact that while this was written at a time when there were only 1100 "scientists and professionals" that had signed the petition, the Clintel Group called them all "eminent scientists." Now to be sure there were at least a handful of eminent scientists that signed the petition (Giaever and Clauser both are Nobel laureates). But of the 6 signatories that are climate scientists that have ever done any research in climate science, precisely none have been able to publish research that has been able to undermine climate science or AGW.

Albert Einstein famously wrote in response to a 1931 critical essay collection Hundert Autoren gegen Einstein (One Hundred Authors Against Einstein), "Why 100? If I were wrong, one would have been enough." This quote can be misused, but it does illustrate a problem inherent with contrarian petitions and declarations. The assumption behind them is is that if they can assemble enough names (regardless of qualifications) that oppose a scientific consensus, they can create doubt among the general public either that the consensus exists or that it's backed by solid evidence. Unfortunately, of the over 2000 signatories, only 6 (that I can tell) have tried to do any research that could potentially overturn the consensus on AGW, and none of them have been able to produce the research that would succeed.