S. Fred Singer

This article is part of the Climate project of Spinwatch.

S. Fred Singer is a physicist who specialised in Earth observation satelites. He was the first director of the US National Weather Satellite Service and the chief scientist at the Department of Transport during the reign of the Ronald Reagan administration. He is know for his hawkish political outlook and is associated with the George C Marshall Institute.

According to Naomi Orsekes:

IN CASE AFTER CASE, Fred Singer, Fred Seitz and a handful of other scientists joined forces with think tanks and private corporations to challenge scientific evidence on a host of contemporary issues. In the early years much of the money from this effort came from the tobacco industry; in later years, it came from foundations, think tanks, and the fossil fuel industry. They claimed the link between smoking and cancer remained unproven. They insisted that scientists were mistaken about risks and limitationsof SDI. They argued tht acid rain was caused by volcanoes, and so was the ozone hole. They charged that the Environmental Protection Agency had rigged the science surrounding second hand smoke. Most recently - over the course of nearly two decades and against the face of mounting evidence - they dismissed the reality of global warming.

Positions held:

• 1989- Director and President, the Science and Environmental Policy Project. Foundation-funded, independent research group, incorporated in 1992, to advance environment and health policies through sound science. SEPP is a non-profit, education organization.
• 1993- Member of the board of the International Center for a Scientific Ecology
• 1994- Distinguished Research Professor, Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

His wife Candace Carolyn Crandall was in the early 1990's Executive Vice President of SEPP and now she is still a Research Associate of SEPP.

In 1994 Singer was Chief Reviewer of the report Science, economics, and environmental policy: a critical examination published by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (AdTI). This was all part of an attack on EPA regulation on environmental tobacco smoke funded by the Tobacco Institute. At that time, Mr. Singer was a Senior Fellow with AdTI.

"The report's principal reviewer, Dr Fred Singer, was involved with the International Center for a Scientific Ecology, a group that was considered important in Philip Morris' plans to create a group in Europe similar to The Advancement for Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), as discussed by Ong and Glantz. He was also on a tobacco industry list of people who could write op-ed pieces on "junk science," defending the industry's views.39"

"On Feb 12, 2001, Singer wrote a letter to The Washington Post in which he denied receiving any oil company money in the previous 20 years when he had consulted for the oil industry.

In a Sept. 24, 1993 sworn affidavit, Dr. Singer admitted to doing climate change research on behalf of oil companies, such as Exxon, Texaco, Arco, Shell and the American Gas Association.

Affiliations

• Science and Environmental Policy Project
• Centre for the New Europe
• Independent Institute
• Frontiers of Freedom
• Competitive Enterprise Institute lists Singer as "expert" on their website.
• The National Center for Public Policy Research [2] lists Singer as someone that journalists can interview on climate change policy.