Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen

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Dr Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen was born in Dresden, East Germany and has lived in Australia and is an Australian National according to her submission to the Garnaut Review[1]. She also appears to be a British subject is a declared member of the Labour Party, and is a reader in Geography at the University of Hull. She served as an IPCC reviewer of the third assessment report working group III [2]


Dr Boehmer-Christiansen claims[3] to be "an ‘expert’ on the science and politics of global warming since the late 1980s". This is contrasted by her skeptical contribution to the BBC's report[4] on scientific expertise in climate science by Anderegg & Prall et al where she opines "Who judges expertise and prominence? It looks to me that the authors belong to an IPCC supporting group that must count as believers and belong to the beneficiaries of the man-made warming scare."

"Many of the motives of supporters of 'green' solutions and ideas are suspect and the political ignorance or naivetey of environmentalists are a concern to me" [16]

She has written for Spiked [5] and is a shareholder of the LM Group [6]

Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen was a doctoral student in international relations at the University of Sussex 1976-1981, a Senior Fellow at SPRU 1986-1995, and a Visiting Fellow at SPRU 1996-1998. She is no longer a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex.[7]

Climate Denier/Skeptic

Whilst Dr Boehmer-Christiansen's views are scholarly and complex she is clearly ideologically motivated in her work on climate. She rejects the IPCC consensus despite being on an IPCC working party and quotes include "the so-called science of climate change consists to a large degree of 'cherry picking. Both the IPCC 'consensus ' and Stern are products of alliances of interests that are not primarily concerned about 'climate' - a poorly understood natural system that may be subject to anthropogenic as well as galactic influences'."[8] According to Fred Pearce, Boehmer-Christiansen is a sceptic about acid rain and global warming and calls the science reports produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change "political constructs." She was an attendee at the 4th Heartland Institute's Climate Change Conference [9]


Serial Accusations of Misconduct

Dr Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen has accused climate scientists of misconduct on at least two occasions. She appears as a correspondent in one of the 1073 emails hacked from University of East Anglia in 2009. She is quotes as saying “[t]he hacked emails revealed attempts to manipulate peer review to E&E’s disadvantage, and showed that libel threats were considered against its editorial team. Dr Jones even tried to put pressure on my university department.” But the Muir Russell Report concluded that they “see nothing [in] Boehmer-Christiansen’s evidence that supports any allegation that CRU has directly and improperly attempted to influence the journal that she edits.” Furthermore, the emails actually show that Boehmer-Christiansen had been accusing CRU of scientific fraud, and “Jones’ response to her accusation of scientific fraud was appropriate, measured and restrained.” [10]

On the occasion of the publication of the paper Anderegg et al 2010 she is quoted as saying "It looks to me that the authors belong to an IPCC supporting group that must count as believers and belong to the beneficiaries of the man-made warming scare."[11] This is refuted by the authors declaration of no conflict of interest.

Research Grant Awards

Dr Boehmer-Christiansen has been in receipt of the following research grants from the Economic and Social Research Council

  • £94 000 in 1996-99. Title of award THE FUNCTIONING OF THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY: A POLITICAL ANALYSIS.[12]
  • £85 000 in 1991-94. Tiltle of award : THE FORMULATION AND IMPACT OF SCIENTIFIC ADVICE ON GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE [13]


Associates and Afilliations

External Reseources

References

  1. ↑ "[http://www.garnautreview.org.au/CA25734E0016A131/WebObj/D07119818GeneralSubmission-SonjaABoehmer-Christiansen/$File/D07%20119818%20General%20Submission%20-%20Sonja%20A%20Boehmer-Christiansen.pdf ]"
  2. ↑ "[1]"
  3. ↑ "[2]"
  4. ↑ "[3]"
  5. ↑ "[4]"
  6. ↑ "Companies House, Spiked Ltd. AR01 Annual Return 2010 "
  7. ↑ "page 2[5]"
  8. ↑ "[6]"
  9. ↑ "[7]"
  10. ↑ "[8]"
  11. ↑ "[9]"
  12. ↑ "[10]"
  13. ↑ "[11]"
  14. ↑ "[12]"
  15. ↑ "[13]"
  16. ↑ "[14]"
  17. ↑ "[15]"
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