Friends of Science
Following these talks in which de Frietas was "very critical of what was being said about the role of carbon dioxide in global warming, ...[w]e all left the luncheon speeches all shaking our heads that this silliness was going on."
[3] Founding members of the Friends of Science, Arthur M. Patterson, Albert Jacobs,[notes 4] and David Barss (Hons.
Albert Jacobs, a geologist and retired oil explorations manager, who attended the first meeting held in the curling lounge of Calgary's Glencoe Club back in 2002, described how donations from industry donors were passed on to the Science Education Fund set up by Barry Cooper, which in turn supported the activities of the Friends of Science.
[13][14] In 2004 Talisman Energy, a Calgary-based, global oil and gas exploration and production company, one of Canada's largest independent oil and gas companies, donated $175,000[15][16][17][notes 6] to fund a University of Calgary-based "public relations project designed to cast doubt on scientific evidence linking human activity to global warming."
[19] On their original web page, dated 2002, the Friends recommended several key documents explaining their standpoint, including testimonies by George C. Marshall Institute[20][21][notes 8] former board members, Richard S. Lindzen and Sallie Baliunas.
[24] The Friends' short recommended reading list also included the anti-Kyoto testimony[25] provided by Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist, Sallie Baliunas, well-known denier, to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
"[26] MacRae, an engineer, investment banker and environmentalist warned of economic fall-out and inaccurate science of the Kyoto accord.
[27] The Friends recommended Wildavaky's 1995 publication in which he claimed that "an all-powerful environmental community" overstated risks in everyday life.
The Friends of Science launched radio ads, directed by Paulsen, "targeting key markets in vote-rich Ontario" during the 2006 federal election.
The ads attacking the Liberal government's spending on climate change, attracted 300,000 visits to the Friends of Science webpage.
Madhav Khandekar,[notes 12][35] Chris de Freitas, Tim Patterson, Sallie Baliunas and Douglas Leahey were among the 60 "accredited experts in climate and related scientific disciplines," signatories along with prominent members of The Heartland Institute,[36] to the letter sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper calling on him to walk away from the Kyoto agreement,[37] which he eventually did.
"[39] In 2013 in his opinion piece in the Financial Post Tom Harris described the climate symposium, "Earth climate: past, present, future" at the Geological Association of Canada, the Mineralogical Association of Canada (GAC-MAC) annual joint conference where Friends of Science presenters included Calgary geophysicist, independent oil and energy professional, Norm Kalmanovitch, a long-time member of Friends of Science.
This provoked criticism from, among others, Greenpeace, whose request for their own advertisement to appear on an Alberta billboard had been denied by the same company that displayed Friends of Science's ad.
