Singer, S. Fred (1924-)

CONTROVERSIAL ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICIST, distinguished research professor at George Mason University, emeritus professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia, and founder of the Science and Environmental Policy Project—a policy institution on climate change and environmental issues, S. Fred Singer has been a leading skeptic of the scientific consensus on global warming. He points out that the scenarios pictured by most scientists are alarmist, that computer models reflect real gaps in climate knowledge, and says that future warming will be inconsequential or modest at most. He has also challenged the connection between ultraviolet-B radiation and melanoma and between secondhand smoking and lung cancer. Singer s critics have pointed out that the financial ties of his nonprofit organizations to tobacco and oil companies make Singer a ...