Dr. Willie Soon, a prominent climate change skeptic who was recently accused of failing to disclose conflicts of interest in his funding issued a statement defending himself.

“In recent weeks I have been the target of attacks in the press by various radical environmental and politically motivated groups. This effort should be seen for what it is: a shameless attempt to silence my scientific research and writings, and to make an example out of me as a warning to any other researcher who may dare question in the slightest their fervently held orthodoxy of anthropogenic global warming.” – Dr. Soon

Dr. Soon, who is an astronomer and aerospace engineer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has written many scientific papers on climate change. A longtime critic of the theory of anthropogenic global warming, Dr. Soon argues that most global warming is caused by solar activity.

Dr. Soon is closely associated with the right wing Heartland Institute and is often quoted by politicians seeking to resist efforts to combat climate change.

Much of Dr. Soon’s research has been funded by fossil fuel interests such as ExxonMobil and the Southern Company. Recent disputes have focused on whether he properly disclosed the sources of his research funding in the papers he published.

Dr. Soon vigorously disputes any accusations that the funding has perverted his research and maintains that his published findings are quality research that accurately reflect his views. Soon has stated “I have never been motivated by financial gain to write any scientific paper, nor have I ever hidden grants or any other alleged conflict of interest.”