Who is behind the manifesto of "scientists and professionals" that denies the climate emergency

There are 1,500 signatories of the "World Climate Declaration", the climate emergency denialist manifesto published by the Clintel foundation

Geologists, engineers, deputies, university professors, but also sommeliers, photographers and accountants.These are the qualifications of the 1,500 signatories of the «Global climate declaration», the climate emergency denialist manifesto published by the Clintel foundation.The latter presents itself online as «climate watchdog" independent.It was founded in 2019 by geophysics professor Guus Berkhout – who has an extensive career in the oil industry – and science journalist Marcel Crok.Their motto is:“There is no climate emergency.”And in recent days it has bounced around various Italian media and has been used as a study to support the thesis that there is "no reason to create panic and alarm".All this while several Italian cities and around the world are suffering heavy storms and fires, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella launched an appeal together with Croatia, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Slovenia addressed to the European Union speaking of a "state of climate emergency", and the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres at the end of July he defined the current crisis as a state of global boiling.

Who they are and what qualifications they have

The list of signatories is very long and includes people from all over the world.There are 179 Italians.In first place is the geologist Alberto Prestininzi, who became known to the media forheated clash with the activist of Latest Generation, Chloe Bertini and on which Open he made a fact checking regarding the IPCC graph he showed on TV.But the signatories are not all scientists or industry professionals.In fact, the name of the Northern League member Vito Comencini appears, member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies since 2018 and ended up in a file of the Verona prosecutor's office in 2019 on charges of contempt after the shot against Mattarella, the accountant Enrico Bongiovanni, the photographer Ferruccio Cornicello, the sommelier Maurizio Fiorelli, and the urban architect Luigi Fressoia.Others introduce themselves only with their first and last names, or are high school teachers or retired people.But there are also those like Gianni Pettinari who sign up as founder of the Facebook group "False alarmism about global warming".

The justification:«We evaluate commitment, not titles»

Those who joined the list should theoretically have undergone a careful personal evaluation by the Clintel foundation team.But Prestininzi – who appears as the only Italian included among the signatories considered the most illustrious – admitted to the Daily Fact that the selection «is not particularly severe:of course, we examine the applications and references, but more than the qualifications we evaluate the continuity of commitment and the motivations".