William Happer, born 1939 (age 77–78), is a
climate change denier and Professor of Physics at Princeton University, specialising in MRI imaging. He has no training in climate science. He is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the
George C. Marshall Institute and is on the Academic Advisory Council of the
Global Warming Policy Foundation, a denier think tank.
As a direct response to the claims made and scientific evidence used in this piece,
Media Matters for America, a progressive nonprofit watchdog group, published a specific response addressing several points posited in the op-ed. Beginning with a reference to Schmitt and Happer as "authors with no peer-reviewed papers on the topic and ties to groups funded by the oil industry," Media Matters presents contrary evidence to the information in the op-ed, citing work by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
NASA, the
World Bank, the
National Research Council,
Smithsonian Magazine, the
New York Times, Skeptical Science, and several other scientists and academics. This response goes on to expose the authors' history, illustrating their lack of peer-reviewed research on the topic and their ties to the oil industry. Media Matters' profile on Schmitt highlights his former position as Director at the oil industry-funded
Heartland Institute. Happer's profile identifies his status as current chairman of the
George C. Marshall Institute, a recipient of funding from the oil industry as well as the
Koch brothers.
Jack Williams, the director of the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research and geography professor from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where Schmitt serves as an adjunct professor, also responded critically to the piece. "I think they're ignoring the scientific evidence," Williams posits, "...it's a bit of a one-sided perspective on the effects of CO2."