Editing Frederick Seitz (section)

==Consultancy career==
After Seitz published a paper on the darkening of crystals, [[DuPont]] asked him in 1939 for help with a problem they were having with the stability of [[chrome yellow]].  He became "deeply involved" in their research efforts.<ref>Frederick Seitz, Norman G. Einspruch, ''Electronic genie: the tangled history of silicon''. University of Illinois Press, 1998. pp. 128–29</ref>  Among other things, he investigated the possible use of non-toxic [[silicon carbide]] as a white pigment.<ref name="aipOral">{{cite interview |last=Seitz |first=Frederick |url=https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4877-1 |title=Oral history interview transcript with Frederick Seitz |interviewer=Lillian Hoddeson and Paul Henriksen |date=26 January 1981 |publisher=American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives |location=College Park, Maryland, USA}}</ref> Seitz was a director of [[Texas Instruments]] (1971–1982) and of [[Akzona Corporation]] (1973–1982).<ref name=who />

Shortly before his 1979 retirement from [[Rockefeller University]], Seitz began working as a permanent consultant for the [[R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company]], advising their medical research program<ref>{{cite web |work=Tobacco Documents |title=RJR'S Support of Biomedical Research |last=Stokes |first=Colin |url=http://tobaccodocuments.org/ness/29154.html?pattern=frederick%5Ba-z%5D%2A%5CW%2Bseitz%5Ba-z%5D%2A&p7 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080310233933/http://tobaccodocuments.org/ness/29154.html?pattern=frederick%5Ba-z%5D%2A%5CW%2Bseitz%5Ba-z%5D%2A&p7 |archive-date=2008-03-10 }}</ref> until 1988.<ref name=NYTobit /> Reynolds had previously provided "very generous" support for biomedical work at Rockefeller.<ref>Frederick Seitz, 29 May 1979 [http://tobaccodocuments.org/rjr/504480477-0504.html Presentation to International Advisory Committee of RJ Reynolds] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615152702/http://tobaccodocuments.org/rjr/504480477-0504.html |date=2011-06-15 }}</ref> Seitz later wrote that "The money was all spent on basic science, medical science," and pointed to Reynolds-funded research on [[mad cow disease]] and [[tuberculosis]].<ref name=NYTobit /> Nonetheless, later academic studies of tobacco industry influence concluded that Seitz, who helped allocate $45m of Reynolds' research funding,<ref>{{cite magazine|title = While Washington Slept|url = http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2006/05/warming200605?currentPage=all|date=May 2006|author = Mark Hertsgaard|magazine=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]}}</ref> "played a key role... in helping the tobacco industry produce uncertainty concerning the health impacts of smoking."<ref>{{cite book |first1=Riley E. |last1=Dunlap |first2=Aaron M. |last2=McCright |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfTISxCa6SwC&pg=PA251 |chapter=Climate change denial: sources, actors, and strategies |editor1-first=Constance |editor1-last= Lever-Tracy |title=Routledge Handbook of Climate Change and Society |publisher=Taylor & Francis |date=2011 |page=251|isbn=9780203876213 }}</ref> According to a tobacco industry memo from 1989, Seitz was described by an employee of [[Philip Morris International]] as "quite elderly and not sufficiently rational to offer advice."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2023266534.html?pattern=fred%5Ba-z%5D%2A%5CW%2Bseitz%5Ba-z%5D%2A&#p1 | title=Letter from Alexander Holtzman to Bill Murray | work=Tobaccodocuments.org | date=31 August 1989 | access-date=23 February 2014 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301172958/http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2023266534.html?pattern=fred%5Ba-z%5D%2A%5CW%2Bseitz%5Ba-z%5D%2A&#p1 | archive-date=1 March 2014 }}</ref>

In 1984 Seitz was the founding chairman of the [[George C. Marshall Institute]],<ref>{{Cite web
 |title        = The Marshall Institute – Remembering Frederick Seitz
 |work         = The Marshall Institute
 |access-date  = 2012-04-01
 |date         = 2008-03-04
 |url          = http://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=579
 |url-status   = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110128190713/http://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=579
 |archive-date = 2011-01-28
}}</ref><ref name=indepinst>[[The Independent Institute]], [http://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=309 Research Fellow: Frederick Seitz]. Retrieved 15 September 2010.</ref> and was its chairman until 2001.<ref name="archive1">George C. Marshall Institute, {{cite web |url=http://www.marshall.org/CrawfordIntroduction.htm |title=Untitled |access-date=2001-12-14 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011214154524/http://www.marshall.org/CrawfordIntroduction.htm |archive-date=December 14, 2001 }}</ref><ref name=PBS>{{cite interview |last=Seitz |first=Frederick |publisher=WGBH Educational Foundation |date=April 3, 2006 |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hotpolitics/interviews/seitz.html |title=Interviews: Frederick Seitz |access-date=2019-12-16}}</ref> The Institute was founded to  argue for President Reagan's [[Strategic Defense Initiative]],<ref name=Oreskes>Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, 10 August 2010, "[http://www.scienceprogress.org/2010/08/distorting-science-while-invoking-science-2/ Distorting Science While Invoking Science] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100919104142/http://www.scienceprogress.org/2010/08/distorting-science-while-invoking-science-2/ |date=2010-09-19 }}", ''Science Progress''</ref> but "in the 1990s it branched out to become one of the leading [[think tank]]s trying to debunk the science of climate change."<ref>''[[Daily Telegraph]]'', 14 March 2008, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1581635/Frederick-Seitz.html Frederick Seitz]</ref><ref>The Institute was described as a "central cog in the denial machine" in a ''[[Newsweek]]'' cover story on global warming. – {{cite news | url = http://www.newsweek.com/id/32482/page/1 | title = The Truth About Denial | first =Sharon | last = Begley | work = [[Newsweek]] | date = August 13, 2007 | access-date = October 17, 2007}}</ref> A 1990 report co-authored with Institute co-founders [[Robert Jastrow]] and [[William Nierenberg]] "centrally informed the [[George H. W. Bush|Bush]] administration's position on human-induced climate change".<ref>George E. Marcus, ''Paranoia within reason: a casebook on conspiracy as explanation'', [[University of Chicago Press]], 1999. p.117</ref> The Institute also promoted [[environmental skepticism]] more generally. In 1994, the Institute published a paper by Seitz titled ''Global warming and ozone hole controversies: A challenge to scientific judgment.'' Seitz questioned the view that [[CFCs]] "are the greatest threat to the [[ozone layer]]".<ref name="Conversationwith">{{cite web |title=A Conversation with Dr. Frederick Seitz |publisher=The George C. Marshall Institute |date=September 3, 1997 |url=http://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100706081937/http://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=21 |archive-date=2010-07-06 }}</ref> In the same paper, commenting on the dangers of secondary inhalation of tobacco smoke, he concluded "''there is no good scientific evidence that passive inhalation is truly dangerous under normal circumstances.''"<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Hirschhorn | first1 = Norbert | last2 = Aguinaga Bialous | first2 = Stella | year = 2001 | title = Second hand smoke and risk assessment: what was in it for the tobacco industry? | journal = Tobacco Control | volume = 10 | issue = 4| pages = 375–382 | doi = 10.1136/tc.10.4.375 | pmid=11740031 | pmc=1747615}}</ref>

Seitz was a central figure amongst [[global warming deniers]].<ref name=NYTobit /><ref>According to ''[[Merchants of Doubt]]'', Seitz was a central [[climate change denial]] figure.</ref> He was the highest-ranking scientist among a band of doubters who, beginning in the early 1990s, resolutely disputed suggestions that global warming was serious threat.<ref name=herts2006 /> Seitz argued that the science behind global warming was  inconclusive and "''certainly didn't warrant imposing mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions''".<ref name=herts2006>Hertsgaard, Mark (May 2006). [http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2006/05/warming200605?currentPage=all While Washington Slept] ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]''.</ref> In 2001 Seitz and Jastrow questioned whether [[global warming]] is [[human impact on the environment|anthropogenic]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Seitz |first1=Frederick |last2=Jastrow |first2=Robert |title=Do people cause global warming? |url=http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=812 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101030060754/http://www.heartland.org/policybot/results/812/Do_people_cause_global_warming.html |date=1 December 2001 |archive-date=2010-10-30 |publisher=The Heartland Institute |access-date=2004-08-21 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Seitz signed the 1995 [[Leipzig Declaration]] and, in an open letter inviting scientists to sign the [[Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine]]'s [[Oregon Petition|global warming petition]], called for the United States to reject the [[Kyoto Protocol]].<ref name=NYTobit /> The letter was accompanied by a 12-page article on climate change which followed a style and format nearly identical to that of a contribution to [[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]] (PNAS), a scientific journal,<ref name=envirco2>{{cite web | url=http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm | title=Environmental effects of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide | author=Arthur B. Robinson |author2=Sallie L. Baliunas | author3-link=Willie Soon |author3=Willie Soon |author4=Zachary W. Robinson | access-date=2008-07-14 | publisher=[[Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine|OISM]] and the [[George C. Marshall Institute]] |date=January 1998 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070114000614/http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm | archive-date=2007-01-14 | author-link=Arthur B. Robinson | author2-link=Sallie L. Baliunas }}</ref> even including a date of publication ("October 26") and volume number ("Vol. 13: 149–164 1999"), but was not actually a publication of the National Academy of Science (NAS). In response the [[United States National Academy of Sciences]] took what the ''[[New York Times]]'' called "the extraordinary step of refuting the position of one [of] its former presidents."<ref name=NYTobit /><ref name=NAS200498>{{cite press release |url=http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=s04201998 |title=Statement by the Council of the National Academy of Sciences regarding Global Change Petition | publisher=[[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]] |date=April 20, 1998 | access-date=2018-12-23 |quote=The NAS Council would like to make it clear that this petition has nothing to do with the National Academy of Sciences and that the manuscript was not published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences or in any other peer-reviewed journal.}}</ref><ref name="Science-1998">{{Cite journal
|author=David Malakoff |s2cid=152855137 |title=Climate change: Advocacy mailing draws fire |url=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/280/5361/195a |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]]
|volume=280 | issue=5361 | page=195 | date=10 April 1998|doi=10.1126/science.280.5361.195a|bibcode=1998Sci...280Q.195. }}</ref> The NAS also made it clear that "The petition does not reflect the conclusions of expert reports of the Academy."<ref name=NAS200498 />

Seitz worked extensively with [[Fred Singer]] during his consultancy career for tobacco and oil corporations in matters of health and climate change, respectively.<ref name = Oresk />