Oregon Petition - Signatories

Signatories

The Oregon Petition Project clarified their verification process as follows:

• The petitioners could submit responses only by physical mail, not electronic mail, to limit fraud. Older signatures submitted via the web were not removed. The verification of the scientists was listed at 95%, but the means by which this verification was done was not specified.
• Signatories to the petition were requested to list an academic degree. The petition sponsors stated that approximately two thirds held higher degrees. As of 2008, the petition's website states, "The current list of 31,072 petition signers includes 9,021 PhD; 6,961 MS; 2,240 MD and DVM; and 12,850 BS or equivalent academic degrees. Most of the MD and DVM signers also have underlying degrees in basic science."
• Petitioners were also requested to list their academic discipline. As of 2007, about 2,400 people in addition to the original 17,100 signatories were "trained in fields other than science or whose field of specialization was not specified on their returned petition." The petition sponsors state the following numbers of individuals from each discipline:
  • Atmospheric, environmental, and Earth sciences: 3,697
  • Computer and mathematical sciences: 903
  • Physics and aerospace sciences: 5,691
  • Chemistry: 4,796
  • Biology and agriculture: 2,924
  • Medicine: 3,069
  • Engineering and general science: 9,992
• The Petition Project itself avoided any funding or association with the energy industries.