The first step in that letter / list is eliminating the names that are obviously 'out of their expertise' and therefore, does not have the expertise to claim anything with this argument. By looking at their titles (Dept. of Geography, Hull University, U.K.) we know a lot of them are no more of an authority in this than I am, and can be easily eliminated. With names that remain, I will then look up their CV and publishing work in peer reviewed journals to verify that this is an area that they have done research and actually have an expertise in. Finally, I will look at major funding sources to make sure (and this does happen) that they are not being hired to promote a position (i.e. well paid lobbyist for Exxon Mobile). If anyone is still left after that, I will present their research in here.

This list had 100 people sign it, after the first step of eliminating people who were clearly not qualified to make such a statement, 14 people remain that 'may' be qualified. I am now going on to the next step to look at their area of expertise. For example, one of them says, "Gary D. Sharp, PhD, Center for Climate/Ocean Resources Study, Salinas, CA" I will look him up now.....

Okay, he is a U.S. marine biologist, again, not a climatologist:

Bachelor of Science, Zoology (1967); San Diego State Univ.
Master of Science, Biology (1968), San Diego State Univ.
Doctor of Philosophy, Marine Biology (1972), Univ. of Calif.

So, he is off the list, and our number is down to 13...

I don't have the time to do this for each one right now, but the list is much shorter than I first believed. This should come as no surprise since there was another letter a couple years earlier that was signed by 400 amateurs and lobbyists. Maybe we have couple here that will be qualified enough to listen to.