Reply #19: Looks like this particular myth has been circulating for a while now

[pmbryant]

I'm surprised I'm not more familiar with it. Thanks for the link. Here's an excerpt:

In 1998, the petition was widely debunked as containing the names of people whose climate credentials are questionable - including the lead singer for the Spice Girls, the doctors from the tv show M*A*S*H, and singer James Brown.

The New York Times covered the farce. The Associated Press reported on May 2, 1998, that Robinson conceded “that he made little attempt to verify the credentials of those who responded to the petition.”

In fact, the petition and its distribution were so misleading that the National Academy of Sciences held an unprecedented news conference to announce that it was in no way related to the petition or the “scientific” study which had been circulated with it.