Presentation of Kåre Fog                                     

Kåre Fog, born in 1949, graduated as a biologist from Copenhagen University in 1975. He obtained research scholarships to study humus formation (chemical and microbiological investigations of processes intermediate in humus formation). He obtained the Ph. D. degree in 1980 at Aarhus University. The chemical research continued at the Chemical Institute at the Royal Danish Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen until the mid 1980´es.

In his spare time, he organized and managed the "Atlas investigation of amphibians and reptiles", i.e. a mapping project covering the whole of Denmark. This investigation demonstrated disastrous declines for many amphibian species, and an acute need for rescuing actions had to be realized. Therefore, in the mid 1980´es, Kåre Fog changed to become professionally engaged in restoration of amphibian habitats and in artificial rearing to save the most acutely threatened populations. This work has continued, on a free lance basis, up to now.

In 1982, Kåre Fog wrote a Danish textbook on ecology which is still in use in various institutions of education. In 1997, he was the author of a book on the amphibians and reptiles of Scandinavia. In 2004, he has established his own publishing company. Danish readers may consult www.mysis.dk.

Kåre Fog´s involvement in the Lomborg case

In 1998, when Lomborg first appeared in the Danish media, it soon had to be realized that Lomborg´s errors could not be corrected by simple correspondence in the newspapers. Kåre Fog was one of the persons who took the initiative to form an organized opposition by producing a book that pointed out the flaws of Lomborg´s book. This was done under the auspices of the Danish Ecological Council. Kåre Fog became a member of the editorial board, and got contact to many other biologists that had tried to oppose Lomborg.

When Lomborg published the English version of his book in 2001, the Ecological Council decided to make an English version of their counter-book. Kåre Fog had the job to revise several chapters on biological issues for the English version, and during this work, he realized that Lomborg had learned very little from the raised criticism, and that many of his statements were at variance with the facts that Lomborg knew. Thus, it became apparent that Lomborg´s text was deliberately misleading.

When Kåre Fog wrote about this in some newspapers, he was contacted by persons who urged him to lodge a complaint about Lomborg to the Danish committees on scientific dishonesty (DCSD). Such a complaint was lodged in February 2002, at the same time as Lomborg applied for the position as the director of the Danish institute of environmental assessment. Later, this complaint was supplemented by other complaints lodged by H. Stiesdal and M. Hertz in Denmark, and S. Pimm and J. Harvey from abroad.

When the decision of the DCSD was published in January 2003, it was not completely satisfactory to the complainers. The precise decoumentation of deliberately misleading texts had not been evaluated by the committees. The idea to establish a web site where Lomborg-errors can be gathered, arose in discussions with American Lomborg opponents in the spring of 2003, but it was not carried out at once. In view of the development that has taken place since then, and the need to document the errors, Kåre Fog has now decided to make such a web site on his own initiative.

Further details about the complaints etc. are found in the document "The Lomborg story" at this web site.