That ' s a lot of signatures . Although it ' s also only 0 . 3 % of those fitting the criteria , so it ' s far from compelling one could say it makes the 97 % mark seem like a conservative estimate ! . And Edward Teller , they guy who wanted to nuke Alaska for the sake of creating an artificial harbor , signed it . Does it lend some credibility ? Sure . But he was 90 years old when he signed it , probably not in the prime of his career and not sure if he was the greatest physicist ever , although he was definitely beyond accomplished . Pointing to one guy outside of his field and outside of his prime still isn ' t even all that impressive . Even Einstein was against quantum mechanics and that ' s within his fields . Sometimes the greats are wrong . That ' s why we don ' t rely on the opinion of a small minority when the evidence suggests otherwise .