AGW = Anthropogenic (man-made) Global Warming
Sceptical Scientists
“Consensus is the first refuge of scoundrels.”
So said the late Michael Crichton, anthropologist, medical doctor and best selling author:
I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.
Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results.
The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus...There is no such thing as consensus science. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus. Period.
(Address to the Commonwealth Club)
We don’t generally say there is a consensus that light travels at the speed of 186,000 miles per second or that E=MC2. Scientific facts like these are totally independent of any consensus. So why does the IPCC or anyone in the IPCC camp keep talking ad nauseum about an AGW consensus? Jack Schmitt (PhD. Earth Scientist and one of the moon-walking astronauts) answers that question with this very apt comment:
‘Consensus,’as many have said, merely represents the absence of definitive science.
Harping on about ”Consensus” is simply a political beat-up to create a bandwagon effect. Even scientists are prone to be carried away by “group think.”
Consensus is a myth that has collapsed anyway.
The irony of this beat-up about consensus is that there is no consensus about AGW anyway. Thousands of scientists are pouring out of the woodwork to declare that AGW is over, finished, kaput. More and more evidence comes to light that there never was a consensus. All along it’s been a Goebbels-style big lie, driven by a coterie of activist scientists and political strategists. They manipulated the levers of power and influence to seize monopoly of the debate and to close it down by proclaiming a totally mythical consensus.
- There is a growing list of Australian and New Zealand scientists who have publicly voiced their AGW scepticism.
- 197 international experts in climate science signed the Manhattan Declaration against AGW alarmism. Their names and credentials are a matter of public record.
- 100 scientists, many of whom come from Australia and New Zealand, signed a letter to the Secretary General of the UN on the occasion of the UN Bali Climate Conference, December 2007, expressing their opposition to AGW alarmism. Their names and credentials are now a matter of public record.
- 650 International scientists who have spoken out against AGW are identified and named in a 2008 US Senate Minority Report with this introduction:
- 116 Scientists reject President Obamas statement that "the science is settled regarding climate change" Read Article
This Senate report features the names, biographies, academic/institutional affiliation, quotes and literally hundreds of additional international scientists who publicly dissented from man-made climate fears.
This report lists the scientists by name, country of residence, and academic/institutional affiliation. It also features their own words, biographies, and web links to their peer reviewed studies, scientific analyses and original source materials as gathered directly from the scientists or from public statements, news outlets, and websites in 2007 and 2008.
The distinguished scientists featured in this new report are experts in diverse fields, including:
- Climatology
- Geology
- Glaciology
- Biogeography
- Meteorology
- Oceanography
- Economics
- Chemistry
- Mathematics
- Environmental sciences
- Astrophysics
- Engineering
- Physics
- Paleoclimatology
Some of those profiled have won Nobel Prizes for their outstanding contribution to their field of expertise and many shared a portion of the UN IPCC Nobel Peace Prize with Vice President Gore. Additionally, these scientists hail from prestigious institutions worldwide, including:
- Harvard University
- NASA
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- UN IPCC
- Danish National Space Center
- U.S Department of Energy
- Princeton University
- Environmental Protection Agency
- University of Pennsylvania
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- International Arctic Research Center
- Pasteur Institute in Paris
- Belgian Weather Institute
- Royal Netherlands
- Meteorological Institute
- University of Helsinki
- National Academy of Sciences of the U.S and Russia
- University of Pretoria
- University of Notre Dame
- Abo Akademi University in Finland
- University of La Plata in Argentina
- Stockholm University
- Punjab University in India
- University of Melbourne
- Columbia University
- World Federation of Scientists
- University of London.
Click here to read a sample of what these 650 scientists are saying.
- 31,000 scientists (including more than 9,000 PhDs) have signed this statement of Petition against AGW:
There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.
Click here for The Summary of Peer Reviewed Research supporting this Petition
- A stunning 2008 book documents how that scientists who have been smeared as “Deniers” are the most highly qualified and eminent scientists in the world in their field of climate-related science.
A few years ago, Lawrence Solomon, a renown environmentalist, author and anti-nuclear activist, started out to investigate who were the scientists being rubbished as “Deniers.” To his amazement, he found that these scientists were more highly qualified in their various scientific disciplines than their critics. These were not just good scientists, but the most accomplished and eminent meteorologists, oceanographers, glaciologist, paleoclimatologists and experts on hurricanes, clouds, glaciers and in other sciences related to climate. Between them they have published hundreds of books and thousands of peer-reviewed papers. But the Al Gores and James Hansens of this world, with the help of a compliant media, have managed to side-line these experts as if they were a bunch of ignorant dissidents small enough in number to fit into a telephone box. Some telephone box!
Click here to read an excellent book review of The Deniers by Art Raiche , retired CSIRO Chief Research Scientist.
- Numerous surveys and polls, conveniently listed by Popular Technology, demonstrate there is no consensus among either the scientists or the public.
- There was never more than a small clique of scientists who gave unqualified support to the IPCC’s crucial chapter on AGW. The IPCC created the myth of consensus by devious means. This critique has since been updated.
Richard S. Lindzen is a highly respected Climatologist who is a dogged opponent of AGW alarmism. Not even his fiercest critics have ever challenged his very impressive credentials. Lindzen is a Harvard-trained mathematician and atmospheric physicist. He holds the prestigious position of Alfred Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the MIT. He was also one of the contributing authors to the 2001 IPCC Report. Among his many scientific distinctions is an award for his hypothesis on cloud behaviour called the Iris Effect. More than 200 books and peer-reviewed papers have been published under his name.
Robert (Bob) M. Carter is possibly the most high profile AGW sceptic in Australia. He prefers to call himself a climate rationalist. Bob is a former Professor of Earth Sciences, now a Research Professor at James Cook University (Qld) and Adelaide University (South Australia). He is also a Palaeontologist, Marine Geologist and an environmental scientist in climate change research. Bob Carter’s website and video presentations are highly recommended as an excellent source of the most up-to-date information on climate science.
Roy W. Spencer is a Principal Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where he directs a variety of climate research projects. He received his Ph.D. in Meteorology from the University of Wisconsin in 1981, and was formerly a senior scientist for climate studies at NASA. Dr. Spencer also serves as the U.S Science Team Leader for the advanced Microwave scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite. He is co-developer of the original satellite method for precise monitoring of global temperatures from Earth-orbiting satellites. He has authored numerous weather and climate research articles in scientific journals, and has provided congressional testimony several times on the subject of global warming. His 2008 book, Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies That Hurt the Poor, became the most widely read book in the world on climate in the year 2008.
Ian Plimer, PhD, Professor of Geology, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide and Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia. A number of papers refuting AGW have already been published under Professor Plimer’s name. He plans a book launch of a very comprehensive new publication refuting AWG science in April 2009.
William Kininmonth has a career in meteorological science and policy spanning more than 40 years. For more than a decade (1986-1998) he headed Australia’s National Climate centre with responsibilities for monitoring Australia’s changing climate and advising the Australian government on the extent and severity of climate extremes, including the recurring drought episodes of the 1990’s.
William Kininmonth had a close association with the early developments of the climate change debate. His suspicions that the science and predictions of anthropogenic global warming had extended beyond sound theory and evidence were crystallised following the release of the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In his recent book, Climate Change: A Natural Hazard, he demonstrates that the model of the climate system represented by the IPCC is inadequate as a foundation for future planning.