Public policy has a major impact on our lives; that goes without saying. If the assumptions upon which policy is based are sound, there is a good chance that the resulting laws and regulations will have a positive influence on the country. But when the assumptions are driven by ideology instead of reason, the outcomes can be detrimental.
As a public watchdog, an independent press plays a vital role in providing accurate, fair, and balanced reporting of public policy debates. When the matters are contentious, the Press Council states that “a fair voice must be given to the opposition view”.
However, in the controversial area of anthropogenic global warming, media reporting is not balanced. As a result, pro-global warmers have gained traction with their apocalyptic claims. In the process they have secured lucrative funding for salaries and projects, as well as gaining major influence over policy makers and governments.
Nor are they willing to let anyone cast doubt on the authenticity of their claims – in fact, it has reached the point where many of those who disagree are too afraid to speak out publicly, as the risk to their careers and reputations from vindictive attack has become too great.
This week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator Bryan Leyland, an energy analyst and consulting engineer, has submitted many articles to newspapers countering such claims, but says most are rejected:
“Many articles in the Herald over the past few years have emphasised the dangers of man-made global warming and warned us that extreme measures are needed to save us from this imminent climatic disaster. Almost without exception, the authors of these articles have assumed that man-made carbon dioxide causes dangerous global warming, rapid sea level rise and more floods, droughts, cyclones and so on.”
Bryan explains that the evidence simply does not support such claims, and concludes, “As is so often the case, the perception and reality are vastly different. In New Zealand this is not helped by a mainstream media that seldom publishes anything that examines the evidence and propounds a different view. Yet there is no doubt that the science is NOT settled and debate is needed.”
Without challenge by the media, the merchants of a climate Armageddon are being given free reign.
Dr James Renwick, formerly of NIWA and now Professor of Physical Geography at Victoria University in Wellington is a leading proponent of the dangers of man-made global warming and a regular media commentator. Dr Renwick, who has served on the selection Board of the Marsden Fund, has, over time, received a total of $1.3 million in grants. Through having been a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he also claims to be a contributor to the 2007 Nobel Prize that was awarded to Al Gore and the IPCC.
Over the last few months, Dr Renwick has proclaimed that the world could be heading for “an average temperature rise of over 10 degrees and complete glacial meltdown”. He has stated that large emissions of CO2 would lead to significant warming: “The relationship appears to be essentially linear – twice as much CO2 emitted equals twice as much eventual warming …” He also claims: “Almost 100 per cent of scientists are certain that global warming is human-induced. In the game of attributing global warming to humankind’s use of fossil fuels, scientists are almost 100 per cent certain… Skeptics would do well to stop wasting their energy, and distracting the public and scientists by trying to deconstruct this scientific truth, and join the rest of humanity in helping figure out what to do about climate change.”
To add some balance to this debate, let’s look at what the earth’s historical record tells us.
Firstly, our planet is presently in an interglacial period within an ice age. Interglacial periods usually last for around 10,000 years, followed by glacial periods of around 100,000 years. Since the present interglacial period has already been going for 10,500 years, history would suggest we are overdue for a new glacial period.
Secondly, since the concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere has been many times higher in the past than today, peaking during the Cambrian Period 500 million years ago at 7,000 parts per million – around 18 times higher than the present – it is clear that the industrialisation of mankind is not the main cause of increasing levels of carbon dioxide.
Thirdly, since the late Ordovician Period around 450 million years ago, when CO2 concentrations were nearly 12 times higher at 4,400 parts per million, was an ice age, it is clear that high concentrations of carbon dioxide do not cause catastrophic global warming.
In other words, the fact that high levels of carbon dioxide occur naturally and do not cause the planet to fry, totally negates the claims of the global warmers that mankind’s CO2 emissions will cause catastrophic climate change.
In addition, Dr Renwick claims that the relationship between carbon dioxide and warming is linear – “twice as much CO2 emitted equals twice as much eventual warming” – but this is not correct. The relationship is logarithmic, which means that increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide will have a progressively smaller warming effect, not a larger one.
In their 2004 report, Why logarithmic, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Huang and Shahabadi also note that the “logarithmic equations for calculating the radiative forcing of CO2 are given by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…”
The IPCC explains: “For carbon dioxide, parts of the spectrum are already so opaque that additional molecules of carbon dioxide are even less effective, the forcing is found to be logarithmic in concentration.”
Essentially, this means that doubling or even tripling the amount of carbon dioxide we put into the atmosphere would not appreciably change the warming effects of the CO2 levels we currently have, since the ability of CO2 to trap heat declines logarithmically, reaching a point of significantly reduced future effect. This is the reason why carbon dioxide levels have been so much higher during past geological eras, without causing runaway greenhouse warming.
Since the logarithmic relationship between carbon dioxide and warming is such a fundamental point, it is indeed astonishing, that man-made global warming theories have not been unilaterally discredited on that basis alone. What it means is that the claims that the planet will reach a tipping point, where temperatures will skyrocket because of increasing levels of carbon dioxide, are simply not credible and are revealed as ideological scaremongering. It shows that it is politics that is driving this debate, not science.
In fact, last year Christiana Figueres, then head of the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted as much by saying that their goal was not to save the world from ecological collapse but to destroy capitalism: “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution.”
To ensure their threats of climate collapse dominate the debate and that opponents are intimidated into silence, proponents of man-made global warming claim the science is settled and that there is a consensus amongst scientists that the earth is on the cusp of an ecological disaster – unless we follow their agenda.
But in stating that “Almost 100 per cent of scientists are certain that global warming is human-induced”, Dr Renwick appears to have overlooked some important initiatives that contradict his claims.
Back in 2009, over 100 brave scientists allowed their names to be published by the US-based Cato Institute in newspaper advertisements opposing President Obama’s claims that combating climate change was urgent and that the science was beyond dispute. The ad stated, “We, the undersigned scientists, maintain that the case for alarm regarding climate change is grossly overstated. Surface temperature changes over the past century have been episodic and modest and there has been no net global warming for over a decade now. After controlling for population growth and property values, there has been no increase in damages from severe weather-related events. The computer models forecasting rapid temperature change abjectly fail to explain recent climate behavior. Mr. President, your characterization of the scientific facts regarding climate change and the degree of certainty informing the scientific debate is simply incorrect.”
By 2010, the number of scientists prepared to be publicly named as opposing the sort of views held by Dr Renwick and others had grown to over 1,000. Each appeared in a report to the US Senate: “More than 1,000 dissenting scientists from around the globe have now challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and former Vice President Al Gore.” The report included many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who had turned against the organisation and its agenda. It also noted that over 1,000 dissenting scientists, was more than twenty times the number of UN scientists (52) who had authored the media-hyped 2007 IPCC Summary for Policymakers.
In addition to those specific initiatives, a total of 31,487 American scientists, including 9,029 with PhDs, signed the petition run by the Global Warming Petition Project, to publicly demonstrate that the scientific community in the US rejected claims that the science around man-made global warming was either “settled”, or that a “consensus” existed.
In spite of what Dr Renwick and others might wish for, the reality is that there is no consensus and the science is far from settled.
In light of this, it is indeed unfortunate that successive New Zealand governments have bought into global warming propaganda – with Labour introducing their bureaucratic Emissions Trading Scheme in 2008, and National not only expanding it, but also announcing in May’s Budget that the subsidies will be removed over the next three years, forcing New Zealand families to pay more for power and the cost of goods in general.
Fortunately however, there are signs that the cosy international consensus could be crumbling. The new British Prime Minister Theresa May is understood to be more sceptical about global warming than her predecessor. US Presidential candidate Donald Trump thinks the whole thing is a rort. And with Britain departing the European Union, there are signs of squabbling amongst member nations over who will pick up the shortfall in climate compensation to developing countries.
Meanwhile, real scientists are worried that the sun’s on-going lack of sunspots is a sign that global cooling is on the way.
In June US meteorologist Paul Dorian reported that the sun had gone completely blank for the second time that month. He feared the lack of sunspot activity could signal the arrival of a cold snap similar to the Maunder Minimum – otherwise known as the Little Ice Age – which started in 1645 and continued until 1715.
Right now the El Nino – a naturally occurring oceanic cycle that produces warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures – which has been keeping New Zealand’s weather unseasonably warm, is now fading and it is expected to be replaced by a La Nina, which will produce colder-than-normal temperatures. Since warmer seas emit more carbon dioxide, and colder seas absorb more, the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere may start to fall.
If the mini-ice age, that has been predicted by a number of scientists around the world resumes, political leaders may well rue the day when they allowed themselves to be persuaded by global socialists that implementing decarbonisation policies was a good idea. And the media might also wish they had lived up to their own code of ethics and allowed those like Bryan Leyland, who are brave enough to speak out, to state their case in order to protect the public from the impact of a perverse policy prescription that is doing far more harm around the world than good.
THIS WEEK’S POLL ASKS:
Do you agree that man-made global warming is endangering the planet?
*Poll comments are posted below.
*All NZCPR poll results can be seen in the Archive.
THIS WEEK’S POLL COMMENTS
| A complete rort. | IAN |
| Absolute rubbish!! | Malcolme |
| The alarmists say the science is settled. They wouldn’t know what science is. If one applies scientific method to their claims their argument collapses. | Ken |
| I think that it is a load of crap. | Bill |
| Total nonsense but don’t let the facts get in the way of politics. | Bernie |
| Miss-information abounds, hard for the average person to get at the truth. | John |
| A Media beat up! | Jim |
| I have always thought that the whole idea was a cunning plan by some individuals as a way for them to make money, a pity that so many have been convinced. A new mini ice age is approaching. | Fraser |
| It would seem to me that those persons who support the global warming nonsense do so because they have found a way of making money for themselves out of the lies that they broadcast. Thank you Muriel for giving us the truth with your excellent news letter. | Ernest |
| It is very clear that the concept is rubbish and driven by socialiists with an agenda. We do however, as a global community, need to be very concerned about pollution which is not the same thing at all. | Ronmac |
| TVNZ and longtime boardcaster Peter Williams in particular, always present a bias towards alarmist global warming and never present the sceptical view or any decent evidence, therefore I tend not to take any notice of the media on this subject. | Monica |
| Carbon can be quantified then taxed and traded. Great for politicians and bankers. Another burden on the people. | Lee |
| An abnormally quiet sun is beocming quite concerning. | Tom |
| No we are not as big as we think we are, just invisible mites on a big rock. the sun and moon do their thing no matter what we do so get over climate change? And stop fighting and start living. | James |
| The question is somewhat ambiguous as it implies that there is such a thing as “man made global warming”. This has not been shown to be true. | Ron |
| The current decrease in sunspots will herald a much colder climate in the next few years similar to the little ice age. | Allan |
| I’m still waiting for the proof. | Eric |
| There is evidence that periods even more recently as in 300 and 900 years ago there was a very warm planet WHY? | Robert |
| I believe that the Globe is warming. I am not convinced that this is caused by humans and, even if it is, I am certainly not convinced that throwing money at Al Gore is going to fix it. Yet I am labelled a denier. | Steve |
| It always was just a ‘Rort’ to allow the favoured few to create a money-making scheme out of a theoretical situation that simply does not exist. (a bit like the ‘year 20000 computer fail scheme). Sad that it is part of Prime Minister Helen Clark’s legacy. | Merv |
| If the god Lord wants to vary the planet`s temperature, He will do it. We all know how computer models work – you determine what you want and feed in the appropriate parameters. | Frank |
| Take a look at the graph of climate going back millions of years in the Natural History Museum in London. Temps show wide variances. Mankinds period in that scale is just a slim pencil line at the end! | Hugh |
| The Icelandic volcanos produce more Co2 in a week than the whole motor vehicles in this century. We are being fed a load of bull, NZ Herald a prime example. Look at election of mayoralty for Auckland. | Rodney |
| There have been at least five major ice ages in the earth’s past (the Huronian, Cryogenian, Andean-Saharan, Karoo Ice Age and the Quaternary glaciation). Outside these ages, the Earth seems to have been ice-free even in high latitudes. In these Ice Ages CO2 levels were from 2000 ppm to 8000 ppm. Today there are around 400 ppm – so relax! We humans are POLLUTERS and that is what we should address. That is, each country should be responsible for its own mess. We should not allow the rest of the world to make us responsible to pay for their backyard POLLUTION? Leave Climate Change to GOD who has been changing the climate since the first Ice Age some 2 Billion years ago! Having stated the above, there is enormous opportunity for re-cycling economics to drive new ‘successful’ businesses based on the ideology of 100% Recycling of our production waste. The by-product of such an ideology would be the dramatic reduction in the use of the Earth’s natural resources!!!! | Frederick |
| Scientific evidence points to cooling, not warming. Global warming is a myth, climate change has been happening since time began, and humanity has had buggar all to do with it. | Peter |
| A lot of the info used by your expert is 5 years out of date: a lot of acceptance of GW since then. | Wilf |
| There will always be scientists for and against. If they would put as much effort into working on the problem as they do arguing about it the world would be a better place.If everyone would make that little contrubution in helping the situation we will leave the world a better place for our children. | John |
| I don’t think there is such a thing as man made global warming. There’s been global warming over the centuries as proven by there having been several ice ages followed by temperatures naturally rising afterwards. Mind you, that might have been caused by Freddy Flintstone with his pedal cars producing methane gas! If you get my drift! | Brian |
| It is nonsense. | Dave |
| Only time will tell. | Theodorus |
| I read Prof. Ian Plimer’s book “Heaven and Earth, the Missing Science” some years ago. No intelligent person would believe the scaremongering that Al Gore and co., are spreading if they read that Beautifully written and explained. I sent an email to the PM telling him he MUST read it. Received no reply! | Albie |
| To answer yes would suggest that we have more influence than nature does over climate. Come in King Canute!! | John |
| I have been saying this for years, puny little man can’t change anything in raw nature, let alone the climate, man is basically stupid, clever but stupid, he’s learned absolutely nothing from history, he is still fighting and killing each other. | Athol |
| Academics blindly creating their own models which ignore hard empirical facts of past climatic data will one day fall flat on their face on the ice under their feet. | Alan |
| Its all a big have like most things the Government supports e.g. TPPA. | Russell |
| The whole thing is a political rort. | Tony |
| What worries me is the subversion of our youth. These young minds are not given the opportunity to learn from objective/impartial science based teaching. If those in charge of their education believe in Global Warming that, in the case of our local school then becomes gospel. | Carol |
| There is overwhelming scientific evidence that supports a natural evolution of Global warming NOT caused by Humans. | Geoff |
| A global con job that unfortunately at the moment seems to be winning. | Norm |
| Let us get one thing straight MAN MADE GLOBAL WARMING is Not about the Planet. It is about Green Prestige and pushing that Party’s line. Furthermore it is loved by our politicians as it sanctifies an excuse to TAX US ALL AGAIN BY THE SIMPLE PROCESS OF TRYING TO MAKE US ALL VERY ASHAMED. It is a vehicle to enhance the Green’s strategy irrespective of any opposition. | Brian |
| Perhaps, but the planet will correct itself, no matter what the fragile human species do to it. The planet is capable of far more significant events than we can recreate. | Folkert |
| The fluctuations are natural occurring. | Colin |
| The mechanism by which the climate models perceive CO2 to warm the planet requires a warming of the tropical upper atmosphere. Both balloons and satellites show this has not happened. 2. Many assumptions used in the models are simply guesses. eg they guess that cloud response to warming will be positive but in the IPCC report it says they know neither the sign nor magnitude of the cloud response to warming. 3. if feedback to increased CO2 was positive they world would have already had thermgeddon., despite CO2 having been 10 t 20 times higher in the past no such climatic disaster has ever occurred… 4. For 84% of the last 600 million years CO2 has been greater than 400 ppm – so what is abnormal about the present level. 75% of that time Earth has not had polar ice caps and yet biodiversity increased in those warmer times, so again what is there to fear about increased warmth ? | Peter |
| Not one singe cataclysmic climate prediction has come about in spite of the stated time-frame has passed. The catastrophic positive feedback systems simply do not exist. The very basic laws of thermodynamics make a nonsense of the whole “religion” of CAGW. | Allan |
| Observed history shows cooling rather than warming. | John |
| What a con…so many gullible people getting sucked in to this “man made” hoax! | brian |
| It is perhaps the biggest con the world has known | Michael |
| I don’t know what is behind it, last year for example was the coldest winter on record in NZ this has never been played out in the media. The media is biased !!!! | Bryan |
| Where there’s money involved the truth is always distorted to suit the wealthiest players | Derek |
| I’m no scientist but I’ve read enough about that subject and the agenda of the UN to absolutely NOT believe it. | Marie |
| I’ve writen letters to the Dompost that never get published, so I guess they have adopted the same approach to skeptics that the NZ Herald has. | Rob |
| The earth has always run in cycles, hotter or colder. Global cleaning – that would be the issue. | Sue |
| The World is either warming up or not. If it is warming then the cause is either natural or due to human activity. If it is warming and the cause is natural then we may not be able to do anything about it and will just have to adapt. If it is warming and the warming is due to human activity then we should be able to do something. The alleged cause of man-made global warming is air pollution. If we eliminate air pollution then the alleged problem will be solved. If air pollution has nothing to do with the Earth’s temperature then it won’t matter as we will have clean air which is a good thing. It is clear that calling people names like deniers or warmers is not helping. Scientific hysteria happens from time to time. In the 1920s if a scientist at american university espoused the Theory of Continental Drift he would have lost his job. These days it could happen if someone dared to express doubts about the global warming religion. | K |
| Of course that is nonsense. It is all about politics and grant-seeking by people like Renwick. Where did he qualify – University of East Anglia, perhaps? | Michael |
| The proof this is a spoof is the earths history. Even in the last 500 to 2000 years Britain has been a lot hotter than it is now according to written records starting with the Romans who called England the granary of the north. It fed Rome! | Nick |
| Just another UN scam to achieve global Government and Global Laws. People of NZ resist it with all your heart. | Dene |
| There is no evidence whatsoever that man-made global warming is occurring. | Neil |
| That’s not to say that strenuous efforts need to be made to clean up our air from man made pollution. | Neville |
| We are not being told the truth re AGW. There is much bigger challenges to address than this, but the people of Earth have not/are not being told about it! | Isabel |
| Selecting these data is a prime example of confirmation bias. The overwhelming evidence confirms global warming is very much to do with man made activity. | George |
| A great big con. | Clark |
| Just look at the exstreme weather ALL over the world. It NEVER was like this. | Cindy |
| I think the debate around carbon emissions is avoiding the real threat; the global population is increasing at a compound rate (est. 50% more people by 2100) and our average individual consumption is also increasing. Common sense says the ‘growth’ religion that seems to be favoured by politicians and economists is not eternally sustainable, and it appears that cracks are starting to show. If we focus on one factor, like carbon/warming, the tipping point will just appear elsewhere such as the availability of fresh water, energy, food ecosystems, scarce minerals and what we do with all the byproducts. I think that a binary debate around ‘carbon’ is counterproductive if our goals is to leave the world in a reasonable condition for our future generations. | JG |
| It’s a great big giant rort. Of course the climate is changing – it always has and it always will but it is not caused by man. It is the solar system and if anything we could actually get much colder. It used to be called global warming until they found the globe wasn’t warming so it then became ‘climate change’. I don’t believe a word of it being caused by man. | Helen |
| No and it never was. | Tom |
| The sooner the IPCC and their ilk recognise the influence the sun has on earths climate the better mankind will be. | Kevin |
| I have never bought into the propaganda, having read of earths historical climate cycles in astronomical publications. I don’t believe that humans can affect the long term planetary evolution; just their own health and well being. | Karen |
| I need to read more positive information on the effects man has on global warming before I am convinced. | Dennis |
| Follow the money trail for the answer. | David |
| The science is all over the place. I do not believe in anthropogenic global warming …just two weeks ago scientists were saying the sun has entered a cooling phase and they were predicting the earth could enter a mini ice age! | Steve |
| I’m glad that someone has at last pointed out the cyclic nature of warming and cooling of the earth. Any research even over the past 200 years will demonstrate the cyclic ranges that occur. My observations are based on climate history in AUSTRALIA – A long way away from industrial Europe.. | John |
| Volcano’s put more co2 in the atmosphere than any thing we do. | Erwin |
| Over population is the real threat that everybody ignores! | Chris |
| The UN plays the “Pied Piper” and flutes it’s melody of “climate change” for the masses of morons and lemmings to eagerly follow while blindly throwing away their hard-earned money to the scammers who promise to save the planet from the evil of humanity. Silly people!!! | Steve |
| Think for yourselves people, there is NO confirmed evidence to support the theory of global warming on THIS planet. | Peter |
| It’s a rort. Always has been. | Ross |
| Man made global warming is the biggist hoax that has ever been perpetuated. It must end. | Tim |
| Having spent 40 years working in agricultural science, I have been a sceptic of anthropogenic global warming ever since it was first muted by the IPCC. I have watched with utter amazement the gullible politicians, media and general populace as they unquestionably swallow such rot. I have read widely on the subject, including peer reviewed atmospheric scientific papers, and attended many pertinent lectures and am convinced of the politically induced ulterior motive to the issue. Real scientists assume the null hypothesis then set out to accept or reject it, whereas the IPCC and its cohorts make the claim then use every piece of warped evidence, false propaganda and outright lies to back it up. Climate change, as they now call it, is a natural occurrence and caused by cycles of the sun. Increases in atmospheric Carbon Dioxide are a result of global warming not a cause. Colleagues and I have shown that ruminants are carbon neutral , that is gaseous carbon output is balanced by photosynthetic derived carbon in the forage consumed yet we continue to persist with the idea of taxing farmers or de-stocking! I would encourage everyone to check out Prof. Bob Campbell’s lectures on U-tube. I just hope that one day the IPCC will be held to account for their lies and deceit, false propaganda and scaremongering. | Bruce |
| Hard to know we need to do our best as occupiers of this Planet Earth to do as little harm as possible and as much good as we are able as individuals to leave as small a footprint as we can for the next Generation. | Laurel |
| Look at science and you can see that the world is warming. It has been for a long time. Geology and astronomy show this. Volcanic eruptions spew more carbon dioxide into the air that all the plans and boats and trains. Pollution was the catch phrase of the 1970s. Global warming is the catch phrase of this decade. Media love to propound this because it sells space. It is just a big money making scam. | Peter |
| AGW is miniscule. The sun’s activity and inactivity is the cause of global warming and cooling. All of these government-paid GW scientists should take a one-way rocket trip and apply all their controls to the sun ! 😉 | Don |
| It is well past time that the hoax was exposed. Brexit is the start. | Murray |
| I do think that we need to care for our planet and control the pollution emitted by industry and motor vehicles. But these are not “endangering the planet” as such. | David |
| If there is any significant warming it is caused by the sun. It is one of the biggest money making rorts/cons the world has seen. Shame on the greedies. | Mike |
| Never believed the nonsense and never understood why our Government hadn’t the brains somewhere in their large Party to figure it out. Then again…it is National who are reactive, not proactive in every sense. | Di |
| Energy and pressure raise the temperature and the presence or absence of greenhouse gases make no difference. Annual average near surface temperature is independent of the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The maximum possible near surface average annual temperature is a function of TOA solar irradiance and atmospheric pressure at the surface. | Sharyn |
| Balderdash. | Neville |
| So called Global Warming has become a cult from dodgy Al Gore to actors and various other dingbats who have jumped on the band-wagon. It’s a re-run of the Emperor has no clothes. Some pundits said the Antarctic ice cap would have shrunk by now. I think there is evidence that sun spots and solar flares have had more influence on global temperature variation. Our Government has been sucked in by nitwits at NIWA and other pseudo scientists. As for Sir Peter Gluckman and other academics feeding off the global warming industry they should get a job in the real world! | David |
| I have never believed the “man made global warming” scare monger theory as have always looked at the real science behind the earths climate. Our leaders have been duped into getting involved in these lies, and don’t seem to have the balls to admit that it is wrong. Or else there is some other agenda that we can only imagine about?????? | Neil |
| Maybe change but NOT man made. | Mike |
| I fear mankind is responsible for global warming, mostly through pollution. Whether or not increased CO2 is responsible, it appears highly detrimental to Australia’s coral reef. New Zealand is blessed with renewable energy such as sunshine, and I have a pure electric vehicle. Reducing dependency on imported petroleum is a win-win in my opinion. | Jonathan |
| Humans have no power or capability to alter the climate of planet Earth …….. even by accident! | William |
| This is a bad question. Mankind cannot “endanger” the planet. there is bound to be some effect from the use of fossil fuels at a rate that is very high. When it is possible to accurately quantify the effects of this in relation to natural climate fluctuations then it will be possible to vote with a reasonable degree of confidence and not by gut fealings that are presentlyrequied by the current question. | Victor |
| Global warming is the biggest con since Ponzi. Apparently the temperatures have varied with sun spot activity for 1000’s of year. So what are the greenies going to do about that Dr Goebbels would ne proud of the climate change nut cases for he said if you repeat a big lie often enough people will believe it to be true. | Colin |
| I don’t think the question has been phrased very well. It implies/assumes that global warming is man-made. I’m not convinced scientific evidence has proven global temperature changes are the result of human activity. Should we do what we can to minimise any negative impact our activities have on the planet (eg, pollution)? Absolutely because, at the end of the day, we and our descendants still have to live here. Let’s keep our home clean and tidy! | JO |
| Never did believe it… Their claims were always farfetched and not believable… Very transparently so. | Aphrodite |
| The output of the computer climate models is not empirical evidence, and therefore does not comply with the scientific method. | Peter |
| NO It is just another cycle. | Brian |
| Scaremongering is rife. | Laurie |
| More rubbish from vested interests. | Greg |
| No! | Scott |
| This is just a money grabbing machine which is just shocking and it’s time good old NZ woke up. | Ian |
| No one seems to state how much carbon is emitted into the atmosphere by all the volcanoes over the past few years…… more than a herd of cows or mob of sheep I suspect… | Nigel |
| As a farmer I have been out in the weather for ever and it seems to go in cycles, getting wetter/colder for about 7 years and then getting drier warmer again. The global warming brigade is a Rort. | Maurice |
| So called global warming and cooling are a natural occurrences which have happened many times in history of our planet. Science is divided on this issue but history is not. I consider the current controversy is being generated & promoted by vested interests who deny history for their own purposes. I have a background in Geology, Chemistry, & Physics. | Brian |
| Global warming- a con job, a total hoax designed to transfer wealth to the globalists. | Phillip |
| The climate of our planet has been changing for 4.5 billion years.. Anatomically Modern Man has been around for 200,000 years. The climate has not taken much notice of us. | John |
| The facts point out that climate change is not anthropogenic. It is a more complex problem. | Judith |
| Absolutely not endangering the planet. | John |
| Mother Nature is omnipotent. | Doug |
| It’s a myth in the same league as santa claus and the tooth fairy. Global cooling, here we come. | Alan |
| I agree with everything Brian Leyland has to say on the subject. | John |
| I knew from day one of the Global warming campaign that it was nonsense. | John |
| Except that geo-engineering by the elite and governments IS a major problem, though only just being admitted by whistleblowers. However this is hardly man-made by such as you and me or us, but made by power-control-lunatics. | Bryan |
| It was mythical in 2006 and remains so, propped up by hype. | Collin |
| You hit the nail on the head stating that the real aim of all this is the destruction of capitalism. The Bilderberg Group have had this in train for at least 40 years. now that the internet is finally waking people from their slumber we are seeing the plan for what it is. An unprecedented swindle. | Charles |
| So-called global warming, is a lucrative racket for the unprincipled few. They are endorsed by corrupt, liberal politicians, who are probably on the take out of it as well. | John |
| Absolutely not. It is a rort of disgraceful deceit and lies. | Don |
| I have not seen the argument against the concept so succinctly put elsewhere. Well done Muriel. | Geoffrey |
| It bothers me that the use of weather modification technology is not being acknowledged by the controlled mainstream media. Look up and notice all the aerosol trails dispersing regularly. To blame apparent changes on carbon dioxide while failing to acknowledge the ongoing manipulation is a crime. | Clare |
| How clever people could not see the claims of climate change for what they are beggars belief. | Lachlan |
| It is the biggest scam the world has known The article says it all or some of it. Fraudulently manipulation of data is one of many other issues. | Michael |
| I have always thought the global warming panic was just to give greedy scientists the ability to manipulate governments into funding their ??research?? | Kath |
| Over the last 20 years I have been assisting an overseas university on the sampling and dating of swamp Kauri logs. We have taken bicuits off the ends and they have been examined by Dendrocronology they have got a calendar going back 151 000 years and what has been found what supposedly started in 2010 global warming has happened 12 times before over these years –another question i raise is why has the sun been rising further north and setting further north compass bearings over many years and photos have been taken by myself and a mate who lives some distance further south of my latitude in northland NZ he concurs and found the same with the sun. | Noel |
| I agree (sic) with Trump, “ITS A RORT”. | Graeme |
| A read of Ian Wishart’s book “A VERY Inconvenient Truth” was proof enough for me. What has been written this week just confirms that it is politically driven by those who want everybody to unite about one thing before they attempt to bring in a “One World” Government. If the EU is anything to go by, they have an uphill Battle! | Ted |
| Because AGW doesn’t exist. The UN declared carbon dioxide “a toxin”; may I politely suggest, then, that anyone who believes in AGW stop breathing? That should fix the underlying cause of the AGW myth immediately. THE IPCC IS ALL ABOUT GLOBAL MARXISM and WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION. Planet Earth is in a cooling phase if you choose to look at peer-reviewed research by reputable scientists (not the hanson and gore quacks and their acolytes). Time to tell Key, Clarke and their Marxist Minions to VAFFANCULO! | Mark |
| It’s bullshit. | Ian |
| I read what the deniers say and remain unconvinced by their arguments. | Barbara |
| If individuals were prepared to read historical research and then use their brains they would come to one conclusion. The global warming fraternity receive funding for their prefabricated research which allows them to have a very health income and live on the fat of the calf. | John |
| A great money making racket look what Al Gore walked away with and how much are we paying at the moment but it is another tax that we see no benefit | Russell |
| A properly balanced reporting system would refute the contention that we are on the fast road to chaos. | Ian |
| It’s just a load of BS. A money grabbing scheme pushed by the UN and governments. | Laurie |
| Yes the NZ media have a lot to answer for in not publishing articles that question whether Global Warming is due to man made actions.To rely so much on computer modelling to predict the future temperatures & sea levels is crazy & dishonest. | Peter |
| I believe it’s governments scaremongering to gather more taxes as the western economies are troubled. Nothing to do with mankind making it happen. | Darag |
| Manmade global warming is virtually non-existent and efforts to reduce this minute production of valuable Carbon Dioxide are costing billions of dollars reducing living standards in the developed world and also leading to thousandss of deaths in the poor countries short of energy. | Don |
| There is no man-made global warming thus it can’t be endangering the planet. Indeed there is no natural warming overall for the last 18 years. Greens put out a video a few years ago called “The Age of Stupid”. Ironically it assuredly refers to them and their fanciful notions. Notions that come with a massive $cost. | Peter |
| The Elephant in the room is control of population growth. | Bruce |
| It’s a complex question and I’m suspicious of simplistic answers. Unfortunately, “climate change” has become something of a quasi-religious cause, its advocates displaying the zeal of a cult; they dress up assumption as fact, and denounce anyone who dares to question the “new orthodoxy”. This is not the way that science should be conducted. | Graham |
| Carbon dioxide is essential to plant growth and a bit more carbon dioxide should provide more essential input for plant growth … great news for everyone! And as for methane being problematic, well if that’s the case, then we shouldn’t be establishing wetlands all over the place as swamps with rotting vegetation produce vast quantities of methane. In reality, I think human population control would be a seriously good idea. Considering that human beings do not play a useful part in the food chain, we should probably seriously consider putting a stop to the unchecked proliferation of human beings. i.e. no more than 2 children per family. | Dianna |
| It is a well known fact that, the most difficult thing a scientist can ever do, is to admit that they were wrong. It’s good to hear that the worm is turning. Hopefully common cense will prevail. | Rod |
| No, it’s just a lot of hot air. | Mike |
| We are having more frosts now than we first moved into this house 16 years ago when we had 2 frosts. This year we have already had 4 in spite of the warmer autumn/winter so far. Last year the number of frosts was well into double figures. Global warming is a hoax and personal experience with the number of frosts is proof. If there was global warming surely we would be having less frosts!! Go figure. | Kevin |
| I Believe the planet has always had climate changes and there is plenty of evidence of for that, one of them is when the Romans invaded Britain there was a Mediterranean climate, there Romans must have used fossil fuels in their tanks and vehicles if it was warmer then than now. | Les |
| The claim that global warming – if any – is anthropogenic is the second greatest hoax in human history (the biggest is religion). | Murray |
| More political claptrap to make money for the few bureaucrats? | IAN |
| It is all bulldust! | Fraser |
| Climate change has been here since the days of Noah. Satellite images taken over a number of years show the shrinkage and increase of the polar ice caps with no sign of any global warming. So called release of ozone destroying gases come from this natural cycle and far exceed anything humans could contribute. We need to call in the Myth Busters to put the liars to rest and prevent unnecessary cost and hardship to the general public. | Dave |
| I agree that the general media in this country (and around the world) are guilty of only giving one side of the matter of so called climate change or global warming. True journalists would investigate the matter and then give a balanced report on their findings. I am disgusted with the media reporting on this matter. | Gifford |
| You can se things are changing fast. Back in the 50s and 60s things never change so fast. But it is now. Stop thinking about how much money can be made from what comes out of the ground and look around the world at Global Warming. | Robert |
| Pure conceit to imagine man can alter the physical laws of the universe. | William |
| Yes, I believe we are making a significant contribution to global warming. | Kerin |
| Its been a money making venture to line the pockets of a few. May be time for the UN to fall apart like the EU! | Michael |
| With over 2 billion too many people on earth their breathing in of cool air and breathing out warm air must have an effect. Also flatulance must have an effect as must all the aeroplanes pushing out burning hot exhaust in the stratisphere. | David |
| I believe it may be having a slight affect but nothing like the UN advisers and the NZ Green Party are claiming. | Keith |
| Great article, Muriel! One of the best summaries of the facts and the lies in most media I’ve read. | Peter |
| The ‘free press’ is letting us down (again) – I wonder why?? | Michael |
| Global warming is a cyclical phenomenon and has been occurring for millions of years. Man-made global warming will definitely be helping currently but the next cycle will be a cooling one which could take the world back to another ice age. However I do agree that the major industrial nations must reduce their carbon emissions.. | Rog |
| You get science arguing both sides… Take your pick. | Trevor |
| Politics and money have overridden the science. | John |
| Climate has always changed, eg. the ice age went before man arrived although man is not helping, stopping the bombing and shelling would help. | Edward |
| It is the hype around so called global warming which is the real menace. | Roy |
| Historical facts cannot be ignored. It seems the media are afraid to dispute the UN position. | John |
| Weather changes because that is what weather does and always has done. Nature is in charge not man, so it is time certain scientists became less conceited and observed nature. | Judith |
| Over population and the exploitation of all natural resources and the attendant pollution from the combination are endangering the planet. | Ced |
| Global warming myth is about redistribution of wealth. | John |
| A load of rubbish. Nick Smith was a great promoter of it. | IAN |
| Of far greater importance and concern should be the continued clearing of rain forests in favor of agriculture. Rain forests are predominately C4 plants which gobble up 5 to 15 times more carbon than the more common C1 plants found in grasslands for example. | Geoff |
| Global warming is related to circumstances beyond our planet. However, any atmospheric constraints and improvements will provide us with a better planet to live upon. | John |
| Weather warms and cools as it has done for millenia. I suppose the doomsayers need something on which to focus in order to get recognition; whether their theses are flawed or not does not matter to them so long as the rest of us think their way!!! | Andrew |
| It’s another money making scam that 85% of brain dead humans believe in. | Rowan |
| While the world is warming, oceans emit more CO2 which on balance is good. Not the other way round. | Bill |
| Temperature variations have happened for million of years but the amount off extra large ships that displace huge amounts of water is I think the main cause of rising oceans and nothing to do with rising temperatures but no one ever asks the boffins that question. | Richard |
| Just natural. | Colin |
| Many countries, including the U S A have failing economies under their current administrators. Global warming with carbon trading, were invented to create a new source of wealth for the struggling nations. It has been easy to indoctrinate a whole generation through false teaching at school. Just think back to your time at school if you are over fifty, of course you believe your teachers because you trust them & you know no better. Look at the average age of the Green Party members. All under 40yrs, with no real life experience & have all come through the MODERN education system. Far too young to have even heard about the ten year Aussie drought that began in 1959. It was so hot in the early sixties, with very long Summers, the bikini & the mini-skirt were invented. I could go on, but you get my point. In the real world, the mountains get their snow in Winter just for the ski season. {They missed out in 1998 as I recall but have had not missed since} The glaciers continue to melt as they have since the end of the last ice-age. Of course they are disappearing quicker now just as a snow-ball does when it looses size. But the best lie of all is the rising sea scenario. Hullo ! Antarctica is expanding.. | A.G.R. |
| I have never been convinced by the people who promote the idea. First it was global warming. Then questions were asked and it became climate change. I have read many articles on the subject and am not convinced that humans are creating a problem if, in fact, there is a problem. I hate to see the poorly tuned and clapped out vehicle engines belching noxious fumes and would like to think that any responsible government would do something about it, if not at COF and WOF time, then by roadside monitoring with a spectrometer set up in conjunction with a camera to record and analyse fumes and take a photo of the vehicle so that action can be taken. Surely that would help to maitain our clean green image to some degree. | Mike |
| I have two simple questions to the Climate Change sceptics. what if you are wrong? Do you think the world would be a better place with less carbon and particulate emissions? | John |
| Just another scam to help bring in a one world order. | Neil |
| I think its a natural phase the world is going through. | Jim |
| I believe it is all a political bit of social engineering. Even scaremongering about our receding glaciers is nonsense because a quick look at our history shows the glacier fronts have gone forward and backwards in the past 200 years. | Paul |
| Follow the money trail! It is a scam on a gigantic scale…… | John |
| BUT we should keep the emission of harmful chemicals to a minimum. CO2 is not a harmful (poisonous) emission. | Don |
| Sadly, this vote will make no difference regardless of what it shows. The fact is that with this subject people take on board everything the media states without challenge. I have tried time and again to hold a sensible discussion, even with friends, but only ever get the ‘science is settled’ and ‘all scientists agree’ rhetoric. And then there the unprecedented claims regularly made that if anyone were to make the slightest check would find the period for which the event was unprecedented might only be a year or two, very rarely a human lifetime, and never, ever truly unprecedented. | Alan |
| Those so called learned chair warmers are so busy stealing our money to fill their own pockets, they have no time to listen to reason. | Johan |
| Why is it that those who so strongly believe that global warming is human caused will never talk about population control? Perhaps the whole exercise is more about bringing about the downfall of the Western capitalist democracies! | John |
| Piltdown man rides again? | Peter |
| It was an invention of the Club of Rome in order to bring the nations together in the face of a ‘common threat’.and the carbon tax is the first global tax since the Roman times 2000 years ago. | Harvey |
| We can’t afford to be wrong. CO2 can be reduced by saving our forests They are the CO2 absorbing lungs of the earth but are being torn out and burnt Tony at an alarming rate. Meantime CO2 emissions are increasing. | Tony |
| I THINK WE ARE SEEING AN INEVITABILITY OF CHANGE, but whether this is actually endangering the planet is questionable. “Endangering” is an emotive word, and if we think clearly and substitute “changing” or altering, and discuss the degree of evolutionary change in this industrial landscape, would we perhaps see more clearly and describe less hysterically? Think about it? | Mebel |
| Amazing information. | Jan |
| Yes and no, yes to man made geo engineering/chemtail areosols spraying program going on world wide, that is a crime against humanity and they will swing for it, no doubt it is effecting our weather, warming or not. No to Co2 as the cause and all the BS the lame stream media and lunatic politicans subscribe to…. | Wayne |
| The alarmists really do seem to be in retreat and so their rhetoric gets more and more urgent. The damage they have done to science is huge! | Roger |
| I believe that G W is a rort to extract more money from the population. | Ross |
| Only the neo liberals think climate warming is ‘speculative’. | Dick |
| Read both sides of the argument / debate. Do your own research and you will come to a balanced view of what is happening. | Darryl |
| Man-made global warming isn’t even a thing! | John |
| With a BSc in Chemistry I have never accepted anthropological global warming as a fact. That we are in between naturally-occurring ice ages is far more of a threat to the existence of mankind. | Graeme |
| If the supporters of global warming practising and genuine scientists, they would not need to blackmail those scientists who disagree. In other words, they cannot abide “peer review.” | Hugh |
| Read the science, not the alarmist rubbish! | Mark |
| I am 85 years old and have experienced many variations in climate during that time., I feel Al Gores supposition (which has made him a multi millionare) is a rort. | Patricia |
| However there is far to many humans on our space ship. | Karl |
| It is very disturbing to witness the departure from scientific principles by so many scientists. Does not bode well for our educational institutions. | John |
| I have made similar points as made in this week’s article for over 20 years. It has always been very clear that this is a political economy motivated “scam”. What is appalling is that scientists, who hitherto have had to be objective, are no longer so. Facts are not facts – a most dangerous and slippery slope. | Ian |
| Never have believed there is a global warming problem. Efforts into stopping man made polution of our oceans and waterways is where our money and efforts should be directed. | Pete |
| I sincerely hope that it is not true. I should be able to conclusively make up my mind 1000 years from now. | Noel |
| Science is never settled. | Glenn |
| Science is about evidence, not fantasy, and the current evidence does to support catastrophic anthropogenic global warming. | Jim |
| It is all a load of BS. Power price increases are simply a way for the United Nations to raise money from the developed nations to pour into the undeveloped nations through the carbon scheme. Ask Helen Clarke who dreamed it all up. | Wayne |
| The science is not “settled”, it has been buried by an avalance of politically motivated propaganda. | Brian |
| It is plainly clear that climate change is active worldwide, the evidence is profound. I have been around long enough to witness changes in the seasons of the many countries I have visited during my career. There is no question that this is happening and will only get worse. | David |
| In roman times grapes were grown in England. | Duncan |
| I blame the sun…. | Richard |
| Anyone who says man is endangering the planet is paid to, or has financial gains in ‘stopping’ mans effects. In other words, it’s a scam! | Laura |
| Mann-MadeGW is a USD$15-Trillion fascist fraud! | Brian |
| Its a rort! We should be focusing on real problems like how we deal with the refugee problem and looking for long term solutions to ensure people don’t die from starvation.. | Brett |
| Global warmism is endangering gullible brains. | Ross |
| My belief is that in fact we are more likely heading to another ice age. | Jude |
| The man-made impact on climate change is minuscule, it is being overplayed to extreme lengths and anyone who opposes the view is demonised. | Graham |
| There is nothing mankind can do about our planets weather cycles, they have been changing for millions of years. We are but a speck in time and will make no difference to the overall state of the planet whatsoever, but there are a lot of people making big bucks through the climate change fiasco. | Stevo |
| Global warming is the most massive con job in the history of the world. | Mike |
| The sooner governments realise they have been ‘had’ by global socialists over climate change, the better. | Paul |
| No way is man-made global warming real – how could a relatively small bunch of people change the climate of a huge planet. The whole thing is stupid. | Barbara |
| For years I have been waiting for someone to lead the way in stopping this nonsense – perhaps it will be Donald Trump. I also hope Boris Johnson, who thinks its a con, speaks out. | David |
| National should stop pandering to radical environmentalists and stop wasting money. | Gerald |