The climate conference in Bali must have cost a pretty penny, attended as it was by teams of delegates from every nation, scientists, campaigners and protesters in polar bear suits (for God's sake, why?). They all sweated and postured and listened to speeches and manoeuvred and negotiated and threw tantrums and generally did their best to convince the world that they were actually doing something important and that no way were they enjoying themselves. The conference absorbed the attention of the press (in this country, anyway - other nations are less obsessed with the weather than we are) and achieved virtually nothing.
Which was good news for those of us who see the global warming movement for what it is - a deliberate hoax designed to facilitate an increase of government intervention in everyday life; to line the pockets of men like Al Gore who was worth about $1 million when he was a just a humble Vice-President but now has up to $100 million; to exercise an unprecedented control over the developed nations, and to ensure that the undeveloped nations remain undeveloped, condemning them to generations of slavery, ignorance and poverty.
But there was one piece of news about the Bali conference that seems to have escaped the notice of the British media. Distinguished academics and researchers sent an open letter to the UN Secretary General and the conference delegates, saying that there's no proof that man is heating up the world. The letter said …
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued increasingly alarming conclusions about the climatic influences of human-produced carbon dioxide (CO2), a non-polluting gas that is essential to plant photosynthesis. While we understand the evidence that has led them to view CO2 emissions as harmful, the IPCC's conclusions are quite inadequate as justification for implementing policies that will markedly diminish future prosperity. In particular, it is not established that it is possible to significantly alter global climate through cuts in human greenhouse gas emissions. On top of which, because attempts to cut emissions will slow development, the current UN approach of CO2 reduction is likely to increase human suffering from future climate change rather than to decrease it.
The IPCC Summaries for Policy Makers are the most widely read IPCC reports amongst politicians and non-scientists and are the basis for most climate change policy formulation. Yet these Summaries are prepared by a relatively small core writing team with the final drafts approved line-by-line by government representatives. The great majority of IPCC contributors and reviewers, and the tens of thousands of other scientists who are qualified to comment on these matters, are not involved in the preparation of these documents. The summaries therefore cannot properly be represented as a consensus view among experts.
Contrary to the impression left by the IPCC Summary reports …
• Recent observations of phenomena such as glacial retreats, sea-level rise and the migration of temperature-sensitive species are not evidence for abnormal climate change, for none of these changes has been shown to lie outside the bounds of known natural variability.
• The average rate of warming of 0.1 to 0. 2 degrees Celsius per decade recorded by satellites during the late 20th century falls within known natural rates of warming and cooling over the last 10,000 years.
• Leading scientists, including some senior IPCC representatives, acknowledge that today's computer models cannot predict climate. Consistent with this, and despite computer projections of temperature rises, there has been no net global warming since 1998. That the current temperature plateau follows a late 20th-century period of warming is consistent with the continuation today of natural multi-decadal or millennial climate cycling.
In stark contrast to the often repeated assertion that the science of climate change is "settled," significant new peer-reviewed research has cast even more doubt on the hypothesis of dangerous human-caused global warming. But because IPCC working groups were generally instructed to consider work published only through May 2005, these important findings are not included in their reports - i.e. the IPCC assessment reports are already materially outdated.
The UN climate conference in Bali has been planned to take the world along a path of severe CO2 restrictions, ignoring the lessons apparent from the failure of the Kyoto Protocol, the chaotic nature of the European CO2 trading market, and the ineffectiveness of other costly initiatives to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Balanced cost/benefit analyses provide no support for the introduction of global measures to cap and reduce energy consumption for the purpose of restricting CO2 emissions. Furthermore, it is irrational to apply the "precautionary principle" because many scientists recognize that both climatic coolings and warmings are realistic possibilities over the medium-term future.
Attempts to prevent global climate change from occurring are ultimately futile, and constitute a tragic misallocation of resources that would be better spent on humanity's real and pressing problems.
And who were these backsliding traitors to the scientific "consensus" we hear so much about? They were …
• Don Aitkin, PhD, Professor, social scientist, retired vice-chancellor and president, University of Canberra, Australia
• William J.R. Alexander, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Civil and Biosystems Engineering, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Member, UN Scientific and Technical Committee on Natural Disasters, 1994-2000
• Bjarne Andresen, PhD, physicist, Professor, The Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• Geoff L. Austin, PhD, FNZIP, FRSNZ, Professor, Dept. of Physics, University of Auckland, New Zealand
• Timothy F. Ball, PhD, environmental consultant, former climatology professor, University of Winnipeg
• Ernst-Georg Beck, Dipl. Biol., Biologist, Merian-Schule Freiburg, Germany
• Sonja A. Boehmer-Christiansen, PhD, Reader, Dept. of Geography, Hull University, U.K.; Editor, Energy & Environment journal
• Chris C. Borel, PhD, remote sensing scientist, U.S.
• Reid A. Bryson, PhD, DSc, DEngr, UNE P. Global 500 Laureate; Senior Scientist, Center for Climatic Research; Emeritus Professor of Meteorology, of Geography, and of Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin
• Dan Carruthers, M.Sc., wildlife biology consultant specializing in animal ecology in Arctic and Subarctic regions, Alberta
• R.M. Carter, PhD, Professor, Marine Geophysical Laboratory, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia
• Ian D. Clark, PhD, Professor, isotope hydrogeology and paleoclimatology, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa
• Richard S. Courtney, PhD, climate and atmospheric science consultant, IPCC expert reviewer, U.K.
• Willem de Lange, PhD, Dept. of Earth and Ocean Sciences, School of Science and Engineering, Waikato University, New Zealand
• David Deming, PhD (Geophysics), Associate Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oklahoma
• Freeman J. Dyson, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, N.J.
• Don J. Easterbrook, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Geology, Western Washington University
• Lance Endersbee, Emeritus Professor, former dean of Engineering and Pro-Vice Chancellor of Monasy University, Australia
• Hans Erren, Doctorandus, geophysicist and climate specialist, Sittard, The Netherlands
• Robert H. Essenhigh, PhD, E.G. Bailey Professor of Energy Conversion, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, The Ohio State University
• Christopher Essex, PhD, Professor of Applied Mathematics and Associate Director of the Program in Theoretical Physics, University of Western Ontario
• David Evans, PhD, mathematician, carbon accountant, computer and electrical engineer and head of 'Science Speak', Australia
• William Evans, PhD, editor, American Midland Naturalist; Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame
• Stewart Franks, PhD, Professor, Hydroclimatologist, University of Newcastle, Australia
• R. W. Gauldie, PhD, Research Professor, Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, School of Ocean Earth Sciences and Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa
• Lee C. Gerhard, PhD, Senior Scientist Emeritus, University of Kansas; former director and state geologist, Kansas Geological Survey
• Gerhard Gerlich, Professor for Mathematical and Theoretical Physics, Institut für Mathematische Physik der TU Braunschweig, Germany
• Albrecht Glatzle, PhD, sc.agr., Agro-Biologist and Gerente ejecutivo, INTTAS, Paraguay
• Fred Goldberg, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Royal Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Stockholm, Sweden
• Vincent Gray, PhD, expert reviewer for the IPCC and author of The Greenhouse Delusion: A Critique of 'Climate Change 2001, Wellington, New Zealand
• William M. Gray, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University and Head of the Tropical Meteorology Project
• Howard Hayden, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Connecticut
• Louis Hissink MSc, M.A.I.G., editor, AIG News, and consulting geologist, Perth, Western Australia
• Craig D. Idso, PhD, Chairman, Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Arizona
• Sherwood B. Idso, PhD, President, Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, AZ, USA
• Andrei Illarionov, PhD, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity; founder and director of the Institute of Economic Analysis
• Zbigniew Jaworowski, PhD, physicist, Chairman - Scientific Council of Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection, Warsaw, Poland
• Jon Jenkins, PhD, MD, computer modelling - virology, NSW, Australia
• Wibjorn Karlen, PhD, Emeritus Professor, Dept. of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, Sweden
• Olavi Kärner, Ph.D., Research Associate, Dept. of Atmospheric Physics, Institute of Astrophysics and Atmospheric Physics, Toravere, Estonia
• Joel M. Kauffman, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
• David Kear, PhD, FRSNZ, CMG, geologist, former Director-General of NZ Dept. of Scientific & Industrial Research, New Zealand
• Madhav Khandekar, PhD, former research scientist, Environment Canada; editor, Climate Research (2003-05); editorial board member, Natural Hazards; IPCC expert reviewer 2007
• William Kininmonth M.Sc., M.Admin., former head of Australia's National Climate Centre and a consultant to the World Meteorological organization's Commission for Climatology Jan J.H. Kop, MSc Ceng FICE (Civil Engineer Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers), Emeritus Prof. of Public Health Engineering, Technical University Delft, The Netherlands
• Prof. R.W.J. Kouffeld, Emeritus Professor, Energy Conversion, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
• Salomon Kroonenberg, PhD, Professor, Dept. of Geotechnology, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
• Hans H.J. Labohm, PhD, economist, former advisor to the executive board, Clingendael Institute (The Netherlands Institute of International Relations), The Netherlands
• The Rt. Hon. Lord Lawson of Blaby, economist; Chairman of the Central Europe Trust; former Chancellor of the Exchequer, U.K.
• Douglas Leahey, PhD, meteorologist and air-quality consultant, Calgary
• David R. Legates, PhD, Director, Center for Climatic Research, University of Delaware
• Marcel Leroux, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Climatology, University of Lyon, France; former director of Laboratory of Climatology, Risks and Environment, CNRS
• Bryan Leyland, International Climate Science Coalition, consultant and power engineer, Auckland, New Zealand
• William Lindqvist, PhD, independent consulting geologist, Calif.
• Richard S. Lindzen, PhD, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• A.J. Tom van Loon, PhD, Professor of Geology (Quaternary Geology), Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland; former President of the European Association of Science Editors
• Anthony R. Lupo, PhD, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science, Dept. of Soil, Environmental, and Atmospheric Science, University of Missouri-Columbia
• Richard Mackey, PhD, Statistician, Australia
• Horst Malberg, PhD, Professor for Meteorology and Climatology, Institut für Meteorologie, Berlin, Germany
• John Maunder, PhD, Climatologist, former President of the Commission for Climatology of the World Meteorological Organization (89-97), New Zealand
• Alister McFarquhar, PhD, international economy, Downing College, Cambridge, U.K.
• Ross McKitrick, PhD, Associate Professor, Dept. of Economics, University of Guelph
• John McLean, PhD, climate data analyst, computer scientist, Australia
• Owen McShane, PhD, economist, head of the International Climate Science Coalition; Director, Centre for Resource Management Studies, New Zealand
• Fred Michel, PhD, Director, Institute of Environmental Sciences and Associate Professor of Earth Sciences, Carleton University
• Frank Milne, PhD, Professor, Dept. of Economics, Queen's University
• Asmunn Moene, PhD, former head of the Forecasting Centre, Meteorological Institute, Norway
• Alan Moran, PhD, Energy Economist, Director of the IPA's Deregulation Unit, Australia
• Nils-Axel Morner, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Paleogeophysics & Geodynamics, Stockholm University, Sweden
• Lubos Motl, PhD, Physicist, former Harvard string theorist, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
• John Nicol, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Physics, James Cook University, Australia
• David Nowell, M.Sc., Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, former chairman of the NATO Meteorological Group, Ottawa
• James J. O'Brien, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Meteorology and Oceanography, Florida State University
• Cliff Ollier, PhD, Professor Emeritus (Geology), Research Fellow, University of Western Australia
• Garth W. Paltridge, PhD, atmospheric physicist, Emeritus Professor and former Director of the Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies, University of Tasmania, Australia
• R. Timothy Patterson, PhD, Professor, Dept. of Earth Sciences (paleoclimatology), Carleton University
• Al Pekarek, PhD, Associate Professor of Geology, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Dept., St. Cloud State University, Minnesota
• 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
• Brian Pratt, PhD, Professor of Geology, Sedimentology, University of Saskatchewan
• Harry N.A. Priem, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Planetary Geology and Isotope Geophysics, Utrecht University; former director of the Netherlands Institute for Isotope Geosciences
• Alex Robson, PhD, Economics, Australian National University Colonel F.P.M. Rombouts, Branch Chief - Safety, Quality and Environment, Royal Netherland Air Force
• R.G. Roper, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Arthur Rorsch, PhD, Emeritus Professor, Molecular Genetics, Leiden University, The Netherlands
• Rob Scagel, M.Sc., forest microclimate specialist, principal consultant, Pacific Phytometric Consultants, B.C.
• Tom V. Segalstad, PhD, (Geology/Geochemistry), Head of the Geological Museum and Associate Professor of Resource and Environmental Geology, University of Oslo, Norway
• Gary D. Sharp, PhD, Center for Climate/Ocean Resources Study, Salinas, CA
• S. Fred Singer, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia and former director Weather Satellite Service
• L. Graham Smith, PhD, Associate Professor, Dept. of Geography, University of Western Ontario
• Roy W. Spencer, PhD, climatologist, Principal Research Scientist, Earth System Science Center, The University of Alabama, Huntsville
• Peter Stilbs, TeknD, Professor of Physical Chemistry, Research Leader, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, KTH (Royal Institute of Technology), Stockholm, Sweden
• Hendrik Tennekes, PhD, former director of research, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute
• Dick Thoenes, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
• Brian G Valentine, PhD, PE (Chem.), Technology Manager - Industrial Energy Efficiency, Adjunct Associate Professor of Engineering Science, University of Maryland at College Park; Dept of Energy, Washington, DC
• Gerrit J. van der Lingen, PhD, geologist and paleoclimatologist, climate change consultant, Geoscience Research and Investigations, New Zealand
• Len Walker, PhD, Power Engineering, Australia
• Edward J. Wegman, PhD, Department of Computational and Data Sciences, George Mason University, Virginia
• Stephan Wilksch, PhD, Professor for Innovation and Technology Management, Production Management and Logistics, University of Technolgy and Economics Berlin, Germany
• Boris Winterhalter, PhD, senior marine researcher (retired), Geological Survey of Finland, former professor in marine geology, University of Helsinki, Finland
• David E. Wojick, PhD, P.Eng., energy consultant, Virginia
• Raphael Wust, PhD, Lecturer, Marine Geology/Sedimentology, James Cook University, Australia
• A. Zichichi, PhD, President of the World Federation of Scientists, Geneva, Switzerland; Emeritus Professor of Advanced Physics, University of Bologna, Italy
I don't know about you, but it impresses the hell out of me! You might also be interested to see this list of famous scientists now converted to climate scepticism.
And if our oft-expressed dislike of Al Gore puzzles you, here's the reason why (rather long, sorry) …
Al Gore is chairman and founder of a private equity firm called Generation Investment Management (GIM). According to Gore, the London-based firm invests money from institutions and wealthy investors in companies that are going green. It purchases (but isn't a provider of) carbon dioxide offsets. GIM appears to have considerable influence over the major carbon-credit trading firms that currently exist: the Chicago Climate Exchange in the U.S. and the Carbon Neutral Company in Great Britain.
Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) owes its existence in part to the Joyce Foundation, the Chicago-based liberal foundation that provided $347,000 in grant support in 2000 for a preliminary study to test the viability of a market in carbon credits. On the CCX board of directors is the ubiquitous Maurice Strong, a Canadian industrialist and diplomat who since the 1970s has helped create an international policy agenda for the environmentalist movement. Strong has described himself as "a socialist in ideology, a capitalist in methodology." His former job titles include "senior advisor" to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, "senior advisor" to World Bank President James Wolfensohn and board member of the United Nations Foundation. The 78-year-old Strong is very close to Gore.
CCX has about 80 members who have committed themselves to reducing their emissions by the year 2010 to a level 6% below their emissions in 2000, including Ford Motor Company, Amtrak, DuPont, Dow Corning, American Electric Power, International Paper, Motorola, Waste Management and a smattering of other companies, along with the states of Illinois and New Mexico, seven cities and a number of universities. Presumably the members "purchase" carbon offsets on the CCX trading exchange. This means they make contributions to or investments in groups or firms that provide forms of "alternative," "renewable" and "clean" energy.
CCX also has "participant members" that develop the carbon-offset projects. They have names like Carbon Farmers and Eco-Nomics Incorporated. Still, other participant member groups facilitate, finance and market carbon-offset projects to "sequester, destroy or displace" greenhouse gases. CCX aspires to be the New York Stock Exchange of carbon-emissions trading.
Along with Gore, the co-founder of GIM is Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson. Last September, Goldman Sachs bought 10% of CCX shares for $23 million. CCX owns half the ECX, so Goldman Sachs has a stake there as well. GIM's "founding partners" are studded with officials from Goldman Sachs. They include David Blood, former CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM); Mark Ferguson, former co-head of GSAM pan-European research; and Peter Harris, who headed GSAM international operations. Another founding partner is Peter Knight, who is the designated president of GIM. He was Sen. Al Gore's chief of staff from 1977-1989 and the campaign manager of the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election campaign.
Clearly, GIM is poised to cash in on carbon trading. The membership of CCX is currently voluntary. But if the day ever comes when federal government regulations require greenhouse-gas emitters - and that's almost everyone - to participate in cap-and-trade, then those who have created a market for the exchange of carbon credits are in a position to control the outcomes.
Gore just won a Nobel Prize for teaching the world to think green, but he's also showing he knows a thing or two about another kind of green: money. Since 2000, according to published reports, the former VP has transformed himself from a public servant with around $1 million in the bank to a sparkling private consultant with a net worth estimated to be north of $100 million. As well as being a senior adviser to Google and a board member at Apple, he is now a at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the Silicon Valley venture-capital firm that made billions investing early in Netscape, Amazon and Google. If Gore's profit-sharing deal is anything like the firm's other 23 partners, he's also in line to collect tens of millions of dollars a year. That's because partners carve up 30 percent of the profits if and when the alternative-energy start-ups that KP supports go public or are sold.
(Sources: "The Money and Connections Behind Al Gore's Carbon Crusade", Deborah Corey Barnes, Capital Research Center, August 2007 and "Following His Green Dream", Tony Dokoupil and David A. Kaplan, Newsweek, Nov 26th 2007 Issue)
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