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The Forum > Article Comments > A lot of hot air? > Comments

A lot of hot air? : Comments

By William Kininmonth, published 22/6/2007

ABC TV's decision to show a shortened version of the 'Great Global Warming Swindle' is an attempt to discredit it, even before it is shown.

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Liam, you’ve got be kidding!
You cite a web site for the “Center for Media and Democracy” (I’ll forgive them for mis-spelling “Center” as they are only Americans, after all) as some sort of “exposé” of Mr Kininmonth. Have you looked at the “profiles” of the people behind that organisation? Not a scientist among them, much less anyone with any knowledge of climatology.
Half of them are so-called “activists” –another code word.
As far as I’m concerned, it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black- please forgive the cliché.
I agree with Admiral von Schneider, I’m puzzled as to the motivation behind this attempt to blame everything on CO2, as if there weren’t any other influences operating
Posted by Froggie, Friday, 22 June 2007 7:46:01 PM
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Bushbred, you bring me to tears.

You’ve seen all of that terrible degradation in the Western Australia wheatbelt – the country of my heart…even though I haven’t lived in that part of the world for quarter of a century.

The weather’s going whacko. We had our coldest day on record yesterday in Townsville. We’ve had weeks of cold wet weather, when it is supposed to be sunny and dry and reasonably warm in June. It is just like a good Dalwallinu winter and completely unlike anything I’ve seen here in 24 years.

It is hard to imagine that anthropogenic climate change is a furphy, after all the hype, scientific opinion and wonky weather.

But I can’t wait to see the ‘Great Global Warming Swindle’.

As George Monbiot says;

“to form a balanced, scientific view, you have to consider all the evidence, on both sides of the question.”
Posted by Ludwig, Friday, 22 June 2007 8:16:24 PM
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Thanks Liam for your insightful comments. The ABC is showing a cut-down version in the name of objectivity and balance, the same reason it is screening a debate after the program. It does not restore their diminished credibility one iota. It is an attempt to be seen to be responding to the will of much of the public.

People on the ABC Board such as Albrechtsen and Windschuttle have been climate change sceptics for years. Just read their articles. They and other journalists of like mind will pick out the few scientists who deny human-induced climate change, against the overwhelming majority (>95%) of the world's best scientists who agree with it, and say "There! There is a debate!" and report this in the name of balance.

This is why the debate really is over. You will never be able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that climate change is human-induced, just like you can never prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Holocaust happened, or that evolution is not true. But the overwhelming evidence tells us that the Holocaust did happen and that evolution is true. You go where the evidence leads and you make a judgment accordingly.

Showing this documentary, cut-down or not, is like showing a documentary denying the Holocaust, despite what Simon Castles in The Age reported recently.
Posted by Nils, Friday, 22 June 2007 8:34:28 PM
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Carl Wunch, the scientist interveiwed in the GGWS who claims to have been mis-represented, has written a response here:

http://ocean.mit.edu/~cwunsch/papersonline/responseto_channel4.htm

He has also posted a variety of articles on this program on his website:

http://ocean.mit.edu/~cwunsch/CHANNEL4.html

The one I particularly liked was GGWS producer Martin Durkin's response to some critism (coarse language warning):

http://ocean.mit.edu/~cwunsch/papersonline/durkinemails.htm

Another scientist interviewed, Hans Friis-Christensen and one of his students have made claims that their research was distorted and partially fabricated by the producers:

http://folk.uio.no/nathan/web/statement.html

"Firstly, we have reason to believe that parts of the graph were made up of fabricated data that were presented as genuine. The inclusion of the artificial data is both misleading and pointless. Secondly, although the narrator commentary during the presentation of the graph is consistent with the conclusions of the paper from which the figure originates, it incorrectly rules out a contribution by anthropogenic greenhouse gases to 20th century global warming".

As for Christy's research, in the executive summary of a US CCSP report he authored, he states:

"Previously reported discrepancies between the amount of warming near the surface and higher in the atmosphere have been used to challenge the reliability of climate models and the reality of human induced global warming. Specifically, surface data showed substantial global-average warming, while early versions of satellite and radiosonde data showed little or no warming above the surface. This significant discrepancy no longer exists because errors in the satellite and radiosonde data have been identified and corrected. New data sets have also been developed that do not show such discrepancies"

The full report can be dowloaded at realclimate:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/03/swindled/

along with a discussion of the film. It's good reading if you're interested.

The claims made are not supported by data. They have misrepresented scientists, fabricated data and mislead audiences.

Some advice for William Kinnimonth. In order to maintain your professional reputation, put as much distance between yourself and Martin Durkin and the GGWS as possible.
Posted by ChrisC, Friday, 22 June 2007 9:22:10 PM
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Some people think that the United Nations is conspiring against their individual freedoms. Others think that the UN is there to try and protect those freedoms, now and for the generations that follow.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (comprising all countries) is trying to address the problems of Global Warming – as are businesses, cultures, religions and individuals worldwide – dare I say it, so too is Oz and US – why?

Some people seem to think that the United Nations IPCC is also involved in a conspiracy to swindle people – but, the IPCC is only the messenger. They review the scientific literature that has been published and present it to the world – for the world to act as they see fit.

The only consensus is that the vast amount of published scientific literature out there says the world has a global warming problem, we can do something about it but we have only a certain amount of time to do it.

Smart people listen and act appropriately, even if that means hedging your bets – a decision based fundamentally on risk analysis, if not logic.

Some people want to argue/debate ad infinitum, put their head in the sand or just want to pretend it is not happening – others want virtually 100% certainty before they will act.

Admiral, there is no problem in “investigating factors other than CO2”. We have been looking at these factors in attribution studies on climate change for a long time, and our findings you may wish to ignore, but that is your problem.
Posted by davsab, Friday, 22 June 2007 9:35:34 PM
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Global warming is a reality. I hope the politicians will do something before is too late. I hope one day we can buy cars that won't need petrol to work, for example.
http://saveourbushland.blogspot.com/
Posted by Elena R., Friday, 22 June 2007 10:50:08 PM
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