Beyond TWISTED:

TWISTED: The Distorted Mathematics of Greenhouse Denial -- too recent for the book

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External links

New Scientist: Climate Change: A guide for the perplexed http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11462 -- cited in Twisted
Royal Society: A guide to facts and fictions about climate change. http://royalsociety.org/downloaddoc.asp?id=1630
See also blog: The Australian's War on Science

Subsequent events, since publication of TWISTED

In mid-2011, British "climate sceptic" Viscount Monckton visited Australia for a speaking tour. This tour self-destructed as multiple venues were cancelled due to Monckton describing Ross Garnaut as a Nazi.
Unravelling of the Wegman Report
Heaven + Earth was published by Ian Plimer.
1934 as hottest year
Fabricated papal quote by Christoper Pearson in Weekend Australian
Denialist appendix to geosequestration report.
UK court case about An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore.

Details

Heaven+ Earth", by Ian Plimer was published in 2009, purporting to refute mainstream climate science. An extensive compilation of the fabrications and misrepresentation in this book is at http://www.complex.org.au/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=91
The Wegman report into the Hockey Stick temperature reconstruction has come under increasing criticism with a devastating analysis Strange Scholarship in the Wegman Report by John Mashey ( executive summary).
1934: A correction to US climate date led to a revision of NASA GISS temperature compilations, indicating that 1934 was the hottest year on record in the 48 contiguous states of the USA. Many commentators have tried to pretend that the 1934 record applies to the whole world.
Pope The message from Benedict XVI for world peace day (Jan 1 2008) was released early to the meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. (Bali, December 2007). A column by Christopher Pearson in The WeekEnd Australian 29-30 Dec 2007, purports to quote this message saying: What matters is what the pope himself says. He warned that "any solution to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not dubious ideology. ... Fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disaster are nothing more than scaremongering. While some concerns may be valid, it is vital that the international community bases its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement. ... It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions".
In fact only the last sentence is from the pope's message (see below). Pearson turned a highly distorted account of the pope's message on the UK Daily Mail into a fabricated quote.
The relevant words of the pope's message, taken from: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20071208_xli-world-day-peace_en.html are:
... We need to care for the environment: it has been entrusted to men and women to be protected and cultivated with responsible freedom, with the good of all as a constant guiding criterion. Human beings, obviously, are of supreme worth vis-à-vis creation as a whole. Respecting the environment does not mean considering material or animal nature more important than man. Rather, it means not selfishly considering nature to be at the complete disposal of our own interests, for future generations also have the right to reap its benefits and to exhibit towards nature the same responsible freedom that we claim for ourselves. Nor must we overlook the poor, who are excluded in many cases from the goods of creation destined for all. Humanity today is rightly concerned about the ecological balance of tomorrow. It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions, and above all with the aim of reaching agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances. If the protection of the environment involves costs, they should be justly distributed, taking due account of the different levels of development of various countries and the need for solidarity with future generations. Prudence does not mean failing to accept responsibilities and postponing decisions; it means being committed to making joint decisions after pondering responsibly the road to be taken, decisions aimed at strengthening that covenant between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God, from whom we come and towards whom we are journeying.
Pearson's belated retraction (19/1/07) tried to pretend that the Pope's views on global warming remain unclear.
Greenhouse denial appendix: A minority appendix was added to a 2007 Australian Federal Parliament report on geosequestration (tabled August 2007). While this appendix denied the reality of human-induced global warming on the basis of scientific advice from "greenhouse sceptics", several of these advisors were "sceptics" who contributed the brief to the US Supreme Court stating that the expected warming from increased greenhouse gases was 1.8 degrees Celsius over the 21st century. The parliamentarians were Dennis Jensen, Jackie Kelly, Danna Vale and David Tollner. Ms. Kelly acheived prominence during the 2007 Federal election for describing activities of her husband (and the husband of the candidate standing in Ms. Kelly's former seat) as a "prank". This "prank" consisted of distributing fabricated electoral material, purporting to come from Islamic groups and thanking the Labor Party for its support of terrorism.
Gore court case A UK court has put restrictions on distribution of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth to schools. The argument against distribution included evidence from greenhouse sceptics. However unlike the US case, where arguments for both sides are out in the open, distribution of the UK "evidence" was restricted. The final judgement is available at < a href="http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/admin/2007/2299.html"> http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/admin/2007/2299.html

From chaper 10 of TWISTED

As I left CSIRO, ... almost the final words of my farewell speech were those that I commend to you now. They come from Richard Feynman in his minority appendix to the report on the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster: .. reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.

About the author of TWISTED

Ian Enting is a professorial Fellow at the ARC Center of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems. From 1980 to 2004 he was a research scientist at CSIRO Atmospheric Research. He was one of the lead authors of the chapter CO₂ and the Carbon Cycle in the 1994 IPCC report on Radiative Forcing of Climate.

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Disclaimer

This page, its contents and style, are the responsibility of the author and do not represent the views, policies or opinions of The University of Melbourne.

Ian Enting: last change 9/7/11.