Calling people “denialists’ and “skeptics’ because they may have a differing view to yourself – as Mr Lockhart does (PMI 1/12), is disrespectful, offensive and uncalled for.
There are many people who believe in climate change – cycles of global warming (and cooling) over thousands of years, and also believe that levels of CO2 are currently rising. But correlation (between rising CO2 levels and global warming) does not necessarily mean causation. In fact, it now seems certain that there are other causes for global warming apart from CO2 – because why have there been cycles of global cooling (eg mid 1940s to mid 1970s) during periods of intense industrial activity when levels of CO2 were extremely high? And periods of global warming when there was little or no industrial co2? (eg The Medieval Warming). Even the proverbial blind Freddie would be able to see anomalies here.
Mother Nature is so vast, complex and unpredictable, and currently there is a large group of scientists from 17 different European and American Institutes conducting research on the effect that cosmic rays have on clouds and hence global warming and cooling. Their leader, Jasper Kirkby, at the giant Hadron Particle Physics Laboratory near Geneva, has stated that this research could account for 50 per cent to 100 per cent of global warming on earth. Anyone can Google “CERN and cosmic rays” and read all about it. CERN is an acronym for European Centre for Nuclear Research.
I’m sure these scientists would be delighted to know that our reports of their research projects are labelled “ramblings’ and “insignificant’ by our own Mr. Lockhart. Furthermore, the very thrust and attitude of his entire letter was typical of the IPCC and their affiliates – that the science of global warming is settled, and they are not the least bit interested in even considering alternative causes for global warming.
Bob Donaldson,
Port Macquarie
