The political fiction that humans cause most or all climate change and the claim that the science behind this notion is ‘settled’, has been dealt a savage blow by the publication of a ‘World Climate Declaration (WCD)’ signed by over 1,100 scientists and professionals. There is no climate emergency, say the authors, who are drawn from across the world and led by the Norwegian physics Nobel Prize laureate Professor Ivar Giaever. Climate science is said to have degenerated into a discussion based on beliefs, not on sound self-critical science.
The scale of the opposition to modern day ‘settled’ climate science is remarkable, given how difficult it is in academia to raise grants for any climate research that departs from the political orthodoxy. (A full list of the signatories is available here.) Another lead author of the declaration, Professor Richard Lindzen, has called the current climate narrative “absurd”, but acknowledged that trillions of dollars and the relentless propaganda from grant-dependent academics and agenda-driven journalists currently says it is not absurd.
Particular ire in the WCD is reserved for climate models. To believe in the outcome of a climate model is to believe what the model makers have put in. Climate models are now central to today’s climate discussion and the scientists see this as a problem. “We should free ourselves from the naïve belief in immature climate models,” says the WCD. “In future, climate research must give significantly more emphasis to empirical science.”
Since emerging from the ‘Little Ice Age’ in around 1850, the world has warmed significantly less than predicted by the IPCC on the basis of modelled human influences. “The gap between the real world and the modelled world tells us that we are far from understanding climate change,” the WCD notes.
The Declaration is an event of enormous importance, although it will be ignored by the mainstream media. But it is not the first time distinguished scientists have petitioned for more realism in climate science. In Italy, the discoverer of nuclear anti-matter Emeritus Professor Antonino Zichichi recently led 48 local science professors in stating that human responsibility for climate change is “unjustifiably exaggerated and catastrophic predictions are not realistic”. In their scientific view, “natural variation explains a substantial part of global warming observed since 1850”. Professor Zichichi has signed the WCD.
The Declaration notes that the Earth’s climate has varied for as long as the planet has existed, with natural cold and warm periods. “It is no surprise that we are experiencing a period of warming,” it continues. Climate models have many shortcomings, it says, “and are not remotely plausible as global policy tools”. They blow up the effect of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, but ignore any beneficial effects. “CO2 is not a pollutant,” it says. “It is essential to all life on Earth. Photosynthesis is a blessing. More CO2 is beneficial for nature, greening the Earth; additional CO2 in the air has promoted growth in global plant biomass. It is also good for agriculture, increasing the yield of crops worldwide.”
In addition, the scientists declare that there is no statistical evidence that global warming is intensifying hurricanes, floods, droughts and such-like natural disasters, or making them more frequent. “There is no climate emergency,” the Declaration goes on. “We strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy proposed for 2050,” it says, adding that the aim of global policy should be “prosperity for all” by providing reliable and affordable energy at all times. “In a prosperous society, men and women are well educated, birth rates are low and people care about their environment,” it concludes.
The WCD is the latest sign that the ‘settled’ fantasy surrounding climate change science is rapidly breaking down. Last year, Steven Koonin, an Under-Secretary of Science in the Obama Administration, published a book titled Unsettled in which he noted that, “The science is insufficient to make useful projections about how the climate will change over the coming decades, much less what our actions will be.” He also noted that rigidly promulgating the idea that climate change is settled demeans and chills the scientific enterprise, “retarding its progress in these important matters”. In 2020, the long-time green activist Michael Shellenberger wrote a book called Apocalypse Never in which he said he believed the conversation about climate change and the environment had in the last few years “spiralled out of control”. Much of what people are told about the environment, including the climate, is wrong, he wrote.
Of course, green extremists in academia, politics and journalism will continue to argue for the command-and-control they crave through a Net Zero policy. In the end, their warped view of the scientific process will fade, leaving a trail of ludicrous Armageddon forecasts, and yet more failed experiments in hard-left economic and societal control.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
Postscript: When we posted this article on the Daily Sceptic Facebook page, it was labelled “False Information”, a conclusion reached after it was “checked by independent fact-checkers”. If you then click on “See Why”, you’re taken to this page on a website called Climate Feedback. It takes issue with this sentence in the Petition on Anthropogenic Global Warming started by Professor Antonino Zichichi: “Natural variation explains a substantial part of global warming observed since 1850.” This is “incorrect” for the following reason: “Natural (non-human) drivers of climate change have been mostly stable since the onset of modern warming and all the available scientific evidence implicates human greenhouse gas emissions as the primary culprit. Scientific evidence also indicates that climate change is contributing to intensified or more frequent natural disasters such as heatwaves, drought and heavy rainfall.”
To claim “all the available scientific evidence” supports the view that human activity is the “primary culprit” when it comes to climate change is a bit misleading, surely? In fact, Professor Zichichi refers to at least some scientific evidence that the anthropogenic responsibility for the climate change observed during the last century has been exaggerated on page 1 of his petition. Indeed, Climate Feedback’s labelling of the central claims made in the World Climate Declaration as “incorrect” is a step up from its previous analysis of the Declaration, which concluded that the scientific credibility of the Declaration was “very low”.
Chris Morrison responded to some of the criticisms to the above piece here and specifically to the Climate Feedback fact check here.
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I’m sure there is bike parking at Hemel Hempstead station.
I have no sympathy for the travel problems. At about her age I had to travel a lot on the Central Line before carriage, track and signal updates. Also Northern, North Circular before multi lane. on rainy days water ran inside the carriage.
I had to endure the period of Heath power cuts. Walked through tube corridors illuminated by paraffin lamps hanging precariously from anything available. Worked mornings with normal lighting but afternoons and evenings either Tilly lamps, torches or candles.
As did everyone else I walked to the station every day in all weathers and home in the evening. Wellington boots in snow or strong rain and I kept an old pair of shoes at work to change.
During the IRA bombing of London, during another strike, I slept on the floor or an old sofa at work two nights a week. I remember windows crashing when the IRA bomb exploded in Bishopsgate not far away.
The thing is, we were brought up with a strong work ethic and there was no alternative. Family and myself to support and upper teens percent mortgage rate. Inflation 27% the year my wife and I married.
No cocktail bars. No online shopping. No credit cards or mobile phones. BT took six months to install a landline.
Its completely different expectations. I’m old enough that my parents both served in WW2. When it snowed, even though 7 or 8 years old, we were expected to put the wellies on and walk to school. All the teachers and service staff would be there. It was just a thing you did. Now, my teacher wife has colleagues who, despite being only a couple of miles away, don’t come to school because they ‘can’t get the car off the drive’. In fact one of them, she walks past their house in her boots, but they still cry off.
For me the generation have been told to expect everything done for them, and it all has to be ‘safe’, and when it isn’t, they collapse. Thats probably really unfair, but what do I care.?
I remember sitting outside The Crown on Clerkenwell Green after work and hearing the Bishopsgate bomb go off.
Scoop up your pennies and travel, dear lady. There’s a world out there, London isn’t everything, y’ know.
I understand that the property/rental market in London is totally messed up, but no-one is forcing you to live there!
…such a narrow minded, entitled, defeatist attitude I cannot tolerate…
London is awesome (well, I found it so, often) but yes some people who were born or gravitate there tend to think everywhere else is hopelessly unsophisticated. My kids grew up there but have moved away, as have we. If you love it genuinely, which some do, then make the sacrifices. However there’s a lot of work there, and for some types of work you may be faced with difficult choices, especially with this rather silly “return to the office” mentality.
This feels like a continuation of the trials of Generation Y. Basically expectations in life do not meet reality. Who is to blame? Parents? Schools? Link below:
https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/why-generation-y-yuppies-are-unhappy.html
No dishwasher! Oh, the poor love.
Yeah, but housemates-to-be.
Yes, she sounds somewhat entitled.
However, the cost of transportation in Britain is exorbitant. And the service is dreadful.
In comparisons with other European countries,.the UK is a disgrace.
When I was young, transport was not cheap, but it was reasonable. And the service was a.lot better. A lot.
There could be a bit of reflection in that regard. Why is the UKs transport so dreadful?
The end of your third sentence sums it up – this country is completely broken and the worst is yet to come.
Anyone young and independent enough should leave whilst they can.
if she finds it hard to cope without a dishwasher, the omens are not good for a move abroad…
Well I suspect that public transport in continental Europe is more heavily subsidised than in the UK. I like free markets but rail lends itself to regional monopolies and I am not convinced our current arrangements are ideal. That said, London commuter rail services are pretty frequent compared to, for example, Italy, and since “covid” they are good deal more bearable because of WFH. Before lockdowns it was bloody awful (well, it required one to be relaxed in the face of crowds, delays – character building?).
Who the Hell gets a taxi to and from the station?
Go the whole hog, get a F***ing Chauffer to and from the office!
Oh deary, deary, the trials of those who were told they were extra special and would always be at the front of the queue.
Welcome to the real world.
The guy who decided it was a brilliant idea for everyone to go to work at the same time was as thick as mince.
Enjoy London, Ruby!
(Seriously, someone tell her… 🤦♂️ )
It does always make me wonder how the country which invented railways now seems to have forgotten everything it once knew about them. Our rail service is frankly a complete joke, especially compared with those in major European nations. How have we lost the ability to run a railway?
Can’t she purchase a monthly or annual train pass?
If she goes to work 5 days a week then she should get an annual season ticket as you get 12 months travel for the cost of 10. Not working a full week has made this more difficult. During my last month’s of work I was on a 3 day retirement scheme and in response to the post covid hybrid working there was a new ticket introduced that gave you 12 daily journeys at a reduced price to a daily rate. There was talk of an extended ticket that might last you a year at that rate. As I was working reduced days for 6 months I did look at the cost of an annual ticket and then cashing it in but because of the 12 months for 10 cost, they would charge you for the months used at the full rate and so refund less than half the cost making it more expensive than the 12 journey days ticket.
Hemel is not that far from London, I used to have to train it in every day from much further, then tube across. In my working past I have had a 2 hour each way drive to work, that was for 4 years. I would consider myself lucky to work 7 hours, my average was 10 but many days spanned into the early hours of the morning. The trains since the 90’s have always been late, expensive and dirty, nothing has changed, so I do feel for young people in that instance, and current taxation, employment and landlord regulations means that people are left with very little of their own money as the Government continues to steal most of it.
There needs to be incentives to work rather than the ease of collecting benefits, but there also needs to be a radical shake up of the attitude to work and business by people, I believe the rot sets in through the school system which seems to focus on grievance, victimhood and hate rather than the pursuit of excellence and knowledge.
When this Cheshire country lad used to visit an ad agency in London in the ’80s I used to walk from Euston to Soho as it was quicker than tube or taxi, and more pleasant. The featherbedded ad men were aghast at the idea of walking anywhere in London when they had clients like me to pay through the nose for their every working minute.
My heart bleeds.