Newsletter

by Richard Treadgold, Convenor

Two great Christmas presents

The great Copenhagen carbon-harmin' talk-fest has ended. The latest news I have is from the New York Times, reporting Obama's lack-lustre address in which he said, referring to the "danger" of "climate change": "This is not fiction, it is science."

People say what's on their minds, so to discover what they're thinking, listen to what they say. When Obama says "fiction" so close to "global warming" it's a good sign that he thinks they go together, that global warming is fiction. And if that's what he thinks, why should we think otherwise?

Near the end of his eight-minute speech he said: "We know the fault lines [between the attitudes of groups of nations] because we've been imprisoned by them for years. These international discussions have essentially taken place now for almost two decades, and we have very little to show for it other than an increased acceleration of the climate change phenomenon."

No evidence for that

His comment "acceleration of the climate change phenomenon" is so deeply ill-informed that I don't know where to begin demolishing it, so I'll just say that there's no evidence of changes in any element of climate even "accelerating", much less increasing its accelerating. So our years of talking about changing the climate have achieved nothing. Let us hope we continue to achieve nothing, since it's an excess of hubris to imagine that we're capable of changing the climate at all.

It appears little has come out of Copenhagen, which would be a victory for reason and evidence. However, I've only just been sent a copy of what purports to be the final agreement and I haven't read it yet. Time will tell. It certainly has not been a victory for regulation of our lightbulbs and shower heads. The other Christmas present was the leak of emails which document an extensive conspiracy to falsify the global warming science.

The meeting went very well

Thanks to those who came along to the Akarana Yacht Club the Monday before last. Has it been nearly two weeks already? There were about 65 people, and the engaging John Boscawen usually draws about 30, so it wasn't too shabby, on three days' notice and no printed advertising, to draw about 35 people to an address on global warming. I described our research and the response so far from NIWA and was well received. Lots of people kept me talking after the meeting.

Read more about NIWA's response in my latest post. It really is shocking behaviour from a public body. Coalition scientists are looking into the NZ temperature record for Auckland and Hokitika and more revelations are imminent that will make NIWA even more uncomfortable.

The timing of our first report on temperature couldn't have been better, linking in as it did with both the CRU email leak and the Copenhagen conference. Come to that, NIWA's response could hardly have been better (I mean more inept) all round for maximum publicity and leverage.

Your convenor has been busy

I apologise for not keeping you informed more often through the newsletter but as partial recompense I include some helpful links, below, for keeping up with general climate news. I've been writing the second major article concerning our joint project with the Climate Science Coalition, responding to NIWA's clear prevarication and obstruction. The article uses comments and suggestions from many of the scientists and was posted yesterday afternoon. I hope you read it and leave a comment on the issues it raises.

We think it will turn out to be one of the most important climate-related stories of the year. Our study excited much interest overseas and many people are watching to see how it develops. It promises to cast strong doubt on previous claims of considerable warming in New Zealand during the 20th century. Lord Monckton quoted almost the entire study in Climategate: Caught Green-Handed!, a substantial review of the leaked emails and their enormous significance.

One thing has accelerated in the last few weeks, and that's the volume of news and comment about global warming! It's impossible to keep up AND keep writing about it in a timely way to keep others informed.

Last time, I promised to get a proper newsletter out with more news in it. Perhaps in the New Year...

Web sites to keep you informed

Here are some of the web sites I visit regularly. If you're interested either in global warming science or how people like Al Gore (pig-headed star of An Inconvenient Truth) and Rajendra Pachauri (IPCC head) are turning it into the biggest money-spinner of all time, keep in touch with developments through these sites:

Of course, for a New Zealand perspective and to keep up with local developments, stay in touch with the Climate Conversation Group web site.

Damning revelations out of Climategate

Have you heard about Climategate? It wouldn't be surprising if you haven't, since the mainstream media have mostly tried to ignore it. To give you a taste of what the emails and computer code in the documents leaked from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia reveal, here's an easy-to-read article by Lawrence Solomon.

It was published in the National Post about an hour ago as I write this. It's just reached me, and I cannot leave without including it here for you. Solomon's a well-informed writer and he lays bare all Connelly's Wikipedia wickedness perpetrated on behalf of RealClimate. Here's the introduction:

The Climategate emails describe how a small band of climatologists cooked the books to make the last century seem dangerously warm. The emails also describe how the band plotted to rewrite history as well as science, particularly by eliminating the Medieval Warm Period, a 400-year period that began around 1000 AD. The Climategate emails reveal something else, too: the enlistment of the most widely-read source of information in the world — Wikipedia — in the wholesale rewriting of this history.

A Christmas blessing

May your Christmas be merry, may the sweet air fill your lungs, the good produce of this generous land fill your stomach, the beneficial sound of reason fill your mind and the causeless happiness of the universe fill your great heart.

My very best regards to you,

Richard Treadgold,
Convenor,
Climate Conversation Group.