Abstract

It is often said that there is a scientific “consensus” to the effect that climate change will be “catastrophic” and that, on this question, “the debate is over”. The present paper will demonstrate that the claim of unanimous scientific “consensus” was false, and known to be false, when it was first made; that the trend of opinion in the peer-reviewed journals and even in the UN’s reports on climate is moving rapidly away from alarmism; that, among climate scientists, the debate on the causes and extent of climate change is by no means over; and that the evidence in the peer-reviewed literature conclusively demonstrates that, to the extent that there is a “consensus”, that “consensus” does not endorse the notion of “catastrophic” climate change.

SIR JOHN HOUGHTON, who was co-chairman of the IPCC Scientific Assessment working group from 1988 to 2002, and Director General of the UK Meteorological Office from 1983 to 1991 has recently posted on the Web a blog attacking The Great Global Warming Swindle, a programme broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK on 8 and 12 March 2007. Sir John’s attack was inaccurate and unfair. The offending passages are here presented seriatim, with explanations of Sir John’s many mistakes in each passage.