On this day, November 3 in 2000, American scientist Richard Lindzen testified to an Australian Senate investigation of Kyoto Protocol, at the behest of the denialist group that grandly and inanely took the name of a French chemist called Lavoisier…
According to the final senate report
“Professor Richard Lindzen, a Professor of Meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, questioned the idea of ‘scientific consensus’ of reports of the IPCC. He claimed that the IPCC has hundreds of scientists, each working on a couple of pages, with none ever polled to assent to the summary. This, he claimed, is used as a bludgeon for questioning. Further, he claimed that scientists permit this to happen for their own self-preservation and to maintain an interest in the science.”
[The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 369 or soppm. At time of writing it was 416ish ppm- but for what it is now,well, see here for the latest.]
The context was this –
Australia had extorted an absurdly good deal at the December 1997 climate conference in Kyoto, with a “reduction” target of … an 8% increase in emissions, and a huge loophole for “avoided emissions” for deforestation.
But Prime Minister John Howard really didn’t want to ratify it.
There was argy-bargy back and forth, as climate was used as a chip in the “culture” war.
A Senate Investigation was underway and the so-called Lavoisier Group invited Richard Lindzen to give testimony. (The links between Australian and the USA on climate denial go back to the very early 1990s).
Why this matters.
The creation of ignorance and doubt about basic scientific facts has been a favoured tool in the hands of those who want things to carry on as they are.
What happened next?
Howard, on June 5 2002 (World Environment Day) announced he was not going to ratify Kyoto.
