Twenty years ago, on this day, November 22nd, 2004 another terrible book is published, saying that carbon dioxide build-up is not a problem.
Most scientists say that global warming is not only real, but is already contributing to extreme droughts, floods and the melting of the polar ice caps. But a few scientists still insist the idea is bunk. With the Kyoto Protocol about to come into force, Melissa Fyfe investigates the doubters, their financial backers and whether they are worth listening to.
At 401 Collins Street on Monday night, 50 men gathered in a room of plush green carpet, pottery and antique lights to launch a book about the science of climate change. Some of them were scientists. But many were engineers and retired captains of industry. Presiding was Hugh Morgan, president of the Business Council of Australia and former Western Mining boss. The master of ceremonies was retired Labor politician Peter Walsh.
Climate change is about science, but not just about science. It’s about business and politics and wielding influence. The men – there was just one woman present – were all climate change sceptics, members of an organisation called the Lavoisier Group that argues global warming is nothing to worry about.
The book they launched – the latest weapon in the tussle for hearts and minds over global warming – was by Melbourne climate change sceptic William Kininmonth, former head of the National Climate Centre, part of the Bureau of Meteorology. He argues that global warming is natural and not caused by humans burning fossil fuels.
The book, Climate Change: A Natural Hazard, blasts the models used by climate scientists to predict and simulate what is happening. They are flawed, he says. “Climate change is naturally variable and it poses serious hazards for human kind,” he writes. Focusing on man-made global warming is “self-delusion on a grand scale”.
The only problem for the sceptics is that the vast majority of scientists think they are the ones that are deluded. “There’s a better scientific consensus on this than on any issue I know – except maybe Newton’s second law of dynamics”, Dr James Baker, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US, has said.
Fyfe, M. 2004. The global warming sceptics. The Age, 27 November.ge Tool
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 378ppm. As of 2024 it is 423ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that although the denialists had their favoured Prime Minister who was making most of their favourite moves, there’s always time for another unreadable steaming pile of denialism.. In order to get yourself some headlines, go on a speaking tour, feel like you’re telling the truth to the ignorant savages and just generally pal around with your nut job friends. And so it came to pass.
What we learn is to paraphrase Taylor Swift “denialists gonna denialist.” It is, after all, the democracy, at least until the Atlas Network goons get their way.
What happened next. In 2007, the Lavoisier Group kicked into higher gear because everyone was concerned about climate change or was having to pretend that they were concerned about climate change.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
November 22, 2000 – protests at COP6 at The Hague
November 22, 2002 – private business battles on #climate become public in Australia