A load of hot air
Home » Blog » Annabel McAleer » A load of hot airThere are plenty of reasonable arguments to be heard about Project Hayes. Whether climate change is really happening is not one of them.
There are some fairly reasonable reasons why a person might oppose Meridian's Project Hayes wind farm in Central Otago. Perhaps you’re particularly fond of the view over the Lammermoor Range, or you're not impressed by the production capacity of wind farms compared to more constant forms of energy generation. Perhaps the proposed 176 turbines are just too darn many for your liking.
Then there are the unreasonable reasons. Like Monday's assertion by Professor Bob Carter that—to paraphrase—wind farms are a waste of time and money since global warming isn't happening.
Carter was speaking at the Environment Court appeal hearing currently underway in Cromwell, where he appeared as a witness for appellant Roch Sullivan. (Sullivan is an Auckland property developer independently opposing Project Hayes on the grounds that it is ‘not in the national interest’.) Sullivan seems intent on hijacking the appeal hearing to put climate science itself on trial. Never minding that you can't rule against a law of physics, he asks, “If the theory of man-made global warming fails to survive serious scientific scrutiny, how can Meridian or the Government responsibly spend billions of tax-payers’ money to build it?”
Let's look at that serious scientific scrutiny he's talking about. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports are based on the peer-reviewed, published work of 2500 scientists in more than 130 countries. Its Fourth Assessment Report summary, released in February 2007, stated that human actions are "very likely" the cause of global warming, meaning 90% or greater probability (which is about as certain as proper scientists like to get).
Thirty-four of the world's leading science academies and professional bodies have released statements agreeing with the IPCC's assessment—including a joint statement from the national science academies of the G8 nations (that's Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK, the US and the entire European Union) together with Brazil, China and India.
Last month, the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ) joined them with its statement: "The globe is warming, because of increasing greenhouse gas emissions" (read the full statement here). RSNZ is an independent, national academy of sciences, comprised of over 1200 members and 60 constituent scientific and technological societies, representing nearly 20,000 New Zealand scientists, technologists and technicians.
The fact of climatic warming itself is not in question by any scientific body. And no scientific body of international standing is known to reject the basic findings of human influence on recent climate.
The serious scientific scrutiny Roch Sullivan's looking for has already been done—and, funnily enough, by scientists rather than lawyers.
Unfortunately, there hasn't been any serious media scrutiny of Sullivan's star witness, Bob Carter. Carter is a research professor in the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University, Australia. He is a marine geologist. He has published no peer-reviewed papers providing evidence for his statements about climate change. The Sydney Morning Herald wrote last year that "Professor Carter ... appears to have little, if any, standing in the Australian climate science community. He is on the research committee at the Institute of Public Affairs, a think tank that has received funding from oil and tobacco companies, and whose directors sit on the boards of companies in the fossil fuel sector."
Elsewhere, Carter has been called "an embarrassment to Australian science", and he has been accused taking his scientific 'facts' from a Fox News opinion piece.
It's disappointing that the Otago Daily Times and 3 News didn't investigate Carter's reputation or the validity of his claims before giving time and space to his thoroughly discredited climate change 'argument'.
There are plenty of reasonable arguments still to be had about climate change—how to cope with it and how to slow it down, for a start—just as there are plenty of reasonable arguments to be heard about Project Hayes. Whether or not climate change is really happening is not one of them.
Thu July 31, 2008 @ 01:50 PM
