Bob Carter is the first speaker during the last event of the conference. Professor Carter is a geologist at James Cook University and is widely known for his global warming skepticism. In his 2006 article, “There IS a problem with global warming… it stopped in 1998,” he said,
The essence of the issue is this. Climate changes naturally all the time, partly in predictable cycles, and partly in unpredictable shorter rhythms and rapid episodic shifts, some of the causes of which remain unknown. We are fortunate that our modern societies have developed during the last 10,000 years of benignly warm, interglacial climate. But for more than 90 per cent of the last two million years, the climate has been colder, and generally much colder, than today. The reality of the climate record is that a sudden natural cooling is far more to be feared, and will do infinitely more social and economic damage, than the late 20th century phase of gentle warming.”
An Australian professor, the first item Carter discusses is the Australian wildfires, which resulted in over 200 deaths, displaced 10,000 people and devastated a great deal of land and wildlife in Australia. He then points to massive floods, hurricanes, tornadoes that have done the same around the world. Needless to say, the alleged culprit of these events is often global warming. Any plan stemming from natural disasters should be a plan not to change temperature but to accommodate those affected and adapt when and where we can.
Carter asks how governments can believe something that is so inconclusive. He says it starts with primary school. In his presentation, he has slides of a website for elementary school individuals called Professor Schpinkees Greenhouse Calculator. Based on answers you give, the site records your carbon footprint based on the amount of carbon you use and calculates the amount in years it will take to use up your lifetime share of the planet. Clearly, the website is geared towards kids and is slanted. You have to click on a skull and crossbones to get your results and (spoiler) your pig representation explodes at the end. It’s worth trying; check it out here. Carter also rightly criticizes the media and celebrities for their bias belief.
Dr. John S. Theon, retired senior NASA atmospheric scientist and James Hansen’s Supervisor is next on the bill. Hansen, remember, is the climate scientists known for raising global warming awareness and is the most prominent name in the global warming movement other than Al Gore. Hansen believes CEOs of oil companies should be put on trial for committing high crimes on humanity and nature.
Theon is one of the 650 dissenting scientists named in a U.S. Senate Minority Report released in December 2008. He tells the story of Hansen’s close relationship with Gore and how Gore and Hansen worked together to politicize what should have been a scientific debate. Accused of muzzling Hansen, Dr. Theon confidently says he did so for a good reason. The climate change models used by NASA simply did not know enough to forecast credible predictions of climate change and anthropogenic effects on it.
At the time in 1988 to the early 1990s, the variation in modeling results, from a few degrees of warming to a few degrees of cooling, indicated to Dr. Theon that these models could not be trusted. Though the models have improved, the climate remains extremely complex, and that has led Dr. Theon to the same conclusion that many other climatologists and scientists have arrived at over the past few days: there is no scientific consensus on climate change and implementing an extremely costly policy that may have little or no effect on temperature would would be ill-advised and dangerous.
Dr. Theon concludes by emphasizing that
Science cannot be based on faith. It must be based on fact alone.”