Meteorologist accuses NZ government of fraud

[receivingendofsirens]

Meteorologist accuses NZ government of fraud

in statement on climate change

18 Dec 06 - The Government is guilty on at least two counts of fraud in its statement today on what it calls climate change, according to the former MetService Chief Meteorologist, Professor Augie Auer, chairman of the scientific panel of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition.

"On the first count, nowhere in the statement, with its threats of huge economic and social costs on New Zealanders, is there any valid, verifiable scientific evidence to show that changes in our future weather patterns will have catastrophic consequences for New Zealand, let alone the rest of the world.

"Where is the sound science that proves carbon dioxide increases will have catastrophic consequences for New Zealand?" asked Professor Auer. "On the second count of fraud, the Government has defined climate change as ‘a change of climate due to global warming, which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity.’

It is downright dishonest to exclude natural drivers of climate change such as solar heat and radiation, volcanoes and natural weather cycles that the world has known for millions of years. To make the definition more farcical, it (ignores) the fact that the world has not got any warmer since 1998.

"In the face of this evidence, the claim that CO2 is the major causes of the moderate amount of warming up to 1998, is a blatant attempt to hoodwink New Zealanders into swallowing a story that looks more like a politically motivated hoax than a scientifically proven fact. Of course there's been an increase in levels of CO2 in the atmosphere since World War II, but what seems to have escaped notice is that in the same period temperatures gave gone down and up and now down again.

"Anyway, why single out CO2? Naturally-occurring water vapour in the atmosphere drives 95% of greenhouse warming.""

"The greenhouse effect is a near-miraculous phenomenon that keeps the planet a safe and pleasant place to live on . . . if we did not have it the world average temperature would be -18C –– and we wouldn’t be here. Because water vapour contributes 95% to the beneficial warming process mankind cannot make a big difference to the greenhouse effect even if we wanted to.

"The Government’s definition of climate change is simply dishonest. … the climate is always changing, as it has for thousands of years past, at different rates in different parts of the world. Research is telling us with increasing clarity that the main driver of climate change is variation in the levels of heat and other forms of radiation emanating from the sun. Now we have the government and others hijacking climate change, a natural and cyclical phenomenon, as a synonym for man-made global warming.

"And, in case no one has noticed, New Zealand temperatures have been dropping every year since the El Nino high of 1998, ocean temperatures have cooled to the point that icebergs have floated as far north as Banks Peninsula before melting away, and South Island farmers are still counting the cost of a winter that has been one of the coldest on record," said Professor Auer

[Leonardo]

My take on this, and I think it's the popular (read semi-ignorant) view is that global warming does not mean the average temperature will rise everywhere. In this Prof Auer makes a false assumption. There are places on the planet where the average temperature will drop due to shifting sea currents and other such phenomena. Really, it's not so much that temperatures are changing - it's that these figures (and the general weather pattern) from our recorded history are changing so dramatically.

Edited January 20, 2007 by Leonardo

[Essan]

It's only fraud is the NZ Govt know for 100% certainty that what they are telling the public is wrong, and if they are only telling them this for personal material gain.

Whether what the NZ Govt beleive to be true (because it's what they've been told is true really is true is another matter. But it's not fraud. It's not a lie.

Professor Auer does his profession, and the aims of climate sceptics, no favour whatsoever by making such fallicious statements

He might also bear in mind that unless his earthly representative resides in the Vatican, he may also be wrong himself