9 December 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (AMENDED)

NZ scientists among 141 who challenge UN to produce climate evidence

Seven New Zealanders are among 141 of the world’s leading climate scientists from 17 countries who have signed an open letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon challenging the UNFCCC and supporters of the United Nations Climate Change Conference to produce convincing observational evidence for their claims of dangerous human-caused global warming and other changes in climate.

The seven, Drs Jock Allison (Dunedin), Chris de Freitas (Auckland), Willem de Lange (Hamilton), Vincent Gray (Wellington), David Kear (Whakatane), Peter Oliver (Upper Hutt) and Gerrit van der Lingen (Christchurch) have joined 134 international colleagues in challenging supporters of the hypothesis of dangerous human-caused climate change to demonstrate evidence of 10 specific climate related claims, including that variations in global climate in the last 100 years are outside the natural range experienced in previous centuries, and that humanity’s emissions of carbon dioxide and other ‘greenhouse gases’ are having a dangerous impact on global climate.

The open letter, tabled in Copenhagen yesterday at the Copenhagen Climate Challenge conference, demands that the UN publicly substantiate each of ten fundamental assertions that underlie current climate concerns – see http://www.copenhagenclimatechallenge.org/.

“With revelations that critical temperature data used by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change appear to have been intentionally distorted to increase warming trends, national representatives to the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference must demand a thorough re-examination of the scientific evidence supporting proposed mitigation actions”, said challenge endorser Dr. Tim Patterson, ICSC Chair and Professor of Earth Sciences at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada). “This should not be limited to simple temperature data auditing but must also include a re-evaluation of many of the climate-related assertions uncritically accepted by politicians and media worldwide.”

Most significant among the scientists’ challenges was for proponents of AGW theory to comprehensively substantiate claims that:

- Recent climate change is unusual in comparison with historical records; - Human emissions of carbon dioxide and other ‘greenhouse gases’ (GHG) are dangerously impacting climate; - Computer-based models are reliable indicators of future climate.

“The science of climate change is not settled; it is evolving rapidly with critically important discoveries, many of which contradict IPCC findings, coming out every month,” said ICSC science advisor, Dr. Robert M. Carter, also a challenge endorser and Professor, Marine Geophysical Laboratory, James Cook University (Townsville, Australia), currently at sea on a field trip taking sediment samples from ocean depths off the South Island. “The already weak case for dangerous man-made global warming is getting weaker still as our understandings advance, so governments need a several decade long time-out while the science matures before even considering the possibility of GHG emission restrictions.”

“While policies designed to conserve energy, reduce pollution and help vulnerable peoples adapt to climate change are important to pursue, proposals to severely curtail GHG emissions in an effort to control climate make no sense, given the current state of scientific knowledge,” concludes Challenge endorser Dr. Wibjörn Karlén, Professor Emeritus, Physical Geography, Stockholm University (Uppsala, Sweden). “Instead we need to focus on environmental issues we know we can positively impact - air, land and water pollution being primary examples.”

Ends

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