Climate Realist Declaration Tops 1,100 Endorsers

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Climate Realist Declaration Tops 1,100 Endorsers
Prominent Kiwis among those demanding an end to climate hysteria

Ottawa, Canada, June 19, 2008 – Since its creation in March by the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) at the instigation of its New Zealand founding chairman, Terry Dunleavy, the Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change has attracted signatories from 40 countries. Although ignored by most media and governments, endorsement for the Declaration has rained in from hundreds of climate experts and other scientists, as well as professional engineers, economists, policy experts, medical doctors and average citizens. The complete Declaration text, endorser lists and international media contacts for expert commentary, may be viewed at http://www.climatescienceinternational.org/media1.php.

“The high numbers of well informed signatories to the Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change should help end the unjustified reverence granted the pronouncements of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)”, commented Declaration endorser and ICSC science advisor, Dr. Vincent Gray of Wellington. “Contrary to the impressions one gets from media reports, global temperatures have not been rising for eight years. New Zealand temperatures in the last 50 years have gone down with volcanoes and up with El Niños but have no signs of ‘warming’. Christchurch has not warmed since 1917. The sea level in Auckland has been much the same since 1960.”

Having worked as an Expert Reviewer on all IPCC assessment reports since the Panel was created in 1988, Gray has had an inside view of the operations of the UN body. His conclusion is revealing; “The claims of the IPCC are dangerous, unscientific nonsense,” asserts Gray.

Among the several dozen New Zealanders who have endorsed the Declaration to date are the following thirteen leaders in their respective fields:

1. Gerrit J. van der Lingen, PhD, geologist and paleoclimatologist, climate change consultant, Geoscience Research and Investigations, Christchurch
2. David Kear, PhD, FRSNZ, CMG, geologist, former Director-General of NZ Dept. of Scientific & Industrial Research, Whakatane, Bay of Plenty
3. Kesten C. Green, PhD, Business and Economic Forecasting Unit, Monash University, Melbourne, New Zealand citizen, currently residing in Wellington
4. Vincent Gray, PhD, New Zealand Climate Coalition, expert reviewer for the IPCC, author of The Greenhouse Delusion: A Critique of Climate Change 2001, Wellington
5. Owen McShane, Resource Economist, Centre for Resource Management Studies, New Zealand; policy panel of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition
6. Jack Welch, Rear Admiral (ret.), CB, Chairman New Zealand Climate Science Coalition (NZCSC), Auckland
7. T. J. ("Jim") Sprott, PhD, OBE, MSc, FNZIC, consulting chemist, forensic scientist, Auckland
8. Pat Palmer, MAgrSc (agronomy), pollution control expert (sources and effects on health), retired from Crop Research Division, DSIR, Christchurch
9. Peter Oliver, BS, MS, PhD, FGA, Geology, Geochemistry, Paleomagnetism, Research Scientist, retired, Upper Hutt
10. Alan Limmer, PhD (Chemistry), Fellow, New Zealand Institute of Chemists, Hastings
11. Bryan Leyland, M.Sc., FIEE, FIMechE, FIPENZ, MRSNZ, consulting engineer (power), Secretary - International Climate Science Coalition, Auckland
12. Emma Gibbs, PhD, Neuroscientist, Director, International Climate Science Coalition, London, United Kingdom/New Zealand
13. Willem De Lange, PhD, MSc (Hons), Dphil (Computer and Earth Sciences), Senior Lecturer in Earth and Ocean Sciences, Waikato University, Hamilton

The Manhattan Declaration concludes, “Attempts by governments to legislate costly regulations on industry and individual citizens to encourage CO2 reduction will slow development while having no appreciable impact on the future trajectory of global climate change. Such policies will markedly diminish future prosperity and so reduce the ability of societies to adapt to inevitable climate change, thereby increasing, not decreasing human suffering.”

New Zealand endorser of the declaration, Dr. Kesten Green of the Business and Economic Forecasting Unit at Monash University (Melbourne) told the Select Committee considering the Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill, “IPCC authors seemed to be completely unaware of scientific research on the subject of forecasting. Among the many articles that were cited by the authors, none had any relevance to the scientific testing of forecasting methods.” Green and forecasting expert Professor Scott Armstrong of the UniversityPennsylvania discovered on auditing the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report that the authors violated 81% of the 72 basic forecasting principles they assessed. “Some individual principles that were violated are so important that violation of any one of them alone invalidates the IPCC’s forecasts.” explains Green. “In conclusion, forecasts of dangerous manmade global warming are not valid and there is currently no more reason to believe that temperatures will increase over the coming century than there is to believe they will decrease. IPCC forecasts of dangerous manmade global warming were not scientific and therefore the Bill was not necessary or desirable (see the Green/Armstrong paper on climate change forecasting at http://publicpolicyforecasting.com/).

"Just as the Manhattan Project was key to finally ending the Second World War, the Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change may one day be regarded as a critical catalyst that helped end today's climate hysteria," said ICSC Science Advisory Board member, ICSC Science Advisory Board member, Professor Bob Carter, a graduate of Otago University, later on the faculty of James Cook University, Queensland, Australia, "Protecting the natural world is crucially important and so environmental policy must be based on our best understanding of science and technology coupled with a realistic appreciation of the relevant economics and policy options. This is not happening in the climate debate."

The ICSC is an association of scientists, economists and energy and policy experts working to promote better public understanding of climate change. ICSC provides an analysis of climate science and policy issues which, being independent of lobby groups and vested political interests, is an alternative to advice from the IPCC. ICSC thereby fosters rational, evidence-based, open discussion about all climate, and climate-related, issues.

For more information about the Manhattan Declaration or the realists’ view of climate change, visit http://www.climatescienceinternational.org or contact:

ENDS

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