Photo: Professor Guus Berkhout
By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley
WUWT Sept. 28, 2019
The Global Climate Intelligence Group, whose objective is to put the science back into climate science, comprises scientists, professionals and researchers from many nations, has already attracted some 500 signatures for what began life scant weeks ago as the European Climate Declaration.
The group, and the declaration, are the brainchild of Professor Guus Berkhout, emeritus professor of Geophysics in the Delft University of Technology. Professor Berkhout is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Among the luminaries who have signed the declaration is Professor Václav Klaus, former President of the Czech Republic, who is known to many of us as a formidable speaker at Heartland conferences and at meetings of the World Federation of Scientists (and, in Britain, at Brexit Party rallies, to the great delight of his audiences).
Professor Richard Lindzen, the world’s foremost climate scientist, is also a signatory, and is the Group’s Ambassador to the United States of America.
Professors Reynald du Berger, Jeffrey Foss, Ingemar Nordin, Alberto Prestinzini, Benoît Rittaud and Fritz Vahrenholt are the Ambassadors to Francophone Canada, Anglophone Canada, Sweden, Italy, France and Germany respectively. These are heavy-hitters.
The declaration says –
There is no climate emergency
A global network of 500 scientists and professionals has prepared this urgent message. Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific. Scientists should openly address the uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real benefits as well as the imagined costs of adaptation to global warming, and the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of mitigation.
Natural as well as anthropogenic factors cause warming
The geological archive reveals that Earth’s climate has varied as long as the planet has existed, with natural cold and warm phases. The Little Ice Age ended as recently as 1850. Therefore, it is no surprise that we now are experiencing a period of warming.
Warming is far slower than predicted
The world has warmed at less than half the originally-predicted rate, and at less than half the rate to be expected on the basis of net anthropogenic forcing and radiative imbalance. It tells us that we are far from understanding climate change.
Climate policy relies on inadequate models
Climate models have many shortcomings and are not remotely plausible as policy tools. Moreover, they most likely exaggerate the effect of greenhouse gases such as CO2. In addition, they ignore the fact that enriching the atmosphere with CO2 is beneficial.
CO2 is plant food, the basis of all life on Earth
CO2 is not a pollutant. It is essential to all life on Earth. Photosynthesis is a blessing. More CO2 is beneficial for nature, greening the Earth: additional CO2 in the air has promoted growth in global plant biomass. It is also good for agriculture, increasing the yields of crops worldwide.
Global warming has not increased natural disasters
There is no statistical evidence that global warming is intensifying hurricanes, floods, droughts and suchlike natural disasters, or making them more frequent. However, CO2-mitigation measures are as damaging as they are costly. For instance, wind turbines kill birds and insects, and palm-oil plantations destroy the biodiversity of the rainforests.
Climate policy must respect scientific and economic realities
There is no climate emergency. Therefore, there is no cause for panic and alarm. We strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy proposed for 2050. If better approaches emerge, we will have ample time to reflect and adapt. The aim of international policy should be to provide reliable and affordable energy at all times, and throughout the world.
The text, together with the list of signatories, is at https://t.co/Pz7ZtsMOYV?amp=1. The signatories are prominent scientists from a wide range prominent group of scientists with an unprecedentedly wide range of disciplines, indispensable in addressing the climate question.
If you agree with the declaration and would like to sign it, please write in the first instance to me, monckton [at] mail.com, and enclose your resumé. I shall pass your name to the academic council, which will then contact you.
Ideas for the Global Climate Intelligence Group’s future program of work include an online, open-access Journal of Corrections to publish learned papers, peer-reviewed by qualified members of the Group, that will put right the often erroneous and unsound science published in the pal-review journals of climate “science”.
Members of the Group are also considering hosting national and international scientific conferences, providing speakers and lecturers willing to balance the one-sided and militantly wrong pseudo-science that now holds sway, providing articles for those of the mainstream media who – unlike the unspeakable BBC – are willing to honor their obligation of giving both sides of every story, making documentaries (the first of which is already at the planning stage), and establishing a legal defense fund to assist those, such as Professor Peter Ridd of the Great Barrier Reef, who have been libeled, punished or dismissed for daring to do what scientists ought to do – to take no one’s word for it and to go on asking questions until the truth emerges.
The idea of online universities on the model of the Open University and Liberty University is also being considered by some members of the Group, and the possibility of establishing an internet based home-schooling network for pupils aged 3 to 18 is also under consideration.
All teachers, lecturers, professors and students in the new network of schools and universities will sign a binding contract with the holding corporation. That contract will govern their conduct, and will in particular forbid them, on pain of expulsion, to interfere in any way with freedom of academic inquiry, research, thought, speech or action.
The Group will also establish friendly relations with other independent-minded entities worldwide that are dedicated to the advancement of true science free of totalitarian taint.
Above all, as the declaration says, the Group will argue that “climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific. Scientists should openly address the uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real benefits as well as the imagined costs of adaptation to global warming, and the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of mitigation.”
Let pure reason, not totalitarian prejudice, hold sway once more in the groves of academe, the corridors of power and the public square!
