A Paltridge in a pear tree

The Climate Change Denialists are scraping the bottom of the barrel now. They are touting Garth Paltridge as their latest weapon against the Alarmists.

I wonder how many of them have actually read anything that he has said - aside from the cover blurbs of course?

I haven't read his book. I have read extracts from it, have listenedd to him talking on the ABC, watched him on YouTube and read a few letters to papers he has written.

In his book, and elsewhere, Paltridge claims that there is "no longer much argument among scientists about the existence of the greenhouse global warming phenomenon", and never was. In other words Paltridge is not a climate change denier. More than that he does not claim that the climate changes are not aggravated by man. In fact he says: "If humans insist on giving the atmosphere an extra dose of carbon dioxide, then indeed one can expect Earth’s surface temperature to rise. To be strictly accurate, we should say that its temperature will be higher than it would have been otherwise. Either way, it doesn’t take a lot of physical knowledge and insight to accept the statement. It is rather the equivalent of saying that if one hits something with a bat then that something will respond."

He does claim that: "It has not been solidly established, and it is certainly not accepted by the majority of scientists as proven fact, that global warming from increased atmospheric carbon dioxide will be large enough to be seriously noticeable - let alone large enough to be disastrous."

I don't know where he gets his numbers. I have been informed that as early as May 2007 when Harris Interactive conducted a survey:

"...41% of scientists believe global climate change will pose a very great danger to the earth in the next 50 to 100 years, compared to 13% who see relatively little danger. Another 44% rate climate change as moderately dangerous.

Seventy percent see climate change as very difficult to manage over the next 50 to 100 years, compared to only 5% who see it as not very difficult to manage. Another 23% see moderate difficulty in managing these changes."

Other survey generate similar responses. That sounds to me like the majority do think it might be noticeable.

He says the coming changes are "inherently unpredictable" and that "in 50 or a 100 years the forecasts of doom will have been tested and, with any luck, proved wrong".

Feeling lucky, punk?