Recently, a contributer to this blog wrote about a study that had been circulated which appeared to be legitimate at first glance and which offered an alternative explanation for global climate change. Within minutes after posting this, it became apparent to the author that the study was indeed a hoax and he removed the post from this blog. Since then, however, we have received numerous comments and complaints regarding this hoax. Dr. Cordato, the author of the original post, has since issued a retraction, yet we continue to receive comments.

In response to these comments, I would like to point out that there are a multiplicity of hoaxes regarding climate change currently circulating on other blogs and in the mainstream media. Largely, these hoaxes are being perpetuated by pundits who have put blind faith in the merits of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” Everyone should be familiar with the recent British Court decision in which the Government’s expert witness on climate change was forced to concede that “An Inconvenient Truth” inconveniently contains eleven specific and major falsehoods. These are:

• The film claims that melting snows on Mount Kilimanjaro evidence global warming. The Government’s expert was forced to concede that this is not correct.
• The film suggests that evidence from ice cores proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases over 650,000 years. The Court found that the film was misleading: over that period the rises in CO2 lagged behind the temperature rises by 800-2000 years.
• The film uses emotive images of Hurricane Katrina and suggests that this has been caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that it was “not possible” to attribute one-off events to global warming.
• The film shows the drying up of Lake Chad and claims that this was caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that this was not the case.
• The film claims that a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing arctic ice. It turned out that Mr Gore had misread the study: in fact four polar bears drowned and this was because of a particularly violent storm.
• The film threatens that global warming could stop the Gulf Stream throwing Europe into an ice age: the Claimant’s evidence was that this was a scientific impossibility.
• The film blames global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching. The Government could not find any evidence to support this claim.
• The film suggests that the Greenland ice covering could melt causing sea levels to rise dangerously. The evidence is that Greenland will not melt for millennia.
• The film suggests that the Antarctic ice covering is melting, the evidence was that it is in fact increasing.
• The film suggests that sea levels could rise by 7m causing the displacement of millions of people. In fact the evidence is that sea levels are expected to rise by about 40cm over the next hundred years and that there is no such threat of massive migration.
• The film claims that rising sea levels has caused the evacuation of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand. The Government are unable to substantiate this and the Court observed that this appears to be a false claim.

So, where are the numerous retractions for these major hoaxes? I have seen very little willingness on behalf of climate change activists to even acknowledge the obvious flaws within Al Gore’s movie, much less a willingness to print retractions after discovering that they have been publishing major inaccuracies.

The contributers to this blog strive to be honest and objective while debating the clearly established scientific and economic evidence regarding climate change. Perhaps the same level of honesty on behalf of those who blindly follow the doctrine of catastrophic climate change while disregarding the mitigating evidence would go a long way to resolve the debate over what the human response to climate change should be.