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Climate scientists cross with Abbott for taking Christ's name in vain Adam Morton
May 10, 2010
TONY ABBOTT is under pressure to justify telling students it was considerably warmer when Jesus was alive after leading scientists said his claim was wrong.
He urged year 5 and 6 pupils at an Adelaide school to be sceptical about the human contribution to climate change, saying it was an open question.
In a question-and-answer session on Friday, the Opposition Leader said it was warmer "at the time of Julius Caesar and Jesus of Nazareth" than now.
Leading scientists said there was no evidence to suggest it was hotter 2000 years ago.
The president of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Kurt Lambeck, said true scepticism was fine, but required looking at published data with an open mind.
"To make these glib statements to school students, I think, is wrong. It's not encouraging them to be sceptical, it's encouraging them to accept unsubstantiated information."
Tas van Ommen, who as principal research scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division collects climate data from ice cores, said any definitive statement about temperatures 2000 years ago was "completely unfounded".
He cited the 2007 report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which found the available data from climate records was too sparse to make clear statements beyond about 1000 years ago. Dr van Ommen said the confidence that global warming was linked to greenhouse gas emissions was based on multiple lines of evidence.
"It is based on our knowledge of physics, our measurement of carbon dioxide and our understanding through climate models as well as the increase in temperatures," he said.
Recently published research suggests the greenhouse effect has caused an imbalance of three-quarters of a watt per square metre in the Earth's energy - more than previously thought. The imbalance causes a rise in the global average temperature.
David Karoly, a Melbourne University federation fellow and climate panel lead author, said Mr Abbott's statement appeared to be based on Heaven + Earth, a 2009 book by the geologist and climate change contrarian Ian Plimer. It has been embraced by sceptics, but criticised by scientists working in the fields it covers.
Professor Karoly said: "It seems strange to me that the leader of a political party would be seeking to disagree with Australia's chief scientist, the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO, the overwhelming majority of climate scientists and Australia's support of the work of the IPCC. He obviously knows better."
Mr Abbott's views on climate change and his opposition to emissions trading led to him toppling Malcolm Turnbull as Liberal leader in December.
This followed him telling a meeting in the Victorian town of Beaufort that man-made change was "absolute crap". He later dismissed this as hyperbole and said he believed humans contributed to warming. Last week he told students: ''It is an open question how much the climate changes today and what role man plays.''
A spokeswoman for Mr Abbott said last night he thought man contributed to climate change, but there was an argument as to how great that contribution was and what should be done about it.
- with AAP
May 10, 2010
TONY ABBOTT is under pressure to justify telling students it was considerably warmer when Jesus was alive after leading scientists said his claim was wrong.
He urged year 5 and 6 pupils at an Adelaide school to be sceptical about the human contribution to climate change, saying it was an open question.
In a question-and-answer session on Friday, the Opposition Leader said it was warmer "at the time of Julius Caesar and Jesus of Nazareth" than now.
Leading scientists said there was no evidence to suggest it was hotter 2000 years ago.
The president of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Kurt Lambeck, said true scepticism was fine, but required looking at published data with an open mind.
"To make these glib statements to school students, I think, is wrong. It's not encouraging them to be sceptical, it's encouraging them to accept unsubstantiated information."
Tas van Ommen, who as principal research scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division collects climate data from ice cores, said any definitive statement about temperatures 2000 years ago was "completely unfounded".
He cited the 2007 report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which found the available data from climate records was too sparse to make clear statements beyond about 1000 years ago. Dr van Ommen said the confidence that global warming was linked to greenhouse gas emissions was based on multiple lines of evidence.
"It is based on our knowledge of physics, our measurement of carbon dioxide and our understanding through climate models as well as the increase in temperatures," he said.
Recently published research suggests the greenhouse effect has caused an imbalance of three-quarters of a watt per square metre in the Earth's energy - more than previously thought. The imbalance causes a rise in the global average temperature.
David Karoly, a Melbourne University federation fellow and climate panel lead author, said Mr Abbott's statement appeared to be based on Heaven + Earth, a 2009 book by the geologist and climate change contrarian Ian Plimer. It has been embraced by sceptics, but criticised by scientists working in the fields it covers.
Professor Karoly said: "It seems strange to me that the leader of a political party would be seeking to disagree with Australia's chief scientist, the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO, the overwhelming majority of climate scientists and Australia's support of the work of the IPCC. He obviously knows better."
Mr Abbott's views on climate change and his opposition to emissions trading led to him toppling Malcolm Turnbull as Liberal leader in December.
This followed him telling a meeting in the Victorian town of Beaufort that man-made change was "absolute crap". He later dismissed this as hyperbole and said he believed humans contributed to warming. Last week he told students: ''It is an open question how much the climate changes today and what role man plays.''
A spokeswoman for Mr Abbott said last night he thought man contributed to climate change, but there was an argument as to how great that contribution was and what should be done about it.
- with AAP
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