Global warming hypothesis has yet to be proved

It seems prominent scientist Ian Plimer is asking us to ignore NASA and numerous science academies.

Ian Plimer exposes the assertion that human activity causes global warming for what it is — a hypothesis still waiting to be proved (“97pc of scientists agree on nothing”, 17/1). How did a proposition become accepted science upon which the Western world has based its energy policies?

One explanation is that this notion has gone unchallenged for years, with those sceptics brave enough to risk their careers by speaking out being publicly vilified and ridiculed.

In Australia, the guilty parties in this con job are left-wing activists, the Greens, our taxpayer-funded ABC, and climate guru Tim Flannery. Flannery said our reservoirs would empty, quoted research that claimed sea levels would flood an eight-storey building, and that the Arctic would be ice-free by 2011-21 if we didn’t act.

Dale Ellis, Innisfail, Qld

Ian Plimer is advising us to ignore the advice of NASA and just about every scientific academy on the planet — then listen to him. So we have a choice. We can take his advice and run what he regards as a small risk of bringing about a climate catastrophe that will threaten human civilisation, in order to free up resources to further destroy global ecosystems. Alternatively we can be risk averse and listen to what all those august bodies that allegedly don’t know what they are talking about and act to create a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable environment.

David Rothfield, Black Rock, Vic

Multiple scientific studies using a range of independent methods have found a 97 per cent scientific consensus that humans are causing global warming.

This includes a 2009 survey of Earth scientists, a 2010 analysis of public statements by scientists, a 2013 analysis of peer-reviewed scientific papers, and a 2015 survey of university scientists.

Ian Plimer attempts to mislead readers by ignoring the many studies replicating the scientific consensus. He even ignores that within my own 2013 study we also confirmed the 97 per cent consensus by inviting the authors of thousands of studies to categorise their own papers.

This independent approach found a 97.2 per cent consensus. Without fail, every criticism of our paper ignores the fact that the 97 per cent consensus was independently confirmed by more than 1000 authors of climate papers.

Genuine sceptics consider the full body of evidence and come to a conclusion if multiple lines of evidence paint a consistent picture. Science deniers start with a conclusion then ignore any data that conflicts with their beliefs.

John Cook, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, US

For far too long we have had it shoved down our throats that 97 per cent of climate scientists agree that humans are causing climate change, the “science is settled” that sceptics are flat-Earthers, knuckle draggers or deniers.

Panicked governments have spent billions building unneeded desalinisation plants with many more billions on subsidising expensive and unreliable wind and solar farms. And for what? So that our gullible politicians can point to what they’re doing to save the planet without ever producing a skerrick of evidence showing the expected drop in overall temperatures resulting from such measures.

It’s high time we exited the ridiculous Paris accord, dropped all subsidies for renewables, got back to using our abundant natural resources and by doing so, commence a return to sanity.

Donn Howe, Pymble, NSW

Despite the protestations of all your correspondents, climate change is not a myth, it is happening right now. Scientists started to make the connection between increased emissions and climate in the 19th century. It was Alexander Graham Bell who first used the term “greenhouse effect” in 1917. Since then, the human population has quadrupled.

Are climate change deniers seriously suggesting that such a population explosion could have no effect on the environment?

Here’s a couple of predictions: many people reading this letter will live long enough to see the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers in New Zealand melt away and Sydney hit by a tropical cyclone.

R. Linkiewicz, Caringbah South, NSW