OPINION:
Delegates at United Nations Doha Climate Conference recently blamed Hurricane Sandy and other “extreme weather events” on global warming, which is allegedly caused by anthropogenic carbon emissions (“Doha Conference: United States must pay for climate change ’loss and damage,’ ” Web, Wednesday).
However, a leaked draft of the Fifth Assessment Report prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), does not support alarmism about global warming. The report purportedly contains information attributing climate change to enhanced solar forcing and admits warming does not match climate-modeling projections. It also predicts a reversal of “extreme weather” events.
Yet in Doha, many were claiming climate change is caused by increasing human contributions to total carbon-dioxide levels. The media was assured that the next IPCC report would “scare the wits out of everyone,” but this is not where the evidence is pointing. It now appears climate change in any substantial measure is driven by the sun, which has now gone quiet and is exerting its influence in the form of cooling. The acknowledgement of strong evidence for enhanced solar forcing should upend the climate commission’s panic-driven agenda.
It would be very prudent for nations to thoroughly digest the Fifth Assessment Report before committing billions on a perceived problem that may turn out not to be much of a problem after all.
ALAN BARRON
Grovedale, Victoria, Australia
Please read our comment policy before commenting.