Scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in their 1990 first assessment report, stated that the complexity of the climate system is such that only computer models can evaluate the sensitivity of global temperature to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Given this claim, it is important to review the development of climate models because…
by Jennifer Marohasy, editor Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne Paperback: 400 pages Price: AUD$59.95 Reviewed by William Kininmonth
The relevance of the Medieval Period to recent warming is controversial. Were temperatures during the 1100s, an earlier period of apparent prosperity, warmer than are currently being experienced? The question is important in the context of our understanding of climate change. Claims that industrialisation and associated burning of fossil fuels have caused an unprecedented rise in global temperature lose validity if there were earlier warm periods at times when atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels were not elevated. When compiling the first climate assessment report of 1990, scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) supported the notion that the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age of the 1600s were real and of global extent. It was assumed that historical accounts of changing prosperity were linked to availability of food…
APOCALYPSE NEVER: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All by Michael Shellenberger HarperCollins, New York Hardcover: 432 pages Price: AUD$59.99 Reviewed by Bill Kininmonth The emergence of Extinction Rebellion has lifted environmental alarmism to a new level of public confrontation. It is not, however, as if the movement has been able to call on a massive number of active supporters, as did the “Ban the Bomb” and anti-Vietnam War marches of the 1970s. Extinction Rebellion groups often number from hundreds to a few thousand, yet they are able to close city thoroughfares and disrupt communities. It is civil disobedience and wilful disrespect for the law that has enabled the environmental extremists to gain media attention, not numbers. Michael Shellenberger introduces his book, Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All, with…
