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Climate Rationalists have assembled an open letter to the Bali climate conference. Signatories include Bob Carter and Lord Lawson of Blaby.

The letter begins:

Open Letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations

Dec. 13, 2007

His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon

Secretary-General, United Nations

New York, N.Y.

Dear Mr. Secretary-General,

Re: UN climate conference taking the World in entirely the wrong direction

It is not possible to stop climate change, a natural phenomenon that has affected humanity through the ages. Geological, archaeological, oral and written histories all attest to the dramatic challenges posed to past societies from unanticipated changes in temperature, precipitation, winds and other climatic variables. We therefore need to equip nations to become resilient to the full range of these natural phenomena by promoting economic growth and wealth generation.

The letter is published in the Canadian National Post here. The signatories are here, and there is an editorial here.

Accomplishments of selected signatories of
the open letter to the U.N. Secretary General

The study of climate change in relation to public policy encompasses many areas of research and scholarship; most are well represented amongst the signatories to the letter to His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon.

The press release that accompanies the publication of the letter contains the following statement:

“The signatories to the letter include many distinguished professional persons who have occupied leading positions in national and international science organizations, government organizations and universities, and have been elected as fellows of distinguished scientific academies or awarded prestigious science prizes.”

In no particular order, here are some examples of the accomplishments of selected signatories to the letter

AWARDS & POSITIONS

President, World Federation of Scientists – ZICHICHI
Director of a national research funding agency (The Australian Research Council) – AITKIN
Director General of a comprehensive national research agency (The New Zealand DSIR) – KEAR
Chairman of the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation – JAWOROWSKI
Laureate of the UNEP Global 500 environmental program – BRYSON
Director of the Australian National Secretariat for the Ocean Drilling Program – CARTER
Director of a national weather observing agency (US Satellite Weather Service) – SINGER
Director of the Australian National Climate Centre – KININMONTH
Director of Research, Royal Dutch Meteorological Service – TENNEKES
Director of the French (CNRS) Laboratory of Climatology – LEROUX
Director, Institute of Environmental Science (Carlton University) – MICHEL
Head of the Forecasting Centre, Norwegian Meteorological Institute – MOENE
University Pro-Vice-Chancellor – ENDERSBEE
State Geologist (Kansas) – GERHARD
Director of Russian Institute for Economic Analysis, Advisor to President Putin – ILLARIANOV
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer (Thatcher government) – LORD LAWSON
Dep. Secretary of the Treasury (Australia) – MOORE
President of the WMO Commission for Climatology – MAUNDER
Recipient of the Donner Prize (best book on Canadian Public Policy) – MCKITRICK
Recipient of Meisinger and Charney Awards (American Meteorological Society) – LINDZEN
Recipient of Mills Medal in Cloud Physics of the Royal Meteorological Society – AUSTIN
Recipient of Petr Beckmann Award for “courage and achievement in the defense of scientific truth” – IDSO
Recipient of Chapman Medal (Royal Astronomical Society of London) – AKASOFU
Recipient of the Max Planck Medal – DYSON
Recipient of the Percy Nicholls Award recognizing notable scientific achievement – ESSENHIGH
Editor of an environmental journal (Energy & Environment) – BOEHMER-CHRISTIANSEN
Editor of a biological journal (American Midland Naturalist) – EVANS
Editorial Board member (Climate Research) – KHANDEKAR
IPCC expert reviewers – GRAY, COURTNEY
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science – LINDZEN
Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand – AUSTIN, CARTER
Fellow of the Geological Society of America – EASTERBROOK
Fellow of the American Geophysical Union – AKOSOFU
Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society – WEGMAN
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science – PALTRIDGE
Hon. Member of the Royal Geological Society of the Netherlands – VAN LOON

ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS

Professor of Environmental Sciences – SINGER
Professor of Climatology – BALL, MALBERG, LEROUX
Professor of Meteorology – GRAY, W., BRYSON, LINDZEN
Professor of Atmospheric Science – LUPO, PALTRIDGE, ROPER
Professor of Oceanography – O’BRIEN
Professor of Quaternary Geology – KARLEN, TOM VAN LOON
Professor of Geology – VAN LOON, PLIMER, CARTER, EASTERBROOK, OLLIER, PATTERSON
Professor of Sedimentology – PRATT
Professor Marine Geology – WINTERHALTER
Professor of Isotope Geology – CLARK, PRIEM
Professor of Paleogeophysics & Geodynamics – MORNER
Professor Chemistry – KAUFFMAN, STILBS
Professor of Physics – HAYDEN, ANDRESEN, AKOSOFU, ANDRESEN, AUSTIN, DYSON, ZICHICHI
Professor of Mathematical & Theoretical Physics – GERLICH
Professor of Applied Mathematics – ESSEX
Professor of Statistics – WEGMAN
Professor of Economics – MILNE
Professor Geotechnology – KROONENBERG
Professor for Innovation and Technology Management – WILKSCH
Professor of Energy Conversion – ESSENHIGH, KOUFFELD
Professor of Engineering – MACALIK, ALEXANDER, ENDERSBEE
Professor of Public Health Engineering – KOP
Professor of Chemical Engineering – THOENES

Distinguished Emeritus Professors – 24 in total

Australia has ratified the Kyoto Protocol. This was Kevin Rudd’s first official act as the new Australian Prime Minister.

But according to an international law expert, Donald Rothwell, without domestic legislation in place the new government could be in breach of its international legal obligations.

According to the Professor, the normal method for ratifying treaties is not a speedy process but rather involves the preparation of a national impact analysis, then a parliamentary inquiry and enacting new domestic laws.

No national impact analysis had been undertaken on Kyoto – but we have ratified nevertheless.

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Thanks to Ian Mott for the story.

Reality seems to be obstructing any meaningful deal in Bali – looks like another holiday, sorry, I mean conference, will be needed, somewhere else ‘nice.’

In public, climate scientists and European politicians are generally optimistic that rising carbon dioxide levels and temperatures can be curbed. In private, some are less sanguine; but there has been a widespread unwritten code of optimism to avoid being accused of scaremongering or creating despair. Now, science advisors to two governments with claims to leadership in global climate politics, Germany and the UK, have told BBC News it is unlikely that levels of greenhouse gases can be kept low enough to avoid a projected temperature rise of 2C (3.6F).

Meanwhile, the UK still plans a huge airport expansion, there is not the slightest hint of a deal that would see rich nations pay poor nations to capture their emissions from coal and even Democrats in the US Congress want to postpone any tough action on emissions until after 2020. That may be why the scientists’ mask of optimism is beginning to slip.
Roger Harrabin, BBC News, 10 December 2007

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has ruled out endorsing proposed short-term greenhouse gas emission targets of up to 40 per cent by 2020 but says that does not mean the Bali climate change conference will be a failure. Mr Rudd ruled out endorsing a draft proposal from conference organisers for drastic cuts to emission levels of between 25 and 40 per cent over the next 12 years for developed nations
The Age, 10 December 2007

Washington rejected stiff 2020 targets for greenhouse gas cuts by rich nations at U.N. talks in Bali on Monday as part of a “roadmap” to work out a new global pact to fight climate change by 2009. Other countries such as Japan are also opposed, fearing such stiff goals would choke economic growth.
Reuters, 10 December 2007

The head of Japan’s biggest business lobby warned Monday that another set of ‘irrational’ greenhouse gas emission targets like those in the Kyoto Protocol would weaken Japan Inc’s competitiveness. ‘If irrational regulations of total emissions are set, as it was the case under the Kyoto Protocol, we cannot avoid a weakening of our international competitiveness,’ said Fujio Mitarai, who is the head of the Japan Business Federation and also chairman of Canon Inc.
Forbes, 10 December 2007

Britain is responsible for hundreds of millions more tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions than official figures admit, according to a new report that undermines UK claims to lead the world on action against global warming. The analysis says pollution from aviation, shipping, overseas trade and tourism, which are not measured in the official figures, means that UK carbon consumption has risen significantly over the past decade, and that the government’s claims to have tackled global warming are an “illusion”.
David Adam, The Guardian, 10 December 2007

On ‘global warming’, the only thing in which Britain leads the world is in the illusion of its political rhetoric.
Philip Stott, 10 December 2007

Rio. Kyoto. Bali. [Hawaii]. That’s environmental conferences for you. They always occur in sunlit places ending in vowels, and with a consonantal component of no more than 50%. They’re never in vowel-light locations like Nitvinggen or Bblarrgh or Quivdansk, where summer lasts a few hours some time in June, and where the locals spend their long winters rummaging through their clothing of animal pelts, popping lice with gnarled, nutshell fingernails, and musing vowellessly. For, there is almost a defined UN Green Meridian, where conferences To Save The World must always be held.
Kevin Myers, Belfast Telegraph, 7 December 2007

If you thought global warming hysteria couldn’t get any worse, think again:

A WEST Australian medical expert wants families to pay a $5000-plus “baby levy” at birth and an annual carbon tax of up to $800 a child.

Writing in today’s Medical Journal of Australia, Associate Professor Barry Walters said every couple with more than two children should be taxed to pay for enough trees to offset the carbon emissions generated over each child’s lifetime.

Baby tax needed to save planet, claims expert