The suggestion that climate change is made up is demonstrably a nonsense conspiracy theory says Prof. Ray Wills, Chief Executive of the Western Australian Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA), and Adjunct Professor with The University of Western Australia.

Questioning the scientific facts on climate change and suggesting that somehow climate change is made up is a nonsense conspiracy theory says Prof. Ray Wills, Chief Executive of the Western Australian Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA), and Adjunct Professor with The University of Western Australia.

'The thought that somehow and for some reason the overwhelming majority of scientists working on climate science are involved in a scientific conspiracy to somehow dupe the community is clearly nonsense,' observes Prof Wills.

'If this were the case, there would be somewhere evidence revealed of secret exchanges from the clandestine meetings of climate scientists, the secret letters and email trails (and all the rich climate scientists) - and with that fraudulent activity, criminal actions on fraud for those scientists involved.'

'To have avoided this, the countless amounts of data that is evidence of the continuing warming of the globe must have been manufactured and published in peer review journals without any evidence surfacing of fraud over the history of research on the topic, and in particular the last 40 years of published science. If it has really happened, this would be the best managed conspiracy in history. Clearly this is a ludicrous proposition.'

'But there is no evidence, only empty accusations. The scientific community is actually pretty good at pointing out fraud - even that which occasionally manages its way into the peer-reviewed literature. '

'This conspiracy view was the same approach that was used attempting to discredit the evidence on smoking and the approach of those saying smoking does not affect health. And in some case is promulgated by the very same scientists used by the tobacco lobby for that debate. '

'All counter argument to global warming reverts to a wild, unproven accusation that climate scientists are conspiring, mostly to receive research funds - there is simply no evidence to support such an outrageous claim that universally impugns the reputation of the world's climate scientists.'

'A common suggestion that it is all about funds for research is also nonsense - the only evidence of a vested interest is from those denying the facts, and some key interests in protecting the massive value in fossil fuel resources. Today, news services have reported that ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil company, is continuing to fund lobby groups that question the scientifically established evidence of global warming, despite its public pledge to cut support for climate change denial.'

'Global temperatures are rising - its been measured, it is a fact. Science has established that the cause of rising temperatures is a consequence of human-induced climate change.'

'Australia's Senator Fielding concludes that, because the inexorable rise of CO2 is not matched by the same consistency in rise in temperature, that global warming is not real. The conclusion is flawed, as it does not recognise the complexity of climate systems. CO2 is but one factor, temperature is an expression of a multitude of variables, and climate does not change in a linear fashion.'

'Climates change - and global warming occurs - in fits and starts: always has, always will, regardless of the nature or man-made circumstances (and in this case man-made) because that is the nature of the world's climate engine.'

'As uncertainty clings to the world's financial markets, economic and business analysts less familiar with the climate change science may find it challenging that science - with a high level of certainty - can tell us of the havoc global warming bring to our planet and by deduction on global economies, and the urgency with which we need to respond for both the world's environment and our own well-being.'

'There is one certainty in fiscal markets - that at some point we will be certain that the bear will hibernate and growth will return. To be sure, the ups and downs in the market from day to day, week to week, and month to month cannot be forecast. But almost all economic analysts will agree the longer trends over years and decades are more regular and that growth will return and markets will recover.'

'Similarly, in the short-term science cannot forecast how quickly climate changes will occur in the next months and years, and temperature and other weather changes in any given place will behave much like the stock market, especially as climate belts shift and the world's climate systems adjust to the pressures that the global warming from a build up of greenhouse gas emissions is causing, analogous to the way fiscal markets are re-adjusting now.'

Every qualified scientific body in the world, from the Australian Academy of Science and the Royal Society as well as the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Chinese Academy of Science, accepts unequivocally that global warming is a reality - it is being measured - and agrees that warming is caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

Prof Wills concludes: 'Let me be quite clear - there is no research published in reputable scientific journals that refutes the importance of greenhouse gases in controlling the Earth's climate, nor the fact of human origins in the build up of greenhouse gases. None.'


WA Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA)

Media Release - 3 July 2009

Exxon still pays hired guns to shoot the messenger (climate change is real).

Editors notes:
1. Stories reporting on ExxonMobil http://news.google.com.au/news/more?um=1&ned=au&cf=all&ncl=dKFeyns4jtqjiwMJNeGvFLbOVXJZM
2. Royal Society statement on scientific acceptance of human-induced global warming http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=11509
3. Global temperatures are rising - its been measured, it is a fact - the graph at this link is real, based on real data - it is a clean, very convincing piece of evidence: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Instrumental_Temperature_Record.png from this data set at NASA http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.A2.txt. Many other images are at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming including the data from the graph labelled the 'hockey stick' - which has been subject to considerable scrutiny, but despite attempts to discredit it, has stood up to all reviews and is scientifically validated http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2000_Year_Temperature_Comparison.png (Wikipedia links used here only for convenience as it is both accessible and consolidates a lot of information in one place - these pages are scientifically credible and cite all sources of the original data.)
4. The Western Australian Sustainable Energy Association Inc. (WA SEA) is a chamber of businesses boasting a growing membership of 250 industry members from a diversity of businesses, and now the largest state-based industry body of its kind in Australia. www.wasea.com.au.