Than 1000 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global ...

French scientist Vincent Courtillot is the director of the Institute de Physique du
Globe de Paris, a member of the Academy of Sciences, a geomagnetism scientist, and
president of the Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Section of the American
Geophysical Union. Courtillot is also a climate skeptic. Courtillot joined his fellow
colleagues at the French Academy of Sciences in a scientific debate. Courtillot explained in
an October 15, 2007 article in Le Figaro that "it is important that [climate skeptics] can
express themselves." Courtillot represented the skeptical arguments along with
geophysicist Louis Le Mouël of the Institute de Physique du Globe de Paris. Claude
Allègre, prominent climate skeptic, French Socialist, and award winning geophysicist
also supported the skeptics' team. The article, titled "Climate: Polemic Between
Academics" in Le Figaro reported, "Louis Le Mouël represented the path of ‗skeptics,'
highlighting the role of variations in activity of the sun, volcanism, cosmic rays or
magnetism, rather than changes in CO2 of human origin, to explain variations in
temperature." (LINK)
Frederic Fluteau, a geomagnetism scientist with the Institute de Physique du Globe de
Paris, co-authored a paper published on January 30, 2007 in the Earth and Planetary
Science Letters. The paper, co-authored with geomagnetism scientist Yves Gallet and
scientist Agnes Genevey of the Centre de Research at the Restauration des Musées,
found, "Much of the observed increase in global surface temperature over the past
150 years occurred prior to the 1940s and after the 1980s. The main causes invoked are
solar variability, changes in atmospheric greenhouse gas content or sulfur due to natural or
anthropogenic action, or internal variability of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system." The
paper also found that "a proposed mechanism involves variations in the geometry of the
geomagnetic field (f.i. tilt of the dipole to lower latitudes), resulting in enhanced cosmicray
induced nucleation of clouds. No forcing factor, be it changes in CO2 concentration in
the atmosphere or changes in cosmic ray flux modulated by solar activity and
geomagnetism, or possibly other factors, can at present be neglected or shown to be the
overwhelming single driver of climate change in past centuries." Le Mouël also served as
one of the co-authors. (LINK)
Meteorologist Jesse Ferrell of AccuWeather praised the new skeptical UK documentary
The Great Global Warming Swindle in an April 2, 2007 blog post. "I will say that this
movie has blown the entire [climate] debate open again, or should," Ferrell wrote. "Many
people have made up their minds without seeing or hearing all the evidence. If you've seen
Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth then you should take the time to watch The Great Global
Warming Swindle," he added. (LINK)
The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition released seven "pillars of wisdom" to
counter the UN IPCC climate report. As detailed in the Dominion Post on April 5, 2007,
the coalition of prominent scientific skeptics includes: Dr. Vincent Gray, an expert
reviewer for the IPCC and most recently a visiting scholar at the Beijing Climate
Centre; Dr Gerrit van der Lingen, a geologist and paleoclimatologist and former
director of Geoscience Research and Investigations New Zealand; Professor Augie
Auer (deceased June 2007) of Auckland, past professor of atmospheric science,
University of Wyoming, and previously MetService chief meteorologist; Professor
Bob Carter, a New Zealand-trained geologist with extensive research experience in
palaeoclimatology, now at the Marine Geophysical Laboratory, James Cook
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