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

Dr. Peter Ridd, a Reader in Physics at James Cook University in Australia who
specializes in Marine Physics and who is also a scientific adviser to the Australian
Environment Foundation, dismissed the idea of a "consensus" on man-made global
warming. "It should be apparent that scientists and politicians such as Al Gore, who have
been telling us that the science is unquestionable on this issue, have been stretching the
truth," Ridd, who has authored over 60 publications in scientific journals, wrote on July 19,
2007. "It seems that there are some good reasons to believe that we may have been
swindled," Ridd added. Ridd also debunked fears of global warming negatively impacting
coral reefs. "Just as canaries were used to detect gas in coal mines, coral reefs are the
canaries of the world, and their death is a first indication of our apocalyptic greenhouse
future. The bleaching events of 1998 and 2002 were our warning. Heed them now or
retribution will be visited upon us. In fact a more appropriate creature with which to
compare corals would be cockroaches - at least for their ability to survive. If our future
brings us total self-annihilation by nuclear war, pollution or global warming, my bet is that
both cockroaches and corals will survive. Their track-record is impressive," Ridd
explained. "Corals have survived 300 million years of massively varying climate both
much warmer and much cooler than today, far higher CO2 levels than we see today, and
enormous sea level changes. Corals saw the dinosaurs come and go, and cruised through
mass extinction events that left so many other organisms as no more than a part of the fossil
record. Corals are particularly well adapted to temperature changes and in general, the
warmer the better. It seems odd that coral scientists are worrying about global warming
because this is one group of organisms that like it hot. Corals are most abundant in the
tropics and you certainly do not find fewer corals closer to the equator. Quite the opposite,
the further you get away from the heat, the worse the corals. A cooling climate is a far
greater threat. The scientific evidence about the effect of rising water temperatures on
corals is very encouraging," he added. "Why does a scientist and environmentalist such as
myself worry about a little exaggeration about the reef? Surely it's better to be safe than
sorry. To a certain extent it is, however, the scientist in me worries about the credibility of
science and scientists. We cannot afford to cry wolf too often or our credibility will fall to
that of used car salesmen and estate agents - if it is not there already. The environmentalist
in me worries about the misdirection of scarce resources if we concentrate on ‗saving' a
system such as the Great Barrier Reef," he concluded.
Space physicist Dr. Eigil Friis-Christensen is the director of the Danish National
Space Centre, a member of the space research advisory committee of the Swedish
National Space Board, a member of a NASA working group, and a member of the
European Space Agency. Friis-Christensen co-authored a paper along with physicist
Henrik Svensmark on Thursday, July 19, 2007, entitled "What Do We Really Know
about the Sun-Climate Connection?" The paper stated, "The sun is the source of the
energy that causes the motion of the atmosphere and thereby controls weather and climate.
Any change in the energy from the sun received at the Earth's surface will therefore affect
climate. During stable conditions there has to be a balance between the energy received
from the sun and the energy that the Earth radiates back into Space. This energy is mainly
radiated in the form of long wave radiation corresponding to the mean temperature of the
Earth." The study continued, "From historical and geological records we know that the
Earth's climate has always been changing. Sometimes such changes have been relatively
abrupt and have apparently had large sociological effects." In October 2007, Friis-
Christensen and Physicist Henrik Svensmark, co-authored another report from the Danish
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