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

illnesses like the flu,‖ according to a May 7, 2007 article in Der Spiegel. (LINK) [Tol was
moved to this section to more accurately reflect his views.]
Gwyn Prins of the London School of Economics and Steve Rayner of Oxford
authored a report prominently featured in the UK journal Nature in October 2007
calling on the UN to "radically rethink climate policy," and they cautioned against a
"bigger" version of Kyoto with even more draconian provisions. Prins and Rayner's report
in the influential journal bluntly declared "... as an instrument for achieving emissions
reductions [Kyoto] has failed. It has produced no demonstrable reduction in emissions or
even in anticipated emissions growth." Their report was titled "Time to Ditch Kyoto" and
was highlighted in an October 24, 2007 National Post article. "But as an instrument for
achieving emissions reductions it has failed. It has produced no demonstrable reduction in
emissions or even in anticipated emissions growth. And it pays no more than token
attention to the needs of societies to adapt to existing climate change." The report also
noted, "Kyoto's supporters often blame non-signatory governments, especially the United
States and Australia, for its woes." The report continued, "But the Kyoto Protocol was
always the wrong tool for the nature of the job." Prins and Rayner instead urged investment
in new technologies and adaptation as the most promising method to deal with climate
change. (LINK) Prins and Rayner also strongly dissented from the Kyoto style approaches
advocated by the UN IPCC in a December 7, 2007 article in the Wall Street Journal. ―This
week in Bali, Indonesia, [UN] delegates are considering climate policy after the Kyoto
Protocol expires in 2012. We will witness a well-known human response to failure.
Delegates will insist on doing more of what is not working: in this case more stringent
emissions-reduction targets, and timetables involving more countries. A bigger and ‗better‘
Kyoto will be a bigger and worse failure,‖ they wrote. (LINK) Earlier in 2007, Prins and
Rayner warned of creating ‗bizarre distortions in public policy‖ by downplaying adaptation
to climate change. ―Similarly, non-climate factors are by far the most important drivers of
increased risk to tropical disease. For instance, one study found that without taking into
account climate change, the global population at risk from malaria would increase by 100%
by 2080, whereas the effect of climate change would increase the risk of malaria by at most
7%. Yet tropical disease risk is repeatedly invoked by climate-mitigation advocates as a
key reason to curb emissions. In a world where political attention is limited, such
distortions reinforce the current neglect of adaptation,‖ they wrote in February 2007 in the
journal Nature. (LINK) [Note: Prins and Rayner were moved to this section to more
accurately reflect their views.]
Statistician Lenny Smith of the London School of Economics, who co-authored a
study on the uncertainties of climate models for the Tyndall Centre for Climate
Change Research in Oxford, dubbed climate modeling "naive realism." "Our models are
being over-interpreted and misinterpreted," Smith said, according to a New Scientist article
from August 16, 2007. "They are getting better; I don't want to trash them per se. But as we
change our predictions, how do we maintain the credibility of the science?" Smith
explained. "We need to drop the pretence that they are nearly perfect," he added. The
article noted that Smith believes that the "over-interpretation of models is already leading
to poor financial decision-making." The article continued: "[Smith] singled out for
criticism the British government's UK Climate Impacts Programme and Met Office. He
accused both of making detailed climate projections for regions of the UK when global
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