Naturalist Sir David Attenborough has attacked politicians who deny the "overwhelming" evidence of climate change.

The broadcaster said humanity was facing a "major, serious problem" but never in human history had there been collective effort to tackle the issue.

In an interview with Sky News, Sir David, 88, said: "Wherever you look there are huge risks. The awful thing is that the people in authority and power deny that when the evidence is overwhelming. They deny it because it's easier to deny it.

"It's a very major, serious problem facing humanity, but at the same time it would be silly to minimise the size of the problem.

"Never in the history of humanity in the last 10 million years have all human beings got together to face one danger that threatens us."

In September 2013 a report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said it's extremely likely, or 95% to 100% certain, human influence has been the dominant cause of global warming since the mid-20th century.

In an earlier 2007 report it said it was 90% certain humans were at fault.

Former head of the Met Office Sir John Houghton, 83, who co-chaired the Nobel Peace Prize winning IPCC between 1988 and 2002, also believes politicians are far too complacent.

At a conference in Lima last month the UN reached agreement on how to tackle climate change.

Delegates approved a framework for national pledges to be submitted to a summit next year.

But environmentalists said the deal was an ineffectual compromise.

Rich and poor countries were divided over the burden of cutting carbon.

Sir John, from Aberdyfi, Gwynedd, said: "If we stopped emitting carbon dioxide tomorrow the atmosphere would still warm for 100 or 200 years.

"We can't stop it warming quite a lot more than it's now over the next 100 years and if we wait to see if it's really happening that's a recipe for disaster."

Climate change sceptic Piers Corbyn, the director of forecasting group WeatherAction, said Mr Attenborough's comments were "nonsense".

The forecaster, who wrongly predicted last August "could be" the warmest since 1659, said naturally occurring carbon emissions from sources like dying plants, animals and volcanoes dwarf those from human activity.

Mr Corbyn, 68, who maintains weather patterns are shaped by the sun, said: "As an observed fact there is no evidence changes in carbon dioxide lead to changes in world temperatures. The reality is the other way around.

"A million years of data shows that."

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wa...-globe-8371101

On 07/01/2015 08:02, Malcolm wrote:

In article , Jim
Cannon writes
Naturalist Sir David Attenborough has attacked politicians who deny
the "overwhelming" evidence of climate change.

The broadcaster said humanity was facing a "major, serious problem"
but never in human history had there been collective effort to tackle
the issue.

snip

Climate change sceptic Piers Corbyn, the director of forecasting group
WeatherAction, said Mr Attenborough's comments were "nonsense".

So, who does one believe?

One of the most distinguished naturalists and commentators on the
planet, or a so-called "weather forecaster" who, on December 9th, said:

"This will probably be the most extreme 5 days of snow blizzards and and
gales in Britain and Ireland for 100 years, being more severe than the
worst events of December 2010 (which were also correctly forecast by
WeatherAction)."

Not exactly a difficult decision.

Add to that employing a netkook like Loose Cannon as his PR man and a
website designed by a class of four year olds and you have it nailed.

The man is a complete charlatan as is his sock puppet. Incidentally is
passing him off as a Knight Bachelor of the realm a treasonable offence?

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On Wednesday, January 7, 2015 1:43:58 AM UTC, Jim Cannon wrote:
Naturalist Sir David Attenborough has attacked politicians who deny the "overwhelming" evidence of climate change.

The broadcaster said humanity was facing a "major, serious problem" but never in human history had there been collective effort to tackle the issue.

In an interview with Sky News, Sir David, 88, said: "Wherever you look there are huge risks. The awful thing is that the people in authority and power deny that when the evidence is overwhelming. They deny it because it's easier to deny it.

"It's a very major, serious problem facing humanity, but at the same time it would be silly to minimise the size of the problem.

"Never in the history of humanity in the last 10 million years have all human beings got together to face one danger that threatens us."

In September 2013 a report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said it's extremely likely, or 95% to 100% certain, human influence has been the dominant cause of global warming since the mid-20th century.

In an earlier 2007 report it said it was 90% certain humans were at fault.

Former head of the Met Office Sir John Houghton, 83, who co-chaired the Nobel Peace Prize winning IPCC between 1988 and 2002, also believes politicians are far too complacent.

At a conference in Lima last month the UN reached agreement on how to tackle climate change.

Delegates approved a framework for national pledges to be submitted to a summit next year.

But environmentalists said the deal was an ineffectual compromise.

Rich and poor countries were divided over the burden of cutting carbon.

Sir John, from Aberdyfi, Gwynedd, said: "If we stopped emitting carbon dioxide tomorrow the atmosphere would still warm for 100 or 200 years.

"We can't stop it warming quite a lot more than it's now over the next 100 years and if we wait to see if it's really happening that's a recipe for disaster."

Climate change sceptic Piers Corbyn, the director of forecasting group WeatherAction, said Mr Attenborough's comments were "nonsense".

The forecaster, who wrongly predicted last August "could be" the warmest since 1659, said naturally occurring carbon emissions from sources like dying plants, animals and volcanoes dwarf those from human activity.

Mr Corbyn, 68, who maintains weather patterns are shaped by the sun, said: "As an observed fact there is no evidence changes in carbon dioxide lead to changes in world temperatures. The reality is the other way around.

"A million years of data shows that."

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wa...-globe-8371101

It's not going well, piers, is it? laughing

On 07/01/15 01:43, Jim Cannon wrote:

Climate change sceptic Piers Corbyn, the director of forecasting
group WeatherAction, said Mr Attenborough's comments were
"nonsense".

Climate change septic Piers Corbyn, the man who made a web site and
called himself a director of it ...

Frankly his wiser brother, Piers Morgan, makes much more sense.

(or not)

MS

In message , Jim
Cannon writes
snip
Climate change sceptic Piers Corbyn, the director of forecasting group
WeatherAction, said Mr Attenborough's comments were "nonsense".

LOL. Admittedly climatology isn't Sir David's speciality, but even so
the scientific credentials of the two men are so different that it's a
bit like me saying that Stephen Hawking is talking nonsense about
physics.
--
I'm not paid to implement the recognition of irony.
(Taken, with the author's permission, from a LiveJournal post)

The forecaster, who wrongly predicted last August "could be" the warmest since 1659, said naturally occurring carbon emissions from sources like dying plants, animals and volcanoes dwarf those from human activity.

That may be so, but it's not inconsistent with major human impacts:

Imagine there were 1000 units of natural sources and sinks, and 5 units of CO2 in the atmosphere. The system would be in balance. Now add one extra unit of CO2 from human activity per year. This is dwarfed by the natural sources, but nevertheless the atmospheric load of CO2 would double in only 5 years unless the sinks also increased.

Mr Corbyn, 68, who maintains weather patterns are shaped by the sun, said: "As an observed fact there is no evidence changes in carbon dioxide lead to changes in world temperatures. The reality is the other way around.

The comments on CO2 are rubbish. CO2 is transparent to incoming solar radiation, and opaque to the outgoing longwave radiation from the Earth - therefore it is a greenhouse gas. Adding it to the atmosphere directly causes warming, other things being equal. If Mr. Corbyn believes CO2 does not have this effect I would like to suggest he takes a trip to Venus. Venus absorbs less heat from the sun than Earth (because of its high albedo) but its surface temperature is a cosy 500C. How does he explain this apparent paradox without recourse to the 90bars of CO2 in Venus' atmosphere?


"A million years of data shows that."
What data would that be? Ice core data goes back about this far and is consistent with CO2 being a cause of warming.

There's more chance of Elvis wandering into Southwold Harbour on the back of a polar bear than there is of St. Piers being correct on this.

Brac

Jim Cannon wrote:
Naturalist Sir David Attenborough has attacked politicians who deny the "overwhelming" evidence of climate change.

The broadcaster said humanity was facing a "major, serious problem" but never in human history had there been collective effort to tackle the issue.

In an interview with Sky News, Sir David, 88, said: "Wherever you look there are huge risks. The awful thing is that the people in authority and power deny that when the evidence is overwhelming. They deny it because it's easier to deny it.

"It's a very major, serious problem facing humanity, but at the same time it would be silly to minimise the size of the problem.

"Never in the history of humanity in the last 10 million years have all human beings got together to face one danger that threatens us."

In September 2013 a report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said it's extremely likely, or 95% to 100% certain, human influence has been the dominant cause of global warming since the mid-20th century.

In an earlier 2007 report it said it was 90% certain humans were at fault.

Former head of the Met Office Sir John Houghton, 83, who co-chaired the Nobel Peace Prize winning IPCC between 1988 and 2002, also believes politicians are far too complacent.

At a conference in Lima last month the UN reached agreement on how to tackle climate change.

Delegates approved a framework for national pledges to be submitted to a summit next year.

But environmentalists said the deal was an ineffectual compromise.

Rich and poor countries were divided over the burden of cutting carbon.

Sir John, from Aberdyfi, Gwynedd, said: "If we stopped emitting carbon dioxide tomorrow the atmosphere would still warm for 100 or 200 years.

"We can't stop it warming quite a lot more than it's now over the next 100 years and if we wait to see if it's really happening that's a recipe for disaster."

Climate change sceptic Piers Corbyn, the director of forecasting group WeatherAction, said Mr Attenborough's comments were "nonsense".

The forecaster, who wrongly predicted last August "could be" the warmest since 1659, said naturally occurring carbon emissions from sources like dying plants, animals and volcanoes dwarf those from human activity.

Mr Corbyn, 68, who maintains weather patterns are shaped by the sun, said: "As an observed fact there is no evidence changes in carbon dioxide lead to changes in world temperatures. The reality is the other way around.

"A million years of data shows that."

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wa...-globe-8371101
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Attenborough = qualified scientist, modest, talented, warm and
decent human being, national treasure.
Piers Corbyn = idiot

I know who I believe.

On Wednesday, January 7, 2015 1:43:58 AM UTC, Jim Cannon wrote:

Climate change sceptic Piers Corbyn, the director of forecasting group WeatherAction, said Mr Attenborough's comments were "nonsense".

The forecaster, who wrongly predicted last August "could be" the warmest since 1659, said naturally occurring carbon emissions from sources like dying plants, animals and volcanoes dwarf those from human activity.

Oh dear, as you are his PR man you really should have proof read this properly and edited that bit out. I believe that August was the *only* month last year that had a negative CET!

Col