Over 1,100 scientists, including one Nobel laureate — Norwegian-American physicist Ivar Giaever — have signed a declaration stating that “there is no climate emergency.” The declaration was signed in late June and is already causing a fuss within the climate hysteria community.
Among other things, the signatories declare that climate science, as it currently stands, has become far too politicized to take seriously and that climate change as currently posited is not an existential threat to humanity.
“Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific,” the declaration states. “Scientists should openly address uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of their policy measures.”
The declaration clearly states that whatever climate change we may be seeing on Earth is driven by natural factors at least as much as by man-made factors.
“The geological archive reveals that Earth’s climate has varied as long as the planet has existed, with natural cold and warm phases,” the signatories declare. “The Little Ice Age ended as recently as 1850. Therefore, it is no surprise that we now are experiencing a period of warming.”
Signatories from nations as diverse as Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, The Netherlands, France, and Indonesia have signed the document.
Among America’s signatories are Dr. Richard Lindzen, professor emeritus of atmospheres, oceans, and climate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr. William Happer, professor emeritus in the Department of Physics at Princeton University; and Dr. Willie Soon, an astrophysicist.
The scientist signatories had harsh words for the woefully inadequate climate modeling that creates much of the panic surrounding global warming.
“Climate models have many shortcomings and are not remotely plausible as policy tools,” the declaration states.
“To believe the outcome of a climate model is to believe what the model makers have put in. This is precisely the problem of today’s climate discussion to which climate models are central. Climate science has degenerated into a discussion based on beliefs, not on sound self-critical science. Should not we free ourselves from the naive belief in immature climate models?”
The scientists also went to bat for carbon dioxide, which many believe is being unfairly vilified as the “control knob” for climate change.
“CO2 is not a pollutant. It is essential to all life on Earth. More CO2 is favorable for nature, greening our planet. Additional CO2 in the air has promoted growth in global plant biomass. It is also profitable for agriculture, increasing the yields of crops worldwide.”
The signatories also find that hysterical media claims of increased natural disasters owing to man-made global warming are simply not occurring, and warn against carbon-capture technology.
“There is no statistical evidence that global warming is intensifying hurricanes, floods, droughts and suchlike natural disasters, or making them more frequent,” the document declares. “However, there is ample evidence that CO2-mitigation measures are as damaging as they are costly.”
As you might expect, climate alarmists are struggling to counter the declaration. Climate-alarm website Inside Climate News trumpeted that “experts” have already debunked the letter.
“Despite its measured tone and its list of supporters with impressive-sounding titles like professor or doctor, the declaration isn’t what it appears to be,” according to writer Kristoffer Tigue.
Michael Mann, who produced the largely debunked “hockey stick” graph that featured so prominently in Al Gore’s science-fiction film An Inconvenient Truth, called the declaration “irrelevant.”
“It’s irrelevant to the actual conversation that is taking place today about the climate crisis,” Mann told Inside Climate News. “Republicans might try to prop up this latest desperate gambit. But the conversation has moved on, and this is really just a distraction and a sideshow.”
Zeke Hausfather, who works with the climate-alarmist organization Berkeley Earth, chose to go after the signatories’ scientific bona fides.
“Looking at the list of signatories, there are a lot of engineers, medical doctors, and petroleum geologists and almost no actual climate scientists,” Hausfather said.
“There are millions of scientists worldwide, so I’m not sure getting 1,000 people to sign a petition is particularly meaningful,” Hausfather explained, “particularly when balanced against the massive scientific agreement around climate change, including the national academies of science in pretty much every major country.”
A “scientist” such as Hausfather should know, however, that true science is not a matter of agreement — it’s a matter of what is observable and based on evidence.
In the end, the signatories argue, even if climate change is some sort of future threat, any money spent on the issue should be used for adaptation, not for mitigation.
“There is no climate emergency. Therefore, there is no cause for panic and alarm. We strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy proposed for 2050. Go for adaptation instead of mitigation; adaptation works whatever the causes are,” the declaration states.
