Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog

A story that could seriously damage the credibility of a broad swathe of climate change sceptics has blown up, in the wake of a new Heartland Institute list of 500 scientists whose work allegedly “undermines the idea of human-induced climate change”.

The list is an attempt to deflect the idea that there is no real science behind the deniers, however, it did not take long for many of those named on it to come forward claiming their work had been grossly mis-represented.

Five New Zealanders appear on the list, namely Associate Professor Chris Hendy (University of Waikato), Dr Matt McGlone (Science Team Leader, Landcare Research), Dr Neville Moar (retired DSIR,), Dr Jim Salinger (Principal Scientist, NIWA) and Dr Peter Wardle (retired DSIR, FRSNZ). They and a significant portion of the list are very upset at their inclusion and have requested their names be removed. Read more »

This is pretty amusing…

We at the Flat Earth Society have spent so many years out in the cold, shunned by Government, science and most of society.

But on Friday night a glimmer of hope appeared for us in the form of the climate sceptic group, the NZ Climate Science Coalition. They were hosting a talk by the Australian climate sceptic (and stratigraphist which is about rock layering) Bob Carter, at the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron in Auckland… People thought we were protestors - HELL, NO, we said – we seek solidarity, we said! We are reaching out in friendship! Some really didn’t believe us. Terry Dunleavy (of the international climate science coalition fame] was, for some reason, apoplectic.

From the Flat Earth Society NZ website

What were New Zealand climate sceptics like Vincent Gray and Owen McShane doing in New York this week? They were flown there to speak at a climate sceptic conference on global warming funded by US think tanks who take money from ExxonMobil to challenge climate science.This is a new aspect to New Zealand’s Climate Science Coalition, who appear to have been taken up by the Exxon-funded climate denial industry with vigour.

I’ll get to the details, but a bit of history might be useful.

In the early 1990’s, as negotiations began for international action on climate, I was working for Greenpeace International’s climate campaign, based out of London. There, I witnessed the birth of a new industry, as big business (especially the oil, coal and gas industries), started to lobby against any action on climate. The Global Climate Coalition (GCC) was formed - and it was extremely effective, not least in the USA.

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