Head Of Oz Meteorology Bureau Slams Cardinal Of Sydney Over Climate Ignorance

[hatrack]

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Sydney's Catholic Archbishop is an outspoken disbeliever in man-made global warming, arguing that it was hotter during the Middle Ages and carbon dioxide levels are not historically high. Bureau chief Greg Ayers used an appearance at a Senate estimates hearing yesterday to rip into the cardinal's personal views.

He said the core of his arguments were based on a book by Australian scientist Ian Plimer called Heaven and Earth: Global Warming the Missing Science. But Cardinal Pell's convictions were misplaced, Dr Ayers said. "The contents of the book are simply not scientific," he told the committee. "The cardinal has been misled."

The book has been routinely dismissed by fellow scientists, who criticised it as a "polemic from one individual", including phrases not at all based in science. It contained gratuitous attacks on climate change campaigners in government, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Australia's former climate change minister Penny Wong.

Over 10 minutes, Dr Ayers outlined a litany of errors repeated by Cardinal Pell, rubbishing one particular reference to greenhouse gases and nitrogen. "It's not a greenhouse gas; it's 78 per cent of the atmosphere," Dr Ayers said. He'll be writing to Cardinal Pell in due course, asking him to come on a tour around the country visiting scientists working in the climate change field.

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http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/bom-chief-lashes-pell-over-climate-stance-20110222-1b324.html