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Garth William Paltridge, born (1940-04-24) April 24, 1940 (age 84), is a retired Australian atmospheric scientist. In August 2009 he published a book on the global warming debate, The Climate Caper. Paltridge believes that while athropogenic global warming is real, the warming will probably be too small to be a threat.

Early life and career

Paltridge obtained a BSc in 1961 from the University of Queensland, a PhD in 1965 from University of Melbourne and a DSc in 1976 from the University of Queensland. From 1967 to 1989 he worked for the CSIRO. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. From 1990 to 2002 he was the director of the Institute of Antarctic and Southern Oceans Studies at the University of Tasmania and from 1991 to 2002 he held the post of director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Antarctica and the Southern Ocean at the University of Tasmania.

Paltridge was involved in studies on stratospheric electricity, the effect of atmosphere on plant growth and the radiation properties of clouds. Paltridge researched topics such as the optimum design of plants and the economics of climate forecasting, and worked on atmospheric radiation and the theoretical basis of climate. In terms of purely scientific impact, perhaps his most significant achievement was to show that the earth/atmosphere climate system has adopted format which maximizes the rate of its thermodynamic dissipation (i.e. its rate of entropy production). This suggests a governing constraint by a Principle of Maximum Rate of Entropy Production (see also non-equilibrium thermodynamics). It may allow prediction of the broad-scale steady-state distribution of cloud, of temperature and of the energy flows in the ocean and atmosphere when one has sufficient data about the system for that purpose, but does not have fully detailed data about every variable of the system. Paltridge has published more than 100 books and scientific papers.

He previously worked as the Director of the Environmental Executive of the Institute of Petroleum, a now-defunct petroleum industry trade group.

Climate change scepticism

We think as far as Antarctica is concerned, that over the next 100 or 200 years, the input of snowfall will increase faster than will the melting of ice on the edges, and so Antarctica may actually increase in size slightly, the ice sheet. Greenland we're not absolutely certain, but it won't change much we believe over the next 100 or 200 years.

Paltridge has argued against the Australian government's proposed emissions trading legislation. He has said, "Given all the uncertainties about climate change itself and whether in any event its impact on the environment would be positive or negative, it's not exactly an open-and-shut case that one should spend a lot of money on reducing carbon dioxide emissions now." His view is that it would be better to invest in adaptation strategies, rather than mitigation strategies.

Paltridge has stated that he was threatened with funding cuts in the 1990s by his employer, the CSIRO, if he publicly expressed his doubts about the extent of the effect of greenhouse emissions.

Paltridge delivered a keynote speech at the 2005 "Managing Climate Change" conference, in which he stated, referring to the IPCC's scientific consensus on climate change, that "consensus is not the sort of thing on which sensible people put their money". He also stated that the apparent convergence of the predictions of the IPCC models into a narrower range of possible temperature rise has to be taken with "a considerable grain of salt".

Political and group affiliations

Paltridge was listed as an "allied expert" by the Natural Resources Stewardship Project.

Paltridge is a member of the Lavoisier Group like fellow Australian global warming skeptic, Ian Plimer. The Lavoisier Group organised the launch of Paltridge's book on August 11, 2009 in Melbourne, where Hugh Morgan launched the book, and Garth Paltridge responded.

Paltridge was listed in 2009 as treasurer of the Tasmanian branch of Australian Skeptics at their website, where he was jokingly referred to as being "a physicist until he became corrupted by climate science" who "went mad after retirement and started to take piano lessons".

Book: The Climate Caper

The Climate Caper is a popular science book published in August 2009. It argues against the scientific consensus on climate change, rejecting the view that global warming is "very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (man-made) greenhouse gas concentrations" and criticises what it claims to be the "politicisation of science".

Launch

The Lavoisier Group organised the launch of Paltridge's book on August 11, 2009 in Melbourne, where Hugh Morgan launched the book, and Garth Paltridge responded.

Content

In the short (111-page) book, Paltridge criticises the IPCC as having become a permanent feature with its own bureaucracy spawning a continuing series of reports which have not changed our basic knowledge of the problem. He says one of the more frightening statements about global warming heard now is that "the scientists have spoken", adding that "the implication of god-like infallibility is a little hard to take". The science of global warming, he says, is far less settled than climate scientists would have us believe. He adds that experimental data don't exist to check the model calculations of an amplified temperature rise. The existing models were established before the political stakes soared and it is now almost impossible for dissenters to enter the field, he claims. His conclusion is that it has not been solidly established, and it is not accepted by the majority of scientists as proven fact, that global warming from increased atmospheric carbon dioxide will be large enough to be seriously noticeable, let alone large enough to be disastrous.

In his book, Paltridge claims that there is "no longer much argument among scientists about the existence of the greenhouse global warming phenomenon", and never was. However, he posits, the effect may not be large enough to be seriously noticeable, let alone large enough to be disastrous. Paltridge differs from the majority of climate scientists who argue that taking no action to mitigate climate change is "inexcusable". Rather, Paltridge states that humanity should trust in "luck", saying that the coming changes are "inherently unpredictable" and that "in 50 or a 100 years the forecasts of doom will have been tested and, with any luck, proved wrong". He goes on to make the familiar sceptic arguments of a "religion" amongst scientists, who all conform to the theory that warming will be disastrous because of "political correctness", that administrators of science research faculties "have little real knowledge of science, and are ... subject to the necessities of political correctness". He claims that "many of them have been appointed to their position precisely because of their 'feel' for the views and needs of the community rather than their 'feel' for science". Paltridge also cites "the need to eat", the need to publish and get grants, a mistaken belief in "the need to preserve the world’s fossil fuels, or to a belief in the need for global government, or perhaps to a vision of forced transfer of resources from rich nations to the poor" as reason behind the consensus on global warming amongst the world's scientists. He also points to what he sees as a need amongst scientists to restore their "pride" by being associated with "an international program has high and popular moral purpose". The bottom line, Patridge states, is that "the money lies on that side of the fence".

In the last chapter, Paltridge claims that the "warmists" have hidden agendas. They either like the idea of carbon cap-and-trade because it would be "the first step towards global government", or they are socialists who want to "force a redistribution of wealth both within and between nations", or they are "powerbrokers" who see emissions trading as a path to the sort of power that used to be wielded the major religions, or they are politically correct and driven by "a need for public expression of their own virtue".

Reception and criticism

The book was recommended by fellow global warming skeptic, Christopher Monckton, in the book's foreword:

Nevertheless, when the history of the bizarre intellectual aberration that is “global warming” comes to be written, once it is even clearer than it already is that the disasters, catastrophes, cataclysms and apocalypses that have been so luridly and so widely predicted have not and will not come to pass, Dr. Paltridge’s little book will be regarded as one of the few, rare, precious beacons of enlightenment that prevented humanity from wandering through carelessness, ignorance and absent-mindedness into a new Dark Age.

— 8px, in Christopher Monckton, Foreword to The Climate Caper, 8px

Ray Evans, co-founder and President of the New Right think tank, the H R Nicholls Society, said this of the book:

Having read the manuscript I can endorse this book without reservation. It is written by a scientist who was at the top of the scientific establishment in Australia, and who saw at first hand the intellectual corruption which went hand in hand with government funding of science "research". The book is written in a whimsical style, reminiscent of P G Wodehouse, and is difficult to put down.

— 8px, in Ray Evans, Communication to publisher, 8px

Bibliography

• The Climate Caper, Garth Paltridge, Connor Court Publishing, Ballan, 2009 (ISBN 978-1-921421-25-9)

References

1. ^ "The over-blown science of global warming - On Line Opinion - 17/8/2009". www.onlineopinion.com.au. Retrieved 2009-08-18. ...there is no longer much argument among scientists about the existence of the greenhouse global warming phenomenon.
2. ^ "Paltridge, Garth William (1940 - )". University of Melbourne. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
3. "Publications of Garth W. Paltridge" (PDF). Retrieved 10 September 2009.
4. "About the author". Connor Court. 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
5. "Antarctic Ice Sheet". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2000. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
6. ^ "A cold, hard look at a hot topic". Fairfax Digital. 2005. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
7. Miranda Devine (2006). "A debate begging for more light". Fairfax Digital. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
8. "APEC Currents - June 2005". www.apec.org.au. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
9. "The Week That Was". www.sepp.org. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
10. "The Science of Climate Change - Background Paper No 1/06" (PDF). NSW Parliament. 2005. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
11. "Inhofes List of 400 Scientists Global Warming Deniers, Debunked - Climate Change Deniers - thedailygreen.com". thedailygreen.com. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
12. "Understanding Climate Change: The Natural Resources Stewardship Project reconsiders the Kyoto Protocol (Kyoto Accord) and Canada's environmental policy". web.archive.org. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
13. "Understanding Climate Change: The Natural Resources Stewardship Project reconsiders the Kyoto Protocol (Kyoto Accord) and Canada's environmental policy". web.archive.org. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
14. "Australian Skeptics". 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
15. "IPCC AR4 Summary for Policymakers" (PDF). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
16. "Ballan publisher in heaven after coup". The Courier. June 28, 2009. Retrieved July 20, 2009.
17. ^ Piers Akerman (2009). "The folly of emissions trading". Geelong Advertiser. Retrieved 2009-07-30. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
18. "EurActiv.com - Climate inaction 'inexcusable', scientists tell leaders". www.euractiv.com. Retrieved 2009-10-04. {{cite web}}: Text "EU - European Information on Climate Change" ignored (help)
19. "Global warming hotheads freeze out science's sceptics". www.theaustralian.news.com.au. Retrieved 2009-09-13. {{cite web}}: Text "The Australian" ignored (help)
20. "The Climate Caper and the RAT Scheme". quotegator.com. 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-30.

See also

• Global warming controversy

External links

• Garth Paltridge, Limiting Greenhouse Warming: Is It Worth the Cost? Institute of Public Affairs, December 200, pages 16-17. (Pdf)
• Garth Paltridge, A short primer on climate change and the greenhouse issue Online Opinion, June 21, 2001.
• Garth Paltridge, Advice is poisoned by fear Letter to the editor, The Australian, May 30, 2008.
• Garth Paltridge on The Climate Caper YouTube
• Publisher's page for book

• Articles with unsourced statements from October, 2009
• 1940 births
• Living people
• 2009 books
• Australian academics
• Australian scientists
• Climate change assessment and attribution
• Climate change books
• Climate change
• Environmental controversies
• Environmental skepticism
• Global warming
• Skeptics
• University of Queensland alumni
• Misplaced Pages:Books on global warming