In fact, it seems as if it isn’t really much of a debate anymore.
First, let me be clear, the debate among scientists isn’t whether CO2 is a greenhouse gas or whether, even, it can cause warming, but instead on what real (if any) total effect it has overall on the climate. In other words, is there a saturation point where additional CO2 has little marginal effect, or does it build to a tipping point where the change is radical? Robust climate or delicate climate?
Evidence is building toward the robust climate theory, which would mean that while there may be more CO2 being emitted, it has little to no effect on the overall climate. That, of course, is contrary to the AGW crowd’s theory.
So, on to the latest high profile defections:
One of the fathers of Germany’s modern green movement, Professor Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt, a social democrat and green activist, decided to author a climate science skeptical book together with geologist/paleontologist Dr. Sebastian Lüning. Vahrenholt’s skepticism started when he was asked to review an IPCC report on renewable energy. He found hundreds of errors. When he pointed them out, IPCC officials simply brushed them aside. Stunned, he asked himself, “Is this the way they approached the climate assessment reports?”
Vahrenholt decided to do some digging. His colleague Dr. Lüning also gave him a copy of Andrew Montford’s The Hockey Stick Illusion. He was horrified by the sloppiness and deception he found. Persuaded by Hoffmann & Campe, he and Lüning decided to write the book. Die kalte Sonne cites 800 sources and has over 80 charts and figures. It examines and summarizes the latest science.
Vahrenholt concluded, through his research, that the science of the IPCC (if you can call it that) was mostly political and had been “hyped.”
Germany was ”ahead of the USA” in this climate madness.
As a result their scientists had the advantage of seeing the catastrophe so-called green energy did to their country.
Whether you read German or not you get the point of this Der Bild cover.16 million Germans read Der Bild. This translates into, “THE CO2 LIES … pure fear-mongering … should we blindly trust the experts?”
Michael Limburg writes from Germany that: ” Germany´s Green Energy Supply Transformation Has Already Failed”. (http://www.eike-klima-energie.eu/news-cache/germanys-green-energy-supply-transformation-has-already-failed/)
The intro includes this:
Main headings:
*Germany’s Green Energy Supply Transformation Has Already Failed!
*Weather-dependent supply wreaking havoc on the power grid
*Offshore wind parks, but no transmission lines to industrial regions!
*Activists groups blocking grid expansion
And his conclusion:
I wonder if they finally saw the light or they lost their funding.
I’m waiting for an English language translation of Vahrenholt’s article, or at least a synopsis with direct quotes. There’s been an avalanche of claims that Vahrenholt has essentially “switched sides”, but I haven’t been able to find a single statement in his own words.
I did find the following comments in one article hyping the story:
Those comments seem inconsistent with any banner headlines reading I CHANGED MY MIND. MAN MADE GLOBAL WARMING IS A HOAX, SAYS RENOWN CLIMATE SCIENTIST.
I’d rather not form a conclusion about someone’s statement until I find out what it was that they actually said. That, of course, isn’t the way that propagandists like to operate.
Seems to me that if you consider that volcanoes can spew out many times the CO2 than the human race, if the climate were that sensitive to CO2, it would have already gone into thermal runaway. And it’s no good pointing to Venus either, we have no idea of the initial conditions there.
For those trying to cling to the AGW fantasy like Greg- here’s proof they switched.
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/02/08/two-more-scientists-change-sides-in-the-agw-debate/