A humble pamphlet is the subject of DeSmog UKโs latest instalment in its history series. This pamphlet would prove critical in the relentless critique of climateย science.
Julian Morris, research fellow at the Atlas Foundation โ a libertarian think tank founded by Antony Fisher โ started work on the infamous pamphlet Global Warming: Apocalypse or Hot Air? inย 1994.
Along with Roger Bate of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in London, the two co-authored the humble red pamphlet that would prove instrumental in attacking the science of climateย change.
But it was also the first authoritative-sounding publication produced in Britain that the free market think tanks, journalists and policymakers could turn to that offered support to the sceptic attack on climateย science.
Scientificย Style
The pamphlet made significant use of the scientific work of Richard Lindzen โ the sceptic whose testimony before the US senate had been funded by coal โ and was presented in the language and style of a scientific paper in a peer-reviewedย journal.
Fred Smith, then the president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) in the US, recalls that his colleagues also helped with the research andย writing.
Apocalypse was launched during the first conference held by the IEAโs new Environment Unit (set up by Bate) in March 1994, titled โMarkets and theย Environmentโ.
It rehearsed Lindzenโs claim that the sun, rather than the use of fossil fuels, was the main cause of the recent measured rise in global average temperatures. It also drew heavily on Lindzenโs argument that due to natural โnegative-feedback loopsโ โ a lack of which would have been an improbable display of โpoor engineeringโ on mother natureโs part โ the greenhouse effect would lead to cloud cover and therefore globalย cooling.
Prize-Winningย Publication
The authors concluded from Lindzenโs research that, in the end, the greenhouse effect serves the world faithfully in โmaintaining a comfortable planetaryย temperature.โ
Bate and Morris were later awarded the Sir Antony Fisher Memorial Prize and the publication was sent to IEA funders andย supporters.
During the coming years, it would be recommended for American readers through Fred Singerโs notorious sceptic Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) โ a research organisation dedicated to climate changeย denial.
Next week, DeSmog UKโs epic history series continues with a look back at the conference that marked the first major event where climate sceptic views were promoted inย England.
Photo: Wikimediaย Commons
