ABC
Audience & Consumer Affairs
GPO BOX 9994
SYDNEY 2001
24th September 2009
Dear Sir,
Complaint under the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Code of Practice
I am the President of The Climate Sceptics political party and I hereby complain in accordance with the requirements of the ABC Code of Practice and in particular, but not limited to, sections 3.2, 4.4 and 5.3 of the Code about the program on your radio station, the details of which are set out below:
Radio National, AM
NSW
AM with Tony Eastley, report by Sarah Clarke
24th September 2009
8 AM:
Man-made, or anthropogenic, global warming [AGW] is the theory that greenhouse gas (especially carbon dioxide) emissions principally from the burning of fossil fuels is causing dangerous warming of Earth. There is no evidence whatsoever to support this theory other than the output of unstable and highly speculative computer models. The underlying science of climate is not sufficiently understood to remotely justify the making of highly speculative extrapolations based on computer models of inadequately understood processes. This is simply illustrated by the fact that planetary temperatures have been stable or reducing over the last eight or more years contrary to the projections of these models whilst the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has continued to rise unabated. There exists a large and growing body of scientific evidence which is contrary to this theory. The ABC has not been presenting this contrary evidence and has been making quasi-religious assertions that the science is settled when it is not. It has been only presenting information in favour of AGW without any critical analysis of that information or attempt to balance that information with relevant examples of the contrary evidence.
The information presented in the above program in favour of AGW consisted of the following points:
1. Increasing melting by glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland
2. Increasing temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula
3. Antarctica and Greenland contribution to rising sea levels of 1.4 millimetres per annum
4. Comment by Tony Mohr of the Australian Conservation Foundation saying “this is happening much quicker than previously thought” without a balancing comment.
The evidence which is contrary to the information presented in the above program consists of the following:
1. The overall ice-mass of the Antarctic is increasing:
Davis, C.H., Li, Y. McConnell, J.R., Frey, M.M. and Hanna, E. 2005. Snowfall-driven
growth in East Antarctic Ice Sheet mitigates recent sea-level rise. Science, 308, 1898-1901.
Monaghan, A.J., Bromwich, D.H., Fogt, R.L., Wang, S.-H., Mayeweski, P.A., Dixon,
D.A., Ekaykin, A., Frezzotti, M., Goodwin, I., Isaksson, E., Kaspari, S.D., Morgan, V.I., Oerter, H., Van Ommen, T.D., Van der Veen, C.J., and Wen, J. 2006. Insignificant change in Antarctic snowfall since the International Geophysical Year. Science, 313, 827-831.
Van de Berg, W.J., van den Broeke, M.R., Reijmer, C.H., and van Meijgaard, E. 2006.
Reassessment of the Antarctic surface mass balance using calibrated output of a regional atmospheric climate model. Journal of Geophysical Research, 111, 10.1029/2005JD006495
2. The overall extent and thickness of the Antarctic sea-ice is increasing:
Thickness distribution of Antarctic sea ice
Anthony P. Worby
Australian Antarctic Division and Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Center, Kingston, Tasmania, Australia
Cathleen A. Geiger
Department of Geography, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA
Matthew J. Paget
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Michael L. Van Woert
Office of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation, Arlington, Virginia, USA
Stephen F. Ackley
Department of Earth Science and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Tracy L. DeLiberty
Department of Geography, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA
From: Worby, A. P., C. A. Geiger, M. J. Paget, M. L. Van Woert, S. F. Ackley, and T. L. DeLiberty (2008), Thickness distribution of Antarctic sea ice, J. Geophys. Res., 113, C05S92, doi:10.1029/2007JC004254
3. The Antarctic deep sea is getting colder:
http://idw-online.de/pages/de/news256486
4. There is a geological difference between the Western and Eastern Antarctica:
ANTARCTICA: Freeze-Dried Findings Support a Tale of Two Ancient Climates
A surprising cache of ancient plant material adds evidence for divergent climate histories of the East and West Antarctic ice sheets over the past 14 million years
Excerpt: These findings appear to be contradictory at first glance, but in fact they buttress an evolving view among scientists that the two major features of the continent, the western and eastern ice sheets, have experienced vastly different climate histories. Data from the Dry Valleys reveals an East Antarctic Ice Sheet that is high, dry, cold, and stable, at least in its central area. And the ANDRILL cores suggest a more volatile West Antarctic Ice Sheet that is subject to the changing temperatures of the sea in which it wades. "It reaffirms the fragility of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet [WAIS] and the stability of the central part of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet," says Peter Barrett, a sedimentologist at the Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) in New Zealand, who advised the ANDRILL project.
From: Science 30 May 2008: 1152-1154
DOI: 10.1126/science.320.5880.1152
5. Even so the Western Antarctica has experienced an increase in snow cover since 1850:
A doubling in snow accumulation in the western Antarctic Peninsula since 1850
Elizabeth R. Thomas
British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK
Gareth J. Marshall
British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK
Joseph R. McConnell
Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada, USA
From: Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L01706, doi:10.1029/2007GL032529.
6. One of the main reasons for the warmer conditions on the Western side is that it is under-pinned by volcanoes:
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/antarcticvolcanoes2.jpg
7. Temperatures over the Antarctica have not been increasing:
http://users.tpg.com.au/johnsay1/Stuff/temp19.jpg
And the satellite data is confirmed by data from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology sites in Antarctica;
http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/soe/display_indicator.cfm?soe_id=1
8. In respect of Greenland the supposition that glacier melt is accelerating is disputed:
Recent Ice-Sheet Growth in the Interior of Greenland, Ola M. Johannessen, Kirill Khvorostovsky, Martin W. Miles, Leonid P. Bobylev, Science Express on 20 October 2005 Science 11 November 2005: Vol. 310. no. 5750, pp. 1013 � 1016, DOI: 10.1126/science.1115356
Richard A. Kerr, Galloping Glaciers of Greenland Have Reined Themselves In, Science 23 January 2009: Vol. 323. no. 5913, p. 458
9. The Greenland conditions are also not unusual compared with the first part of the 20thC:
Chylek, P., M. McCabe, M. K. Dubey, and J. Dozier (2007), Remote sensing of Greenland ice sheet using multispectral near-infrared and visible radiances, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D24S20, doi:10.1029/2007JD008742
10. As to rising sea levels; generally sea levels have been increasing since the end of the Little Ice Age in 1850 when increased solar intensity caused a general warming of the Earth, however, that rate of sea level increase is now reducing:
http://www.ocean-sci.net/5/193/2009/os-5-193-2009.pdf
In this paper Ablain et al find since 2005 a reduction in the increase of sea level rise of 2 millimetres per annum which exceeds the supposed increase of 1.4 millimetres increase from the supposed melting of Antarctica and Greenland glaciers as reported in the AM programme.
This finding contradicts the ‘official’ version of sea levels in the paper by Rahmstorf [2007] which in turn has been shown to be statistically at error by Australian scientist, Dr David Stockwell:
http://landshape.org/enm/a-semi-empirical-approach-to-sea-level-rise/#more-2618
11. The latest Australian Antarctic study finds no disturbance in the Antarctic ice-pack:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25648336-11949,00.html
12. And finally a recent paper by Australian Professor Cliff Ollier explains why the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are not collapsing: http://www.nzclimatescience.org/images/PDFs/ollier_etc.pdf
By not presenting this contrary evidence the ABC has contravened the following sections of its Code of Practice: Sections: 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, 4.3, 4.4, 5.2, 5.3.
Pursuant to Sections: 3.3, 5.4 of the Code of Practice the ABC must make a correction as soon as practicable and preferably within 28 days of the receipt of the complaint.
This complaint is made within 6 weeks of the specified broadcast so all tapes and records of the program should still be extant.
I look forward to your response.
Yours faithfully
Leon Ashby
PO Box 721
Mt Gambier
South Australia. 5290
President, The Climate Sceptics
Ph: 0887235550
Anthony Cox
PO Box
Charlestown
New South Wales. 2290
Secretary, The Climate Sceptics
Phone: 0412474915
