Fraser Inst. says planet has warmed before

Current Events (C:*CURRENT)
Tuesday November 10 2009 - Street Wire

by Mike Caswell

Phelim McAleer, the Irish filmmaker who claims that man-made global warming theories are more hysteria than science, came to Vancouver Tuesday. He spoke to an audience of 56 at the Fraser Institute about his recent documentary on global warming, titled "Not Evil Just Wrong."

In his film, Mr. McAleer attacks the temperature data used to bolster man-made global warming theories. He explains how two Canadians discovered in 2003 that NASA temperature records were flawed, and that the warmest year ever recorded in the United States was not 1998, as was previously thought. It was actually 1934, long before sport-utility vehicles and Boeing 747s. The temperature research forms one of the main points in Mr. McAleer's film. It was done by Ross McKitrick, a professor of economics at the University of Guelph, and Stephen McIntyre, a Toronto businessman with a degree in mathematics.

Mr. McKitrick and Mr. McIntyre had originally attempted to reproduce the so-called "hockey stick" graph in 2003, which was considered one of the strongest pieces of evidence for man-made global warming. The graph showed that the temperature in the U.S. had risen significantly since 1961. Using the same data as the original scientists, Mr. McKitrick and Mr. McIntyre found that there was no way to reproduce the results. Calculating the average temperature in the United States involves a number of variables, but variation could reproduce the hockey stick.

They then e-mailed Michael Mann, one of the creators of the hockey stick graph (who is a supporter of man-made global warming theories). He responded that he was too busy to answer their questions.

After investigating further, Mr. McKitrick and Mr. McIntyre discovered that one of NASA's mistakes was that it did not properly compensate for the locations of temperature sensors. Many are located in cities, and tend to have a higher temperature than those located in rural areas. The numbers became skewed as cities became larger, so record-keepers required a correction. Mr. McIntyre and Mr. McKitrick discovered that NASA had not properly accounted for the correction.

Mr. McAleer says that NASA has since grudgingly acknowledged the error. In correcting the figures, NASA credited Mr. McKitrick and Mr. McIntyre with discovering the mistake. The agency released new data showing that many of the hottest years were actually decades ago, with the year 1934 the hottest on record. The year 1998 came in second, followed by 1921 in third.

In addition to NASA's temperature mistake, Mr. McAleer explains in his film that there was a period of warming much earlier than the 1930s. Around the year 1000, temperatures also rose significantly. During this time, the Vikings settled Greenland, and were even farming there. "It was clearly warmer and we have data to show this," he says. The data also showed that temperatures fell between 1500 and 1800, with a small ice age coming around the year 1700.

Mr. McAleer told the audience that it has not been easy to spread his message. Hollywood and the media are more receptive to those on the other side of the debate. One of his aims is to have his film played in every school, in order to balance the information presented to students. "Every day in Canada your school children are being told that the world is coming to an end," he says. "I want big environmentalism to be under the same spotlight as big business."

Mr. McAleer also told the Fraser Institute about some of the interviews he has done to expose the hypocrisy of man-made global warming advocates. He explained how he once went to a film conference in New York attended by several celebrity advocates, including Gillian Anderson and Moby, and asked them how they arrived there. They all told him that they flew. "The worst thing you can do [if you believe in man-made global warming] is get on a plane," he says. Security guards eventually removed him from the event after he pressed his question with a film director who refused to answer.

At another event, hosted by the Society of Environmental Journalists, he participated in a question-and-answer period with Al Gore about his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." Mr. Gore's movie supports the idea that man is causing global warming. Mr. McAleer pointed out to Mr. Gore that a court in the United Kingdom had found that his movie had nine errors. At that point, organizers cut off his microphone.

Although Mr. McAleer is known as a filmmaker, he actually spent much of his career as a "liberal European journalist" who worked for The Financial Times and The Economist. He says he first started questioning the claims of environmentalists when he was examining Gabriel Resources Ltd.'s Rosia Montana mine in Romania, which had been worked since Roman times. The mine had faced numerous battles with environmentalists opposed to the use of cyanide and the effects of the mine on local buildings. He discovered that many of the claims that environmentalists were advancing did not hold up to scrutiny. "Almost everything they said was untrue or exaggerated," he says.

He then began to liken environmentalists to imperialists. They were essentially white people going to other countries, and telling the locals how to handle their affairs. "They want to preserve people in poverty," he says. "They're anti-industrialization, they're not progressive, they believe in technologies that were obsolete 500 years ago."

Mr. McAleer's movie premiered on Oct. 18, 2009, in a DVD release. He claims that the 85-minute film was the largest premiere in the world, as 400,000 people simultaneously viewed the documentary in their homes.

San Gold