Climate change article nets 10,000 readers
A contributor to last month's climate change debate in the News Letter provoked a startling interest across the world.
Renowned international science journalist Nigel Calder came out strongly backing Northern Ireland Environment Minister Sammy Wilson, who wrote a lengthy piece in the News Letter arguing that climate change is not man-made.
Mr Wilson's comments drew condemnation from Friends of the Earth, the Green Party, Sinn Fein and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. All of them argued that there was overwhelming scientific consensus that man was responsible for global warming.
But it was Nigel Calder's article which drew the most startling response, with over 10,000 people across the world logging on to read his views.
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Writing a reflection on the interest in his views for the News Letter today, he said: "Worldwide interest in my quite run-of-the-mill comment, on the need to debate the manmade global warming hypothesis, is pleasing but not surprising. It confirms that my fellow science writers have miscalculated badly. Most readers don't want endless scare stories about climatic doom, accompanied by authoritarian lectures about their carbon footprints. They're hungry for a variety of opinions."
Mr Wilson's Westminster constituency office said he had about 50 emails of support from all over the English speaking world to his article, many of them from scientists. A spokesman said only around five emails of criticism had also been received.
But another heavy-hitting contributor has now also slammed the Minister's views, saying there was widepsread consensus that man was causing global warming.
Bob Ward, formerly Senior Manager for Policy Communication at the Royal Society, the UK national academy of science, said it was "bizarre" that Minister Wilson "has missed, or ignored, the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the work of the global scientific community that it draws upon".
He added: "The IPCC's assessment has been accepted by the member governments of more than 180 nations, including the United Kingdom, and has been endorsed by all of the world's leading scientific and meteorological bodies, such as the Met Office."
John Woods of Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland said it was "a sterile debate". He added: "The science of climate change is settled. The debate is over. Sammy Wilson, Nigel Calder et al are a very vocal minority deliberately tempting the public with reassuring nonsense.
"This may earn Mr Wilson a few extra votes but as Environment Minister he is an embarrassment to all reasonable people in Northern Ireland."
* Click here to read Nigel Calder's reflections on the popularity of his views
* Click here to read Bob Ward slam Minister Wilson's views
Some former entries in the debate;-
* Nigel Calder's original article
* Minister Sammy Wilson
* John Woods of Friends of the Earth
* Climate debate goes global
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Monday 28 May 2012
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