ARTICLE SYNOPSIS:

Martin Durkin has come under fire for making a documentary that points to the sun as the cause of climate change. Despite recent studies attacking that notion, one astronomer says it still fits the observational data.

Follow this link to the original source: "Hostages to a hoax"

COMMENTARY:

British documentary filmmaker Martin Durkin has taken his share of heat for producing a film, entitled The Great Global Warming Swindle, that calls the conventional wisdom on global warming into question. Instead of pointing to greenhouse gases as the drivers of modern climate change, Durkin's film suggests that the sun is responsible for changes in the earth's climate. Aired first on British television, the documentary has now been shown on Australian television as well where it was a ratings success with nearly one-fourth of all Australian viewers tuning in.
    
In both countries, the success of the film has been accompanied by harsh criticism from those supporting the orthodox view of global warming. "This isn't a documentary, because documentaries are about fact," said Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the University of Queensland. Australian politician Lyn Allison derided the film as one suited only to "conspiracy theorist skeptics."
    
Durkin responded to the criticism in The Australian newspaper on July 7. Pointing out that global warming is a political theory and not a scientific theory, Durkin noted, "The present alarm is not based on observational data. It is based on models." Global warming has caught on as a cause, he said, because "The media and academe (as those of us on the inside know very well) are, in the main, soft left and soft green. We like things that are natural, we think the market is cruel, and we recycle not because it's logical but because it feels right. In these circles global warming has become part of social etiquette. It is as unacceptable to question it as it is to say that you admire George W. Bush or think organic food is a con."
    
Still, in recent days, the idea that the sun is driving climate change seemed to have been dealt a heavy blow by findings published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. "Up until 1985 you could argue that the sun was [trending] in a direction that could have contributed to Earth's rising temperatures," said study author A. Mike Lockwood of the University of Southampton in Britain.

But according to Lockwood, two decades ago the sun "did a U-turn. If the sun had been warming the Earth, that should have come to an end, and we should have seen temperatures start to go the other way." Nevertheless, reported National Geographic, "Earth's temperatures have continued to climb since that date—making a strong solar role in warming appear unlikely.

Other scientists aren't so sure. Among them is Dr. David Whitehouse, an astronomer and author of the book The Sun: A Biography. Writing in the London Telegraph, Whitehouse, contradicting National Geographic, points out, "The world certainly warmed between 1975 and 1998, but in the past 10 years it has not been increasing at the rate it did. No scientist could honestly look at global temperatures over the past decade and see a rising curve."

To conclude, says Whitehouse of the new study on the sun's effect on climate, "we see that when the sun's activity was rising, the world warmed. When it peaked in activity in the late 1980s, within a few years global warming stalled. A coincidence, certainly: a connection, possibly."

At the end of his article, Whitehouse concludes with a statement that is far too infrequently heard in the climate debate. "A scientist's first allegiance should not be to computer models or political spin but to the data," he says. That data, he says, "shows the science is not settled."