The Grampus
Counter-blaste is not a typo. The title makes use of a paper published by James VI of Scotland and England (1604) in which he roundly condemned the use of tobacco on a number of grounds. His views were 400 years too early and ignored until the last 50 years, but that is often the fate of pioneers.
This excellent, readable and well-researched book could easily be described as the ‘missing’ global-warming text. While there have been numerous books explaining various aspects of this alleged scenario, Dr Duncan brings together all of the principal narratives and hypotheses in a manner that is easy to understand and unequivocal in its argument.
A retired dean of science of Canterbury University with a PhD in biology and statistics, he is eminent in his field and well placed to add critical commentary. As he points out, nature abhors a straight line and his detailed and straightforward analysis of data so often quoted shows that by applying good statistical science the straight lines disappear and are replaced by curves that continually point to a global cooling by the mid-21st century. Dr Duncan’s book vigorously analyses the many claims that we are all going to perish from a few degrees more of warming and examines in detail the many models put forward to support global-warming hypotheses.
This is a book that should be read and understood by the politicians worldwide who are pouring billions of dollars to somehow counter a natural process. Rather than being a denier, Dr Duncan acknowledges that the climate is changing and has always done so. He traces the history of the Holocene and in particular the emergence from the 500-year Little Ice Age that ran from approximately 1350 to 1850. During this time the earth became very cool, crops died and approximately half the population of Europe perished from starvation and disease. Life was nasty, brutal and short. Emerging from the Little Ice Age we have thankfully seen a warming trend that is fortunately continuing, although showing all the signs of tapering off over the next 30 years or so.
The book is divided into a number of chapters that examine each climate ‘myth’, the origins of the myths and the invariable secondary gains made by those who promulgate them. His analysis of the role of influencers who seize on and promulgate spurious science is succinct and thoughtful. As a biologist Dr Duncan focuses on crop yields and the impact on farm yield over recent history. It is true that increased CO2 encourages plant growth, but Dr Duncan balances this against the decreasing cropping seasons, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere. He points out that we are actually close to being in a carbon drought and that at around 150ppm plants cease to photosynthesise and die. If plants die, all life dies; yet we have the absurdity of governments pursing a zero carbon agenda – whatever that may mean.
Dr Duncan reviews the drivers of change and the political and social sequalae that arise from what can only be seen as a ludicrous and doomed attempt to somehow reduce atmospheric carbon. As if any amount of money is going to alter the natural history of our planet and somehow miraculously save us from extinction by doing the very thing that will contribute to our extinction by reducing CO2. CO2 is optimum at around 800ppm, twice that of present levels and when at that level the earth flourished: mighty forests and rich vegetation covered the planet. As we try to deplete the levels of the very substance that feeds so much of the planet, we are doomed to create droughts, lower crop yields and inevitable starvation among third-world countries initially and then spreading to first-world countries as crops fail and supply to market reduces.
Unlike many other books that discuss the pros and cons of climate change, Dr Duncan covers a broad perspective in language that a non-scientist can easily understand. His numerous graphs and excellent statistical analysis categorically and unequivocally demonstrate the climate fraud for what it is.
For anyone interested in the truth behind the global-warming hypothesis, this is the book for you.
Published in New Zealand. Order from Tross Publishing.
