Climate sceptic’s new book refuted

I don’t quite understand why certain people seem hard-wired to believe that human activity has no effect on climate, and will believe any old crock that supports their view even after the claims have been disproved ad nauseam. Adelaide’s Professor Ian Plimer has published just such a book, his academic rank giving superficial credibility to his claims. However he is  a geologist with no previous work on climate science published, let alone peer-reviewed.

To its credit The Australian, which frequently publishes material from climate sceptics, has run a review shredding Plimer’s book, showing that it re-runs a litany of discredited furphies. Some of these beggar belief -- for instance according to Scienceblog, Plimer blindly accepts Khilyuk and Chilingar, the guys who compared human CO2 emissions with natural CO2 emissions over the entire history of the planet and concluded that human emissions were insignificant. These guys sound scientific, but they were comparing billions of years with hundreds. Be careful what you believe (including anything on this blog!). Always question authority.