If you were still in any doubt that climate change scepticism is largely fuelled by rightwing ideology, along come the British National party to drive the point home. The far right extremists yesterday published a "sensational 40-page briefing paper in which the case for calling into question 'man-made global warming' is presented in detail".
Nick Griffin, the BNP leader and MEP for north-west England, is currently in Copenhagen as a representative of the European parliament's environmental committee. He has chosen to use the occasion to release a document, entitled "Debunking global warming" (pdf), which can be best described as copy-and-paste denial. All the sceptic crowd pleasers are referenced and quoted within: Monckton, Plimer, Morano, Lindzen, Booker, Klaus, et al. Space is even found to quote Goebbels:
"As the information in this paper demonstrates, the claim that the world is warming on account of greenhouse gases is based upon limited, prejudicial and manipulated information. Much of the evidence has been extracted from a tiny part of the Earth's climatic cycle. This is equivalent of the prime minister having based his spending plans on the most productive day of the economic cycle, when tax receipts were highest. But as Dr Goebbels once observed, if you repeat something often enough, even the most sceptical will believe it."
As has become the norm in recent months with sceptics (interestingly, the document proudly refers to them as "deniers"), Ian Plimer is quoted chapter and verse, particularly in a section labelled, "Professor Plimer's Killer Statistics":
"The hypothesis that human activity creates global warming contradicts what we know of solar physics, astronomy, history, archaeology and geology, according to Professor Plimer… In a lecture delivered at a conference in London in early Dec 2009, Professor Plimer stated that in five of the past six major ice ages, atmospheric CO2 was up to 1,000 times higher that today. In two of these ice ages, ice was present at ground level at the equator. The corollary of this, therefore, is that CO2 does not drive global warming."
There is also evidence within the document that Lord Monckton (who has called young climate activists "Hitler Youth") was approached by the BNP and assisted them in drafting the document by writing a précis of his sceptical views, as well as where similar views can be found online. To see Monckton's response go to p35 of the pdf. This is noteworthy because Monckton signed up only last week to become the climate change spokesperson for the UK Independence party. Why would he choose to partake in dialogue with the BNP?
Elsewhere, there are some delightfully ironic pronouncements made throughout the document, but none more so than this:
"The BNP, like all interested bodies, must weigh the evidence carefully and reach an opinion. In so doing, it must also identify, within the debate, vested interests and influences, both covert and overt."
And, as you might expect, the document regularly veers into cranksville:
"Global warming is the new secular religion, many of whose proponents doubted Christianity and whose political philosophy was destabilised with the collapse of communism in 1989."
But it's the comments left beneath the document on the BNP's website that perhaps speak the loudest…
"Truebrit" says: "This BNP paper is a miracle of common sense and sound reasoning. I applaud the clearly stated and concise wording of this document which absolutely debunks the whole fraudulent hoax of man made global warming."
"Pete K" says: "They are going to spend hundreds of millions on African roads which will allow the Africans a speedier journey to the UK to pick up their passports, benefits, housing, healthcare and become Labour voters for life."
"EnglishLady" says: "Just the sort of thing we come to expect from the BNP – facts, truth, evidence, common sense, reasoning – and above all ...............NO LIES OR COVER UPS !!!"
And "MrDoodles" says: "Fantastic work guys! Bit of a weighty document, but at least it shows we're serious about the science!"