United Kingdom - A documentary film broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 in March, 2007 entitled "The Great Global Warming Swindle," reports a very different take on global warming than is being widely reported here in the United States. Graphs depicting data gathered by independent research scientists show that in every instance of recorded temperature change, there is a direct corresponding change in the sun's intensity. When solar activity goes up the Earth warms up. When it goes down the Earth cools. Are we being misled as to the true nature of global warming? And cooling? Is this merely a political ploy? These scientists provide evidence that may be the case.





The Great Global Warming Swindle



The documentary shows several published graphs cited by members of the scientific community. These graphs were used to validate the notion that changes in CO2, methane and other greenhouse gases correlate to changes in the Earth's mean temperature.



While an initial inspection shows a connection, what those scientists aren't showing is there are even more compelling graphs with much tighter correlations between solar activity (the sun heating up/cooling down) and changes in Earth's temperature. In fact, the correlation is exact and there are no huge gaps, whereas the CO2 and methane graphs show periods of sometimes decades where no correlation is present.



Several scientists interviewed on camera in the documentary believe that any relationships to CO2, methane or other greenhouse gases is coincidental.





Watch the video, decide for yourself



The video cites massive amounts of funding being used to study the effects and sources of global warming. A large portion of that money has gone toward creating computer models which attempt to predict future trends. Several of the scientists interviewed on camera indicate that changing even tiny parameters in their complex models allow for huge variations in the results.



One professor states (at 48m20s) "Even within the scientific community it's a problem. You see, if I run a complicated model and I do something to it - like melt a lot of ice into the ocean - and nothing happens, it's not likely to get printed. But if I run the same model, and adjust it in such a way that something dramatic happens to the ocean, like if the heat transport turns off, then it will be published. People will say this is very exciting and it will even get picked up by the media. So there's a bias - a very powerful bias - within the media and within the science community itself toward results which are dramatizing."



The Channel 4 documentary entitled "The Great Global Warming Swindle" can be viewed here (74 minutes).





Political goals confuse science



How often have we seen future trend forecasts showing the catastrophic effects of man's contribution to global warming and the impact they'll have on this planet? In many instances the fear generated by the mere thought of what might happen is being used against us, both for political gain and new taxes. Is it realistic to believe a computer model when experts warn us that models are easily manipulated? And when hard scientific data showing the exact opposite is available - albeit not widely reported?



There is a reality here that many legitimate scientists have found far more direct correlations between changes in global temperature and its source. In these cases, evidence points directly to solar activity. And if true, then we are seeing a natural cycle caused by the sun, something that is almost entirely outside of man's influence.


UPDATED:  October 31, 2008 - 8:31am
Removed references to BBC, changed to British and Channel 4.

UPDATED:  October 31, 2008 - 9:43am
Editor's note:  On July 21, 2008, British media regulator Ofcom upheld that the fifth portion of the linked video, which relates to the politics of climate change as reported, violated British law because the producers did not present all sides of those involved. Ofcom stated "[they were] required to include an appropriate wide range of the significant views ... but failed to do this." In addition, complaints filed by two of those appearning in this documentary, Sir David King and Carl Wunsch, were upheld on the grounds that they were either misled, misrepresented or did not agree with the position of the show's producers.