Observatory’s objectivity questionable
The Observatory’s second edition of “HK in a Warming World” has just been published.
It is undoubtedly a very well-prepared booklet, easy to read, with colourful graphics. But it is sadly so predictable and an extremely one-sided presentation of “projections”. Every contention about more extreme weather, rise in sea levels, decrease in ice and snow, heatwaves, droughts and rainfall, emphasises the worst-case scenario.
Even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), from which this booklet selectively quotes, mentions that a warmer climate will have some benefits for humanity and the planet, and at the same time admits that the projections are based on computer models that have proved, and continue to prove, less than reliable.
The introduction to the pamphlet is emblazoned with a quote from the IPCC AR5 report, “It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century”.
This is strongly contested by many scientists. Few would dispute the urban heat island effect which the booklet touches upon. Many of the temperature and air quality gauges that the computer models rely upon are located within the urban sprawl and one must question their relevance to the overall picture.
A recent report said that since January 2014 some 770 peer-reviewed scientific studies have been published in reputable journals strongly suggesting that natural factors, such as sun, clouds, ocean oscillations, aerosol and tectonic, have exerted such “ a significant influence on weather and climate that it is very difficult to detect an anthropogenic signal and distinguish it as an ‘extremely likely’ cause relative to natural variation”.