New Irish Climate Science Denial Group Hosts CO2 Coalition Director William Happer

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The second meeting in a month of the newly formed climate sceptic group, the Irish Climate Science Forum, took place behind a veil of secrecy and a media blackout in Dublin on June 1, DeSmog UK canย confirm.

Guest speaker was noted climate science denier William Happer, a retired Princeton professor who is currently understood to be on a shortlist for the role of Science Advisor to the climate-denying Trump administration in the US.

Happer is a director of the US-based CO2 Coalition, whose tagline isย โ€œCarbon dioxide, a nutrient vital for lifeโ€.ย In December of 2015, Happerย wasย implicated in a Greenpeace investigationย where activists posed as consultants for aย Middle Eastern energy company and asked Happer and Frank Clemente, an emeritus sociology professor at Pennsylvania State University, to author reports on the benefits of coal and carbon dioxide emissions and keep the source of the funding secret.ย ย 

Happer delivered his behind-closed-door presentation in an upmarket Dublin hotel to a hand-picked audience, numbering around 40-50, which included a number of senior staff from Met ร‰ireann, Irelandโ€™s national meteorologicalย service.

His presentation, which DeSmog has seen, was titled: โ€˜Irish Agriculture โ€“ A New Look at the Influences of Methane, Nitrous Oxide and Carbonย Dioxideโ€™.

Theย ICSFย describes itself as โ€œa voluntary group of Irish scientists, engineers and other professionalsโ€ and claims to carry out: โ€œneutral, independent analysis of the latest climate research with the purpose of better informing climate and energy policiesย inย Irelandโ€.

In May, DeSmog UK revealed the group launched with a speech by US climate science denier Richardย Lindzen.

Spreadingย Misinformation

Happer began is speech by excoriating what he called โ€œclimate hysteriaโ€ and went on to accuse people involved with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of being โ€œon the takeโ€. Happer added that others, such as climate NGOs and activists, were driven primarily by a โ€œfinancialย agendaโ€.

Within his presentation, one slide claimed that fossil fuel power plants emit no pollution, and equated their CO2 emissions with a human exhaling. His inability to distinguish between CO2 in the current carbon cycle versus injecting carbon from millions of years ago is a standard denier sleight of hand, but it went unchallenged by his Dublin audience sourcesย claim.

Next, Happer presented a series of charts purporting to show that โ€œGlobal Warming Models Donโ€™t Work!โ€. For this, he used a long-debunked chart produced by Dr John Christy of the University of Alabama and a favourite among climate deniers in the US Republicanย Party.

Happer then did a number of slides explaining how CO2 is really โ€œplant foodโ€ and how the world has been in a โ€œCO2 famine for the last several million yearsโ€. When challenged by an audience member on this โ€œCO2 as fertilizerโ€ myth, Happer admitted that this was not in fact his area of expertise. But this in no way prevented him from continuing to spreadย misinformation.

One audience member attending Happerโ€™s talk was rural TD (member of parliament), industrial turf cutter and noted climate denier, Michael Fitzmaurice. In a surreal moment, he asked Happer for advice on how to defeat the arguments of people โ€œwho claim that climate change isย realโ€.

Happer next stated that radiative forcing โ€œcannot be verified by direct measurementโ€. This too is manifestly false, as demonstrated by the US Department of Energyโ€™s Berkeley Lab research.

The presumed reason the ICSF invited Happer to present is to provide ammunition to downplay the role of agricultural emissions by inferring that methane is largely irrelevant to climate change. This is the key message the founder of the ISCF, Ray Bates, a retired meteorologist who is an active lobbyist to exempt Irelandโ€™s GHG-intensive beef and dairy sectors from the impact of climateย regulations.

Irelandโ€™s agricultural emissions are by far the highest per capita in the EU, with the government committed to backing the politically powerful farm lobby expanding both forms of ruminant agriculture despite the climateย implications.

Closed-Doorย Science

Dr Gerard Fleming, Head of Forecasting with Met ร‰ireann, was invited to both talks but declined to attend. Fleming has also seen Prof Happerโ€™s slide presentation and commented: โ€œa lot of the stuff in there wasnโ€™t scienceโ€, adding that it went instead โ€œinto the realm of political advocacyโ€. He stressed that Met ร‰ireann has no corporate connection whatever with the ICSF (Bates is a former assistantย director).

Dr Fleming emphasised that Met ร‰ireann regard IPCC science as the โ€œgold standardโ€ and was baffled by Happerโ€™s assertion about alleged IPCC corruption. โ€œI havenโ€™t seen too many [climate] scientists driving around in gold-plated cars,โ€ heย added.

He accepted that the presence of senior Met ร‰ireann staff at both ICSF events could lead to the perception that they were giving the event โ€œsilent assentโ€, but stressed no formal discussion had yet occurred within Met ร‰ireann. โ€œWe will probably now have to sit down and consider thisย internallyโ€.

Dr Fleming added that he was personally unhappy with the closed nature of the ICSF meetings. โ€œScience is not to be discussed behind closed doors; Iโ€™m not at all comfortable with that idea of inviting some and excluding others. We need an open exchange ofย viewsโ€.

No information on the funding for Happerโ€™s visit was made available. It is understood that, once again, no cover charge was levied for the meeting, and no donations wereย sought.

Following ICSF hosting Lindzen for their inaugural meeting last month, their choice of another hard-core denier as their second speaker removes any remaining doubt as to the climate-denying credentials of the well-funded ICSF, whatever about its stated aims of โ€œbetter informing climate and energy policiesย inย Irelandโ€.

Group organiser, Jim Oโ€™Brien, an engineer, refused to answer any questions from DeSmog UK and barred our reporter from attending. DeSmog UK also contacted Happer directly by email with a series of questions, but at time of going to press, he had notย responded.

John Gibbons is a Dublin-based specialist writer and commentator on climate and environmental issues. He blogs at ThinkOrSwim.ie.ย  You canย follow him on Twitter here.

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Photo: Screenshot of William Happer via Youtube

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John Gibbons is a Dublin-based specialist writer and commentator on climate and environmental issues. He blogs at ThinkOrSwim.ie. You can follow him on Twitterย @think_or_swim.

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