Jack Barrett

Credentials

• Ph.D., Physical chemistry, Manchester.¹“Scientific Advisory Forum,” The Scientific Alliance. Accessed November 27, 2011.

Background

Barrett is a former chemistry researcher at King’s College in London.

According to Barrett Bellamy Climate, his interest in climate change developed with the 1992 Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]. “He became sceptical about climate modeling and what seemed to him the exaggerated claims emerging from the computer programmes about our future global climate.”²“Barrett Bellamy Climate: Personnel,” Accessed November 27, 2011.

Stance on Climate Change

According to a summary of Jack Barrett’s article in New Scientist:³Prof. Michael Wigginton. “Architecture, Ecology and Equity,” University of

1. CO2 levels have risen from 280 to 350 parts per million in the last 100 years
2. Jack Barrett of Imperial College London suggests that the burning of all fossil fuels would result in a four fold increase in CO2 levels to 1400 parts per million.
3. Jack Barrett also suggests that the lowest 30 metres of the troposphere already contains all the CO2 necessary to absorb all the radiation reflected and emitted back by the earth’s surface at most infra-red wavelengths, except for the “window” between 7.5 and 14 micrometres, through which radiation escapes back into space.
4. Finally, JB suggests that the most likely consequence of all of this is flourishing vegetation rather than runaway global warming.

Key Quotes

“There is still argument about the magnitude of the climate sensitivity and the impossibility of doubling the carbon dioxide level.”⁴Jack Barrett. “Grave Discrepancies Between Theory and Experiment,” John-Daly.com, July 1990. Accessed February, 2012.Melbourne Australia.

Key Deeds

November 1995

Barrett was a signatory to the “Leipzig Declaration.” According to SourceWatch he was also a keynote speaker at the Leipzig Declaration launch.⁵“Jack Barrett,” SourceWatch Profile. ⁶“SIGNATORIES TO THE LEIPZIG DECLARATION,” Science and Environmental Policy Project. Archived December, 1998.

The declaration states, “we cannot subscribe to the politically inspired world view that envisages climate catastrophes and calls for hasty actions. For this reason, we consider the drastic emission control policies deriving from the Kyoto conference – lacking credible support from the underlying science – to be ill-advised and premature.”

Affiliations

• The Scientific Alliance — Advising Member.⁷“Scientific Advisory Forum,” The Scientific Allliance. Accessed November 27, 2011.
• Barrett Bellamy Climate — Personnel.⁸“Barrett Bellamy Climate: Personnel,” Accessed November 27, 2011.
• The European Science and Environment Forum (ESEF) — “Academic Member” as of March, 1998. ESEF is now defunct.⁹Robert Nilsson. “Environmental Tobacco Smoke Revisited: The reliability of the evidence for risk of lung cancer and cardiovascular desease,” The European Science and Environment Forum, March 1998. Retrieved from Truth Tobacco Industry Documents library. Bates Number : 518988738-518988770.

Barrett runs a climate change website with fellow skeptic David Bellamy.

Barrett Bellamy Climate describes its main aims: “One is the explanation of the greenhouse effect on as simple a level as is possible without being scientifically inaccurate. The second one includes advanced explanations with our ‘translations’ for general readers.”

Publications

According to a search of 22,000 academic journals, there is a “JC Barrett” listed as a co-author of a single research paper on cloud densification published 13 years ago.

According to Skeptical Science, Barrett has not published any papers on climate that meet the definition of “Peer Reviewed.”¹⁰“Peer-reviewed skeptic papers by Jack Barrett,” Skeptical Science. Accessed November 27, 2011.

Barrett co-authored a paper with the UK climate change denier and former BBC broadcaster David Bellamy titled “Climate stability: an inconvenient proof” which was published in Civil Engineering in May, 2007. The paper sets out to prove that, even if there is a doubling of carbon dioxide in the next decade, it “will amount to less than 1°C of global warming.”

In an article published in 1994 in the New Scientist he suggested that the lowest 30 metres of the troposphere already contains all the CO2 necessary to absorb all the radiation reflected and emitted back by the earth’s surface at most infra-red wavelengths, except for the “window” between 7.5 and 14 micrometres, through which radiation escapes back into space.¹¹“Jack Barrett,” SourceWatch Profile.

Other scientists have since disagreed with him.¹²“Re: Global Warming; CO2:-mechanism and relative importance,” Archived from homepage of Rich Puchalksky.

Sample Publications

• Jack Barrett. “Greenhouse molecules, their spectra and function in the atmosphere,” Energy & Environment, Volume 16, Number 6 (November 2005).
• Jack Barrett. “Discussions on Climate Change as Presented in Nature, 2004,” Energy & Environment, Volume 16, Number 2 (March 2005).
• Jack Barrett, David Bellamy, Heinz Hug . “On the sensitivity of the atmosphere to the doubling of the carbon dioxide concentration and on water vapour feedback,” Energy & Environment, Volume 17, Number 4 (July 2006).
• David Bellamy, Jack Barrett. “Carbon is the World’s Best Friend,” Energy & Environment, Volume 21, Number 2 (March 2010).
• Jack Barrett, David Bellamy. “Climate stability : an inconvenient proof,” Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Civil engineering, vol. 160, no 2 (2007), pp. 66-72.

Note that Energy & Environment journal has been criticized for its peer review process, and has been known to publish sub-standard articles by climate change skeptics.¹³“Energy and Environment,” SourceWatch.

Other Resources

• Bellamy, David; Barrett, David (2007-05-01), “Climate stability: an inconvenient proof”, Civil Engineering (ice Virtual Library) 160 (2): 66.
• “David Bellamy and Jack Barrett: Carbon is the world’s best friend,” New Zealand Herald.

Resources

• 1
  “Scientific Advisory Forum,” The Scientific Alliance. Accessed November 27, 2011.
• 2
  “Barrett Bellamy Climate: Personnel,” Accessed November 27, 2011.
• 3
  Prof. Michael Wigginton. “Architecture, Ecology and Equity,” University of
• 4
  Jack Barrett. “Grave Discrepancies Between Theory and Experiment,” John-Daly.com, July 1990. Accessed February, 2012.Melbourne Australia.
• 5
  “Jack Barrett,” SourceWatch Profile.
• 6
  “SIGNATORIES TO THE LEIPZIG DECLARATION,” Science and Environmental Policy Project. Archived December, 1998.
• 7
  “Scientific Advisory Forum,” The Scientific Allliance. Accessed November 27, 2011.
• 8
  “Barrett Bellamy Climate: Personnel,” Accessed November 27, 2011.
• 9
  Robert Nilsson. “Environmental Tobacco Smoke Revisited: The reliability of the evidence for risk of lung cancer and cardiovascular desease,” The European Science and Environment Forum, March 1998. Retrieved from Truth Tobacco Industry Documents library. Bates Number : 518988738-518988770.
• 10
  “Peer-reviewed skeptic papers by Jack Barrett,” Skeptical Science. Accessed November 27, 2011.
• 11
  “Jack Barrett,” SourceWatch Profile.
• 12
  “Re: Global Warming; CO2:-mechanism and relative importance,” Archived from homepage of Rich Puchalksky.
• 13
  “Energy and Environment,” SourceWatch.