Sceptics or deniers?

SCIENTIFIC scepticism is healthy. Scientists should always challenge themselves to expand their knowledge.

Yet this is not what happens in global warming scepticism. Sceptics criticise any evidence that supports human-induced global warming and yet embrace any argument, blog or study that refutes global warming. This website is sceptical about global warming scepticism.

Do their arguments have any scientific basis? What does the peer reviewed scientific literature say? John Cook, who runs this site, says the idea to create the site originated in a heated conversation with climate change deniers in his family.

“The simplest method is to avoid the evidence altogether by smearing climate scientists or indulging in conspiracy theories,” he says. Cook believes, “This is what ‘climategate’, the theft or leaking of scientists’ emails, was all about. A smattering of quotes taken out of context from a handful of emails does nothing to change the vast weight of evidence showing global warming”.