‘Report is worse than fiction, it is a lie!’ — Climate expert rejects claim of 300,000 climate deaths as ‘methodological embarrassment’ – ‘Absurd’

Roger Pielke Jr. May 29, 2009 Excerpt: The new report issued by the Global Humanitarian Forum which makes the absurd claim that 315,000 deaths a year can be attributed to the effects of rising greenhouse gas concentrations. Roger A. Pielke Jr., a political scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who studies disaster trends, said the forum’s report was “a methodological embarrassment” because there was no way to distinguish deaths or economic losses related to human-driven global warming amid the much larger losses resulting from the growth in populations and economic development in vulnerable regions. […]

It is a methodological embarrassment and poster child for how to lie with statistics. The report will harm the cause for action on both climate change and disasters because it is so deeply flawed. […]

The report is worse than fiction, it is a lie. These are strong words I know. […] Let me first start by noting that the same group that did the analysis for the UN, the Geo-Risks group in Munich Re, earlier this year published a peer-reviewed paper arguing that the signal of human-caused climate change could not presently be seen in the loss data on disasters.

For Pielke Jr.’s complete analysis see here:

More Reaction to 300,000 climate death claim:

Columnist on claim of 300,000 deaths: ‘For $40 billion, even I might be tempted to peddle such despicable nonsense’

‘Simplistic disaster storyline will prevail for some time’

‘Dishonesty’: ‘Just transfers deaths by storms to the ‘global warming’ category’

Update: Kofi Annan defends: 300,000 climate death claim ‘could never be as rigorous as a scientific study’ – Excerpt: ‘We feel it is the most plausible account of the current impact of climate change today’

NY Times: ‘There are significant questions about robustness of numbers at heart of ‘ claim of 300,000 climate deaths – Excerpt: ‘Nearly impossible to isolate contribution from human-induced climate change to mortality from disasters’

‘There are simply no words to describe the lunacy’

Not The First False Claim About 300,000 Deaths

300,000 death claim is ‘poster child for how to lie with statistics’

Report: Democrats Refuse to Allow Skeptic to Testify Alongside Gore At Congressional Hearing

Climate Depot Exclusive

Washington DC: UK’s Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, claimed House Democrats have refused to allow him to appear alongside former Vice President Al Gore at high profile global warming hearing on Friday at 10am. Monckton told ClimateDepot.com that the Democrats rescinded his scheduled joint appearance at the House Energy and Commerce hearing on Friday. Monckton said he was informed that he would not be allowed to testify alongside Gore when his plane landed from England Thursday afternoon.

“The House Democrats’ don’t want Gore humiliated, so they slammed the door of the Capitol in my face,” Monckton told Climate Depot in an exclusive interview. “They are cowards.”

According to Monckton, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), Ranking Member on the Energy & Commerce Committee, had invited Lord Monckton to go head to head with Gore and testify at the hearing on Capitol Hill Friday. But Monckton now says that when his airplane from London landed in the U.S. he was informed that the former Vice-President had “chickened out” and there would be no joint appearance. Gore is scheduled to testify on Friday to the Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment’s fourth and final day of hearings on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The hearing will be held in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building.

According to Monckton, House Democrats told the Republican committee staff earlier this week that they would be putting forward an unnamed ‘celebrity’ as their star witness Friday at a multi-panel climate hearing examining the House global warming bill. The ‘celebrity’ witness turned out to be Gore. Monckton said the GOP replied they would respond to the Democrats ‘celebrity’ with an unnamed ‘celebrity’ of their own. But Monckton claims that when the Democrats were told who the GOP witness would be, they refused to allow him to testify alongside Gore.

“The Democrats have a lot to learn about the right of free speech under the US Constitution. Congress Henry Waxman’s (D-CA) refusal to expose Al Gore’s sci-fi comedy-horror testimony to proper, independent scrutiny by the House minority reeks of naked fear,” Monckton said from the airport Thursday evening.

“Waxman knows there has been no ‘global warming’ for at least a decade. Waxman knows there has been seven and a half years’ global cooling. Waxman knows that, in the words of the UK High Court judge who condemned