[Update: August 9, 2009: Organizers released the names of 64 more scientists who endorse the Open Letter. This brings the total number of skeptical German scientists who signed the letter to over 130.]
More than 60 prominent German scientists have publicly declared their dissent from man-made global warming fears in an Open Letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The more than 60 signers of the letter include several United Nations IPCC scientists.
The scientists declared that global warming has become a “pseudo religion” and they noted that rising CO2 has “had no measurable effect” on temperatures. The German scientists, also wrote that the “UN IPCC has lost its scientific credibility.”
This latest development comes on the heels of a series of inconvenient developments for the promoters of man-made global warming fears, including new peer-reviewed studies, real world data, a growing chorus of scientists dissenting (including more UN IPCC scientists), open revolts in scientific societies and the Earth’s failure to warm. In addition, public opinion continues to turn against climate fear promotion. (See “Related Links” at bottom of this article for more inconvenient scientific developments.)
The July 26, 2009 German scientist letter urged Chancellor Merkel to “strongly reconsider” her position on global warming and requested a “convening of an impartial panel” that is “free of ideology” to counter the UN IPCC and review the latest climate science developments.
The scientists, from many disciplines, including physicists, meteorology, chemistry, and geology, explain that “humans have had no measurable effect on global warming through CO2 emissions. Instead the temperature fluctuations have been within normal ranges and are due to natural cycles.”
“More importantly, there’s a growing body of evidence showing anthropogenic CO2 plays no measurable role,” the scientists wrote. “Indeed CO2’s capability to absorb radiation is almost exhausted by today’s atmospheric concentrations. If CO2 did indeed have an effect and all fossil fuels were burned, then additional warming over the long term would in fact remain limited to only a few tenths of a degree,” they added.
“The IPCC had to have been aware of this fact, but completely ignored it during its studies of 160 years of temperature measurements and 150 years of determined CO2 levels. As a result the IPCC has lost its scientific credibility,” the scientists wrote.
“Indeed the atmosphere has not warmed since 1998 – more than 10 years, and the global temperature has even dropped significantly since 2003. Not one of the many extremely expensive climate models predicted this. According to the IPCC, it was supposed to have gotten steadily warmer, but just the opposite has occurred,” the scientists wrote.
“The belief of climate change, and that it is manmade, has become a pseudo-religion,” the scientists wrote. “The German media has sadly taken a leading position in refusing to publicize views that are critical of anthropogenic global warming,” they added.
“Do you not believe, Madam Chancellor, that science entails more than just confirming a hypothesis, but also involves testing to see if the opposite better explains reality? We strongly urge you to reconsider your position on this subject and to convene an impartial panel for the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, one that is free of ideology, and where controversial arguments can be openly debated. We the undersigned would very much like to offer support in this regard.
Full Text of Translated Letter By 60 plus German Scientists: – German version available here. (emphasis added):
Open Letter – Climate Change
Bundeskanzleramt
Frau Bundeskanzerlin Dr. Angela Merkel
Willy-Brandt-Strabe 1
10557 Berlin
#
Vizerprasident
Dipl. Ing. Michael Limburg
14476 Grob Glienicke
Richard-Wagner-Str. 5a
E-mail: [email protected]
Grob Glienicke 26.07.09
To the attention of the Honorable Madam Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
When one studies history, one learns that the development of societies is often determined by a zeitgeist, which at times had detrimental or even horrific results for humanity. History tells us time and again that political leaders often have made poor decisions because they followed the advice of advisors who were incompetent or ideologues and failed to recognize it in time. Moreover evolution also shows that natural development took a wide variety of paths with most of them leading to dead ends. No era is immune from repeating the mistakes of the past.
Politicians often launch their careers using a topic that allows them to stand out. Earlier as Minister of the Environment you legitimately did this as well by assigning a high priority to climate change. But in doing so you committed an error that has since led to much damage, something that should have never happened, especially given the fact you are a physicist. You confirmed that climate change is caused by human activity and have made it a primary objective to implement expensive strategies to reduce the so-called greenhouse gas CO2. You have done so without first having a real discussion to check whether early temperature measurements and a host of other climate related facts even justify it.
A real comprehensive study, whose value would have been absolutely essential, would have shown, even before the IPCC was founded, that humans have had no measurable effect on global warming through CO2 emissions. Instead the temperature fluctuations have been within normal ranges and are due to natural cycles. Indeed the atmosphere has not warmed since 1998 – more than 10 years, and the global temperature has even dropped significantly since 2003.
Not one of the many extremely expensive climate models predicted this. According to the IPCC, it was supposed to have gotten steadily warmer, but just the opposite has occurred.
More importantly, there’s a growing body of evidence showing anthropogenic CO2 plays no measurable role. Indeed CO2’s capability to absorb radiation is almost exhausted by today’s atmospheric concentrations. If CO2 did indeed have an effect and all fossil fuels were burned, then additional warming over the long term would in fact remain limited to only a few tenths of a degree.
The IPCC had to have been aware of this fact, but completely ignored it during its studies of 160 years of temperature measurements and 150 years of determined CO2 levels. As a result the IPCC has lost its scientific credibility. The main points on this subject are included in the accompanying addendum.
In the meantime, the belief of climate change, and that it is manmade, has become a pseudo-religion. Its proponents, without thought, pillory independent and fact-based analysts and experts, many of whom are the best and brightest of the international scientific community. Fortunately in the internet it is possible to find numerous scientific works that show in detail there is no anthropogenic CO2 caused climate change. If it was not for the internet, climate realists would hardly be able to make their voices heard. Rarely do their critical views get published.
The German media has sadly taken a leading position in refusing to publicize views that are critical of anthropogenic global warming. For example, at the second International Climate Realist Conference on Climate in New York last March, approximately 800 leading scientists attended, some of whom are among the world’s best climatologists or specialists in related fields. While the US media and only the Wiener Zeitung (Vienna daily) covered the event, here in Germany the press, public television and radio shut it out. It is indeed unfortunate how our media have developed – under earlier dictatorships the media were told what was not worth reporting. But today they know it without getting instructions.
Do you not believe, Madam Chancellor, that science entails more than just confirming a hypothesis, but also involves testing to see if the opposite better explains reality? We strongly urge you to reconsider your position on this subject and to convene an impartial panel for the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, one that is free of ideology, and where controversial arguments can be openly debated. We the undersigned would very much like to offer support in this regard.
Respectfully yours,
Prof. Dr.rer.nat. Friedrich-Karl Ewert EIKE
Diplom-Geologe
Universität. – GH – Paderborn, Abt. Höxter (ret.)
#
Dr. Holger Thuß
EIKE President
European Institute for Climate and Energy
http://www.eike-klima-energie.eu/
Signed by
Scientists
1 Prof. Dr.Ing. Hans-Günter Appel
2 Prof. Dr. hab. Dorota Appenzeller Professor of Econometrics and Applied Mathematics, Vice Dean University Poznan, Poland
3 Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Bachmann Former Director of the Institute for Vibration Engineering, FH Düsseldorf
4 Prof. Dr. Hans Karl Barth Managing Director World Habitat Society GmbH – Environmental Services
5 Dipl. Biologist Ernst Georg Beck
6 Dr. rer.nat. Horst Borchert Physicist
7 Dipl. Biol. Helgo Bran Former BW parliamentarian Green Party
8 Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Gerhard Buse Bio-chemist
9 Dr.Ing Ivo Busko German Center for Aviation and Aeronautics e.V.
10 Dr.Ing Gottfried Class Nuclear Safety, Thermo-hydraulics
11 Dr.Ing Urban Cleve Nuclear physicist, thermodynamics energy specialist
12 Dr.-Ing Rudolf-Adolf Dietrich Energy expert
13 Dipl.-Ing. Peter Dietze IPCC Expert Reviewer TAR
14 Dr. rer. nat Siegfried Dittrich Physical chemist
15 Dr. Theo Eichten Physicist
16 Ferroni Ferruccio Zurich President NIPCC-SUISSE
17 Dr. sc.agr. Albrecht Glatzle Agricultural biologist, Director científico INTTAS, Paraguay
18 Dr. rer. nat. Klaus-Jürgen Goldmann Geologist
19 Dr. rer. nat. Josef Große-Wördem Physical chemist
20 Dipl. Geologist Heinisch Heinisch
21 Dr. rer.nat. Horst Herman Chemist
22 Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Hinz Former University of Münster Institute for Physical Chemistry
23 Dipl. Geologist Andreas Hoemann Geologist
24 Dipl. Geologist Siegfried Holler
25 Dr. rer.nat. Heinz Hug Chemiker
26 Dr. rer. nat. Bernd Hüttner Theoretical Physicist
27 Prof. Dr. Werner Kirstein Institute for Geography University Leipzig
28 Dipl. Meteorologe Klaus Knüpffer METEO SERVICE weather research GmbH
29 Dr. rer. hort. Werner Köster
30 Dr. rer.nat. Albert Krause Chemist
31 Drs. Hans Labohm IPCC AR4 Expert Reviewer Dipl. Business / science journalist
32 Dr. Rainer Link Physicist
33 Dipl. Physicist Alfred Loew
34 Prof. Dr. Physicist Horst-Joachim Lüdecke University for Engineering and business of Saarland
35 Prof. Dr. Horst Malberg University professor em. Meteorology and Climatology / Former Director of the Institute for Meteorology of the University of Berlin
36 Dr. rer.nat Wolfgang Monninger Geologist
37 Dipl. Meteorologist Dieter Niketta
38 Prof. Dr. Klemens Oekentorp Former director of the Geological-
Paleolontology Museum of the Westphalia Wilhelms-University Münster
39 Dr. Helmut Pöltelt Energy expert
40 Dipl. Meteorologist Klaus-Eckart Puls Meteorologist
41 Prof. Dr. Klaas Rathke Polytechnic OWL Dept. Höxter
42 rof. Dr.-Ing. Sc. D. Helmut Reihlen Director of the DIN German Institute for
Standards and Norms i.R.
43 Prof. Dr. Oliver Reiser University of Regensburg
44 Dipl. Physicist Wolfgang Riede Physicists ETH
45 Dipl.- Mineralogist Sabine Sauerberg Geoscientist
46 Prof. Jochen Schnetger Chemist
47 Prof. Dr. Sigurd Schulien University instructor
48 Dr. rer.nat. Franz Stadtbäumer Geologist
49 Dr. rer.nat. Gerhard Stehlik Physical chemist
50 Dipl. Ing. (BA) Norman Stoer System administrator
51 Dr. rer.nat.habil Lothar Suntheim Chemist
52 Dipl.-Ing. Heinz Thieme Technical assessor
53 Dr. phil. Dipl. Wolfgang Thüne Mainz Ministry of Environment Meteorologist
54 Dr. rer. oec. Ing. Dietmar Ufer Energy economist, Institute for Energy
Leipzig
55 Prof. Dr. Detlef von Hofe Former managing director of the DVS
56 Dipl Geographist Heiko Wiese Meteorologist
57 Dr.rer.nat. Erich Wiesner Euro Geologist
58 Dr.rer.nat. Ullrich Wöstmann Geologist
59 Prof. em. Dr. Heinz Zöttl Soil Sciences
60 Dr.rer.nat. Zucketto Chemist
61 Dr. rer.nat. Ludwig Laus Geologist
+ 6 others
And 189 concerned active citizens, many with distinguished professional titles.
[Update: August 9, 2009: Organizers released the names of 64 more scientists who endorse the Open Letter. This brings the total number of skeptical scientists who signed the letter to over 130.]
Ing. stands in german for engineer, (Dipl. Ing or Ing. etc)
Dr. Ing ist an engineer with a PhD. – Prof. Dr. Ing has teached as an Professor on a University.
Additional Names of German Scientists:
Dipl. Ing Paul Allenspacher Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.
Dipl. Ing M.G. Bury Elektroingenieur
Dipl. Ing Peter Dettmann technischer Umweltschutz
Dipl. Ing Jürgen Seesselberg
Dipl. Ing Georg Völlink Energie- und Verfahrenstechnik
Dipl. Ing. Klaus Bark E-Technik
Dipl. Ing. Edgar Bätz EVU Leipzig & Institut für Energetik
Dipl. Ing. Marco Bernardi Kfz-Sachverständiger
Dipl. Ing. Leonhard Bienert Entwicklung Kernenergie ex DDR
Dipl. Ing. Paul Bossert Architekt
Dipl. Ing. Andreas Demming Selbstständiger Ingenieur,
Dipl. Ing. Hakola Dippel Förster
Dipl. Ing. Johannes Drosdeck Maschinenbau Automotive
Dipl. Ing. Klaus Emmerich Heizungsbau
Dipl. Ing. Konrad Fischer Architekt
Dipl. Ing. Jürgen Fuchsberger Architekt
Dipl. Ing. Horst Gampper
Dipl. Ing. Pierre Gosselin Übersetzer Technisches Übersetzungsbüro
Dipl. Ing. Wilfried Heck Elektrotechnik
Dipl. Ing. Bernd Heinmüller Elektrotechnik
Dipl. Ing. Andreas Kaluza Bergbau Ing. Metallurge
Dipl. Ing. Peter Krah MinR a.D.
Dipl. Ing. Raimund Leistenschneider
Dipl. Ing. Michael Limburg; electrical engineering, control technology, Vizepräsident Europäisches Institut für Klima und Energie
Dipl. Ing. Hainer Müller
Dipl. Ing. Hans-Jörg Oehm Regierungsbaumeister für Städtebau
Dipl. Ing. Jürgen Roesicke Dipl.- Ing. Industrielle Mikrobiologie
Dipl. Ing. Markus Rustemeier
Dipl. Ing. Michael Schneider Energie + Verfahrenstechnik
Dipl. Ing. Jørgen Sørensen Energieberater
Dipl. Ing. Eberhard C. Stotko Präsident VDSt-Akademie
Dipl. Ing. Erhard Thilo Geschäftsführer a.D
Dipl. Ing. Horst Trippe Entwicklung Automotive
Dipl. Ing. Walter Vollert Dipl.-Ing. Maschinenwesen
Dipl. Ing. Günter Weber Herausgeber Verlagsgruppe ‘markt intern’
Dipl. Ing. (BA) Norman Stoer Systemadministrator
Dipl. Ing. (FH) Gerd Zelck
Dipl. Ing. Dipl-Inform. Ewald Gleixner Software-Entwicklung
Dipl. Ing. FH Johannes Schlorke Elektroniker i. R.
Dipl. Ing. FH. Burckhard H. Adam Energie- und Bauberatung
Dipl. Ing. M.A. Enno Dittmar
Dipl. Ing.oec. Horst Jungnickel ehemals leitender Mitarbeiter in der Energiewirtschaft
Ing. grad. Peter Orth Entwicklung Automotive i.R.
Ing. grad. Christian Ziekow
Ingenieur Jacob Brandt
Obering. i.R. Ludwig Lenniger
Dr. Ing. Richard Bock
Dr. Ing. Wolfgang Brune Energiewirtschaftler
Dr. Ing. Adolf Gärtner
Dr. Ing. Peter Geier Ernergiewirtschaftler
Dr. Ing. Herbert Heuser
Dr. Ing. Dietrich E. Koelle Ingenieurbüro für Systemanalysen
Dr. Ing. Arman Nyilas Ingenieurbüro
Dr. Ing. Friedrich Wilhelm Peppler Kernreaktorsicherheitsexperte
Dr. Ing. Helmut Pöltelt Energieexperte TETRA Energie GmbH Kernenergie
Dr. Ing. Roland Richter Nuklearservice bei der K.A.B. AG Berlin
Dr. Ing. Christian Thoma
Dr. Ing. Dipl.Ing. Oswald Kreitschitz Physiker und Unternehmen
Dr. Ing. Kurt Honrath Technischer Vorstand i.R.
Prof. a.D. Dr.-Ing. Eberhard Rauschenfels
Prof. Dr. Ing. Helmut Keutner TFH Berlin FB-VI
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heiko Hofmann Berufsakademie Dresden
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sc. D. Helmut Reihlen Direktor des DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung i.R.
Prof. Dr.Ing. Dieter Ameling Präsident Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl a. D.
Prof. Dipl. Ing. Michael Otto
[End Translation of full German scientist letter]
Related Links:
American Physical Society editor conceded a “considerable presence” of scientific skeptics exists – 2008
Polish National Academy of Science ‘published a document skeptical of man-made global warming’ – April 2008
March 2009 U. S. Senate Report: ‘More Than 700 International Scientists Dissenting Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims’
India Issued a report challenging global warming fears – 2008
Japan Geoscience Union symposium 2008 survey ‘showed 90 per cent of the participants do not believe the IPCC report’
Skeptical scientists overwhelm Prestigious Geologist conference in Norway in 2008: ‘2/3 of presenters and question-askers were hostile to, even dismissive of, the UN IPCC’ & see full reports here & here
UN IPCC’s William Schlesinger admits in 2009 that only 20% of IPCC scientists deal with climate
