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My new book "Climate Change: Nature is in Control"
There are many people I would like to thank for making this book possible.
The idea for the book came about when I was visiting my family in Adelaide in January 2020 during a heat wave. One day when the forecast was for 45 °C my daughter Denise suggested I should stay inside, shelter from the heat and write another book.
I asked what she had in mind and she simply said, “Climate the Truth”.
My son Philip who has lived in Adelaide for about 30 years thought it was a good idea but after a few days thought I settled on a more appropriate title “Fifteen shades of climate... the fall of the weather dice and the butterfly effect”.
Subsequently, in 2023 I changed the name of the book to “Climate Change: A Realistic Perspective”, and this latest book is simply “Climate Change: Nature is in Control”.
This book includes about 60% of the second book; but also includes ten new sections dealing with climate facets such as climate alarmism, the world of climatism, misrepresentation of climate science, climate change is not a major problem, net zero, small modular reactors, may the odds be ever be in your favour, the New Zealand Climate Commission, climate overview :the last 400,000 years, and the Maunder of the “Maunder Minimum”.
Many of the facets of my over eighty years in the “weather business” are covered in this book.
These years include my schooling in New Zealand’s Golden Bay school, and Nelson College, my work in the University of Otago, the New Zealand Meteorological Service, the University of Victoria in Canada, the University of Missouri, the World Meteorological Organization, the University of Delaware, the 1985 WMO/ICSU/UNEP Villach Conference, 1979 WMO First World Climate Conference, the 1990 Second World Climate Conference, the Stockholm Environment Institute, the University College Dublin, the weather business in New Zealand, writing seven books, many scientific papers and a host of media releases.
My thanks go to all my friends and colleagues all over the climate world who have kept me on the right path, even if the path has been a little different than some may have thought I should have followed.
In Tauranga I would like to give special thanks to three people, first to Lesley Pritchard who was my mentor and computer expert who prepared and formatted all 480 pages of the book.
In addition, in a quiet moment Elizabeth Harré kindly offered to critically edit and proofread the whole book several times. The writing of this book went through several phases. I wrote various drafts, Lesley had formatted much of the original text, Elizabeth fine-tuned all the new text; and Margaret Marsh formatted all the additions and the final book layout.
Table of Contents
1.Who controls the weather dice?
1. Misrepresentation of climate science
2. Climate Alarmism
3. The world of Climatism
4. Climate Change is Not a major problem
5. May the odds be ever in your favour
6. Climate Change: Both sides of the story... A Rotary Conference discussion
7. Climate Change and the Villach Conference of 1985
8. Ten big climate questions answered
9. Key points about climate change
10. Net Zero
11. Air New Zealand and Green Credentials
12. Small modular reactors
13. The New Zealand Climate Commission
14. Climate overview: the last 400,000 years
15. The Maunder of the "Maunder Minimum"
2. Methods of inferring/detecting change in the climate
Recording the weather
Homogenization of climate observations and quality control
The “hockey stick” graph of global warming
Glaciers
Tree rings
3. Forecasting the climate
Weather and Climate Forecasting
Blocking Highs
Climate forecasts - how good are they
4. The Sun
Solar activity and spotless days
The Maunder Minimum
The Maunder Butterfly
Sunspot numbers 1700 - present
Sunspot numbers 1950 - present
5. Astronomical causes of climate change
Milanković cycles
Solar magnetic variations
6.The Role of the Oceans
Global ocean currents as climate controllers
Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)
Southern Annular Mode (SAM)
El Niño and La Niña?
7. The climate record over the centuries
Central England temperatures 1700-2018
Southern Oscillation Index (SOI)
Tropospheric temperatures 1979 to May 2020
Global temperatures 1996 - May 2020
Global annual temperatures 1880 - 2019
Arctic and Antarctic temperatures January 1979 to January 2020
8 Lessons from history
Vikings and their explorations in a warmer world
Building the cathedrals of Europe... the climate factor
The Dust Bowl era in the United States in the 1930’s
Sea level changes
9. Extreme events
The year without a summer
Volcanic eruptions
Tropical Cyclones
10 Anthropogenic influences on the climate
The Greenhouse effect
Urban heat island effect
Australian forest fires and climate
Methane
11. Adaptation to climate
Emission Trading Schemes (ETS)
Building sea walls to combat rising sea levels
Declaring Climate Emergencies
Climate refugees
12. Energy
Fossil fuels
Geothermal energy
Nuclear Energy
Solar energy
Wind power
Hydroelectricity
Tidal Power
13. Official viewpoints
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
World Climate Programme
The Paris Climate Agreement
World Meteorological Organization (but only down to heading EIGHTH Session)
UN Climate Conference 2014
14. Political aspects
Politics and science
Climate change: three sides of the story
The Kyoto Protocol
Ozone and the 1987 Montreal Protocol
Right and left of climate policies
Green movements around the world and their climate agenda
Annex
The climate4you.com website