Changes come from challenging consensus

Re: “Climate-change deniers all over the map,” Sept. 4.

David Suzuki’s column on climatechange deniers was hugely disappointing. He refers to a supposed 97 per cent consensus. Anyone who has examined the recent papers supporting that viewpoint will know that all of them are highly suspect statistically.

More important, Suzuki seems to forget that major changes in science are far more likely to come from challenging consensus, rather that embracing it, as Einstein did at the beginning of the 20th century with his papers on relativity.

He also is critical of so-called deniers for not having developed a singular alternative. Suzuki seems to ignore that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also incorporates models that hugely disagree with each other on the scale of the CO2-induced effect and that they generally fail to include the impact of clouds, El Niño and ocean oscillations.

The disagreement among the so-called deniers might only mean that the science is far more complex than generally believed.

All his other allegations, such as cherrypicking, curve-fitting and ignoring inconvenient data, can equally be levelled at his supporters. Accusing those who disagree with him of lying is unworthy of comment.

For someone of his reputation, Suzuki’s superficial column falls far short of what his readers deserve. John Sutherland Victoria