Gawker founder Nick Denton counts himself among Brits who are “sceptical” — that’s British for “skeptical” — of a consensus on climate change.
The Daily Caller noticed Monday that Denton had twittered a link to a climate change article by Matt Ridley (published last week in the Spectator, a conservative British magazine), but without the usual critical caveat that readers have come to expect from the gossip mogul: “How cranky bloggers are puncturing the consensus on climate change. by Matt Ridley http://j.mp/cIQbOE.”
Our curiosity piqued, we emailed Denton and asked if there was anything behind his decision to post Ridley’s story besides the desire to disseminate the news.
“Ha, you picked up on that,” Denton wrote back. “I’m a natural sceptic and I respect those who don’t simply defer to expert consensus. There was much the same level of agreement about the Soviet threat, the abolition of the economic cycle, acid rain and the inexorable economic rise of Japan, to name just a few.”
According to a February BBC poll, Denton joins an increasing number of British people in questioning the science behind climate change. Twenty-five percent of poll respondents doubt that global warming is real, up from 15 percent in November 2009. According to another February poll, conducted by Populus for the Times of London, 38 percent of respondents said that “climate change is happening but not yet proven to be largely man-made,” up from 32 percent in Nov. 2009.
While a series of high profile stories revealing errors committed by the IPCC have been published since November 2009, Michael Simmonds, managing director of Populus, told the BBC that “73% of the people who said that they were aware of the ‘science flaws’ stories stated that the media coverage had not changed their views” on global warming.
“More people are now doubters than firm believers.”
Contact Mike Riggs at mike@dailycaller.com