Who is Bob Carter?

Professor Robert (Bob) Carter (RIGHT)* is a member of the right-wing think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, and a founding member of the Australian Environment Foundation, a front group set up by the Institute of Public Affairs. He is Adjunct Research Professor, Marine Geophysical Laboratory, James Cook University of North Queensland. He is described as 'retired' in a Sydney Morning Herald article by environment writer Wendy Frew: "Professor Carter, whose background is in marine geology, appears to have little, if any, standing in the Australian climate science community."

The classic charcteristics of the professional sceptic, as described in The Denial Machine (4 Corners expose of pseudo academic smokescreens designed to delay action on climate change, funded by fossil fuel companies.)

1. Denies the scientific consensus of 2500 climate scientists whose work is peer reviewed.
2. Has connections with fossil fuel companies.
3. Is not strictly a climatologist.
4. Is not highly published on climate matters in peer-reviewed journals.
5. Campaigns actively against the findings of legitimate climate scientists.

Prof. Carter claims the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had uncovered no evidence the warming of the planet was caused by human activity.

He has curious views for an academic:

1. Not a big believer in the process of peer review whereby a scientist's methodology and conclusions are checked by other scientists toensure there is no fraud, hanky panky or mistakes made.

2. Not worried that taking money from the fossil fuel industry would affect the validity of research. "I don't think it is the point whether or not you are paid by the coal or petroleum industry," said Professor Carter. "I will address the evidence."

Former CSIRO climate scientist, and now head of a new sustainability institute at Monash University, Graeme Pearman, said Professor Carter was not a credible source on climate change. "If he has any evidence that [global warming over the past 100 years] is a natural variability he should publish through the peer review process," Dr Pearman said. "That is what the rest of us have to do." He said he was letting the fossil fuel industry off the hook.

Bob Carter is a favourite of the Federal Government. He was chosen to attend a Conference on Managing Climate Change: Practicalities and Realities in a post-Kyoto Future staged by APEC held in Parliament
House, Canberra in April 2005. Described as 'the first Conference held on the scientific evidence supporting the Kyoto Protocol following its ratification', it included representatives from the USA and China - Harlan Watson, Senior Climate Change Negotiator and Special Representative, US Department of State; and Qingqing Zhao, First Assistant Secretary (Science and Technology), Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Australia. The Australian contingent was heavily stacked with climate change sceptics, including the following:

• Professor Bob Carter, Research Professor of Geology, James Cook University, Queensland;
• William Kininmonth, Author of "Climate Change: A Natural Hazard" and formerly of the
Australian Bureau of Meteorology;
• Dr John Zillman, President, Australia Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering
and former Principal Delegate of Australia (1994-2004) to the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change;
• Dr Brian Fisher, Director, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics;
• Meg McDonald, General Manager Corporate Affairs, Alcoa World Alumina Australia;
• Professor Aynsley Kellow, University of Tasmania;
• Dr Alan Moran, Director, Deregulation Unit, Institute of Public Affairs; and
• Emeritus Professor Garth Paltridge, retired Director of the Institute of Antarctic and Southern
Ocean Studies, University of Tasmania and former Chief Research Scientist of the CSIRO
Division of Atmospheric Research.

John Howard's former Environment Minister Ian Campbell appointed Carter as a judge for the Australian Government Peter Hunt Eureka Prize for Environmental Journalism.

John Howard's Finance Minister, Nick Minchin, uses Bob Carter as a scientific authority to support his denial of the link between fossil fuels and greenhouse gas pollution. In a letter he wrote to Clean Up Australia's founder, Ian Kiernan, Senator Minchin took issue with Mr Kiernan's criticism "that anyone who remains to be convinced that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are the cause of climate change is a scientific loony." Senator Minchin appears to have taken his advice in part from a collection of columns written by the Canadian newspaper columnist Lawrence Solomon. Among those was one promoting the work of Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark. But that research has proved to contain numerous calculation and methodological errors, say some other scientists.Senator Minchin also referred Mr Kiernan to a critique of the economic review of global warming by Sir Nicholas Stern. One author of the critique was the Bob Carter. Of Senator Minchin's letter, he said: "I am worried that a federal minister would believe this crap."

*. Pictured with Bob at the Australian Environment Foundation conference last year was Professor Mike Archer, Dean of Science, UNSW. He said, in 2001 on ABC Radio's Background Briefing: "Now I don't want to be an overt defender of the mining industry but we're talking about 2% of Australia's land surface is affected by mining, but 65% is being destroyed by agriculture." (AEF is an anti-green movement front organisation for the right wing think tank the Institute of Public Affairs.) Prof. Archer advocates taking 20% of Australia's agricultural lands out of production.