tim flannery, page-17

In advance of anyone asking me to put up or shut up, here is evidence that Akermans lied (my words with references, I assume the links still work, haven't checked them for a while)...

I would like to refer you to an article from November 5th 2006[1] by Australian journalist Piers Akerman in the Sunday Telegraph. The article quotes Sir John Houghton as follows:

"This alarmist approach reeked of stupidity, snake oil, and misguided gospel preaching but was in line with a formula adopted by the first chairman of the IPCC, Sir John Houghton, who produced the IPCC's first three reports in 1990, 1995 and 2001 and wrote in his book Global Warming, The Complete Briefing, in 1994: "Unless we announce disasters no one will listen.""

On May 21st 2010 the New Scientist published an article called "Living in denial: Unleashing a lie"[2] that recounts this quote's gradual rise to prominence. Since 2006 "It has now appeared in at least three books, well over 100 blog posts and on around 24,000 web pages" and "has become a rallying cry for climate deniers." The article also points out that "Houghton never said or wrote those words" and the "1994 book usually cited as the source contains no such phrase".

I have not checked the book myself but I am inclined to believe the New Scientist. I imagine any journalist worth his or her salt could easily obtain a copy of the book for checking prior to publication. Sir John Houghton himself said in an interview published in The Independent in February 2010[3]...

""There are those who will say 'unless we announce disasters, no one will listen', but I'm not one of them," Sir John told The Independent.

"It's not the sort of thing I would ever say. It's quite the opposite of what I think and it pains me to see this quote being used repeatedly in this way. I would never say we should hype up the risk of climate disasters in order to get noticed," he said."

Given that this quote has effectively gone viral around the world in climate denial circles, isn't it about time that the Sunday Telegraph issued a retraction for the original story and Akerman apologised to Sir John Houghton or resigned?

References

[1] http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/sterns-report-scare-mongering/story-e6frezz0-1111112469535

[2] http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627606.300-living-in-denial-unleashing-a-lie.html?full=true

[3] http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/fabricated-quote-used-to-discredit-climate-scientist-1894552.html