Peter Gwynne, reporter who wrote story about global cooling, is a climate change believer after all
- From: news.com.au
- January 12, 2014
A SCIENTIST who 40 years ago wrote about global cooling has admitted his story was probably wrong and has distanced himself from climate change deniers who champion his story to this day.
The climate change "debate" is often portrayed as one group of scientists against another. For every theory, there's a valid counter theory, or so the logic goes.
But the counter-theories aren't always particularly robust. For example, climate change deniers often cite a story which appeared in Newsweek magazine in 1975 about the theory of "global cooling". That humble nine paragraph story which appeared on page 64 of the respected journal is one of the key weapons deniers turn to.
However the science and technology reporter who wrote the story has today distanced himself from it. His name is Peter Gwynne. Now 72-years-old, Gwynne spoke this week to US website climate.org.
"When I wrote this story I did not see it as a blockbuster," Gwynne told the site. "It was just an intriguing piece about what a certain group in a certain niche of climatology was thinking."
Since then, the science of climate changed has evolved greatly. The relationship between human generated carbon dioxide output and warming was not clearly established then. Though still far from universally accepted in its fine print, the basic theory is now so well-documented that virtually every scientist accepts it.
For example, it was reported this week that 9135 out of 9136 scientists who've written in peer-reviewed journals about man-made global warming accept the theory.
The lone dissenter was a Russian scientist who is on the record as saying that fossil fuel-free energy will hurt Russia's economy.
Peter Gwynne, who penned the original global cooling story in Newsweek, today accepts the warming science. He still writes science stories and is the North American correspondent for Physics World, based in England. Just recently he wrote that "It's been American science and scientists - particularly NASA - that showed the climate is changing.
"I've been willing to accept that some of [my writing] is misused and misinterpreted," Gwynne said.