This note is an addendum to my comments posted last March immediately after the initial broadcast of the “Great Global Warming Swindle.” As of this writing (July 2007), there have been a number of developments.

First, Ofcom, which is the UK’s television oversight authority, has received a very large number of formal complaints about the program, primarily concerning distortions both in the evidence presented, but also for exaggerations of the credentials of the people appearing as “experts” in the film. I too, have filed a complaint, not directly dealing with the specific scientific statements (many other complainants do a good job of that), but only at the way in which the interview was used to distort my views. Ofcom has agreed to examine the substance of my filing.

The film director, Martin Durkin, has been claiming that I only protested my role under duress from scientific colleagues. Such an assertion is absurd---it was colleagues in the UK who first alerted me to what the film was about after it had been broadcast---their point being that they thought it had misrepresented what they knew of my views. Anyone who reads what I have written on this subject (I have not been a public figure in the climate change debates, however) would be hard-pressed to understand why I would have agreed to appear in this film; the title alone would have led me to immediately decline involvement.

I now almost feel sorry for Durkin. He is not a scientist, certainly not an expert on climate change, and has admitted publicly to a number of falsehoods (not his word) in the film, and is in over his head. The film is masquerading as a science documentary, when it should be regarded as a political polemic. Calling it science inappropriately dignifies it. A good analogy is the kind of pseudo science that the Bush administration likes to promulgate and one can imagine the Bush White House being pleased with the film.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) carried an interesting interview with Durkin that can be found on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIjGynF4qkE&mode=related&search (there’s a second part whose link is there). ABC gave me an opportunity to respond directly to Durkin. The video (and a transcript) can be found on http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s1977366.htm . A panel discussion in Australia following the showing of the film can be seen at http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s1932879.htm .

WagTV (Durkin’s film company) has threatened me in the UK, via letters from his solicitors, with a lawsuit for character defamation. Because UK libel law is so different from that in the US, I felt obligated to hire my own UK lawyer. Many thousands of pounds in legal fees later (over US$14,000), I believe the threat was simply a blatant attempt to dissuade me from filing the Ofcom complaint.

I do not appear in the ‘international’ version of “The Great Global Warming Swindle” because it has been shortened to one hour from the version originally broadcast in the UK. My supposition is that I still appear in the DVD version that is supposed to be available in September. The lawyers tell me that there is little or nothing I can do beyond this sort of protest.

Carl Wunsch 17 July 2007