Climate change swindle?

Swindle?

The Channel 4 programme shown on March 8th has caused a stir. Some people have been swayed by its assertions into thinking that there is a grand conspiracy to stifle dissent on climate change.

The main contention in the programme, at least as described in the extensive material on the Channel 4 web site, is that changes in solar irradiance are responsiible for most of the observed (and not denied) rise in global temperatures.

The February 2007 IPPC report states that changes in solar activity may have been responsible for 0.12 watts per square metre of incremental forcing, compared to 2.30 watts for the primary greenhouse gases. (I have not included the ranges offered by the IPCC).

The IPCC further states that its estimate of the additional forcing from changes in solar irradiance has more than halved since its last report.

Who is right? The several hundred scientists working in possibly the largest international scientific collaboration the world has seen, including many coming from the countries whose politicians reject Kyoto-style remedies? Or the people who made the C4 programme?