Questionnaire for wannabe science minister Dennis Jensen

Dennis Jensen, recently re-elected Liberal member for Tangney, wants to be Australia’s new science minister, telling Fairfax Media that he has some “unique attributes” that he can bring to the new but not-yet-announced Tony Abbott ministry.

One of those attributes is that he doesn’t accept the position of the world’s science academies and Australia’s CSIRO that climate change is caused mainly by humans burning fossil fuels and chopping down trees and that this might be bad.

Jensen told interviewer Jonathan Swan that just because 97 per cent of  research papers published in scientific journals agree that humans are causing climate change, this doesn’t necessarily mean they’re right.

“The argument of consensus is a flawed argument,” Jensen said.

When fellow climate science denier James Delingpole tried to make this very same argument to Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, it didn’t turn out too well for Delingpole. Let’s watch.

Anyway, in Dr Jensen’s pitch to be science minister, he also spoke in approving terms of climate science denier Lord Christopher Monckton, saying that most of the things which Lord Monckton has said are “entirely reasonable”.

“Some of it I don’t agree with but on the whole a lot of what he says is in my view correct,” Jensen said.  Now I’m curious. Which of the things that Lord Monckton has said, does Dr Jensen agree with?

Monckton sketch image courtesy of Greenpeace

So here is an open invitation going out to Dr Jensen to answer this little questionnaire I’ve put together. These questions are all things which Lord Monckton has said in recent years. Which of these do you agree with, Dr Jensen?

1. Science should only be practised by people who adhere to a religion, preferably of the Christian variety – yes or no?
2. The former ABC chairman Maurice Newman is “shrimp-like” – yes or no?
3. The “expert reviewers” for the IPCC are “appointed” to carry out that role by someone other than the person themselves – yes or no?
4. The world’s climate scientists and advocates for action are just trying to “stamp out democracy” – yes or no?
5. The cleanest form of energy is “coal” – yes or no?
6. Lord Monckton is a Nobel Peace Laureate – yes or no?
7. The BBC once had an Argentinian service and Lord Monckton used this to help the UK win the Falklands War – yes or no?
8. Some “super rich” sceptics should be encouraged to buy into media organisations so that climate sceptics can get more coverage – yes or no?
9. The number of people being killed by a misplaced belief in climate change is, if anything, greater than the number of people killed by Hitler – yes or no?
10. President Barack Obama’s birth certificate published on the White House website is a fake – yes or no?
11. The chances of Barack Obama being born in the United States are “no better than 1 in 62,500,000,000,000,000,000” – yes or no?
12. Hospital staff who perform abortions are “butchers” – yes or no?
13. Young climate change campaigners are like the “Hitler youth” – yes or no?
14. Professor Ross Garnaut’s views on climate change are “fascist” – yes or no?
15. Climate change scientists should be prosecuted and locked up – yes or no?
16. (added this one an hour after publishing) NASA blew up their own emissions-monitoring satellite – yes or no

I could have asked you a few more questions, Dr Jensen, but I think these will suffice.

I do find it puzzling that you would choose to endorse Lord Monckton in some way, given you once wrote to the Chief Scientist complaining about the state and tone of the climate change debate.

It would be great if you found time to answer these questions. I know that Lord Monckton has said much more on the science of climate chnage, even though he doesn’t bother to put his “theories” to the test through proper peer-review. Skeptical Science has a good summary of Lord Monckton’s science “myths” which you might want to take a look at.

Oh, and congratulations on your re-election.

This article was first published on Graham Readfearn’s blog. Reproduced with permission of the author.