NZ’s Climate Change Ministry scores spectacular own goal – praises well-known sceptic

New Zealand’s Ministry for the Environment has sent a letter of praise to the author of two bestselling books debunking human caused global warming, telling him that “New Zealand needs people like you”.

Ian Wishart, who penned the climate change book Air Con and the sequel Totalitaria, was stunned to receive in the mail a letter this week on Ministry for the Environment paper, headlined “2014 Green Ribbon Award nomination from Mr David Slack for Global Warming Truth”.

“Congratulations on your recent Green Ribbon Award nomination,” the letter began. “These national awards recognise the outstanding contributions of individuals, businesses and communities to protecting and improving our environment.”

While informing Wishart that he had not made the finals, the Ministry’s Deputy Secretary for Organisational Performance Mark Sowden wrote, “I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the work you are doing. I commend you on your effort and commitment.

“New Zealand needs people like you who contribute every day to protecting and enhancing our environment. You should be very proud to have your work and passion recognised and I encourage you to keep working towards a clean, green New Zealand.”

Wishart said he wasn’t even aware someone had nominated him for a Green Ribbon Award, and was staggered to think trees had been chopped down and postage wasted to inform him he had not made the finals of an award he’d never heard of and which he’d never entered.

“I’ll take the praise for my work exposing the massive doubts about human-caused climate change, especially as there’s been no increase in global warming for 17 years and in fact cooling for the last decade,” he said tonight.

“On the other hand, they might be praising me for planting dozens of trees recently, so I’ve certainly done my bit for carbon mitigation regardless of whether I and many other scientists now hold serious doubts about the importance of CO2 in the climate cycle.