(June 27, 2013) — A division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has translated and published a Chinese edition of Climate Change Reconsidered, one of The Heartland Institute’s many publications on the topic of global warming.
The book presents a sweeping rebuttal of the findings of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose reports were widely cited as the basis for taking action to stop or slow the advance of climate change. The IPCC has been surrounded by controversy over editorial bias and lapses in its quality control.
“This is a historic moment in the global debate about climate change,” said Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast. “The translation and publication of a comprehensive critique of the IPPC’s alarmist reports by a leading national academy of sciences is one more sign of the trend toward skepticism and away from alarmism.”
When The Heartland Institute originally announced the publication on June 12, environmental activists falsely claimed our news release stated that the CAS endorsed our views on global warming. In fact, The Heartland Institute never claimed the Chinese Academy of Sciences endorsed our views. This is also made clear in the English preface of the translated book, which says the project was undertaken “to help Chinese researchers understand different points, opinions and positions in debates on climate change.”
It has been Heartland’s position all along, and we reiterate it here, that the decision of the CAS to translate and publish this work is a significant development in the global debate over climate change. We properly conveyed our own opinions about the implications of the decision in our original news release.
Regrettably, the lies of some advocates, perhaps aided by confusion caused by the language barrier, led Chinese officials to threaten to cancel a planned workshop in Beijing for some of the authors and translators of Climate Change Reconsidered. With four scientists representing The Heartland Institute already in Beijing, we agreed to remove the news release and the book itself from our Web site.
Now that the workshop has been successfully concluded, we have restored our original news release here. The statement we posted to appease Chinese officials appears here. The entire book can once again be read or downloaded in PDF form here.
The Web sites of the Information Center for Global Change Studies, a division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences itself still repeat the claims of alarmists saying we misrepresented the CAS’s views. We have asked our Chinese colleagues to remove those statements but they have not yet complied. We repeat that request now.
We are grateful to the Chinese scientists who have helped us make this important research accessible to their countrymen, and to bloggers and reporters such as those at Breitbart, Watts Up With That, and Science who covered this story accurately.
Joseph Bast is a Senior Fellow at The Heartland Institute. He cofounded Heartland in 1984, serving as executive director then as president & CEO until January 2018. His research and writing focuses on climate change and energy policy.
