Shown On German ZDF Television! Walter Cunningham: “One Of The Greatest Scientific Fiascos Of All Time”

A few days ago the German ZDF national television late evening news presented a profile of the 2014 Starmus Festival in Tenerife, which featured distinguished Nobel prize scientists and astronauts (last September).

Hat-tip Wolfgang Neumann at facebook.com.

Example of those in attendance were Harold Kroto, Steven Hawkins, and astronauts Charlie Duke, Walter, Alexey Leonov, and Apollo 7 Astronaut Walter Cunningham.

ZDF Cunningham

Former astronaut Walter Cunningham. Image cropped from ZDF “heute journal”.

A video of the ZDF newscast is posted here at the network’s website. The part of interest begins at the 16:10 mark where the ZDF begins its the segment on Starmus. The really interesting, and unexpected, part begins at the 18:05 mark where ZDF British Nobel prize chemist Harold Kroto comments on CO2 and climate, which follows (in part translated from the German voice-over):

Even if there is no global warming, it is still in the interest of humanity to find an alternative to fossil fuels. As a chemist I’m telling you that it is almost criminal to burn them.”

But former astronaut Charles Duke doesn’t buy Kroto’s view:

A single volcano emits more climate gases into the atmosphere than man does. I don’t think we are responsible for the global warming.”

And neither does astronaut Walter Cunningham buy into the global warming theory:

Those who are sounding the alarms have corrected their claims multiple times. It is one of the greatest scientific fiascos of all time.”

It’s quite a surprise that Germany’s leading politically correct national television, ZDF, showed that sound byte, and did so in an untypically neutral way. Too late now – millions of Germans heard what undoubtedly will serve as seeds for doubt.
Readers here who are familiar with German climate politics of course are expecting certain PIK scientists to pick up the phone and to vigorously scold the ZDF for their “irresponsible” journalism, for giving a few seconds time to highly qualified skeptics.

 

21 responses to “Shown On German ZDF Television! Walter Cunningham: “One Of The Greatest Scientific Fiascos Of All Time””

  1. Edward.

    ON ZDF! – incredible…………………but.

    I think that, the German authorities [well Merkel the Communist] and particularly those concerned with keeping the people quiet as sheep, are a bit more worried about PEGIDA.

    1. DirkH

      Yes. Regime is extremely worried about complete loss of trust. They need their ongoing lies for Ukraine and PEGIDA so they might retreat a little on the warmism front.

      Too little, too late.

      1. Colorado Wellington

        The leaders still have a way out. They can use their connections and name recognition to start a dog grooming TV show. After they’d get some credibility in the pooch business, they’d be set to completely back out of this political racket.

      2. Edward.

        Keep the pressure on all fronts, this is asymetric warfare – the forces are small but effective – Dresden leads the way but Berlin [BARGIDA!] and all over Germany were out last night!

        With the ongoing unrest in the and fighting in and around Donetsk destabilizing the Ukraine and always Russia in the background [but not the real sinner this time]. What with, the €zero in deep trouble and the ECB threatening printing money [QE] – most Germans will be appalled because this is mutualizing Euro debt! Thus, the Reichskanzler has an awful lot on her plate and while the authorities have faces turned away – in Germany the realists MUST try to finally kill off the green agenda – for that would be a great victory.

  2. Mike Heath

    We were concerned about the “tipping point” many years ago. The planet could only warm up so much and then positive feedback would kick in and turn the Earth into Venus 2. With the stagnation of the warming, except for the alarmists, no one is that bothered by it any more. Considering other things that are going on in the world, perhaps it starts to become a nice subject to end a news program with – just before the dog story, or other happy ending.

    Unfortunately, I think we have reached two tipping points in the last 12 months, and we are likely heading over both cliffs at a rapid pace. One is Ukraine where ethnic cleansing cannot be spoken of in the west until it is done, and the Islamic objective to ultimately conquer and rule the whole world and impose its culture and values wherever it goes.

    1. John F. Hultquist

      Napoleon Bonaparte is supposed to have said “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
      The Islamic issue and the lack or lackluster response by major nations may actually be based on this strategic observation. Maybe not. More likely the big heads are just clueless. Amounts to about the same thing, though.

    2. Peter Yates

      Quote: “…and then positive feedback would kick in and turn the Earth into Venus 2.”
      I think you probably didn’t mean exactly like Venus, because it’s a very different planet.
      ~ For example, Venus (like Mars) doesn’t have strong magnetic fields to help protect the planet. Therefore, over long periods of time, the solar wind stripped it of gases like hydrogen, helium, and oxygen ions, leaving the higher-mass molecules like carbon dioxide. The atmosphere became very dense, with 96% CO2, and 92 times more than Earth’s pressure at the surface.
      ~ Also, it is considerably closer to the Sun, at about 0.72 of the distance from the Sun to the Earth, and it rotates very slowly at only 6.5 km/h or 4 mph. Therefore a Venus day is very long! Venus takes 243 Earth days to rotate once.
      ~ Naturally given the above, Venus does not have biomass (or oceans) to absorb some of the CO2, and it does not have a carbon cycle.

  3. mike restin

    As an American outsider I think the administration is allowing this to happen to help move the people away from combating CO2.
    The government won’t change if the people are not demanding change.
    This will allow Merkel to slowly back away from bird shreders and the need for coal fired power plants.
    Ridding the Germany of CO2 ain’t happening…plus, it’s hurting!
    I believe she’ll take this as an out.
    The EU could then follow suit and get the world back on track.
    imho.

    1. DirkH

      “The EU could then follow suit and get the world back on track.”

      The EU has never gotten anything back on track.
      Actually the EU will fall apart. The Euro will cease to exist.
      Merkel is on the lookout for a UN or IMF job and will resign once she has it.

  4. DirkH

    “Even if there is no global warming, it is still in the interest of humanity to find an alternative to fossil fuels. As a chemist I’m telling you that it is almost criminal to burn them.”

    They are easy to synthesize with the Fischer-Tropsch process so whether one burns oil or gas or not is a purely economic question.

    1. Graeme No.3

      DirkH:

      not all chemicals. You also need to generate acetylene (coal and electricity).
      It was only in 1951 that the amount of chemicals from oil exceeded the amount from coal, and that would have been because of the huge expansion in the production of polyethylene.

      Still it is easier (and often less costly) to use oil as the base.

    2. Curious George

      I agree that burning hydrocarbons is almost criminal. Unfortunately we don’t have better alternatives for now. Burning heretics might work for unrelated reasons.

      1. DirkH

        What do you want with cubic kilometers of plastic?
        And BTW, E. braunii stores energy in oil droplets practically indistinguishable from Diesel. If you think oil is so precious you would only have to cultivate them, dry them and run them through an oil mill.

  5. Albert Stienstra

    I think the chemist Kroto meant that one should not burn fossil fuels but make plastics and other chemical substances out of them. Burning precious resources is heretical to a chemist

    1. DirkH

      The preciousness is determined by the price.
      Oil is the second-cheapest liquid after water.

    2. JJM Gommers

      Correct, from a thermodynamic point of view, however the economy is doing the opposite , what is the cheapest way. In the long run there will be a

      1. DirkH

        JJM?

  6. JJM Gommers

    shift to higher efficiencies or technology, for example nuclear/fusion.

  7. Russell Seitz

    A single volcano emits more climate gases into the atmosphere than man does. I don’t think we are responsible for the global warming.”

    – See more at: https://notrickszone.com/#sthash.q2DrbRR5.dpuf

    Could M. Gosselin enlighten us as to which volcano, and when and how much CO2 it supposedly emitted?

    I think the former astronaut is presently quite wrong.

  8. Walter H. Schneider

    Dirk, I tried to find information on E. braunii and was unsuccessful with doing so. Did you mean “Botryococcus braunii”?

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this. More information at our Data Privacy Policy

Close