It seems like the Australian Senator Steve Fielding is a little confused.

THIS is the chart climate change sceptic Senator Steve Fielding hopes will convince Al Gore that global warming is not real.

Senator Fielding is trying to score a one-on-one meeting with Mr Gore, who is in Australia promoting several environmental causes, to prove to him that climate change sceptics are right. (Read More at news.com.au)

Just a quick recap: Senator Fielding, who apparently once believed that man made carbon dioxide emissions were the main cause of global warming, took a trip to the Washington DC (funded by the Heartland Institute – more on that here), and has somehow come up with a bunch of questions that have proved that Global Warming isn’t real. At this point, it’s abundantly clear that Senator Fielding isn’t a scientist, nor does he have a good grip on climate science. One of the best blog commentaries i’ve seen on the matter so far is this gem:

It was comforting to have Nobel laureate Peter Doherty‘s reassurance that climate change “is an enormously complex area and it’s difficult for people outside the area to understand the science” when he spoke at the recent University of Melbourne Festival of Ideas. Doherty includes himself as one of those challenged by this complexity.

I can sympathise when Steve Fielding says that he would “be letting down the Australian people if I didn’t properly research the issues”. But he is misguided in thinking that he’ll be able to do so. Steve needs to stick to his job, which is contributing to policy, and leave the scientific debate to the scientists. (Read More)

When dealing with an incredibly complex issue such as climate change, why does Senator Fielding expect the temperature vs CO2 relationship to be linear? And why is Senator Fielding cherry picking his graphs yet again? Here is what CO2 and Temperature look like over the last century:

Read on over at Skeptical Science for a detailed discussion on the CO2 / Temperature correlation over the last century:

The broader picture in this scenario is to recognise that CO2 is not the only factor that influences climate. There are a number of forcings which affect the net energy flux into our climate. Stratospheric aerosols (eg – from volcanic eruptions) reflect sunlight back into space, causing net cooling. When solar activity increases, the net energy flux increases. (Read More)

I wish people like Senator Fielding would appreciate the enormous amount of effort invested into climate change science, and not assume that they can derail or outsmart the entire process by a single graph (especially one concocted by big oil). On the other hand, i’m looking forward to hear Al Gore’s response – judging by previous efforts, it could be rather entertaining. Here’s what happened when Republican Marsha Blackburn challenged Al Gore during an exchange at a subcommittee hearing on global climate change legislation:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py6yay2c0Oo&w=425&h=344]