It was disappointing to see you give any column space to the Ian Wishart event. The book and claims he is peddling have been discredited by the most respected for many years by scientists in this country and overseas.

For example, The Royal Society of New Zealand is charged by its Act with informing the public about science, and fostering evidence-based scientific debate. The Society convenes an expert committee on climate. The controversy over climate change and its causes, and possible confusion among the public, prompted the committee last year to produce a statement to make absolutely clear what the evidence is for climate change and anthropogenic (human-induced) causes.

The statement says the globe is warming because of increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Measurements show that greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are well above levels seen for many thousands of years. Further global climate changes are predicted, with impacts expected to become more costly as time progresses. Reducing future impacts of climate change will require substantial reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.

Unfortunately for Mr Wishart the empirical evidence has continually come out against the ideas he promotes, even critics of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have pointed to the failures of the central thesis of Mr Wishart’s book.

Making the minimum 40% reduction in emissions by 2020 that the best science is suggesting will mean significant changes to the way we live. There is a lot of money at stake and climate deniers have powerful friends as we saw last week with the business lobby criticising the Prime Minister’s modest proposal of 50% reductions by 2050.

Climate deniers have moved to the head of the line in faux news, but giving them ‘news’ space is akin to suggesting there is a scientific basis to claims that the sun orbits the earth, women are the property of men and that maggots come spontaneously from rotting meat.