Paul Burgess, B.Sc., M.Sc., is a retired Chartered Water Resources and Environment Engineer who managed water resource planning across the UK for many years overseeing supply, flood protection and weather monitoring. In 1971 he built one of the earliest climate models. After retiring he founded a business that went on to win a Wales Innovation Award for a globally sold product. Since the early 2000s Burgess has countered climate alarmism through his YouTube channel, Climate Realism.
Passionate about scientific truth, he gives talks nationwide at his own expense – exposing what he calls the "climate alarmism scam" using facts and data. This discussion is a must-watch summary of his case and essential primer for the argument that the concept of manmade climate change – which controls ever more aspects of Western life – is a total fabrication.
Questions
Some of the questions we explore include:
What led you to conclude that manmade climate change is a fabrication?
How reliable are climate models – and how much trust should we place in them?
Why is CO₂ framed as a pollutant when it’s essential for life?
If the science doesn’t support Net Zero, what’s really driving the push for it?
What’s the one piece of evidence you wish everyone knew about the climate narrative?
Discussion Log
00:00 - 00:04
Introductions and description of the five questions that will be addressed: Is climate science truly scientific? Is CO2 harmful, given its role in plant growth? Are extreme weather events increasing? Will green energy reduce high UK energy bills? Is net zero feasible or necessary?
00:04 - 00:15
Is climate science a true science? Science requires evidence, not appeals to authority or consensus. Excerpt from ‘Climate The Movie’ featuring John Clauser in which he describes the theory of man made climate change as ”a crock of crap.” Quotes from Sagan and Crichton to illustrate how consensus has no place in science. There was once historical ‘consensus' on witchcraft. CO2 narratives deeply engrained and resistant to change. Climate science qualifies as science only if it prioritises evidence over authority or consensus.
00:15 - 00:26
The problems with climate modelling. The failings of the IPCC and climate science as a cult. The many failed dire predictions. The capture of the scientists via finance and employment concerns.
00:26 - 00:37
How climate science fails on scientific principles and has become more like propaganda. Description of an appearance on GB News to talk about air turbulence to make the point. The history of CO2 levels over 4.5 billion years. The benefits of CO2.
00:37 - 00:47
Proof that CO2 levels do not drive temperature rises. The coming ice age. Pre-industrial CO2 (285 ppm) risked life’s extinction at 150 ppm. Inspiration from Sagan, Crichton and Feynman.
00:47 - 00:58
Long term temperature fluctuations are natural, driven by Milankovitch cycles (the Earth’s orbital changes every 100,000 years). Current warming aligned with these cycles. Valentina Zharkova’s prediction of cooling until 2035. CO2 as vital for life. Levels at certain points in history were dangerously low. Extreme weather actually decreasing. CO2 is beneficial, not harmful. There has been consistent climate variability over millions of years.
00:58 - 01:09
Exaggeration of trends by the media. Data from East Anglia University and RSS global temperature records indicate a slight cooling trend from 2016–2020 and post-1998, respectively. Worst UK droughts were in 1765 and globally in the 1870s. Reduced rainfall extremes since 1840, per Met Office data. Forest fires have also declined globally, with high U.S. fires in the 1990s due to poor forestry management, not climate. How US Government hid historical data to push alarmist narratives.
01:09 - 01:22
NASA data shows a 24% decline in global fire-burned acreage from 1998–2015. Sea level rise, post-glaciation, slowed 8,000 years ago, with no recent acceleration - as shown by steady records from Germany (since 1840) and no upward curves globally. Land rebound in Sweden and Scotland creates misleading sea level drops. Alarmist claims dismissed. Barack Obama’s seafront Hawaii home and Tuvalu’s growth (2.9%) both noted. IPCC’s own data finds no human influence on floods, hurricanes, droughts, or other extreme weather, only warming. Claims that renewable energy is cheaper are countered.
01:22 - 01:38
Cost of gas and renewables compared. The false hope of biofuels which exacerbate hunger and environmental damage. Wind farms kill birds and bats. Renewables need back up. Fossil fuel use worldwide at all time high. Cost of net zero means it won’t ever happen and the collapse of these initiatives due to political and economic failures is inevitable.
01:38 - 01:48
China and India rapidly building coal fired power stations. Trump has opted out of net zero. UN focus on CO2 as a pretext for wealth transfer from developed nations. Net Zero as a vehicle for control. The savings that might have been had. The decimation of industry by net zero targets. Prosperity is dependant on fossil fuels.
01:48 - 01:58
Conclusion: net zero as a harmful con that is a threat to humanity. The need to remove it from school curriculums. Closing remarks.
Notes and References
American Meteorological Society (2019) The state of the climate in 2019. Available at: [no link provided] (Accessed: 6 June 2025).
Boden, T. A., Marland, G. and Andres, R. J. (2016) ‘Global, regional, and national fossil-fuel CO2 emissions: 1751–2013’, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center. Available at: [no link provided] (Accessed: 6 June 2025).
Burgess, P. (no date) Climate Realism YouTube Channel. Available at: Link (Accessed: 6 June 2025).
Cook, J., Nuccitelli, D., et al (2013) ‘Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature’, Environmental Research Letters, 8(2). Available at: [no link provided] (Accessed: 6 June 2025).
Crichton, M. (2003) Aliens cause global warming. Lecture delivered at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 17 January. Available at: [no link provided] (Accessed: 6 June 2025).
Durkin, M. (no date) Climate the movie (The real truth). Film. Available at: Link (Accessed: 6 June 2025).
Feynman, R. (1964) The character of physical law. Lecture at Cornell University. Available at: [no link provided] (Accessed: 6 June 2025).
Legates, D. R., Soon, W., et al (2015) ‘Climate consensus and “misinformation”: A rejoinder to agnotology, scientific consensus, and the teaching and learning of climate change’, Science & Education, 24(3), pp. 299–318. Available at: [no link provided] (Accessed: 6 June 2025).
National Interagency Fire Center (no date) National Interagency Fire Center. Available at: Link (Accessed: 6 June 2025).
Niels Bohr Institute Centre for Ice and Climate (no date) Niels Bohr Institute Centre for Ice and Climate. Available at: Link (Accessed: 6 June 2025).
Our World in Data (no date) ‘Fossil fuels’, Our World in Data. Available at: Link (Accessed: 6 June 2025).
Parker, D. E., Legg, T. P. and Folland, C. K. (1992) ‘A new daily Central England temperature series, 1772–1991’, International Journal of Climatology, 12(4), pp. 317–342. Available at: [no link provided] (Accessed: 6 June 2025).
Sagan, C. (1995) The demon-haunted world: Science as a candle in the dark. New York: Random House.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography (no date) The Scripps Institute. Available at: Link (Accessed: 6 June 2025).
Yang, J., Tian, H., et al (2014) ‘Spatial and temporal patterns of global burned area in response to anthropogenic and environmental factors: Reconstructing global fire history for the 20th and early 21st centuries’, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 119(3), pp. 249–263. Available at: [no link provided] (Accessed: 6 June 2025).
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