Maurice Newman caught changing the facts

Maurice Newman is the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s most senior economic advisor.

Tony Abbott appointed him to chair the government's Business Advisory Council.

In an article published by The Australian today Maurice Newman misquotes a research paper in a blatant attack on climate science.

We’re ill-prepared if the iceman cometh

MAURICE NEWMAN
The Australian
August 14, 2014 12:00AM

What if the warmth the world has enjoyed for the past 50 years [emphasis added] is the result of solar activity, not man-made CO2?

In a letter to the editor of Astronomy & Astrophysics, IG Usoskin et al produced the “first fully ­adjustment-free physical reconstruction of solar activity”. They found that during the past 3000 years the modern grand maxima, which occurred between 1959 and 2009 [emphasis added], was a rare event both in magnitude and duration. This research adds to growing evidence that climate change is determined by the sun, not humans.

Maurice Newman's statement that the warmth the world has "enjoyed" (sic) for the past 50 years is coincidentally the same period climate science has in its sights. A NASA web page "How Do We Know The Climate is Changing?" says of this period that "Earth has warmed twice as fast in the last 50 years as in the 50 years before that."

Maurice Newman claims a letter to the editor of Astronomy & Astrophysics found a record of solar activity had a grand maxima which occurred between 1959 and 2009 was a rare event both in magnitude and duration.

This is not correct.

The "evidence" Maurice Newman incorrectly quotes actually refers to a 60 year period of high solar activity that began in 1950 and NOT in 1959.

Maurice Newman's error that happens to show a 50 year period for unusually high solar activity - 1959 to 2009 - is more likely to be deliberate rather than his inattention to detail.

Maurice Newman undoubtedly wanted to avoid trying to explain his theory that "the warmth of the earth" from 1959 is the result of solar activity and yet this solar activity did not produce warming from 1950 to 1959.