Despite scientific evidence to the contrary, scepticism about climate change appears to be gaining wider global credence. This in part has been fuelled by the discovery in 2009 that a very small number of scientists manipulated evidence to exaggerate the extent of climate change and more recently by the issue having become highly politicized in the United States.

In the US, Republican candidates for the presidential nomination have felt it necessary to question the veracity of global warming. For example, Mitt Romney, one of the leading Republican candidates, who had previously demonstrated a strong pro-science approach, recently declared that he was uncertain about climate change. …..