US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned students that if they don’t take climate more seriously they will be jeopardising the future of the planet.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony of his alma mater Boston College, he said:

“If the US does not act and if it turns out that the critics and naysayers and the members of the Flat Earth Society – if it turns out they’re wrong, then we are risking nothing less than the future of the entire planet.”

He claimed:

“Recent reports, one from the UN and one from retired US military leaders warn us, not just of the crippling consequences to come but that some of them are already here. 97 per cent of the world’s scientists tell us that this is urgent. Why? Because crops can’t grow there’ll be food insecurity; if there’s less water because of droughts, if there are stronger and more powerful storms, things will change in a hurry and change for the worse. Climate change is directly related to the potential of greater conflict and greater instability. I’m telling you that there are people in parts of the world today in Africa, they fight each other over water, they kill each other over it. This is not a matter of politics or a matter of partisanship. It’s a matter of science and stewardship. And it’s not a matter of capacity it’s a matter of willpower.”

Hmm. Let’s fisk those statements, shall we?

1. Flat Earth Society. Lazy, inaccurate ad hom directed at people whose only desire that climate science and climate science policy should be evidence-based, rather than derived from modelled forecasts which bear increasingly little resemblance to observed, real-world data.

2. If it turns out they’re wrong… (aka the Precautionary Principle) This presupposes that there are no costs to doing what Kerry wants and acting on climate change now. But, of course, the costs of trying to combat climate change have already run into the trillions of dollars – with no evidence that they have made any difference.

3. Recent Reports. Appeal to Authority. The UN’s latest assessment report has been shredded by critics and since the report by the retired US generals takes all its “science” on trust from the same debased “experts” used by the UN, the military prestige of the supposed authors is entirely irrelevant – and their willing to participate in this charade frankly embarrassing.

4. “97 per cent of the world’s scientists tell us…” No they don’t. This is a reference to the widely discredited Doran Survey, based on the opinions of a heavily-stacked poll eventually involving just 75 scientists.

5. Food insecurity. When it comes to creating food insecurity not even drought can compete with the man-made crisis caused by biofuels which – in the name of saving the planet from climate change – turn over swathes of agricultural land for fuel production.

6. Less water because of droughts. We can’t stop droughts. But big government has a genius for finding new ways to create water shortage: eg the subsidised water rates for Californian farmers, which encourage them to grow heavily water-dependent crops they would not normally consider in such an arid region.

7. Stronger and more powerful storms. All the current scientific evidence points in the opposite direction: that storms are decreasing.

8. Greater conflict….Africa…etc. Has Kerry been reading the Guardian and its ludicrous attempt to link climate change to the violence of organisations like Boko Haram?

9. This is not a matter of politics or partisanship. Of course it is. “Climate change” is the Obama administration’s last desperate shot at trying to justify its aggressively left-liberal policymaking. Problem is, the hard science just doesn’t back it up.

10. It’s a matter of science. If only. If it were about real science – the scientific method; free and open enquiry; evidence – the issue would have been decided long ago. In favour of the “skeptics” – not the deniers.