Editing Christopher Booker (section)

===Global warming===
Booker said that the [[Climate Change Act 2008]] was "the most expensive piece of legislation ever put through Parliament", and likely to cost hundreds of billions over the next 40 years.<ref name="Booker  Telegraph ">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/7550164/Climate-Change-Act-has-the-biggest-ever-bill.html |date=4 April 2010 |title=Climate Change Act has the biggest ever bill |author=Christopher Booker |work=[[The Sunday Telegraph]] |access-date=4 April 2010 |location=London}}</ref> In May 2009, Booker spoke at an [[International Conference on Climate Change]] organised by [[The Heartland Institute]].<ref>{{cite news |author-link=George Monbiot |last=Monbiot |first=George |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2012/feb/24/christopher-booker-heartland-climate |title=Environment: George Monbiot's Blog: Anything to declare, Mr Booker? We need transparency about Heartland |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |date=24 February 2012}}</ref> In the autumn of 2009, he published ''[[The Real Global Warming Disaster]]''. The book, which became his best-selling work, claims that there is not actually a consensus on climate change, and postulates that the measures taken by governments to [[climate change mitigation|combat climate change]] "will turn out to be one of the most expensive, destructive, and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made".<ref name="Booker-342">{{harvnb |Booker|2009| p=342}}</ref> The book was characterised by [[Philip Ball]] in ''[[The Observer]]'' as being as "the definitive climate sceptics' manual", in which "he has rounded up just about every criticism ever made of the majority scientific view that global warming, most probably caused by human activity, is under way, and presented them unchallenged".<ref name="guardian.co.uk">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/nov/15/real-global-warming-christopher-booker |date=15 November 2009 |title=The Real Global Warming Disaster by Christopher Booker |author=Philip Ball |author-link=Philip Ball |work=The Observer |access-date=9 January 2014 |location=London}}</ref>

Ball said that Booker's position required the reader to believe that "1) Most of the world's climate scientists, for reasons unspecified, decided to create a myth about human-induced global warming and have managed to twist endless measurements and computer models to fit their case, without the rest of the scientific community noticing. George W Bush and certain oil companies have, however, seen through the deception. 2) Most of the world's climate scientists are incompetent and have grossly misinterpreted their data and models, yet their faulty conclusions are not, as you might imagine, a random chaos of assertions, but all point in the same direction."<ref name="guardian.co.uk"/>

In December 2009, Christopher Booker and [[Richard North (blogger)|Richard North]] had published an article in ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'' in which they questioned whether [[Rajendra Pachauri]], chair of the [[Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]] (IPCC), was using his position for personal gain,<ref>Christopher Booker and Richard North [https://web.archive.org/web/20091222011621/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/6847227/Questions-over-business-deals-of-UN-climate-change-guru-Dr-Rajendra-Pachauri.html "Questions over business deals of UN climate change guru Dr Rajendra Pachauri"], ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'', 20 December 2009 </ref><ref name=apol/><ref name=GM260810>George Monbiot [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2010/aug/26/rajendra-pachauri-financial-relationships "Rajendra Pachauri innocent of financial misdealings but smears will continue"], ''The Guardian'', 26 August 2010</ref> with a follow-up ''Telegraph'' article in January 2010.<ref name=followup>Christopher Booker and Richard North [https://web.archive.org/web/20100121012506/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7007891/The-curious-case-of-the-expanding-environmental-group-with-falling-income.html "The curious case of the expanding environmental group with falling income"], ''Sunday Telegraph'', 17 January 2010</ref> On 21 August 2010, ''The Daily Telegraph'' issued an apology,<ref name=apol>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/7957631/Dr-Pachauri-Apology.html Dr Pachauri – Apology], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 21 August 2010</ref> and withdrew the December article from their website<ref name=GM260810/> having reportedly paid legal fees running into six figures.<ref name=GM260810/> Pachauri described the statements against him as "another attempt by the climate sceptics to discredit the IPCC."<ref>[https://archive.today/20130103020626/http://www.hindustantimes.com/Daily-Telegraph-apologises-to-Pachauri-over-an-article-alleging-corruption/Article1-589993.aspx "Daily Telegraph apologises to Pachauri"], ''[[Hindustan Times]]'', 21 August 2010</ref>