Though I've no reason to doubt the sincerity of Ridley's position, I can also see plenty of reasons why it would be a politically convenient line for him to take. The same applies to Lord Lawson's position on climate change and Bjorn Lomborg's position on climate change. All of these distinguished figures on the mildly sceptical side of the argument have taken the view that the figures provided by the various scientific institutions, such as the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and NASA GISS, as relayed to us in the assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, are broadly trustworthy. Their beef is not so much with "the science" as it is with the political hysteria and green propagandising that has accompanied that science, as well as with the counterproductive policies resulting from it.