Robinson pointed out that the list had been carefully vetted to confirm that over 9,000 of those who signed held PhDs.

Dr Robinson (right), a PhD scientist himself, was appalled at the notion of being forced to play the numbers game, saying: "Science shouldn't be done by poll. The numbers shouldn't matter. But if they want warm bodies, we have them." Impressive as these numbers are, however, the UK news media, almost exclusively, chose to ignore them.

This wasn't the first crack in the 'consensus' dam. In March, more than 500 people, including leading climate scientists, economists, policymakers, engineers and other professionals, endorsed the Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change.

Sponsored by climate scientists of the International Coalition on Climate (ICSC), it stated: "There is no convincing evidence that CO2 emissions from modern industrial activity have in the past, are now, or will in the future cause catastrophic climate change." The Declaration calls for governments and others to "reject the views expressed by the

UN IPCC, as well as popular but misguided works such as Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth".

ICSC chairman Professor Tim Patterson said, "Instead of wasting billions restricting emissions of CO2, a vitally important gas on which all life depends, governments must concentrate on solving known environmental problems over which we have influence." As impressive as the signatories and numbers are, yet again, the UK news media ignored it.

It is not only scientists outside the IPCC who question the 'consensus': scientists whose names were included in the IPCC's list of 2,500 'consensual' scientists have also raised objections.

On December 12, 2007, the US Senate released a report from more than 400 scientists, many of whose names were attached to the IPCC report without - they claim - their permission. In the Senate report, scientists expressed a range of views from scepticism to outright rejection of the theory of anthropogenic global warming.

Professor Patrick J Michaels, research