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Professor's book warns Earth is running dry

23 November 2005

Emeritus Professor Lance Endersbee AO has launched a new book in which he challenges many accepted scientific beliefs and provides new perspectives about how the Earth works.

Professor Endersbee (pictured) warns that our planet's deep groundwater -- which sustains half the Earth's population -- is running out because it is not replenished by the trickle-down effect of rainwater, as most experts believe.

The former Monash Engineering dean and pro vice-chancellor also challenges conventional theories about global warming in his book Voyage of Discovery, launched last week at the Clayton campus.

The book questions the assumption that the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide in the past 100 years has been the main cause of the apparent rise in the earth's surface temperature.

"The major causes of variations in climate are variations in heat flow from the interior of the earth, and variations in solar and cosmic radiation," Professor Endersbee said. "These factors are not included in the present computer models of climate change.

"Carbon dioxide is given undue emphasis because it is one effect that can be included in the computer models of climate. However, increased carbon dioxide is relatively unimportant, compared with the smog caused by particles, chemical pollution and the great increase in water vapour over cities," he said.

"Each city is creating its own pollution and causing its own warming. That means the control of warming should be directed at the source in cities."

Voyage of Discovery is available through the university bookshop.