I heard recently that botanist David Bellamy is coming to New Zealand, and it started me wondering why we havent heard of him for such a long time.
He used to be all over the telly, an enthusiastic naturalist inspiring viewers with his knowledge of the outdoors.
And then he became a climate skeptic. And his career bombed.
A respected botanist and author of 35 books, and presenter of 400 programmes over the years - appreciated by audiences for his boundless enthusiasm.
Yet for more than 10 years he has been out of the limelight, shunned by the BBC where he made his name, as well as fellow scientists and environmentalists.
His crime? Bellamy says he doesn't believe in man-made global warming.
'When he first said he didn't believe what we were being told about global warming he had no idea what the consequences would be.
I am a scientist and I have to follow the directions of science but when I see that the truth is being covered up I have to voice my opinions said Bellamy.
According to official data, in every year since 1998 world temperatures have been getting colder, and in 2002 Arctic ice actually increased. Why, then, do we not hear about that?
The sad fact is that since he said he didn't believe human beings caused global warming he hasn't been allowed to make a TV programme.
In 1996 he criticised wind farms and had an article published in which he described global warming as poppycock. Bellamy didn't think wind farms were an effective means of energy and said so. Back then, at the BBC you had to toe the line and he wasn't doing that.
Suddenly found he was sending in ideas for TV shows and they weren't getting taken up.
He says 'what annoys me most is that there are genuine environmental problems that desperately require attention. I'm still an environmentalist, I'm still a Green and I'm still campaigning to stop the destruction of the biodiversity of the world. But money will be wasted on trying to solve this global warming 'problem.”
Graham Clark, Lower Kaimai.