What do hybrid spider monkeys and climate change sceptics have in common? They’re both endangered species.
What’s different about them? We really really want to save the shy spider monkey; climate sceptics can’t vanish quick enough.
Yes: climate change deniers are becoming increasingly uncommon. In most developed countries, including the US, scientists, politicians and the public agree that climate change is happening, and it’s directly connected to human activities.
Odd thing, though… It seems like there are still a vocal group of naysayers here in Australia, who get far too much media attention. Yes, Senator Fielding: I’m tawkin’ to you.
The opinion of Family-first’s Senator Fielding, and other climate sceptics, would be laughable, if not for the large impact they have on pockets of Australian society. It’s kinda cringe-worthy seeing these guys on TV, being so incredibly disingenuous. But when they start flashing fancy diagrams and spittin’ out slick figures, I can’t help listening.
It’s on the television, for goodness sake. My precious telly neverrrrrr lies.
Confession: my Aussie patriotism was slightly wounded the other day. In a failed attempt to appear smart, I was watching ABC’s qanda. On the theme of climate change, the British High Commissioner, Helen Liddell, expressed surprise that there was still debate in Australia on whether climate change was connected to global warming.
She explained that on the challenge to basic science, “We had that debate 10, 15 years ago, and not just in Britain but in other parts of the world.”
“There is consensus around the science. There is consensus about the extent to which human activity has been responsible for climate change and the issue now is… what we do about it and it takes ambition and it takes leadership.”
Senator Fielding clearly objects.
He’s presented three questions to the Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, the government’s Chief Scientist, Professor Penny Sackett, and ANU’s climate expert, Professor Will Steffen.
Paraphrased, the questions are: If CO2 is increasing, why are global temperatures decreasing?
Why is warming a problem if the earth has been experiencing similar warmings in the past?
Are the global climate models reliable? They seem to show periods of warming followed by periods of statis and cooling over the last 18 years.
These questions are followed by spurious figures and charts extracted from an odd-range of sources, supporting Fielding’s notion that climate change is a myth. Ms Wong graciously responded to each of the questions, giving scientific-accurate explanations that bust Fielding’s claims.
Professor Steffen is less amicable. He says that the senator’s arguments are totally flawed, confused, inconsistent, and that “science students at ANU would be expected to do much better than this.”
But for now, let’s pray that the hybrid spider monkey lives on and prospers. Climate sceptics, however? You won’t be missed one bit…