Free Screening of the Australian Conservation Foundation's new film "Telling The Truth" (about Climate Change)

johnboy said :

…scientific consensus shouldn’t be confused with science.

I agree. All science is simply a set of theories, as yet unproven.

However, I am saying that climate change is a fact, not a theory. It is already occurring, as any of the multitude of scientists in this town who study ice cores from Antartica, the disappearing glaciers in PNG or any other of the multitude of indicators that we could use.

The ‘science’ bit comes in in deciding what these changes will mean for our climate.

At any given point in history 99% of scientists were wrong about pretty much everything.

Today’s funding models only make the echo chamber worse.

This isn’t by way of expressing an opinion one way or another, I’m a fan of pricing pollution regardless, just to say that scientific consensus shouldn’t be confused with science.

“Someone asked. I provided. What is the problem?

I’d hardly call him obscure.”

Yes, but if I wasn’t a scientist, and 99% of the scientists I knew were saying the same thing, I would tend to go with the consensus, no matter how much I WANT to believe otherwise.

Thumper, like you I believe, I am conservative politically. In my view Al Gore’s movie was a major disservice to the cause of publicising the possible effect of climate change, as it politicised the issue between Democrats and Republicans in the US. Many Republicans thought that the issue was being ‘beaten up’ as another liberal stalking horse for Al Gore in particular and the Democrat agenda in general. Hence, any ’eminent’ scientist, politician or radio shock-jock gets plenty of airtime if he contradicts the consensus.

Similarly, as a parent and a happy Australian, I don’t WANT climate change to cause a major upset in the way we live. I think it will, however.

Major upset to our climate is already occurring. There IS major uncertainty and debate about what effect it will have in specific areas. There is very little debate about the fact that we are entering unknown territory.

Thumper, it’s pretty telling that in a town full of scientists (CSIRO, ANU et al), you are quoting someone from Iowa to support your view.

There are hundreds of thousands of scientists in the world who could in some way be described as ’eminent’. 10 years ago, there was serious debate amongst people who study climate about the cause and speed of global climate change. Even 5 years ago, there were a significant number of doubters amongst the scientific community.

Now, climate change deniers are reduced to quoting some obscure academic from Townsville of Professor Ronald McDonald from Boise Idaho as ‘proof’ that climate change is not happening.

If you don’t believe in climate change, you haven’t looked objectively at the evidence.

The original hockey stick graph that was provided as proof to global warming in the first place has been shown to have been statistically incorrect

By whom? Where? When?

And how long before the Al Gore fan club comes charging in to abuse anyone who dares have a different view to them regarding this issue.

And how long before the climate change deniers come charging in to denigrate anyone who dares to have a different view to them regarding this issue.

See? I can “Who failed first-year logic?’ too.

Just like Rudd’s chief rent boy, Garnaut!

Rudd was right in choosing an economist. If there is a solution to climate change, it will have to make economic sense, otherwise nothing will happen.

I think we’re well passed the stage where we need to appoint scientists to make judgements about whether climate change is happening. They already know.

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housebound said :

“On the other hand, there’s a bit of evidence that we are in a warming phase.”

Yes, there is a bit. Actually there is a lot. You would have to be in SERIOUS denial to believe we are not seeing warming at an unprecedented rate.

In a town which contains as many good scientists as Canberra, I’m surprised that this is even a topic of discussion.

I’ve only met one person at ANU who is a climate change denier. And he’s an economist.

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And the debate rages on, with neither side really listening to the other.

The climate has always changed, yes – but do we really want our Australian summers to be much warmer than they already are? Can we even do anything to change it all?

While there’s an argument for ‘Australia can lead the world’, I can hardly believe that a huge GHG emitter like China will watch and learn from us any more than it does, say, on human rights or religious freedom.

We can change our socks – or not, to reduce the energy consumed by washing them – drive less, switch off lights or anything you care to name, but those hi-tech industrial exporting economies, like China and Korea, will still mass produce LCD screens and other GHG-intensive products.

On the other hand, if my energy bills go down because I turn off the lights, and my life is all the more richer for watching less tv, then perhaps it isn’t a bad thing.

On the other hand, there’s a bit of evidence that we are in a warming phase. But no one really knows how long this phase is or will be. Perhaps it’s just El Nino and friends gone manic.

astrojax said :

aww grow up – we’ve been here too often in this forum. whyn’t you just go along, politely inform ms morris and sort it out with her, eh? meanhwile, shhhh….

+1. I expect you’ll attend this event, Wide Load et al, to make your esteemed views made known for the greater good of all.

(I personally don’t know nearly enough about the issues to have a strong position either way, but I do wonder what mileage the nay-sayers want to get out of being so stridently vociferous in their protestations. To feel better about their resource usage, mayhaps?)

Will be out of town for this one, so I’ll look for the report next week.

Wide Boy Jake said :

It’s high time we all told the green mafia to p*ss off and that we refuse to swallow their fallacious propaganda any longer.

If you want to know who the real “green mafia” (or to be more accurate the greenhouse mafia)is, read Clive Hamilton’s ‘Scorcher’. In fact try reading ANY Clive Hamilton books if you want an intellectual non-hippie left perspective.

But no, you’re all right, climate change is a scam. Natural disasters aren’t on the rise, the arctic iceshelves aren’t melting, we don’t really need biodiversity, everything should be GM, humans have had little to no impact on their environment at all, the Maldives and Tuvalu won’t be underwater within 50 years and the world is flat and elephants have f**king wings…