Mon, 9. July 2012
The Climate Clown
High climate principles? Tony Abbott v Julia Gillard.
So, after five decades of searching, CERN particle physicists at the Large Hadron Collider have discovered the predicted Higgs Boson. A job well done - but will these honest scientists now be subjected to ridicule and claims of 'jigging the numbers' by lay people who have no training or knowledge in these matters? I think not. That is a fate reserved only for honest climate scientists!
I admit to very little technical knowledge of climate change science; and after sitting on the fence, I decided a couple of years ago that I had no option but to support what the vast majority of scientists had been telling us: that CO2 is a greenhouse gas; that it is increasing in the atmosphere; and that it is almost certainly human activity that is causing it.
I concluded that I trusted scientists of all other disciplines and could see no reason to distrust climate scientists either. They all use the same scientific method. The conclusions reached by scientists of almost every field are valued and accepted by the community - but for some reason, some sections of the non-scientific public will not accept the conclusions that have been reached almost unanimously by climate change scientists all overthe world. I find that bizarre.
Scientists challenging theories by other scientists is how science works - but non-scientists challenging solid conclusions reached by scientists is a different matter entirely. That is harking back to the findings of Galileo Galilei (a scientist) that the Sun is at the centre of the Solar System, for which Pope Urban VIII (a non-scientist) in 1632 had him placed under house arrest for "heresy" during the final ten years of his life. They're doing it again.
I regularly listen to professional astronomers describing astonishing facts about what has been discovered about the Universe. Whilst I've heard a lot of questions asked, I have never experienced the audacity of anyone in the audience standing up and accusing them of lying and falsifying the numbers to reach their published conclusions.
Of course, scientists are not infallible and if the scientists change their mind, I will too. As it stands, I would back the 97% of climate scientists before the 3% and I would trust them over politicians, shock-jocks and cardinals any day.
However, my instinct clearly tells me it's not a good idea to allow industry to continuously pour massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere at ever increasing rates; and to allow deforestation to drastically reduce the amount of CO2 absorbed before it escapes to the upper atmosphere - especially as we know for a fact that if it reaches the upper atmosphere it will act to increase the greenhouse effect.
If we can't believe what scientists are telling us, if we dismiss their warnings, then the world is slipping backwards, not forwards.
I don't like Labor and I could never vote for them but whatever the "unprincipled" reason for Prime Minister Gillard changing her mind and introducing a carbon tax, at least she took heed of scientists warnings and acted on climate change.
Tony Abbott is a climate clown. His travelling circus is treating climate change as a joke and he is encouraging supporters to brand honest scientists as conspirators, in a ruthless bid to become Prime Minister at all costs. He has no sincere policy on climate change and promises to scrap the carbon tax. He is feeding off the ignorance of the electorate (on climate change) to win the keys to The Lodge. No doubt his election campaign will be funded by Australia's biggest polluters - and I don't accept his stance as being any less unprincipled than what Prime Minister Gillard did.
That's politics for you. Without trying to defend Gillard, she finally did the right thing on this issue and she will pay for it at next year's election. The climate clown will take over and send in the wrecking ball to destroy any progress on climate change.
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