On ABC Radio National's Summer Breakfast, John Doyle interviewed Foreign Minister Bob Carr, who was attending the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. Carr said that what struck him most at Davos was the consensus about global warming, with even Christine Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund saying it is 'the biggest economic problem for this century'.
'The time we've wasted in Australia accommodating climate change denial is quite striking and contrary to the way the rest of the world is veering on this issue,' said Carr. He added that 'The Economist magazine referred to climate change as "mankind's craziest experiment" saying that the world will face "a crippling financial burden" as we adjust to something we have "inflicted on ourselves via a colossal addiction to fossil fuels".'
Coming from Australia where climate change denial 'fills the air' he found it significant that world leaders see climate change as the world's most important concern 'even above the slow world economy'.
Doyle challenged him with the fact that we're the world's largest coal exporter. Seamlessly changing tack and now sounding more like Resources Minister Martin Fergusson, Carr said Australia is 'pricing carbon' and is leading a global push for 'a comprehensive network of agreements' on global warming.
Carr is too intelligent not to see the monumental inconsistency in government policy between exporting coal, a massive polluter when burned, and calls for action on global warming. But he is right that we have indulged 'denialism'. Perhaps it is because, as T. S. Eliot says in 'Burnt Norton', we 'cannot bear too much reality'.
While sceptics have said little about recent heatwaves in Australia, January's heavy snow storms in North America, Europe and even in Jerusalem have them in a lather denouncing the global warming scientific consensus and claiming that cold winters prove climate change theories are wrong, but ignoring the fact that 2012 was the hottest year on record in the US.
They claim it is all part of a natural variation in weather patterns and cite differences between the medieval warm period (MWP) and the little ice age (LIA).
What this argument misses is that climate change is all about averages. Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe says 'Climate is the average condition, weather is what we get.' And the overwhelming evidence is that the average global temperature is rising.
In Australia each decade since 1910 has been warmer than the last decade, and most of that warming has occurred since