Climate denial tide is turning

04 November 2013

Many have seen the election of the Coalition Government as a blow to sensible policy on climate change in Australia. However marginally effective the carbon tax may be, it is a more effective mechanism for lowering carbon emissions than the direct action plan, proposed by Greg Hunt and Tony Abbott. Not only is the Coalition plan unlikely to achieve the set goal of 5 per cent reductions on emissions by 2020 with the money allocated, Abbott has made it pretty clear no further money will be forthcoming.

Now the Government's own independent adviser, the Climate Change Authority, is arguing that a 5 per cent target is inadequate and a 15 per cent target is the minimum acceptable option. While professing to believe in the science of climate change, the general public has every right to be sceptical about the reality of Abbott's apparent conversion to the cause.

On the other hand, it is clear that globally the tide is beginning to take a very serious turn. With the publication of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Los Angeles Times made the bold decision to no longer publish letters from climate change denialists saying it would not print 'letters that have an untrue basis'. The Times' letter editor, Paul Thornton, noted:

Scientists have provided ample evidence that human activity is indeed linked to climate change ... The debate right now isn't whether this evidence exists (clearly, it does) but what this evidence means for us. Simply put, I do my best to keep errors of fact off the letters page; when one does run, a correction is published. Saying 'there's no sign humans have caused climate change' is not stating an opinion, it's asserting a factual inaccuracy.

With a bit of prompting from its readership, but not a concerted campaign that I know of, the Sydney Morning Herald has followed suit. Now there is a campaign to get other newspapers in Australia to follow suit.

While this might seem like a small victory, the more substantial issue on the horizon is the global campaign for divestment in the fossil fuel industry. Fossil fuel companies base their market value on their reserves in coal, gas and oil. It is becoming increasingly clear that a significant proportion of these reserves can never be used without causing catastrophic climate change.

A group of 70 global investors, managing more than $3 trillion worth of assets, has

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Climate denial tide is turning

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