Anyone who questions global warming is spreading misinformation and undermining the scientific consensus according to Kelvin Thomson, Australia’s shadow minister for public accountability and human services.
This senior member of the Labor party recently wrote to Australian companies warning them away from the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA)*.
The letter states we are propagandists and that “global warming is happening, it is man-made, and it is not good for us.”
I often speak publicly on global warming as a senior fellow at the IPA. My assessment of the situation is based on my own reading and independent analysis.
I agree with Kelvin Thomson that global warming is happening. But I am not convinced that the warming is wholly or even mostly man-made. Indeed the geological record shows that the earth has been warming since the last glacial maximum about 20,000 years ago and it is unclear how much of the current warming is a continuation of this trend or due to the elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
As regards the purported consensus, earlier this year sixty accredited experts in climate and related scientific disciplines sent an open letter to the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, explaining that “global climate changes all the time due to natural causes and the human impact still remains impossible to distinguish from this natural noise.”
Just last month, William M. Gray, professor emeritus of atmospheric science, Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University explained: “My main motivation to continue my research is to help maintain the integrity of American science which, in my view, has been badly compromised by the global warming issue and now recently by the issue of global warming causing more frequent and more intense hurricanes.”
In seeking to ‘name and shame’ those who fund the IPA, Thomson is following the led of the Royal Society, Britain’s leading scientific academy. The society recently wrote to US energy company Exxon Mobil asking that it stop funding groups that it believes ‘misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence’.
After outlining the extent and diversity of energy and climate change related research funded by ExxonMobil, the 3-page response from ExxonMobil’s vice president of public affairs, Kenneth Cohen, concluded: “Our own objective, as it relates to climate change, is to seek solutions that protect the environment but do not threaten the aspirations of the billions of people who desire and deserve a better quality of life. Is that not a worthwhile road to be on? We have a role to play in the policy discussions on these subjects. It is disappointing that representatives of the Royal Society find it appropriate to intentionally misstate our actions and positions relating to these important topics.”
Are we entering a period of Climate McCarthyism?
In today’s Australian Financial Review, the IPA’s executive director, John Roskam, in a piece entitled ‘ALP needs climate change’, argues that “despite differences about the causes of climate change, it would be hoped that there’s one aspect of the issue about which there could be unanimiity. Ideally, all sides of the issue would agree that discussion about climate change is a good thing — and the more discussion the better.”
The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is an independent, non-profit, public policy think tank, dedicated to preserving and strengthening the foundations of economic and political freedom. Support debate and discussion on global warming, join the IPA today.
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* The letter, dated 27th September, also names the International Policy Network, the American Enterprise Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the European Science and Environment Forum as undermining the scienitific consensus.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.