Popular Australian television current affairs program 60 Minutes ran the skeptical line on climate change on Sunday night.
To be sure, there were only two skeptics on the segement Professor Richard Lindzen and Dr David Evans, but they did get a fair hearing.
The Prime Minister was even asked to justify his claim that “the 12 hottest years in human history have occurred in the last 13 years.”
Indeed Tara Brown responded, “It’s not my position to correct you Prime Minister but Ive been told that in fact during the middle ages the global temperatures were two to three degrees warmer than now. Certainly we’ve had the hottest 12 years in recent history but the planet’s been a lot hotter.”
Instead of replying in a considered way, the PM said he stood by what the IPCC had to say. [And since the ‘hockey stick debacle’, what exactly is the IPCC position on the medieval warm period? ]
Early in the segment the PM had this to say about the IPCC: “There’s a group of scientists called the International Panel on Climate Change – 4000 of them. Guys in white coats who run around and don’t have a sense of humour. They just measure things.”
The PM really has no idea!
You can read the transcript here.
The segment was entitled ‘Crunch Time’, it was shown on Sunday, August 17, 2008 and the reporter was Tara Brown and producer Stephen Taylor.
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.