Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for January 27, 2009

Editor Removes Comment by Climate Sceptic (Part 2)

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AUSTRALIA’s national broadcaster, the ABC, has a science unit dominated by a fellow called Robyn Williams. Mr Williams is an advocate for the campaign against global warming and has even suggested on air that sea levels could rise by 100 metres in the next century; the United Nation’s IPCC suggested at worst just 59cms. [1]  Mr Williams is also on the public record indicating something verging on contempt for meteorologist and climate change sceptic Bill Kininmonth.[2] 

It may be difficult for those journalists at the ABC who want to ensure the alternative perspective is put on contentious and highly politicised scientific issues like climate change, particularly given Mr Williams standing and very definite opinions.  

On January 22, 2009, ABC reporter Nick Lucchinelli interviewed Bill Kininmonth for an alternative perspective on an article in ‘Nature’ suggesting Antarctica is warming.   Lead author Eric Steig and biologist Barry Brook were also interviewed.   That part of the interview with Mr Kininmonth was subsequently expunged from the transcript and podcast.  [3]   That is, at some point after the broadcast the comment from Mr Kininmonth was edited out of the interview.    At first blush this has all the signs of ABC censorship in favour of the bias of the science unit.   

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The Climate Change Safari Park: A Note from Bjorn Lomborg

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BARACK Obama in his inaugural speech promised to “roll back the spectre of a warming planet.” In this context, it is worth contemplating a passage from his book ‘Dreams from My Father’. It reveals a lot about the way we view the world’s problems.

Obama is in Kenya and wants to go on a safari. His Kenyan sister Auma chides him for behaving like a neo-colonialist. “Why should all that land be set aside for tourists when it could be used for farming? These wazungu care more about one dead elephant than they do for a hundred black children.” Although he ends up going on safari, Obama has no answer to her question. That anecdote has parallels with the current preoccupation with global warming. Many people — including America’s new President — believe that global warming is the pre-eminent issue of our time, and that cutting CO2 emissions is one of the most virtuous things we can do.

To stretch the metaphor a little, this seems like building ever-larger safari parks instead of creating more farms to feed the hungry.

Make no mistake: global warming is real, and it is caused by manmade CO2 emissions. The problem is that even global, draconian, and hugely costly CO2 reductions will have virtually no impact on the temperature by mid-century. Instead of ineffective and costly cuts, we should focus much more of our good climate intentions on dramatic increases in R&D for zero-carbon energy, which would fix the climate towards mid-century at low cost. But, more importantly for most of the planet’s citizens, global warming simply exacerbates existing problems.

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