Queensland climate activist David White gives six reasons why he will not tune in to the ABC show I Can Change Your Mind About Climate.
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1. It is well and truly past the time for debating whether or not anthropogenic [human-caused] climate change is occurring.
2. Continuing to debate the issue gives the contrarians’ [deniers] viewpoint a validity and respectability that it should not have. It just encourages those with delusions and paranoia to continue to promote their fantasies.
3. Continuing to debate whether anthropogenic climate change is real or is occurring obscures and ignores the much greater issues of what action must be taken, how soon we need to take action, how should we adapt to the impacts and what effect will actions we do take have on climate change — after all, some of the “contrarians” do accept that climate change is occurring, they just say it is a natural occurrence.
4. Science is never settled, all anyone can say is that all the evidence currently points to a conclusion unless and until more evidence confirms or disproves the current state of understanding — it is like debating the issue of how our universe came into existence.
5. Giving both sides of the debate equal time and equal rights to choose who will be wheeled out to present their case, ignores the fact that 97% of climate scientists accept that anthropogenic climate change is real and occurring, 3% do not.
6. Presenting scientific debate as entertainment with celebrities who have no scientific knowledge but loads of self-interest such as Clive Palmer, brings the whole issue down to a type of melodramatic sideshow.
For an excellent critique of the program, read Stephan Lewandowski’s post on the ABC Environment website.
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