Chris Kenny: OK, so it's hot - but don't be fooled by climate change alarmists

REMEMBER when the easiest way to spark harmless small talk was to make an observation about the weather?

REMEMBER when the easiest way to spark harmless small talk was to make an observation about the weather?

"Bit of a scorcher today, eh?"

Not anymore.

Weather talk can create a storm.

Bit of a scorcher today, eh?

"Give me a break, mate, it's summer, it's always hot in summer and we had hotter days back in 1939!

"Was there global warming then? I'm sick of all you alarmist, scare-mongering trendies."

If you're brave you might try the same line at dinner.

Bit of a scorcher today, eh?

"Is that what you call it? Just taking it in your stride are you, another hot one? You sound like some sort of denier.

"This is extreme heat in our angriest summer. The dash on the Prius said it was over 50 degrees in the sun. This is no mere scorcher, mate, this is a climate emergency."

If the climate debate is not quite that bad, it isn't far off.

Looking for small talk these days, it's safer to tackle less contentious topics such as politics and religion.

Regular readers will know I like to tilt at the windmill of climate alarmism.

For my trouble, I am constantly attacked as a denier (in itself is a vile term, previously reserved for Holocaust deniers).

It doesn't seem to matter to alarmists that no sensible person would deny the climate is changing - it always has and always will change.

And it doesn't seem to matter to the zealots that most informed people - myself included - accept the relatively straight-forward science of greenhouse gases trapping heat in the atmosphere and the likelihood that dramatically increased concentrations of carbon dioxide and other gases are likely to exacerbate the process.

Greens activists and political poseurs are not interested in a calm discussion.

Instead they play a nasty zero-sum game where you either subscribe to their moral panic over global warming - including a pointless carbon tax in Australia - or you are a denier.

If it wasn't so vicious it would be amusing.

And if it wasn't so economically and politically significant it would be laughable.

Large elements of the political class, including the Greens, Labor, environmental groups, most of the media and, especially, the public broadcasters are committed to this doomsday cult.

Even before last week became totally hysterical, ABC TV news ran one of their typical climate stories with alarmist language about the impact on marine life.

The story explained how scientists artificially polluted the water of a particular hopping crustacean with levels of carbon monoxide some experts predict might occur in seawater a 100 years from now.

In these conditions, to the ABC's horror, the crustacean hopped slower. This sort of stuff is tosh.

Suffice to say, climate alarmism has become an article of faith for the Left.

The public deserves more credit; taxpayers are not fools and shouldn't be treated as such.

Later in the week the heatwave hysteria too hold.

It was hot. Bloody hot. And such weather is always serious news story in Australia, particularly because of the danger of bushfires.

When I was a kid, we'd haul our mattresses onto the back lawn and sleep outside. Air-conditioners were unheard of.

Now everyone from the Premier down issues warnings, and we worry we won't have enough power for all our air-conditioners.

The hype about Adelaide being the hottest city on Earth, and looking to smash its record for the hottest day, was over the top.

In our summer, the hottest city on Earth on any given day will always be in the southern hemisphere - a city in Africa, South America or Australia.

It has been impossible for me to obtain detailed records but it stands to reason that every summer, presumably on many days, cities like Adelaide, Perth and even Melbourne will be the hottest in the world.

Yet we only hear about this title now, at the height of climate alarmism.

We are looking for new benchmarks to break new records.

It is all a bit silly. My preference is for a calm and rational consideration of the facts.

While Australia has had a hot few years, even the UK Met Office agrees global average temperatures have remained stable for the past 15 years, when they were predicted to rise.

There are many factors at play, so that pause could just be a blimp.

But that global measure is far more important than one city or one country breaking a 70 year-old record.

Yet the ABC didn't even report the UK Met Office's finding when they announced it a year ago.

With ships stuck in Antarctic ice in summer and North America struck by a record winter freeze, let's not overdo our own excitement about our "angry summer."

While most of us worried about our brave firefighters and elderly relatives, the Leftist website Guardian Australia published a piece urging climate alarmists to identify sceptics and turn off their air-conditioners.

The idea was to make them hot and sweaty in a summer heatwave; as if that would prove global warming.

Don't panic. Watch, research and respond - always knowing the silver bullet of nuclear power is in our armoury.

The trouble with the alarmists is they make it seem less like climate or weather, and more like religion.

*Chris Kenny is Associate Editor of The Australian and his SkyNews programs Viewpoint and Friday Live return in coming weeks.