Student protesters aren't the problem - adult idiocy is

Grown-ups too buried in their own navels on both sides.

The school strikes for the climate change are democracy at work; the idiocy of the adults on each side of the debate isn't. Picture: Tim Jarrett

THERE'S no hotter topic than climate change.

Yesterday's protests will be bleated over for the next few years, so let's hammer out a few things here. The students have every right to - and should - protest for what they believe in.

That's democracy and peaceful protest has moved mountains. Ask MLK. And they're protesting a very real concern. They're not the problem, and should be supported.

School Strike 4 Climate. Picture: Tim Jarrett

The problem is the grown-ups making the decisions are too buried in their navels to lead the world forward. When it comes to accurate climate research, the UN is a good starting place.

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But, interestingly, the Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organisation (a parent company of the UN's IPCC) said this month the debate is going off the rails.

"The IPCC reports have been read in a similar way to the Bible: you try to find certain pieces or sections from which you try to justify your extreme views,” he told a Finnish newspaper. "This resembles religious extremism.”

His comments were met with support by Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore, who no longer works with the group.

School Strike 4 Climate in Grafton. Picture: Tim Jarrett

And speaking of Greenpeace, let's take a trip down landmine lane.

In 2016 the group celebrated Vietnam's choice to ditch plans to develop nuclear power as "good news” and a win for the future of renewables.

Except the country replaced those plans with new coal-fired power plants - you know, those things Greenpeace wants gone.

Nuclear is a complex conversation. There are 457 plants operating around the world right now including in Armenia, Romania and Bulgaria.

Global climate strike marches in Toowoomba. Picture: Nev Madsen

Note none of these countries have become radioactive wastelands.

But that didn't stop State Minister Cameron Dick earlier this year going straight to the Chernobyl and Fukushima argument as "our future” if nuclear was brought in, and only giving passing attention to the valid ones about cost and construction time.

Is the Minister's inference, then, Australia's Governments are too incompetent to run one safely? Actually, maybe it's true given it now takes five consultants, two sherpas and a goat to decide the colour of a street sign.