Extremists muddy the debate with misinformation

Paul Kelly and Chris Kenny describe the depressing political war on climate change (Inquirer, 8/2). There are extremists on both sides and abundant deliberate misinformation. Labor, Greens and others claim they have science on their side but are not prepared to debate the fundamental science or accept relevant facts showing that carbon dioxide did not control climate in the past and will not cause future warming.

They have recently added another piece of misinformation — emissions reduction by Australia could have reduced the impact of the bushfires. This has no scientific credibility, even if CO2 was to blame for any climate change because global levels of CO2 would still have risen if Australia had produced zero emissions during this government’s terms in office.

Just as religion fills the human need for comfort about an uncertain future, climate activists are promising that humans can control the climate by managing CO2 emissions.

Ian Wilson, Chapel Hill, Qld

Those who want to tackle climate change must work out how to control changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun, how to control the activity of the sun and its influence through the solar wind and its modulation of cosmic rays, stop changes in the Earth’s magnetic field (which keeps us alive), and stop volcanic activity and plate tectonics — to name just a few that are all impossible.

The only thing left is to reduce CO2 emissions. Even that is impossible, with increasing emissions from China and India nullifying our pathetic attempts to hold back the “catastrophe” that we are assured will happen if we continue to be naughty.

David Bidstrup, Plympton Park, SA

Paul Kelly writes a compelling analysis of how the heat is on the Prime Minister to pull off a balancing act in our madhouse of pathetic politicking about climate action, so ably summarised by Chris Kenny.

How good is the PM? Not bad actually, as he pulls the art of the deal out of our climate catastrophe hat. What’s not to like or hate about the PM’s climate policy for economically astute action through technology?

His media foes will hiss at this potentially overarching, adroit win-win. His climate alarmist team members mewing for more climate action while they cling to their deckchairs, will sing amen. His parliamentary adversaries could have the rug of their rants pulled out from under their feet, by this invitation to debate the economic rationale for any rival policies.

Betty Cockman, Dongara, WA

Chris Kenny is right. Scott Morrison is facing a largely hostile, intellectually lazy media, social media and political rabble who are short on facts and big on bullying and hysteria.

Perhaps it is time inner-city luvvies and climate change tragics channelled all that excess energy into lending a hand to those in trouble in the bush.

Jennifer Mullins, Mollymook, NSW

Yet again, Chris Kenny is right — the linking of Australian emissions reduction policies to global climate trends is a science-denying absurdity. But he has been writing such truths for years now, to no avail. So have Bjorn Lomborg, William Kininmonth, Ian Plimer and others published in The Australian.

But it seems facts no longer count where climate is concerned. The history of Earth’s changing climate is ignored, gentle and unremarkable recent changes are exaggerated into a climate emergency, burning coal is blamed for change it could not possibly produce, and Australia’s role in all this has indeed become a science-denying absurdity.

Doug Hurst, Chapman, ACT

Chris Kenny nailed it with “the linking of Australian emissions reduction policies to global climate trends is a science-denying absurdity”. Scott Morrison will just end up covered in green slime if he doesn’t play the science card. This is because the IPCC has significantly upgraded the solar data sets to be used in future climate models to include the variability of ultraviolet and shorter electromagnetic wavelength radiation from the sun and has added solar particle forcing data sets.

Given the plethora of papers from leading scientific institutions on these subjects, climate scientists must use this data in their new climate models. Morrison should give scientists time to eventually prove that the sun does affect Earth’s climate.

Brent Walker, Killcare, NSW