Climate change agreement remains an elusive dream

WHILE most letters from climate change deniers on this page are basically a repeat of well worn topics such as claiming it’s a hoax, perpetrated by alarmist prophets of doom and backed by Labor, the Greens and/or unspecified “socialists”, some have introduced new themes. Such was a letter from a Mr NB from Southport on Wednesday (26/2).

Mr NB is in the camp that believes the sort of climate change we’re experiencing is the common-or-garden variety and that there’s nothing particularly unusual going on. Indeed he’s “thankful” the climate is changing although he thinks it’s happening slowly but let’s not worry about factual errors like that. If he’s thankful, then he must be bursting with gratitude that Antarctica reached a record-breaking 20 degrees the other day or that globally the past five years have been the hottest recorded.

But he goes further to say schools are misinforming young minds and that “the government should take control of these teachers and force them to tell the truth”. What does he mean by “take control”, “force” or even the “truth”? Perhaps he has some public shaming or torture in mind along the lines of the Spanish Inquisition? Imagine the scene as government forces seize a recalcitrant teacher who has had the temerity to teach about climate change using well researched scientific data. He’s fearful that democracy will be destroyed, which seems a bit out of synch with forcing law-abiding people to adopt viewpoints that some would consider nonsensical.

He’s also scared that Labor will destroy the country if in power, a view shared by the letter writer that followed (Mr RW of Surfer’s Paradise). This is mostly related to Labor’s recent announcement that they plan to have net zero emissions by 2050. It seems to have escaped their attention that the Coalition is … likely to announce a similar target very soon.

It may surprise them to know that 70 countries have already adopted a net zero position by 2050. The UK has had bipartisan support for this for some time. Indeed, a Climate Change Act was brought in 10 years ago, enshrining the emission reduction targets into legislation. It was voted in by 450 MPs to three. That’s right, only three MPs voted against it.

That’s the sort of agreement on climate change action that most of us could only dream of in Australia. Major parties listening to the science and pledging to do something? That’s the sort of thing many of us really would be thankful for.

YVETTE DEMPSEY, CARRARA