CLIMATE CHANGE

Expert takes on deniers

You may not believe in climate change, but there’s no denying the force of nature that is Gerald Kutney.

The media commentator and consultant was in Amherstburg Wednesday night for a panel discussion on the “climate crisis.” But you can usually find him on Twitter, where he spends “three quarters of his time” taking on climate change deniers.

Kutney said there is a silent majority of believers who are reluctant to address the divisive issue, and it’s time for those people to start speaking up.

“People are sort of embarrassed,” he said before the event. “If your relative is a climate denier, people don’t like talking about it. It doesn’t mean you get mad at him. But you chat about it. I engage people all the time. I’m very active on Twitter. I challenge climate deniers several times a day. The whole idea is if you don’t challenge propaganda, propaganda becomes the truth.”

Kutney, from Ottawa, was in Amherstburg to lead a panel discussion called What Do You Do When Science Issues a Warning ... But No One Listens? The Amherstburg Community Foundation hosted the event as part of its Thought Leaders Speaker series.

He said his focus is not on the science of the climate change.

“I talk about the politics of it,” said Kutney, who wrote the book Carbon Politics and the Failure of the Kyoto Protocol. “Why are we in this mess? I want to emphasize that it’s really caused by propaganda, basically by the oil industry and some other fossil fuel industries as well.”

He said propaganda has “distorted everything.”

“Propaganda is taking over our electoral system,” said Kutney. “We see it in all aspects of politics. But with climate change it’s really bad.”

“The propaganda is really, really good to distort the picture if people don’t challenge it. The silent majority has a tendency not to challenge this stuff.”

He said the media also “used to do a much better job of challenging the lies of people.”

“Right now it’s just a news bite,” said Kutney. “Very seldom do you see those challenges made, whether it’s Doug Ford or Donald Trump.”

Kutney said he also uses public appearances and Tweets — he has more than 28,000 followers — to combat the division and finger pointing among the converted.

“I also want to stress that people worry too much about what the other guy has to do,” said Kutney. “We should really focus on what we’re going to do. People say ‘China is really bad, it doesn’t matter what we do.’ Well I don’t live in China. I live in Canada. You take care of your own home before you worry about someone else’s.”