Greenpeace slams new councillor
New Wellington city councillor Sean Rush is being labelled a ‘‘climate denialist crank’’ after recent public musings on climate change.
Rush, an oil industry lawyer and lobbyist, told Stuff last week he had now changed his tune on climate change to more-mainstream thinking.
Rush announced his run for Motukairangi/eastern ward on August 14.
In mid-July he submitted to the Parliament select committee for the Zero Carbon Bill.
Greenpeace campaigner Steve Abel slammed the new councillor as a ‘‘conspiracy theorist climate denialist crank’’ with beliefs ‘‘straight out of the 1990s’’.
‘‘It is frankly disturbing that he has public office.’’
Rush’s submission, in which he cited studies, argued that much of global warming is driven by natural forces, and that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projections were ‘‘exaggerating projected warmth’’.
‘‘I would welcome a focus on a ‘zero domestic violence’ target but instead we seem to be captivated by foreign scientists and their model predictions that have a claimed level of long-term predictive accuracy in defiance of any modelling ever seen and the principles of chaos theory which all acknowledge apply most appropriately to climate models,’’ Rush wrote.
It is understood Rush was mayor Andy Foster’s pick to head the council’s transport portfolio but has fallen down the rankings after his links to climate denial and the oil industry came to light.
Rush, who would only respond to text messages, was this week asked if his views on humankind’s impacts on climate change had altered since July and, if so, what the catalyst for change was.
‘‘I handed in an assignment two weeks ago on water vapour which taught me that the leading sceptics and mainstream scientists agree on the physics which reinforces to me the consensus of the impact that humans are having,’’ he said.
Climate change was ‘‘incredibly complex’’, Rush said in an earlier text.
‘‘I have been endeavouring to understand it in all its complexity.
‘‘Hence my studies.
‘‘I support the science, and I have always maintained that climate change is an issue that is complex and requires a multifaceted approach as we navigate through to a lower carbon future.’’
Rush signed up to run for Wellington City Council on August 14 and on September 11 he filled out a Stuff survey on climate change in which he largely agreed with accepted science on climate change.