Haskin in hot water over climate

CAPE Town’s former deputy mayor Grant Haskin has been roasted online for posting fakes news about climate change and denying its existence.

Yesterday, Haskin posted on his Facebook profile an article titled “40 New Scientific Papers Say Global Warming Does not Exist” via the website YourNewsWire.

His post read: “Hundreds of scientists involved in 40 recent scientific papers say the scare about global warming is based on hysteria and false science.”

The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) politician deleted the post soon after it was pointed out to him that it was fake news, but this has not altered his denialism of climate change.

Haskin told Weekend Argus that climate change supporters needed to “grow up” and were “barking up the wrong tree” after they attacked him online.

“I wonder why these people are so rabid. The type of reaction was immediate. These people are barking up the wrong tree if they want to blame me for not accepting the term. They must all grow up,” said Haskin.

He added: “Climate change… I am not one of those who uses that term. I don’t think it has the type of consensus that is claimed. I’m sceptical about that.

“I found this view comes with a backlash from those who have embraced that terminology. They (who believe in climate change) are completely and utterly intolerant and want to burn you at the stake if you don’t agree with them.

“Somebody feels cold in the morning and they blame it on climate change. What nonsense is that? This is how things have been. Really, come on.”

Ryan Fortune, spokesperson for the African Climate & Development Initiative, accused Haskin of being “irresponsible”. The initiative is UCT’s “active response to the climate change and development challenge”.