TIME FOR CIVILIZED CLIMATE DEBATE

It is a real shame that the climate debate has become so polarized, left versus right. Insults are flying about the web with no sense of courtesy or civilized discourse. Skeptics like me are regarded as wicked people, while alarmists are regarded as idiots by the other side. We need to listen to each other. Some high-profile people are making very rash statements, for example, David Suzuki telling us that if you don’t agree with the human-caused global warming you should be in jail. That is not the statement of a man of science. The deniers, such as Donald Trump, give the skeptical view zero credibility in the eyes of the general community, while the Pope says we face disaster. He is a climate scientist?

People who we would trust, such as highly-qualified scientists, present a wide range of opinions from outright denial to panic-stricken dire warnings. Who are we to believe? Actually, there are very few properly trained climatologists out there, and many others who should know better are making rash statements that do not survive scrutiny.

It is obvious from my readings that the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) can be challenged, and there are many qualified scientists of integrity who are very doubtful of the need for panic. We have no crisis, but a need for evolutionary change, not wholesale destruction of the economy.

The sky is not falling. Please let us have some civilized debate, and look at what is true, not what is emotional.

Peter Noakes,

Charlottetown