(published Bairnsdale Advertiser 17.11)
I wish to reply to Mr. Douglas McKeown’s November 10 letter to the Bairnsdale Advertiser denying the scientific wisdom of carbon emissions impacting climate change. This denial is almost understandable given the strident misinformation and the wilful discrediting of science peddled by vested interest groups of all hues in this country and around the world.
Who are [some of] the cheer leaders and champions of this misinformation? Donald Trump …has pulled the US out of the ‘Paris Accord’ but the separate states are going their own way developing a renewable energy structure…big business in the US and here are normally dedicated to survival and profit. They have enough future vision to…[support] Renewable Energy…
Ex PM, Tony Abbott…referred to man-made climate change science as crap. But Tony Abbott is an acknowledged wrecker of ideas who, by his own admission, [has been] a bit loose with the truth in order to gain a vote or two. He leads a far right ‘we know better’ faction who are committed to mining and the use of fossil fuels with little regard for the consequences to our future generations. Ex One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts…from a mining background [is another]…
Mr. McKeown’s assertion that climate scientific studies are out of man’s control…[is] another piece of misinformation. 97% of scientists believe…the climate science… As part of studying climate to perfect forecasting for the benefit of agricultural industries, the fishing industry or flight matters the Bureau of Meteorology has for many years carried out upper atmospheric sampling and research…But, the BOM is not the only climate research institution around…
The vision of the Global Monitoring Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration based in Denver Colorado states that a society that has access to and uses the best possible information on atmospheric constituents that drive climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion and baseline air quality.
With the use of balloons, aircraft and land-based observatories these scientists study the presence of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, CFC’s, hydrocarbons, sulphur gases, aerosols and solar and infrared radiation. The scientists are aware of what they call the Carbon Cycle whereby the carbon circulates between the upper atmosphere, the terrestrial biosphere, (our land), and harmful absorption into the ocean…
Isotopes are the key in differentiating between naturally occurring carbon dioxide and human induced CO2. All the other gases referred to above are man-made. However, each form of carbon has its own isotopic fingerprint and although they are the same element, they both have a different mass. I would have thought that this information constituted ’empirical evidence’ but there we go.
The master scriptwriter may have laid out a beautiful plot which I am sure includes enough evidence that allows us to exercise an open mind. I am also sure if there was a reasonable scriptwriter he would not have plotted in the systematic fouling of this beautiful nest we call the Earth.